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THE FLOWING BOWL
connoisseurs call a " lady's" wine, which an
expert would not taste a second time ; and its
aftermath, its effect on the imbiber the following
dav, is somewhat distressing. Somehow, not
withstanding the import duties, champagne—I
am alluding now to the superior brands—is
almost as cheap in London as in the best hotels
in Rheims ; but the experiment of drinking it
in the land of its birth is not as risky as on alien
shores. At least so say the natives of the district,
who maintain that although work in the cellars
is not the pleasantest in the world—the strong
smell, which is even intoxicating, giving the
workmen a distaste for the sparkling wine—it is
quite possible for an outsider to drink a quantity
of champagne of undoubted quality without feel
ing any bad after-effects.
"You may, in fact," it was told me on the
spot, "drink four bottles of Pommery '84, and
feel all the better for it next day."
Possibly ; but how about the inferior stuff
which we used to sample, occasionally, in our
salad days, when our green judgment led us to
pass our early mornings in riotous junketings in
the now staid and peaceful region of the Hay-
market, S.W..? Much later than those days I
have sampled alleged champagne—"extra sec" it
was called, though " extra sick" would have
been more appropriate—on a race-course, in
order to fitly celebrate some famous victory.
But in my riper years, the victory (when it
occurs) is honoured in more staid and seemly
fashion. I was never nearer death by poison than
one Friday morning in the ancient city of York,