1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

COTS AN© T H E IB CUSTOMS,

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And in a panegyric on Oxford ale, written by Warton in 1720^ we have tne lines—• a My sober evening let the tankard Hess ; With, tomi embrown'd, and fragrant nutmeg fraught, While the rich draught, "with oft-repeated whiffs,, Tobacco mild improves." Johnson^ in his translation of Horace^ mates use of the expression in Ode I. Book IV. thus— u There jest and feast; make Mm thine host, If a fit liver thou dost seek to toast j " and Prior 3 in the i€ Camelion/' says, "But if at first he minds his hits, This last line has reference to the custom pursued in the clubs of the eighteenth century^ of writing verses on the brims of their cups; they also inscribed on them the names of the favourite ladies whom they toasted: and Dr. Arbuthnot ascribes the name of the celebrated Kit-Cat Club to the toasts drank there, rather than to the renowned pastry-cook^ Christopher Kat j for he says, i£ From no trim beaux its name it "boasts, Grey statesmen or green wits j But from its pell-mell pack of toasts. Of old Cat and young Kits." Among the latter may be mentioned Lady Mary Mon- tagu, who was toasted at the age of eight years j while among the former denomination we must > class And drinks champaign among the "wits, Five deep he toasts the towering lasses, Repeats jour verses wrote on glasses."