_To a Lady, on seeing some Verses in Praise of her, on a Pane of Glass._ Let others, brittle beauties of a year, See their frail names, and lovers vows writ here; Who sings thy solid worth and spotless fame, On purest adamant should cut thy name: Then would thy fame be from oblivion sav'd; On thy own heart my vows must be engrav'd. One of the epigrams in this collection suggests that, unlike Moll's lover and Hughes's poet, some affluent authors had even acquired instruments specifically designed to facilitate the practice of writing poetry on glass: _Written on a Glass by a Gentleman, who borrow'd the Earl of _CHESTERFIELD_'s Diamond Pencil._ Accept a miracle, instead of _wit_; See two dull lines by _Stanhope's_ pencil writ.[6] [Footnote 6: No. CCCLXXXII, in _A Collection of Epigrams. To Which Is Prefix'd, a Critical Dissertation on This Species of Poetry_ (London, 1727).] As the title of this epigram also suggests, window panes were not the only surfaces considered appropriate for such writing. A favorite alternate surface was that of the toasting glass. The practice of toasting the beauty of young ladies had originated at the town of Bath during the reign of Charles II. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the members of some social clubs had developed complex toasting rituals which involved the inscription of the name of the lady to be honored on a drinking glass suitable for that purpose. In 1709 an issue of _The Tatler_ described the process in some detail: that happy virgin, who is received and drunk to at their meetings, has no more to do in this life but to judge and accept of the first good offer. The manner of her inauguration is much like that of the choice of a doge in Venice: it is performed by balloting; and when she is so chosen, she reigns indisputably for that ensuing year; but must be elected a-new to prolong her empire a moment beyond it. When she is regularly chosen, her name is written with a diamond on a drinking-glass.[7] [Footnote 7: _The Tatler_, No. 24, June 4, 1709.] Perhaps the most famous institution practicing this kind of ceremony in the eighteenth century was the Kit-Kat Club. In 1716 Jacob Tonson, a member of that club, published "Verses Written for the Toasting-Glasses of the Kit-Kat Club" in the fifth part of his _Miscellany_. Space limitations will not permit extensive quotations from this collection, but the toast for Lady Carlisle is alone sufficient to prove that complete epigrams were at times engraved upon the drinking glasses belonging to this club: She o'er all Hearts and Toasts must reign, Whose Eyes outsparkle bright Champaign; Or (when she will vouchsafe to smile,) The Brilliant that now writes _Carlisle_.[8]