Ignorant servants sometimes put oxalic acid into punch, to give it a flavour; but unless the throats of the drinkers be lined with brass, this acid is of no real service. And the host who would entrust the making of any sort of punch to a subordinate, must be either very ignorant, or very careless of the comfort of his guests—and possibly both. Cups, punches, and salads should always be concocted by somebody who will make personal trial of their merits. To make _Capillaire_, put two ounces of freshly-gathered maidenhair fern into a jug, with sufficient boiling water to cover it. {107} Let it stand in front of the fire to infuse for some hours; then strain and put it into a clear syrup made by boiling together three pounds of sugar and three pints of water; add two tablespoonfuls of orange-flower water, and stir the mixture over the fire for a few minutes. Strain through a jelly-bag, and bottle when cold. A more potent punch can be made from the same recipe as the Oxford Punch, by leaving out the calves’-feet jelly, and substituting green tea for water. And this sort is invariably drunk hot. Mix three wine-glasses of noyeau with the original recipe and it is entitled to the name of _Noyeau Punch_. Omit the rum, brandy, and shrub, and substitute two bottles of gin, and it becomes _Gin Punch_. If I could only afford to keep a secretary, a clever stenographer and type-writer, I might be able to supply the world with gratuitous recipes for cooling cups, dainty drinks, and peerless punches, and earn, maybe, the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, and a granite bust on the Thames Embankment or in Shaftesbury Avenue. It is entirely due to lack of funds that I am issuing books on the subject of meat and drink; and I will now proceed to enlighten the thousands of alleged _bons-vivants_, who ask questions as to the concoction of _Milk Punch_. There are many recipes for this seductive drink, each one better than its predecessor. {108} 1. Warm two quarts or water and one of new milk, then mix them well together, and sweeten with a sufficient quantity of loaf-sugar. Rub a few lumps of sugar on the peel of a lemon, put them into a jug with the above, and half a pint of lemon juice, stirring the mixture well as it is poured in. Then add one quart of old brandy. Strain and bottle off, and in cold weather it will keep a fortnight. 2. Dissolve two pounds and a half of sugar in one gallon of cold spring-water; add thereto a quarter of a pint of orange-flower water, with the juice of twenty limes and eight oranges. Stir well together; pour one quart of boiling milk into it, and then add three bottles of old brandy, and a like quantity of orange brandy shrub. Strain and bottle off.