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DRINKS
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to
be
mixed
with
her
tea.
I
remember
well
having
my
curiosity
excited
by
this,
to
me,
novel
form
of
taking
medicine,
and
holding
on
by
the
back
of
a
chair
to
watch
the
modits
operandi.
Very
much
to
my
astonishment,
the
patient
held
a liqueur
bottle
over
a
cup
of
tea,
and
began
to
pour
out
its
contents,
with
a
peculiar
purblind
look,
upon
the
back
of
a
teaspoon.
Presently,
she
seemed
suddenly
to
become
aware
of
what
she
was
about,
turned
up
fhe
spoon
the
right
way,
and
carefully
measured,
and
added
the
quantity
to
which
she
had
been
restricted.
The
Tea,
so
strongly
'laced,'
she
now
drank
with
great
apparent
gusto."
We
derive
our
name
of
Brandy
from
the
Dutch
bi^and-zmjn,
or
the
German
brannt-wein,
that
is,
burnt
or
distilled
z£/^/^^
;
and
in
the
17th
and
i8th
centuries
it
was
generally
spelt,
and
spoken
of
as
brandy
wine.
But,
also,
in
those
centuries
was
it
known
by
the
name
of
''
Pslantz,"
from
the
town
(Nantes,
the
capital
of
the
Loire
Inferieure)
whence
it
came.
But
this
name
was
changed
early
last
century,
when
the
trade
left
Nantes,
and
got
into
the
Charente
district,
of
which
Cognac
was
the
centre
;
so
what
used
to
be
"
right
good
Nantz"
of
the
old
smuggling
days,
turned
into
the
delicate,
many-starred
**
Cognac
"
of
our
times.
It
was
an
eminently
respectable
spirit.
Whiskey
was
practically
unknown
out
of
Scotland
and
Ireland.
Gin was
the
drink
of
the
common
people,
and
rum
was
considered
only
fit
for
sailors.
Even
Dr.
Johnson,
though
so
fond
of
his
tea,
was
also
fond
of
brandy,
as
Boswell
chronicles
of
him,
when
in
his
70th
year: