1892 Drinks of the world

BRANDY. — Early Alchemists — Ladies Drinking

— Aqua Vitse -Distilla- — Nantes and Charente

The Invention of Brandy

tion— The Still-room

— The Charente District

— Manu-

—Johnson's Idea of Brandy

facture of Brandy — The Cognac Firms. WHO invented Brandy ? is a question that can- not be authoritatively answered ofthand ; but the good people of some parts of Germany hold that it was the Devil. And their legend is, at all events, circumstantial. Every one who is at all acquainted with old legends is fully aware that the Father of Evil is extremely simple,^ and has allowed himself, many times, to be outwitted by man. Once, especially, he was so guile- less, as to put trust in a Steinbach man, who cajoled him into entering an old beech tree, and there he was imprisoned until the tree was cut down. His first step, on regaining his freedom, was to revisit his own particular dominion, which, to his horror, he found empty ! This, naturally, would not do, and he set ||bout re- peopling hell without delay. He thought the qtiickest