Social Life and Domestic Habits. 131 



neglected as an article of cultivation) supplemented at 

 exigent times by a dish, of nettletops or " mugworts," 

 it is not to be supposed that the food of the common 

 people was over luxurious. Their favourite drink was 

 home-brewed ale, which they manufactured to pretty 

 good purpose, the proportion of malt used being probably 

 quite as liberal as is the case now in certain instances. 

 And concurrently with lamentations over the introduc- 

 tion of tea, we have strong laudations of the superior 

 virtues of home-brewed ale. One Edinburgh physician, 

 who denounces those "baneful articles, tea and whisky," 

 as tending to " corruption of morals and debility of 

 constitution among the poor," says expressly that their 

 introduction " is one bad effect of the present practice 

 of debasing and vitiating malt liquor. Formerly," he 

 adds, " when that liquor was the only beverage in use, 

 excesses from it did not affect the constitution, as it 

 contained a good deal of nourishment. But now, since 

 it has been debased, it is entirely given up." 



It sounds a little odd to us, who have been accus- 

 tomed to regard whisky as specially the national liquor, 

 to be reminded that about the close of the seventeenth 

 century French claret was the usual drink among the 

 gentry and well-to-do classes, and twopenny ale among 

 the common people. While brandy and whisky were 

 comparatively rare, claret was to be found " in every 

 public-house of any note except in the heart of the 

 Highlands, and sometimes even there." And great 

 quantities of it were drunk in many of the hostelries, 

 as also in the houses of private gentlemen. In Arniston 

 House, the country residence of President Dundas, the 

 annual consumpt of claret about 1750 is stated to have 

 been sixteen hogsheads ; while it was the practice of 

 John Forbes of Culloden, " Bumper John," as he was 

 called, " to prize off the top of each successive cask of 

 claret, and place it in the corner of the hall to be 

 emptied out in pail-fuls." 



The drinking habits of the time were indeed of a 



