1863 Cups and their customs

33

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

Let your utensils be clean^ and your ingredients of first-rate quality, and, unless you have some one very trustworthy and reliable, take the matter in hand your- self; for nothing is so annoying to the host, or so unpalatable to the guests, as a badly compounded cup. In order that the magnitude of this important business may be fully understood and properly estimated, we will transfer some of the excellent aphoristic remarks of the illustrious Billy Dawson (though we have not the least idea who he was), whose illustricity consisted in being the only man who could brew Punch. This is his testimony : — ^^ The man who sees, does, or thinks of anything while he is making Punch, may as well look for the North-west Passage on Mutton Hill. A man can never make good Punch unless he is satisfied, nay positive, that no man breathing can make better. 1 can and do make good Punch, because I do nothing one pint old Jamaica rum, two gills; brandy, one gill; porter or stout, half a gill; arrack, a slight dash. I allow myself five minutes to make a bowl on the foregoing proportions, carefully stirring the mixture as I furnish the ingredients until it actually foams ; and then. Kangaroos ! how beautiful matter in the hands of your domestic, I would advise you to caution her on the importance of the office, and c5 ; lemons, two, the juice and peel ; it is ! ! '^ If, however, for convenience, you place the else ; and this is my way of doing it. I retire to a solitary corner, with my ingredients ready sorted ; they are as follows ; and 1 mix them in the order they are here written. Sugar, twelve tolerable lumps ; hot water,