PLEDGING.
The old custom of drinking healths is on the decline. In a book of rhymes, published about 1660, in "a catch made before the king's coming to Worcester with the Scottish army," is the following:
"Each man upon his back
Shall swallow his sack,
This health will endure no shrinking;
The rest shall dance round
Him that lies on the ground:
'Fore me this is excellent drinking."