brandy may mature, and that the fusel oil may develope into the ethyls, which give such flavour and fragrance to the brandy.

Perhaps the oldest house in the Cognac district is Hennessy's, but it would be invidious to say that their brandy was superior either to Martell's, Otard and Dupuy's, the Société Vignicole, Courvoisier, or many other firms. That must be left to individual taste. But from these firms we can rely on having pure unadulterated brandies, the pure product of the vine, without any admixture of grain or beet spirit. At one time, adulteration was rife among the farmers, but in 1857 and 1858 several of them were prosecuted, and they are now credited with having abjured their evil

ways.

J. A.

Massinger's Due of Milan-Pope's Epilogue to Satires-The Dunciad-William III.-Lord Hervey-Sir R. Walpole--The Fall of Madame Geneva-Hogarth's Gin Lane-Schiedam Adulteration-Gin Sling-Captain Dudley Bradstreet-Tom and Jerry Hawthorn.

IN is an alcoholic drink distilled from malt or

GIN

from unmalted barley or other grain, and afterwards rectified and flavoured. The word is French, genièvre, juniper, corrupted into Geneva, and subsequently into its present form. It is to the berries of the juniper that the best Hollands owes its flavour.

Perhaps one of the earliest allusions to gin is in Massinger's Duke of Milan (1623), Act I., scene i., when Graccho, a creature of Mariana, says to the courtier Julio, of a chance drunkard,

'Tis a sign he has ta'en his liquor, and if you meet
An officer preaching of sobriety,

Unless he read it in Geneva print,

Lay him by the heels."

In this extract the word is played upon, Geneva suggesting both the habit of spirit-drinking and Cal

vinistic doctrine.

When Pope wrote, the corrupted word "Gin " had become common. In the Epilogue to the Satires,

I. 130.

"Vice thus abused, demands a nation's care;
This calls the Church to deprecate our sin,
And hurls the thunder of our laws on gin."

Pope has added a note to this passage, to the effect that gin had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the people before it was restrained by Parliament in 1736.

Another early allusion to Geneva is to be found in Carmina Quadragesimalia, Oxford, 1723, vol. i., p. 7, in a copy of verses contributed by Salusbury Cade, elected from Westminster to Ch. Ch. in 1714

The thesis of which Salusbury Cade maintained the affirmative, is whether life consists in heat, or in the original An vita consistat in calore?

"Dum tremula hyberno Dipsas superimminet igni
Et dextra cyathum sustinet, ore tubum,
Alternis vicibus fumos hauritque, bibitque
Quam dat arundo sitim grata Geneva levat.
Languenti hic ingens stomacho est fultura, nec alvus
Nunc Hypochondriacis flatibus ægra tumet.
Liberior fluit in tepido nunc corpore sanguis,
Hinc nova vis membris et novus inde calor.

Si quando audieris vetulam hanc periisse: Genevæ
Dicas ampullam non renovasse suam.'

Which being Englished, is

Dipsas, who shivers by her wintry fire,

While her pipe's smoke ascends in spire on spire,

I

Alternate puffs and drinks-Geneva lays
That thirst the weed is wont in her to raise.
With this her belly propped, its pain expels ;
Intestine wind no more her stomach swells;

A freer blood runs leaping through her frame,
New heat, new strength recalls the ancient game.
And should you hear she's dead, the cause you'll know
Was that Geneva in her jug ran low."

In the Dunciad, which Pope wrote in 1726 (book iii.,

1. 143), we read,—

"A second see, by meeker manners known,

And modest as the maid that sips alone;

From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,

Another D'Urfey, Ward! shall sing in thee!

Thee shall each ale-house, thee each gill-house 1 mourn, And answering gin-shops sourer sighs return."

An early allusion to Geneva is in a poem by

Alexander Blunt, Distiller, 8vo, 1729, price 6d., called

か

Geneva," addressed to the Right Honourable Sir

R—— W——. It commences,

"Thy virtues, O Geneva! yet unsung

By ancient or by modern bard, the muse
In verse sublime shall celebrate. And thou
O W statesman most profound! vouchsafe
To lend a gracious ear: for fame reports
That thou with zeal assiduous dost attempt
Superior to Canary or Champaigne
Geneva salutiferous to enhance ;

To rescue it from hand of porter vile,

And basket woman, and to the bouffet

1 Of the word gill-house a recent editor of Pope observes that it is doubtful whether it is to be understood as a house where gill, or beer impregnated with ground-ivy, was sold, or whether as an inferior tavern, where beer was sold by the measure known as a gill

Of lady delicate and courtier grand
Exalt it; well from thee may it assume

The glorious modern name of royal BOB!"

Though "Brandy cognac, Jamaica Rum, and costly Arrack are alluded to, there is no mention of Hollands in the poem, which is a defence of Geneva against ale.

In this poem a statement is contained that Geneva was introduced by William III., and that he himself drank it.

"Great Nassau,

Immortal name! Britain's deliverer

From slavery, from wooden shoes and chains,
Dungeons and fire; attendants on the sway
Of tyrants bigotted and zeal accurst,
Of holy butchers, prelates insolent,
Despotic and bloodthirsty! He who did
Expiring liberty revive (who wrought
Salvation wondrous! God-like hero! He
It was, who to compleat our happiness
With liberty, restored Geneva introduced.
O Britons. O my countrymen can you
To glorious William now commence ingrates
And spurn his ashes? Can you vilify
The sovereign cordial he has pointed out,
Which by your own misconduct only can
Prove detrimental?

Martial William drank

Geneva, yet no age could ever boast

A braver prince than he.

Glowed every royal virtue!

Within his breast

Little sign,

O Genius of malt liquor! that Geneva

Debilitates the limbs and health impairs
And mind enervates. Men for learning famed
And skill in medicine prescribed it then
Frequent in recipe, nor did it want