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THE DRINKS OF DICKENS
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little Pip would be out of it; but there remained
Wopsle, Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and Pumblechook
himself; whilst afterwards the sergeant joined
in the treat, and had two glasses. And all these
people were served from one bottle 5 for we are
distinctly told that the second cork was not
drawn until the first bottle had been emptied.
Miss Havisham's relations having been brewers,
beer was naturally the refreshment offered to
little Pip, whilst in service there, although there
seems to have been a bottle or two of wine in
the cellars, for the benefit of Mr. Jaggers and
others.
That worthy, like most successful
lawyers of the present day, was a light luncher—
a sandwich, and the contents of a flask of sherry
serving him for the purpose ; but we are told
that at his dinners both meat and drink were
unexceptionable. His great hand always savoured
of scented soap, and at luncheon the odour of
superior sherry pervaded his office.
The convict's emissary, himself a released
felon, stirred his rum-and-water with a file ; and
this appears to have been the favoured drink of
the " returned transport," Magwitch.
There
was a large consumption of port and sherry—
chiefly by Pumblechook—after the remains of
Mrs. Gargery had been consigned to the earth ;
and what with frequent visits, on the part of the
inhabitants of those parts, to "The Jolly Barge
men " and " The Boar," the landlords of those
establishments must have done a thriving trade
indeed.
I wonder if Sir Wilfrid Lawson, or any other
eminent abstainer, ever picked up a volume of