Tobacco mild improves."
Johnson, in his translation of Horace, makes use of the expression in Ode I. Book IV. thus—
"There jest and feast; make him thine host,
If a fit liver thou dost seek to toast;"
and Prior, in the "Camelion," says,
"But if at first he minds his hits,
And drinks champaign among the wits,
Five deep he toasts the towering lasses,
Repeats your verses wrote on glasses."
This last line has reference to the custom pursued in the clubs of the eighteenth century, of writing verses on the brims of their cups; they also inscribed on them the names of the favourite ladies whom they toasted: and Dr. Arbuthnot ascribes the name of the celebrated Kit-Cat Club to the toasts drank there, rather than to the renowned pastry-cook, Christopher Kat; for he says,