I have "camped out" in England once or twice; once with a select circle of gipsies, the night before the Derby. I wished merely to study character; and, after giving them a few words of the Romany dialect, and a good deal of tobacco, I was admitted into their confidences. But the experience gained was not altogether pleasing, nor yet edifying; nor did we have baked hedgehog for supper. In fact I have never yet met the "gippo" (most of them keep fowls) who will own to having tasted this _bonne bouche_ of the descriptive writer. Possibly this is on account of the scarcity of the hedgehog. "Tea-kettle broth"--bread sopped in water, with a little salt and dripping to flavour the soup--on the other hand, figures on most of the gipsy _menus_. And upon one occasion, very early in the morning, another wanderer and the writer obtained much-needed liquid refreshment by milking the yield of a Jersey cow into each other's mouths, alternately. But this was a long time ago, and in the neighbourhood of Bagshot Heath, and it was somebody else's cow; so let no more be said about it. I fear this chapter is not calculated to make many mouths water. In fact what in the world has brought it into the midst of a work on gastronomy I am at a loss to make out. However here it is. CHAPTER XVIII COMPOUND DRINKS "Flow wine! Smile woman! And the universe is consoled." Derivation of punch--"Five"--The "milk" brand--The best materials--Various other punches--Bischoff or Bishop--"Halo" punch--Toddy--The toddy tree of India--Flip--A "peg"--John Collins--Out of the guard-room. The subject of PUNCH is such an important one that it may be placed first on the list of dainty beverages which can be made by the art or application of man or woman.