great that I am compelled to be a suitor unto you, that ye will have a friendly consideration. Truly two tunnes a month have not hitherto sustained my ordinary.' There must have been some pretty heavy drinking of wine, because the greater part of the household would have ale. Many must have been daily "wine-wise." From the time of Elizabeth until the Revolution, drunkenness was more general among the upper classes than at any previous time, many of the most conspicuous characters being grossly addicted to it. among A few years farther on brings us to the time of the Commonwealth when, according to Sir William Douglass, distilled spirits had become common among the English gentry. Cromwell freely used them, but ale remained the chief drink the common people until the time of William and Mary. In 1657 Reeve wrote, (" Plea for Nineveh ":) "We seem to be steeped in liquors, or to be the dizzy island. We drink as if we were nothing but sponges, or had tunnels in our months. We are the grape suckers of the earth." The Restoration soon followed with its dissipated habits, the growing custom of drinking toasts still more augmenting the evil. The introduction of tea and coffee into general use soon after slightly abated this downward tendency. Tea was first imported into England from the Netherlands in 1666. At first it was used only as a medicine, costing sixty shillings per pound. Coffee was a more popular article. The first coffee-house was opened in Paris in 1643; and in London either in 1652 or 1657. There were coffee-houses for all classes. These houses found no favor with the Puritans. But the coffee-houses were soon prohibited by the royal proclamation of Charles II., under a suspicion that they were hot-beds of treason, and the tide of alcoholic drinks rolled on afresh. In 1691 an act was passed encouraging distillation, and immediately the destruction of grain became immense and dissi 1 Wm. Codman's "Social History of Great Britain," vol. i, pp. 142, 143. pation excessive. During the reigns of Charles II. and William III. alcohol exerted unlimited sway. De Foe, who lived from 1661 to 1731, said of his times: "To this day, when you speak of a man, you say 'he is an honest, drunken fellow,' as if his drunkenness was a recommendation to his honesty. Nay, so far has this custom prevailed, that the top of a gentleman's entertainment is to make his friend drunk; and his friend is so much reconciled to it, that he takes it as the effect of his kindThe further perfection of this vice appears in the way of their expressing their joy for any public blessing. ‘Jack,' said a gentleman of a very high quality, when after the debate in the House of Lords King William had been voted into the vacant throne, Jack, go home to your lady, and tell her we have got a Protestant king and queen; and go, make a bonfire as large as a house, and bid the butler make ye all drunk, ye dog." Here," said De Foe, "was sacrificing to the devil as a thanksgiving to God." ness. It was not until the reign of the last Edward and subsequently that statutes were framed to punish drunkenness. A considerable advance was made in the times of James I. A statute passed during his reign, after reciting that "the loathsome and odious sin of drunkenness had of late grown to be common in this realm, being the root and foundation of many enormous sins, as bloodshed, stabbing, murder, swearing, fornication, adultery, and such like," drunkenness was declared to be an offense against the public, and punished by a fine of five shillings, to be paid within one week after conviction, to the church-wardens for the benefit of the poor. In default of payment, the guilty party was placed for six hours in the stocks Upon a second conviction the offender was bound by two sureties in the sum of £10 for good behavior. Tippling in alehouses, except as allowed by the law of 1604, was fined three shillings. In 1637 one P-- W-, who drank all night and until "after cock-crowe," was punished by standing "in sackcloth two Sabbaths, and to paye four markes penaltye." In the time of Cromwell, the magistrates in the north of England punished drunkards by making them carry what was called "The Drunkard's Cloak." This was a large barrel with one head out and a hole through the other, through which the offender was made to put his head, while his hands were drawn through two small holes, one on each side. With this he was compelled to march along the public streets. An old chronicle relates that, on the 1st of September, 1651, when General Monk attacked and took Dundee, (Scotland,) the townsmen did no duty in their defense, most of them being drunken. Such a condition of things will not surprise us when we reflect that the drinking customs of the age were associated with the most sacred matters, as seen from the following extracts from the records of the parish of Darlington: A. D. 1639. For Mr. Thompson, that preached the forenone and afternone, for a quarte of sacke, xiiid. A. D. 1650. For six quartes of sacke to the ministere, when we had not a ministere, 9s. A. D. 1666. For one quarte of sacke bestowed on Mr. Jellett, when he preached, 2s. 4d. A. D. 1691. For a pint of brandy, when Mr. George Bell preached here, 1s. 4d. When the Dean of Durham preached here, spent in a treat with him, 3s. 6d. For a stranger that preached, a dozen of ale, 1s.' The drunkenness of the Scotch gentry a century and a half ago was notorious. "As drunk as a lord" was a common allusion. Gentlemen at dinner often sat all night, and dispersed only when they should have been rising from their beds. Men were not allowed to have their own way about leaving. The door was locked by the host, who, pointing with one hand to the bottle on the table and with the other to the "shakedowns" (for prostrate men) in the adjacent apartment, showed what he expected from his guests. A refusal to participate consigned 2 1" Bacchus," by Dr. Grindrod. ***Chambers' Miscellany." the recusant to contempt and exclusion from society. Sir Walter Scott relates that among the chief respectable men among the Caledonians, when large companies assembled, the cask of liquor must be exhausted. Two men stood at the door with a barrow, on which to carry the guests, as fast as they were drunken, to their beds. If any of the party retired for a few moments, on his return he was compelled to apologize, in rhyme, for his absence, or, if unable to do it, to perform some penance dictated by the company. Similar customs prevailed among the Irish gentry. Addison thus described the "typical drunkard" of his time: I was only the other day with honest Will Funnell, the West Saxon, who was reckoning up how much liquor had passed through him in the last twenty years of his life, which, according to his computation, amounted to twenty-three hogsheads of October, (bitter,) four tuns of port, (sherry,) half a kilderkin of small beer, nineteen barrels of cider, and three barrels of champagne, besides which he had assisted at four hundred bowls of punch, not to mention sips, drams, and whets without number. I question not but every reader's memory will suggest to him several ambitious young men who are as vain in this particular as Will Funnell, and can boast of as glorious exploits. The taverns of this time, which "even noble ladies were in the habit of largely patronizing," were quaintly described : "There enter the prude and the reprobate boy, * Surcharged with the venom, some walk forth erect, But, soon or later, the reckoning arrives, And ninety-nine perish for one who survives." Watson (1662) said: "The tavern bell, I fear, does more harm than the church bell does good." |