252 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



parture for their homes in the village, which was about 

 a mile distant, but several of them lay down in the barn 

 or stable that they might be ready for their work the 

 next morning. 



I regret to have to admit that the chief number oi 

 the company before their departure were generally 

 intoxicated, although merry and full of fun ; it would 

 have been against the spirit and public opinion of the 

 time to have sent one's guests home sober. One man 

 told me, as a criterion of good beer, " he didn't think 

 nothing of no beer if it did not give him three falls for a 

 shilling." When travelling on the Continent I had been 

 struck with the absence of drunkenness amongst the 

 country folk, so I thought I would try the use of claret 

 and water, made into a nicely-flavoured claret cup, at 

 the next convivial gathering of labouring folk at home. 

 Instead of offering so much beer, I made three or four 

 gallons of liquor by putting two quarts of water to one 

 quart of good sound wine costing about is. 2(^., and with 

 a slice or two of lemon, a little nutmeg and a quarter of 

 a pound of sugar, I made a beverage which cost rather 

 under 6d. per quart. In proposing her Majesty's health 

 after supper, I told them what I had seen in France, 

 especially after the vintage, and that they should be free 

 to try and use wine instead of beer. I placed tumblers 

 and jugs of " cup " on the table along with the mugs and 

 tankard of beer, and I found that more than half the 

 men preferred the claret cup and stuck to it during the 

 evening, and told me next day how well they felt and 

 how much they preferred it to beer, but I do not pretend 

 that in the hay or harvest-field it would have been 



