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THE FLOWING BOWL
medicinally, or wine except at public dinners or
in the Lord's Supper.
The work whence I have gleaned the above
details also informs the reader that "such as
Doctor Samuel Johnson and John Howard set
an example of abstinence from all inebriating
drinks" ; which, as far as Doctor Johnson is
concerned, is somewhat startling news to myself.
I had always imagined that the burly lexico
grapher—I was reproved by a critic for calling
him this in Cakes and Ale—was a bit of a boon
companion ; and the records of Fleet Street
taverns by no means tend to contradict this idea.
Not only is the hard, oaken seat at one end of
the dining-room of " Ye Olde Cheshyre Cheese "
marked with a brass plate, with a suitable inscrip
tion, but the many visitors to that snug hostelry,
including hundreds of our American cousins, are
always taken upstairs and shewn Doctor Johnson's
chair. Did " Sam," and " Davy," and " Noll "
slake their thirst on cold water, beneath that
tavern's roof? I trow not. Cross out Doctor
Johnson's name as a total abstainer, please.
In 1834, Mr. J. S. Buckingham, who was
returned for Sheffield to the first Reform Parlia
ment, succeeded in obtaining a select committee
of the House of Commons, to enquire into the
causes, extent, and remedies of drunkenness. In
the meantime the limitation of the pledge to
abstention from ardent spirits had proved a
greater drawback than in other countries, because
beer had been the popular beverage, and its use
a cause of widespread drunkenness before ardent
spirits were commonly sold. But the idea of