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Words: 151300 in 92 pages
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Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.
CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS
"Touch brim! touch foot! the wine is red, And leaps to the lips of the free; Our wassail true is quickly said,-- Comrade! I drink to thee!
"Touch foot! touch brim! who cares? who cares? Brothers in sorrow or glee, Glory or danger each gallantly shares: Comrade! I drink to thee!
"Touch brim! touch foot! once again, old friend, Though the present our last draught be; We were boys--we are men--we'll be true to the end: Brother! I drink to thee!"
LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
PREFACE
We have selected a sprig of Borage for our frontispiece, by reason of the usefulness of that pleasant herb in the flavouring of cups. Elsewhere than in England, plants for flavouring are accounted of rare virtue. So much are they esteemed in the East, that an anti-Brahminical writer, showing the worthlessness of Hindu superstitions, says, "They command you to cut down a living and sweet basil-plant, that you may crown a lifeless stone." Our use of flavouring-herbs is the reverse of this justly condemned one; for we crop them that hearts may be warmed and life lengthened.
And here we would remark that, although our endeavours are directed towards the resuscitation of better times than those we live in, times of heartier customs and of more genial ways, we raise no lamentation for the departure of the golden age, in the spirit of Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who sings:--
"Would our bottles but grow deeper, Did our wine but once get cheaper, Then on earth there might unfold The golden times, the age of gold!
"But not for us; we are commanded To go with temperance even-handed. The golden age is for the dead: We've got the paper age instead!
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