1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE DRINKS OF DICKENS

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tremens was no stranger to him. Bumble and his wife were not averse to a social glass ; and even the charity-boy, Noah Claypole, indulged, during the absence of his master, the undertaker, in oysters, porter, and some sort of wine, name not mentioned. As far as we are told, the decent members of society in Oliver Twist were very moderate in their potations ; although it is in my mind that Mr. Fang, the stipendiary, was a port-wine man. In The Old Curiosity Shop we get allusions to liquids of all kinds, from orange-peel and water, the favourite beverage of the Marchioness, to the truly-awful " wanities " of Ouilp, which took the form ofover-proof rum, boiled, burnt brandy, or raw Schiedam out of a keg. Quilp, by the way, if amusing enough, is the most exaggerated character ever invented by the great novelist, and has no business out of the realms of pantomime. But he was very, very funny, as impersonated by "Johnny" Clarke in the long ago. Dick Swiveller was a swindler by profession, although like many of these a boon companion, speechifier, and framer of jovial sentiments. The "rosy wine" was represented at his humble home by geneva-and-water, and his astonishment when Mr. Brass' lodger made a brew of" extraordinary " rum-and-water in " a kind of temple, shining as of polished silver," at the same time cooking a steak, an egg, and a cup of coffee, in the same temple, can only have been exceeded by his joy at getting something really decent to drink. The strolling performers with whom Nell and Grandfather travelled did themselves par-