1892 Drinks of the world

DRmiCS.

162

It may be so; happily it is not our business to deter- mine. It is certain that a vast development: has taken place in the manufacture of the majority of the monk- ish liqueurs. The Ckarti^eux of L' here now realize annual benefices of considerable value, of which a por- tion is said to be contributed to the continually dimin- ishing Papal exchequer, under the title of Peter's pence. Of this medicinal liqueur the active and benevolent element is gathered from herbs scattered on the Alpine mountains cold, or on the slopes of the Pyrenees, or in the sombre forests of the north (see the Prospectus), or in the shops of the apothecaries. But they all assuredly depend upon cognac for their element of life. Benedictine, with its four cabalistic at the famous Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartrey.se, near Grenoble. The elixir of long life, de Sept-Fonds, is made in a convent of the Trappists of I'Allier, and Trappistine is the work of the good fathers of the abbey of La Grace- Dieu (Doubs). It 13, however, affirmed that only Chartreuse, coloured yellow or green, at will, and Trappistine, are the works of religious hands, while all other liqueurs are made by the laics. The methods of fabrication em- ployed in the convents are now well known.^ Bene- dictime is the only liqueur which has escaped analysis. Absinthe I'd not strictly a liqueur. It substitutes bitter for sweet. This strong spirituous liquor, so prejudicial to French health and morality, is, however, letters, AMD G,' is made by the monks of Fecamp,

1 Ad majorem Dei gloriam. ^ RoFet's- " Manud du diitillafet^r- liquor iste/*