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I04
THE FLOWING BOWL
the less water the better. A very old way of
concocting it is to melt the sugar within the
tumbler (which should be covered, pro tern.) with
the smallest quantity of water sufficient for the
purpose, the thin lemon-rind having been
previously added.
Then comes the whisky;
" and," according to the old formula, " the laste
dhrop o' wather " added atop of the " crathur "
will spoil the punch. But in all English works
in which punch has been mentioned—previous
to the early seventies, at all events—by the active
ingredients of punch should be understood either
rum, brandy, or gin.
'•'•English Punch"
says a writer of our own time, " is,as regards the
spirit, mostly of two kinds —brandy and rum,
mixed in proportions which must be left to taste.
The rum generally predominates. The acid is
nearly always lemon juice. The spice is nearly
always lemon-peel, but sometimes tea-leaf"—
now marry come up !—"sometimes nutmeg ; and
as for the sugar and the water they explain them
selves."
The Scotch make toddy in very much the
same way as the Irish concoct their punch. But
Glasgow Punchy
according to John Gibson Lockhart, was com
pounded with the coldest spring-water—a com
modity which would seem to be growing some
what scarce in Caledonia —for the purpose of
punch-making, at all events.