And I wish, etc.”
But the composer of “A Song in praise of the Leather Bottel” could rise to the magnitude of his subject in a far superior manner than the preceding poet, the refrain of his song being of a higher type.
“And I wish in Heaven his Soul may dwell,
That first devised the Leather Bottel.”
The uses of the Bottel were so manifest, and its material so superior to any other, that it occupied a higher position. It was better than wood, for it would not run, and was unbreakable. When a man and his wife fell out, as will occasionally happen even in the best matrimonial existence, the bottel could be thrown at each other, without great injury either to human, or the bottel. It held no temptation to steal, as if it were of silver; nor could it be broken, as if it were of glass—because, as the song justly says,—
“Then what do you say to these Glasses fine?
Yes, they shall have no Praise of mine;
For when a Company there are sat,
For to be merry, as we are met;