Beyond the natural outburst of rejoicing at so great an occasion, there is abundant corroboration of the remark of Fosbroke, that ‘drinking healths was _uncommonly_ prevalent, and productive of much intemperance, immediately after and _on account of_ the Restoration.’ Royalty will be always prominently recognised at our public rejoicings, as a matter of course, and of right. May the health of the Sovereign and Royal Family always be proposed! Always, when the concomitant of _drinking it_ has become obsolete.[154] What a volume could be written on the customs which have gathered about the toasting of our monarchs alone! One of these comes at once to mind in connection with the Second Charles. Pepys, in his _Diary_ (1662-3), describes his own dining at ‘Chirurgeons’ Hall.’ He tells that:-- Among other observables we drunk the King’s health out of a gilt cup given by King Henry VIII. to this Company, with bells hanging at it, which every man is to ring by shaking after he hath drunk up the whole cup. Another curious circumstance will be mentioned presently in connection with the toasting his successor, James. But it is time again to review the material of all this rejoicing. At this period of the seventeenth century the importation of French wines into England was two-fifths of her consumption.[155] Mr. Cyrus Redding states that in 1675, there came to England 7,495 tuns of French wine to 20 of those of Portugal; and in 1676 no less than 9,645 French, to 83 Portuguese; soon after which date French wines were prohibited for seven years.[156] Navarre wine, which the same author mentions among other wines of the Basses Pyrénées as of good quality, was coming into fashion. Pepys mentions his dining at Whitehall with the Duke of York, who did ‘mightily commend some new sort of wine lately found out, called Navarr wine, which I tasted, and is, I think, good wine.’ Bacharach was becoming a favourite Rhenish wine. Redding tells that German writers pretend that this Bacharach derived its name from the deity of wine, a stone still existing in the river, which they call Bacchus’ altar. The famous author of _Hudibras_ introduces us to the names of some of these wines which had recently come into vogue:-- Those win the day that win the race; And that which would not pass in fights, Has done the feats with easy flights, Recover’d many a desp’rate campaign With Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champaign; Restor’d the fainting high and mighty With brandy, wine, and _aqua vitæ_; And made ‘em stoutly overcome With Bacchrach, Hockamore, and Mum. What a satirist was Butler, of drink, drinkers, everybody! Of drink:-- Drink has overwhelmed and drowned, Far greater numbers on dry ground, Of wretched mankind, one by one, Than e’er the flood before had done. Of drinkers--_e.g._ ‘on a Club of Sots’:--