1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

DRINKS ANCIENT AND MODERN 31 their wealthier neighbours, regardless of the feelings, and the cartridges, of the owners of the trees. To every gallon of liquor was added a pound of refined sugar, the mixture being boiled for half an hour or so, then set to cool, with a little yeast added thereto, to make it ferment. The result was then put in barrels, together with a small proportion of powdered mace and cinnamon. A month afterwards it was bottled off, and when drunk was said to be " a most delicate, brisk wine, of a flavour like unto Rhenish." "The Vertues of the Liquor or Blood of the Birch-tree," says the historian, " have not long been discovered, we being beholding to the Learned Van Helmont for it; who in his Treatise of the Disease of the Stone hath very much applauded its Vertues against the effects of the Disease, calling the natural Liquor that flows from the wounded Branches of the Tree, the meer Balsom of the Disease. Ale brewed therewith, as well as the Wine that is made of it, wonder fully operates on the Disease. It is also reputed to be a powerful Curer of the Ptisick." All the same you will hardly get the alumni of Eton and Harrow to love their birch. " What was Sack?'' is a question which has often been asked. It was a common name for a drink in the time of Shakespeare, and Falstaffhad a terrible reputation as a sackster. The exact nature of the wine is uncertain, but the name is supposed to be derived