1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

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THE FLOWING BOWL

connoisseurs call a " lady's" wine, which an expert would not taste a second time ; and its aftermath, its effect on the imbiber the following dav, is somewhat distressing. Somehow, not withstanding the import duties, champagne—I am alluding now to the superior brands—is almost as cheap in London as in the best hotels in Rheims ; but the experiment of drinking it in the land of its birth is not as risky as on alien shores. At least so say the natives of the district, who maintain that although work in the cellars is not the pleasantest in the world—the strong smell, which is even intoxicating, giving the workmen a distaste for the sparkling wine—it is quite possible for an outsider to drink a quantity of champagne of undoubted quality without feel ing any bad after-effects. "You may, in fact," it was told me on the spot, "drink four bottles of Pommery '84, and feel all the better for it next day." Possibly ; but how about the inferior stuff which we used to sample, occasionally, in our salad days, when our green judgment led us to pass our early mornings in riotous junketings in the now staid and peaceful region of the Hay- market, S.W..? Much later than those days I have sampled alleged champagne—"extra sec" it was called, though " extra sick" would have been more appropriate—on a race-course, in order to fitly celebrate some famous victory. But in my riper years, the victory (when it occurs) is honoured in more staid and seemly fashion. I was never nearer death by poison than one Friday morning in the ancient city of York,