Put into a large bowl three bottles of claret, a _large_ wine-glass of curaçoa, one pint of sherry, half a pint of old brandy, two wine-glasses of raspberry syrup, three oranges and one lemon cut into slices; add a few sprigs of borage, a little cucumber-rind, {94} two bottles of Seltzer water and three bottles of soda-water. Mix well, and sweeten to taste. Let the mixture stand for an hour, then strain, and put a large block of ice in it. Serve in small tumblers; and if champagne be substituted for claret, and noyeau for raspberry syrup, a most excellent champagne cup will be the result. Beware, however, of too free a hand with the noyeau. This liqueur contains hydrocyanic (otherwise Prussic) acid, and should only be used cautiously, unless evil be wished to your guests. _Cider Cup, or Cold Tankard._ This is a favourite beverage for schoolboys and university students. I cannot say that I have encountered it since the early sixties, but ’tis a refreshing drink for the river-side and the cricket-field. Extract the juice from the peel of one lemon by rubbing loaf-sugar on it; cut two lemons into thin slices; the rind of one lemon cut thin, a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar, and half a pint of brandy (I don’t think they allowed as much brandy as this at my old school). Pour the whole into a large jug, mix it well together, and pour one quart of cold spring-water upon it. Grate a nutmeg into it, add one pint of white wine, and a bottle of cider, sweeten to taste with capillaire or sugar, put a handful of balm and the same quantity of borage in flower, stalk downwards. Then put the jug containing this liquor into a tub of ice, and when it has remained there one hour it will be fit for use. The balm and borage should be fresh gathered. And here a few words as to the virtues of these. In _Evelyn’s Acetaria_ it is written:—“The {95} sprigs of borage in wine are of known virtue, to revive the hypochondriac, and cheer the hard student.” _Salmon’s Household Companion_, 1710, told us: “Borage is one of the four cordial flowers; it comforts the heart, cheers melancholy, and revives the fainting spirits.” “Borage,” wrote Sir John Hill, M.D., “has the credit of being a great cordial; throwing it into cold wine is better than all the medicinal preparations.” “The leaves, flowers, and seeds of borage,” says the _English Physician_, “all or any of them, are good to expel pensiveness and melancholy.” “Balm is very good to help digestion and open obstructions of the brain, and hath so much purging quality in it, as to expel those melancholy vapours from the spirits and blood which are in the heart and arteries, although it cannot do so in other parts of the body” (_Ibid_). After all this information, let not the garden of the melancholy vapourer be searched in vain for balm and borage. _Perry Cup_ is made in the same manner as the above, with the natural substitution of perry for cider. _Crimean Cup._