Of whom to be reveng’d, he took
In Mirth and pleasant Game,
Black Pots and Glasses, which he hung
Upon a bright Sun-Beam.
The third Line is a Demonstration of the Antiquity of Drinking out of Black-Pots, which still prevails in most Counties of this Nation, among the Justices of Peace at their Petty and Quarter Sessions.
The last four Lines of this Canto, and the beginning of the next, contain the miraculous Adventure of the Pudding-Bowl: And, by the by, we may observe, That it was the Custom of the Christians at that time, to make Hog-Puddings instead of Minc'd-Pies at Christmas; a laudable Custom very probably brought up to distinguish 'em more particularly from the Jews.
Whereas about a Christmas time,
His Father an Hog had kill’d,
And Tom to see the Pudding made,
Fear that it should be spill’d;