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THE DRINKS OF DICKENS
219
heard another great man express the same opinion
of it, in more elegant language. There is not
much revelry in Little D. until we get to the
second volume; and with the exception of
Blandois the strangler and the romantic Flora
nobody appears to have a really good thirst. In
the Marshalsea the " collegians " were evidently
worse provided with alcoholic comfort than in
the Fleet ; and this is all which can be written
in this chapter about Little Dorrit.
Nicholas Nickleby, on the other hand, is full of
allusions to the flowing bowl. Most of the
characters—Smike being a notable exception—
moisten their clay in some way or other, from
dear old Crummies, who is introduced to our
notice with a rummer of hot brandy-and-water
in one hand, to the ruffian Squeers. Newman
Noggs owed his fall in. life to the bold, bad,
bottle, and Mantalini presumably took to gin
together with the washer-woman, inhis declining
years. The Brothers Cheeryble were evidently
the right sort of people to dine with—although
their dinner-hour would hardly suit the present
generation—especially ifthey had many magnums
of that famed "Double Diamond." SirMulberry
Hawk and his lordly victim drank deep, after the
fashion of the day ; whilst the keeper of the
" rooge-a-nore from Paris " booth on Hampton
race-course stimulates the energies of his patrons
with excellent champagne, port, sherry, and
(most likely) British brandy. Old Gride keeps
a bottle of "golden water"—presumably the
Dantzic liqueur, " Acqua d'Oro," mentioned in
my chapter on that form offluid—in his cupboard.