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CHAPTER 111
DRINKS ANCIENT AND MODERN
TheWhitaker of the period—France without wine—Babylonian
boozers—Beer discovered bythe Egyptians—A glass of bitter
for Cleopatra—Brainless Persians—German sots—Turning
the tables—Intemperance in theNorth Chinese intoxicants
Nature of Sack—Mead and morat—Vinous metheglin—
Favourite tipple of theAncient Britons—Braggonet—Birch-
wine— "The invariable" of FalstafF—A recipe by Sir
Walter Raleigh —Saragossa wine—Usquebaugh—Clary—
Apricock wine.
Pliny—whose works contain almost as much
general information as Whitaker s Almanack—
tells us that the western nations got drunk with
certain liquors made with fruits ; and that those
liquors have different names in Gaul and Spain,
though they produce the same effect. Ammianus
Marcellinus reports that "the Gauls having no
wine in their country" —only fancy what a
country France must have been to live in with
out champagne and claret, not to mention
burgundy and cider—" though they are very
fond of it, contrive a great many sorts of liquors
which produce the same effect as wine.' The
Scythians, too, had no wine, but got " for'ard "