By other names than Claret you are known—
Claret.—You do not hear me, Sir, the Fact disown,
Some call me Barcelona, some Navar,
Some Syracuse, but at the Vintner’s Bar
My name’s Red Port. But call me what they will,
Claret I am, and will be Claret still,” etc., etc.
Not content with praising the liquor ale, our ancestors fell to eulogising the vessels used for its consumption, and the “Black Jack” and “Leather Bottel” both came in for their meed of praise. Sketches of a fine example of each are here given, taken from the national collection in the British Museum.
The Black Jack is a jug or pitcher, made of leather, which was sometimes ornamented with a silver rim and a silver plate with the owner’s name or coat of arms engraved thereon. Here is a short lyric, “In praise of the Black Jack.”[112]