1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE DRINKS OF DICKENS 223 little Pip would be out of it; but there remained Wopsle, Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and Pumblechook himself; whilst afterwards the sergeant joined in the treat, and had two glasses. And all these people were served from one bottle 5 for we are distinctly told that the second cork was not drawn until the first bottle had been emptied. Miss Havisham's relations having been brewers, beer was naturally the refreshment offered to little Pip, whilst in service there, although there seems to have been a bottle or two of wine in the cellars, for the benefit of Mr. Jaggers and others. That worthy, like most successful lawyers of the present day, was a light luncher— a sandwich, and the contents of a flask of sherry serving him for the purpose ; but we are told that at his dinners both meat and drink were unexceptionable. His great hand always savoured of scented soap, and at luncheon the odour of superior sherry pervaded his office. The convict's emissary, himself a released felon, stirred his rum-and-water with a file ; and this appears to have been the favoured drink of the " returned transport," Magwitch. There was a large consumption of port and sherry— chiefly by Pumblechook—after the remains of Mrs. Gargery had been consigned to the earth ; and what with frequent visits, on the part of the inhabitants of those parts, to "The Jolly Barge men " and " The Boar," the landlords of those establishments must have done a thriving trade indeed. I wonder if Sir Wilfrid Lawson, or any other eminent abstainer, ever picked up a volume of