Two centuries after the greybeard, came the brown Staffordshire Toby Philpot, an enormously stout old gentleman, whose arms and hands encircle his enormous paunch, and his three-cornered hat forms a most convenient lip, whence the ale can be poured. It owes its origin to a once very popular drinking song, entitled “The Brown Jug,” which is an imitation from the Latin of Hieronymus Amaltheus, by Francis Fawkes, M.A., published in 1761, which is the date of the accompanying illustration.
“Dear Tom, this brown jug, which now foams with mild ale,
Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale,
Was once Toby Philpot, a thirsty old soul,
As e’er cracked a bottle, or fathom’d a bowl;
In bousing about, ’twas his pride to excel,
And amongst jolly topers he bore off the bell.