Miss Havisham’s relations having been brewers, beer was naturally the refreshment offered to little Pip, whilst in service there, although there seems to have been a bottle or two of wine in the cellars, for the benefit of Mr. Jaggers and others. That worthy, like most successful lawyers of the present day, was a light luncher—a sandwich, and the contents of a flask of sherry serving him for the purpose; but we are told that at his dinners both meat and drink were unexceptionable. His great hand always savoured of scented soap, and at luncheon the odour of superior sherry pervaded his office.
The convict’s emissary, himself a released felon, stirred his rum-and-water with a file; and this appears to have been the favoured drink of the “returned transport,” Magwitch. There was a large consumption of port and sherry—chiefly by Pumblechook—after the remains of Mrs. Gargery had been consigned to the earth; and what with frequent visits, on the part of the inhabitants of those parts, to “The Jolly Bargemen” and “The Boar,” the landlords of those establishments must have done a thriving trade indeed.
I wonder if Sir Wilfrid Lawson, or any other eminent abstainer, ever picked up a volume of {224} the Pickwick Papers for the purpose of perusal? If so, and it was an illustrated edition, the frontispiece must have made his heart quail; for it represents Pickwick himself standing on a chair addressing a more or less excited audience, all seated at a long table, and each with a cigar or pipe in his mouth, and a large tumbler in front of him. And if the eminent abstainer cared to carry his researches farther, he would discover that ere the Pickwickian deputation had started on their first journey they had taken part in a street fight, eventually quelled by the arrival of a perfect stranger, who celebrates the occasion by calling for glasses round of brandy-and-water, hot and strong!
The Pickwick Paper absolutely reek with alcohol, from title-page to name and address of printer. Everybody drinks with everybody else, both in and out of the Fleet Prison. The hospitality of the good people is unbounded, and good and bad alike do it full justice. The very instant the belated travellers have crossed the threshold of Dingley Dell they are fed with cherry brandy. The entire deputation has “Katzenjammer,” on the morning after their arrival at Rochester, and a duel, or an attempted one, is the consequence. In coffee-room, bar-parlour, or smoking-room, an introduction, a story, or a song is an excuse for a bowl of punch. Wherever the Pickwickians go they carry trouble, more or less amusing to the reader, and the trouble is invariably followed by revelry.
That two medical students should wash down their oysters with neat brandy—and before {225} breakfast—seems at the first glance an impossibility; but many of those who know for certain the effects of undue indulgence are the most careless in indulging, and Bob Sawyer and his still more rascally friend and fellow-student Ben Allen are reckless types of a reckless profession. The same meal—oysters cum brandy—is partaken of, later on, by Solomon Pell and the coachman; and Dickens probably knew that lawyers and stage-drivers, like sailors, can digest anything.
The most drunken man in the book, “the Shepherd,” is an alleged teetotaller; and the abstaining division will assuredly never forgive Dickens for his word-painting of Stiggins, whose “vanity” was pine-apple rum with hot water and plenty of sugar. The Wellers, père et fils, were not conservative in their potations; and whether “the inwariable” is Wellerese for brandy hot, or rum hot, I am still uncertain, although many correspondents have sought to enlighten me on the subject; said correspondents being anything but unanimous. One of the most favoured beverages mentioned in the work is “cold punch,” by which I understand milk-punch, a very “more-ish” draught indeed.
I have prolonged this chapter perhaps unduly. But the subject of the Drinks of Dickens is too important a one to slur over. The man who cannot appreciate Pickwick has never yet come my way. There is a peculiar charm about the book, a broad hospitality, an unbounded love of the good things of this life which must endear it to the hearts of true sons of Britannia, who will revel, on occasion, no matter what obstacles may {226} be placed in their way. And this is the method of procedure, the potation being occasionally varied, which succeeded all the troubles of the friends:—
“So to keep up their good humour they stopped at the first roadside tavern they came to”—this was after the punch and pound incident—“and ordered a glass of brandy-and-water all round, with a magnum of extra strength for Mr. Samuel Weller.”
CHAPTER XX SWORN OFF!
Introduction of temperance into England — America struck it first — Doctor Johnson an abstainer — Collapse of the Permissive Bill — Human nature and forbidden fruit — Effects of repressive legislation — Sunday closing in Wales — Paraffin for miners — Toasting Her Majesty — A good win — A shout and a drink — Jesuitical logic of the prohibitioners — The end justifies the means — A few non-alcoholic recipes — Abstainers and alcohol — Pure spring-water v. milk-punch — “Tried baith!”