1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

3 2 CUPS AND THEXB CUSTOMS. the present use of it. Other apostles of the truest temperance (moderation) there were, and we cherish them as men who have deserved well of their country. Dr. Parr, for example, who could drink his cider-cup on the village green on a Sunday evenings while his farming parishioners played at bowls,-—or again, still more legibly written in social history, and to some ex- tent leaving an impress upon our national life, the club-gatherings of the last century, where men of far- seeing and prudent philosophy (Addison, Steele, Gold- smith, Johnson, and others), whose names are inter- woven with the history of their time, meeting together, talked of human joys and human sorrows over claret- cups—-men witty themselves, and the cause of wit in other men, like sweet Sir John, whose devotion to u sherris sack n cost him his character, and will there- fore deny him admission to our gallery of men who have drank wisely and warily, and therefore well. While speaking of these times, we must not forget to mention u the cup that cheers, but not inebriates ;" for it was from the introduction of tea- and coffee-houses that clubs sprang into existence, by a process unneces- sary here to dilate on, but of which an excellent account may be found in Philip and Grace Wharton J s e Wits and Beaux of Society/ The first coffee-house esta- blished was the € Grecian/ kept by one Constantine, a Greek, who advertised that €C the pure berry of the coffee was to be had of him as good as could be any- where found/ 1 and shortly afterwards succeeded in securing a flourishing trade by selling an infusion of