124 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
OLD RHYMES ON TANKARDS 
IN the days of the stage coach and country inn, when peer 
and highwayman quenched their thirst with the contents 
of the same pewters, it was a common practice to inscribe on 
these tankards rhymed couplets, often the inspiration of the 
village poet, and more or less bibulous wisdom. Although 
the sentiment of these verses will not command itself to ab- 
stainers, says a contemporary, they are worth placing on 
record as throwing a light on the habits and humor of other 
days. One of these couplets sums up the ordinary man's 
antipathies thus:— 
Two things all honest men do fear: 
A scolding wife and ill-brewed beer. 
Another is loyal, and almost moral in its philosophy, and 
runs thus : — 
Drink fayre, don't swayre ; 
God save ye Kinge ! 
The pewter on which these lines was inscribed has a his- 
tory of centuries. 
A very sensible rhyme is a parody of the well-known 
fighting couplet, and runs thus : 
He who drinks and runs away 
Will live to drink another day. 
There is quite a mine of moral teaching in a few of the 
verses inscribed on these pewters, as is these : — 
Straight is the line of duty, 
Curved is the line of beauty; 
Follow the straight line, thou shalt see 
The curved line ever follow thee. 
This verse has more appropriately been found on water- 
jugs in village inns. On some tankards are to be seen quaint 
perversions of common maxims. One assures us that "It's a 
long tankard that cannot be refilled." Another suggests, with 
Tapleyan philosophy, "Never put off 'till to-morrow what you 
can drink, to-day ;" while a third conveys a very useful and 
timely hint in "It's a muddled man who doens't know his own 
pewter." Nearly all the above are applicable to and have 
been inscribed also on pottery. — Pottery Gazette. 
LEMONADE PITCHER— ALICE B. SHARRARD 
FOR a scheme of blue in flat enamels, the leaf forms in scroll de- 
sign, should be Turquoise Enamel on dark blue ground 
made by mixing Dark Blue and deep Purple, toned with Black, 
adding y< Aufsetzweis. Outline with Black. Ground within 
scrolls, Gold. Gold bands surround the neck, border figures Tur- 
quoise or White Enamel on blue ground. The lower part of the 
pitcher should be tinted a blueish gray, outlining the pattern 
in Dark Blue, the small figures in White or Turquoise 
Enamel. 
The handle having band of gold between bands of Dark Blue. 
Or the whole could be outlined with gold, using gold for small 
figures in lower half of design. A treatment in different tones 
of brown would also be effective, outlined in black and omit- 
ing the gold. 
