Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are marked with underscores: _italics_. The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain. [Illustration: SPRIG OF BORAGE IN GLASS CUP OF THE THIRD OR FOURTH CENTURY. London Published by John Van Voorst Paternoster Row.] CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS "Touch brim! touch foot! the wine is red, And leaps to the lips of the free; Our wassail true is quickly said,-- Comrade! I drink to thee! "Touch foot! touch brim! who cares? who cares? Brothers in sorrow or glee, Glory or danger each gallantly shares: Comrade! I drink to thee! "Touch brim! touch foot! once again, old friend, Though the present our last draught be; We were boys--we are men--we'll be true to the end: Brother! I drink to thee!" _SECOND EDITION._ LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXIX. PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PREFACE. The principal object of these pages is to furnish a collection of recipes for the brewing of compound drinks, technically called "Cups," all of which have been selected with the most scrupulous attention to the rules of gastronomy, and their virtues tested and approved by repeated trials. These we are inclined to put into type, from a belief that, if they were more generally adopted, it would be the means of getting rid of a great deal of that stereotyped drinking which at present holds sway at the festive boards of England. In doing this, we have endeavoured to simplify the matter as much as possible, adding such hints and remarks as may prove serviceable to the uninitiated, whilst we have discarded a goodly number of modern compounds as unpalatable and unscientific. As, in this age of progress, most things are raised to the position of a science, we see no reason why Bacchanology, if the term please our readers, should not hold a respectable place, and be entitled to its due _mead_ of praise; so, by way of introduction, we have ventured to take a cursory glance at the customs which have been attached to drinking from the earliest periods to the present time. This, however, we set forth as no elaborate history, but only as an arrangement of such scraps as have from time to time fallen in our way, and have helped us to form ideas of the social manners of bygone times.