Curiosities of Medical ExperienceMillingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Philosophy
Curiosities of Medical Experience
Millingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Medicine
which meant he was ready to drink with him to this extent. The term _hoop_
alludes to the marks of hoops being traced upon drinking-pots to point out
certain measures. Jack Cade says, "The three-hooped pot shall have ten
hoops, and I will make it felony to drink small beer!" Hence probably the
common saying of "drinking deep," or to the last hoop. The _peg tankard_
was another measured vessel used in the jollifications of our forefathers,
and is still to be found in some parts of England, more especially in
Derbyshire. Pegge in his "Anonymiana," thus describes them: "They have in
the inside a row of eight pins, one above the other, from top to bottom;
the tankard holds two quarts, so that there is a gill of ale between each
peg or pin. The first person who drank was to empty to the first peg, the
second was to drink to the next, and so on; by which means the pegs were
so many measures to the compotators, making them all drink alike or the
same quantity." In Archbishop Anselm's Canons made in the council at
London in 1102, priests are enjoined not to go to drinking-bouts, nor to
_drink pegs_: "Ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nec ad _pinnas_
bibant."
_Gloves_, also called _shoeing-horns_, were relishes to encourage
drinking, like our modern _devils_, introduced for a similar purpose.
Bishop Hall says in his description of a carousal, "Then comes me up a
service of _shoeing-horns_ of all sorts,--salt cakes, red-herrings,
anchovies, and gammon of bacon, and abundance of such _pullers on_."
Massinger thus describes these incentives:
I usher
Such an unexpected dainty bit for breakfast
As never yet I cooked; 'tis not _botargo_,
Fried frogs, potatoes marrow'd, cavear,
Carps' tongues, the pith of an English chine of beef,
Nor our Italian delicate oil'd mushrooms,
And yet a _drawer on too_; and if you show not
An appetite, and a strong one, I'll not say
To eat it, but devour it, without grace too,
(For it will not stay a preface,) I am shamed,
And all my past provocatives will be jeer'd at.
The _botargo_ was a relish made of mullet's roes, and highly seasoned,
much in use among the Italians.
Amongst many other curious frolics of hard drinkers, we find the use of
what they called _flap-dragons_, or _snap-dragon_, which consisted in
igniting combustible substances, which were swallowed while floating on
the glass of liquor. Johnson describes them "a play in which they catch
raisins out of burning brandy, and, extinguishing them by closing the
mouth, eat them." This prank is not uncommon to the present day in
boarding-schools in certain festive entertainments of the _young ladies_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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