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CUPS 1NB THEIR CUSTOMS.
23
Ambergris
. . . . . . . .
5 grs.
Musk . . . . . . . . .
#
2 grs.
Infuse these for twenty-four hours^ then put a pound
of sugar to a quart of red wine or eider
5
and drop three
or four drops of the infusion into It, and it will make it
taste richly.
M
This compound was usually given at
marriage festival when it was introduced at the com-
mencement of the banquet^ served hot; for it is said to
be of so comforting and generous a nature that the
stomach would be at once put into good temper to
enjoy the meats provided. Hypocras (so called from
a particular bag through which it was strained) was
also a favourite winter beverage j and we find in an
old almanac of 1699 the lines—
(t
Sack, Hypocras, now^ anil "burnt Tbrandy
Are drinks as good and warm as can be."
HypocraSj however, is mentioned as early as the 14th
century. From this period we select our champion of
compound drinks in no less a personage than the noblest
courtier of Queen Bess; fer^ among other legacies of
prie% Sir Walter Ealeigh has handed down to us a recipe
for
€i
Cordial Water/' which, in its simplicity and good-
ness, stands alone among the compounds of the age.
€e
Take/* says he,
fe
a gallon of strawberries and put them
into a pint of aqua vitse; let them stand four days, then
strain them gently off, and sweeten the liquor as it
pleaseth thee,
JJ
This beverage, though somewhat too
potent for modern palates, may, by proper dilution, be
rendered no unworthy cup even in the present age.
Prom the same noble hand we get a recipe for Sack