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184
THE FLOWING BOWL
thereto of milk three pints, strain all through an
hippocras bag, and sweeten it with a pound of sugar-
candy.
D'you kna-ow—as the curate in The Private
Secretary says—I am not taking any hippocras
to-day.
"Wormwood imbib'd in cider," says another
writer, " produceth the effect that it doth in
wine." Evidently some nasty effect j only con
ceive an admixture of absinthe and cider I
That the ancients loved mixtures—and sweet
mixtures—is pretty evident from the writings of
Pliny and others. Were a man to invite me to
drinic apple juice in the which had been bottled
dried juniper-berries, I should probably hit that
man in the eye, or send for a policeman. But
two or three hundred years ago "juniper-cider "
appears to have been a popular drink, although
we read that " the taste thereof is somewhat
strange, which by use will be much abated."
Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, currants, honey,
rosemary, raspberries, blackberries, elderberries,
and " dove-July-flowers," all used to be put into
cider, by way of flavouring ; " but the best addi
tion," says the same writer, " that can be to it
is that of the lees of Malaga Sack or Canary new
and sweet, about a gallon to a hogshead ; this is
a great improver and a purifier of cider."
Evidently in those days they had some crude
sort of ideas on the subject of Cider Cup.