92 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
Sir Horace Walpole, writing from Newmarket, October, 1743, to 
Sir Horace Mann, just after his return from Italy, says “ What a 
Paradise (after the bare, wide barns of Italian inns) did I think the 
hostelry at Dover when I got back ; and what magnificence were 
the twopenny prints, salt-cellars, and boxes to hold the knives ! 
but the swmmum-bonum was the Small Beer, and the newspaper ! 
T bless’d my stars, and call’d it luxury!” It was Dick Swiveller 
who assured the small “‘ Marchioness” slavey, (when she told 
him confidentially that she “ once had a sip of Beer,”) with much 
solemnity, that “‘ Beer cannot be tasted in a sip.” In Pickwick 
we read about “ dog’s nose” (formerly a mixed drink of spiced 
malt liquor) “which your Committee (of the Brick Lane 
Temperance Association) find to be compounded of warm porter, 
moist sugar, gin, and nutmeg (a groan : and ‘So it is!’ from 
an elderly female).” 
Again, “ Ale flip” is warmed Ale, or Beer, to which sugar, 
cognac, or rum, and ginger, with nutmeg, have been added ; 
this is then beaten up with some stirred, or frothed eggs (half 
the whites being left out), and is well mixed. The drink is 
known in some parts as “A yard of flannel.” Pepys (Ihary, 
January 4th, 1666) says: ‘Comes our company to dinner, 
served so nobly in plate, and a neat dinner, indeed, though but 
of seven dishes. At night to sup, and then to cards; and, last 
of all, to have a flaggon of Ale, and apples, drunk out of a wood 
cup, as a Christmas draught, which made all merry.” Mulled 
Ale, and fettled Porter were favourite drinks up to the middle 
of last century for nourishing the exhausted invalid, and for 
stuffing a catarrh in its second stage. The mulled Ale was made 
by warming the liquor, sweetening it, and mixing in beaten-up 
eggs, and spice, particularly nutmeg. In “ fettled” Porter the 
eggs were left out, and lemon was added. The fettler was a 
copper utensil, like an inverted cone, for putting on the fire to 
heat the drink; elsewhere this is known as a hooter (heater 2), a 
“ skillet ” (with legs), a Mother Red Cup, and a spigot. The object 
was to make the ingredients hot quickly, so that all the spirit of 
the Beer should not be evaporated. We read in recent English 
history that a couple of centuries ago “the country Squires 
brewed at home a specially strong ale which, after a mid-day 
dinner, stood on the table in decanters marked with th 
; e oat-plant, 
and was then drunk in lieu of wine.” “ Ale-posset ” is a more 
_ modern hot cordial preparation, made with milk (half-a-pint), 
