TAVERN SCENE FROM ‘THE RAKE’S PROGRESS.’
The Jacobites, faithful to their traditional ally, continued to toast ‘the King over the water’ by passing glasses charged with the sparkling wine of France across a bowl filled to the brim with the pure element. The middle classes clung to their beer, or at most indulged in Port and punch; whilst the lower orders seem to have become seized with that insane passion for ardent spirits which Hogarth satirised in his ‘Gin Lane,’ and hailed with glee Sir Robert Walpole’s
‘attempt,
Superior to Canary or Champagne,
Geneva salutiferous to enhance.’[325]
‘THE KING OVER THE WATER.’
