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THE DRINKS OF DICKENS
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decades. A brandy-and-soda was an unknown
fact during the Dickens period ; simply because,
although there was plenty of brandy, the true
virtues of soda-water had not been discovered.
Moreover, nobody was known to call for a gin-
and-bitters, or a sherry-and-angostura; whikt
cocktails and cobblers are mentioned only in
the American chapters of Martin Chnzzlewit.
Ales and beers were known by various fantastic
names during the first half of the present century,
when men knew not " four-'alf" nor "bitter-
six " ; thus we have little David Copperfield
gravely asking for. a glass of the " Genuine
Stunning," whilst Mrs. Gamp was unable to
fulfil her arduous duties satisfactorily without a
generous allowance of " the Brighton old
Tipper."
But to the books themselves.
And commen
cing with David Copperfield—who is provided
with the heart, feelings, and understanding of
the great novelist himself—I make my first
pause at the waiter at the Yarmouth hotel. I
don't like that waiter, either as a man or a
waiter ; and his portrait by " Phiz " suggests a
Cheap Jack at a fair, or a barber, rather than a
coffee-room attendant. As a boy, I always
looked up to a waiter as a benefactor—a species
of Santa Glaus, and not as a marauding varlet
who would probably despoil me of my lawful
share of the banquet and then lie about the
incident to the landlady. And when this rascal
pleads that he " lives on broken wittles, and
sleeps on the coals," I lose patience with him.
A waiter who could rob a poor boy of his beer