fulfilled-it has produced a vast effect upon social life; but it has certainly neither tended to prolong youth nor to retard old age.

These early alchemists, indeed, do not appear to have foreseen the usage of their newly-discovered spirit as an exciting and intoxicating drink, nor does it appear to have been employed for this purpose to much extent before the sixteenth century. It was considered as a medicinal potion, and, perhaps, in course of time, it began to be taken as a cordial "on the sly." It was probably very expensive, and no doubt a great mystery was made about it; but people who could possess it, and were persuaded that it would preserve youth and keep off old age, would be frequently tempted to take a dose, when they might not in outward appearance be in want of it. The use of aqua vitæ as a drink appears to have increased rapidly during the sixteenth century, until the regular consumption must have become very considerable. It is spoken of as a thing in common use in the plays of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher; and the “ aqua-vite man," who carried it about for sale, is introduced as a common character. In the comedy of the "Beggar's Bush," by the two last-mentioned dramatists, the aqua-vitae man calls his merchandize "brand wine," which (meaning simply burnt wine) was the name by which it was known in Dutch, and was the origin of its modern name, brandy. The earliest large manufacture of brandy, in fact, was seated in the Low Countries and Germany. At the close of the seventeenth and the commencement of the eighteenth centuries Strasburg and Nantes were celebrated for this manufacture, at least, it was from those two cities that the best brandies were brought to England.

In Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Sir Toby Belch talks of brandy as a favourite drink with midwives; and from that time forwards we may trace among female society in all ranks a gentle leaning towards the exhilarating

conceal the true character of the liquor they were drinking under disguises, and an immense quantity of brandy was consumed indirectly in making what were usually termed "cordial waters," because they were supposed to be taken for medicinal purposes, though some people were plain enough to call them strong waters. It must be remembered that one of the greatest accomplishments of the lady of the house in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was skill in the art of distilling, and that every well-ordered household of any respectability possessed its alembic or still, until the exciseman came to suppress the practice. In that curious book for the illustration of social manners, the "Ladies' Dictionary," published by John Dunton, the bookseller, at the close of the seventeenth century, we are told, under the head of "Distillation," that "Every young gentlewoman "is to be furnish'd with very good stills, "for the distillations of all kinds of "waters-which stills must be either of "tin, or sweet earth; and in them she "shall distil all manner of waters meet "for the health of her household." The essential of these waters always consisted of brandy; but it was disguised and flavoured by a great variety of ingredients, consisting, however, chiefly of herbs. We know tolerably well the composition of most of these cordials, from the receipts for making them, which were soon collected and printed in small books-a continuous series of which exist, beginning with the sixteenth century. These books appear under rather quaint names. One of the earliest I know, printed in 1595, is entitled, "The Widdowes Treasure." The “ waters it contains are called by Latin names rosa solis, aqua composita, and aqua rosa solis. The title of another similar book, printed in the year following, is "The Good Huswifes Jewell," and its cordials are, rosemary water, water imperiall, cinnamon water, Dr. Stephens's water, aqua composita, and water of life-this latter stated to be a great cordial, good especially "for to

THE two agents which have perhaps exerted the greatest influence on the social condition of man are printing and alcohol, both of which were unknown to the ancients. To whatever extent they may have indulged in other excitements, neither Greeks nor Romans were brandy-drinkers or gin-drinkers; and our mediæval forefathers were obliged to restrict themselves to ale, or mead, or wine, till the impatient curiosity of mediæval science hit upon one of the most notable of modern discoveries. We owe it to those old searchers after hidden principles and hidden powers, the alchemists, who incessantly tried experiment after experiment in pursuit of that quintessence of quintessences and elixir of elixirs, the elixir of life. After almost every imaginable substance had been called into requisition, one day it came into the head of an adventurous investigator to put wine in the alembic; and there came from it a spirit of such extraordinary purity, and which displayed such remarkable qualities, that he rejoiced in the conviction that he had at length reached the object of his vows. The exact date of this event, and the name of the discoverer, are equally unknown, but it is believed to have taken place in the course of the thirteenth century. It was no doubt at first communicated only to a few, and then gradually became known to the many; and all, equally impressed with its importance, believed they saw in it a special intervention of God's providence. They imagined at first that the new agent was destined to be the grand regenerator of mankind, which was supposed to be greatly fallen from its original perfection-that it would free man

firmity, and that it would prolong his life. But no good in this world is without its alloy, and even this fortunate discovery brought with it a cause of alarm. There were those who considered that a novelty so wonderful could betoken nothing less than the near approach of the consummation of all things, the end of this world.

Thus was brandy discovered. At first the alchemists modestly gave it the name, in their technical nomenclature, of aqua vini, water of wine, but this was soon changed to aqua vita, water of life, which expressed better their estimate of its qualities, and which many of them relished all the better, because they imagined ingeniously that it involved a sort of equivoque, or pun, upon aqua vitis, the water of the vine, or of the grape. One of the famous phy

sicians of the middle ages, Arnaldus de Villanova, who is said to have been born about the year 1300, is the earliest writer who mentions aqua vita; and he speaks of it as though it had not then been long known (et jam virtutes ejus notæ sunt apud multos). In a treatise which bears the significant title, De conservanda juventute et retardanda senectute, dedicated to Robert, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Arnaldus speaks of this liquor, which he says was effective in nourishing youth (juventutem nutrit) and in keeping off the approach of old age. "It prolongs life," he says, "and on account of its operation in this "respect, it has merited the name of "aqua vitæ " (prolongat vitam, et ex ejus operatione dici mcruit aqua vita). It was best kept, he adds, in vessels of gold, and could be preserved in no other material except glass. Only one of the anticipations of the old alchemists in

fulfilled-it has produced a vast effect upon social life; but it has certainly neither tended to prolong youth nor to retard old age.

These early alchemists, indeed, do not appear to have foreseen the usage of their newly-discovered spirit as an exciting and intoxicating drink, nor does it appear to have been employed for this purpose to much extent before the sixteenth century. It was considered as a medicinal potion, and, perhaps, in course of time, it began to be taken as a cordial "on the sly." It was probably very expensive, and no doubt a great mystery was made about it; but people who could possess it, and were persuaded that it would preserve youth and keep off old age, would be frequently tempted to take a dose, when they might not in outward appearance be in want of it. The use of aqua vitæ as a drink appears to have increased rapidly during the sixteenth century, until the regular consumption must have become very considerable. It is spoken of as a thing in common use in the plays of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher; and the "aqua-vitæ man," who carried it about for sale, is introduced as a common character. In the comedy of the "Beggar's Bush," by the two last-mentioned dramatists, the aqua-vitæ man calls his merchandize "brand wine," which (meaning simply burnt wine) was the name by which it was known in Dutch, and was the origin of its modern name, brandy. The earliest large manufacture of brandy, in fact, was seated in the Low Countries and Germany. At the close of the seventeenth and the commencement of the eighteenth centuries Strasburg and Nantes were celebrated for this manufacture, at least, it was from those two cities that the best brandies were brought to England.

In Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Sir Toby Belch talks of brandy as a favourite drink with midwives; and from that time forwards we may trace among female society in all ranks a gentle leaning towards the exhilarating

conceal the true character of the liquor they were drinking under disguises, and an immense quantity of brandy was consumed indirectly in making what were usually termed "cordial waters," because they were supposed to be taken for medicinal purposes, though some people were plain enough to call them strong waters. It must be remembered that one of the greatest accomplishments of the lady of the house in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was skill in the art of distilling, and that every well-ordered household of any respectability possessed its alembic or still, until the exciseman came to suppress the practice. In that curious book for the illustration of social manners, the "Ladies' Dictionary," published by John Dunton, the bookseller, at the close of the seventeenth century, we are told, under the head of "Distillation," that "Every young gentlewoman "is to be furnish'd with very good stills, "for the distillations of all kinds of "waters-which stills must be either of

'tin, or sweet earth; and in them she "shall distil all manner of waters meet "for the health of her household." The essential of these waters always consisted of brandy; but it was disguised and flavoured by a great variety of ingredients, consisting, however, chiefly of herbs. We know tolerably well the composition of most of these cordials, from the receipts for making them, which were soon collected and printed in small books-a continuous series of which exist, beginning with the sixteenth century. These books appear under rather quaint names. One of the earliest I know, printed in 1595, is entitled, "The Widdowes Treasure." The "waters it contains are called by Latin names rosa solis, aqua composita, and aqua rosa solis. The title of another similar book, printed in the year following, is "The Good Huswifes Jewell," and its cordials are, rosemary water, water imperiall, cinnamon water, Dr. Stephens's water, aqua composita, and water of life-this latter stated to be a great cordial, good especially "for to

be seen, in these treatises we can trace from date to date the increase in number and variety of these favourite cordials.

These earlier books were merely destined for the use of good housewives, who were their own distillers; but the manufacture and sale of strong waters became soon a public and extensive trade. In 1639, appeared the "Distiller of London," a work put forth by authority by the Distillers' Company. This book contains receipts for no less than thirty-two different waters. A reprint of it, with fuller explanations and directions, but the same title, appeared in 1652. In the more numerous list of waters given in this work, we find aniseed water, "a famous surfeit water" (in which poppies form one of the ingredients), aqua coelestis, horseradish water, aqua imperialis, and snail water. Larger and more full works on the subjects of distilling were published in the earlier part of the last century; among which one of the best was the "Complete Body of Distilling," compiled by George Smith, of Kendal," and printed in 1725, and again in 1738.

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A remarkable characteristic of many of these cordials is the number of ingredients, mostly herbs, which are mixed up to produce one water. There are thus no less than sixty-two ingredients, besides sugar and aqua vitæ (brandy), in the aqua cœlestis of the "Distiller of London" of 1652. In an earlier book, known by the title of "The Ladies Cabinet Opened," and printed in 1639, we have the following receipt :

"A WATER.

"Take a gallon of Gascoigne wine; of ginger, gallingall, sinamon, nutmegs, graines, cloves, mace, annis-seeds, caraway-seed, coriander-seed, fennell-seed, and suger, of every one a dramme; then take of sacke and ale a quart a peece, of cammomill, sage, mint, red roses, time, pellitorie of the wall, wilde majorame, rosemary, wilde time, lavendir, peneroyall, fennell rootes, parsly rootes, and setwall rootes, of each halfe a handfull: Then beate the spice small, and bruise the hearbes, and put them altogether into the wine, and so let it stand sixteene houres, stirring it now and then: Then distill it in a limbecke with a soft fire, and keepe the first pinte of the water by itselfe, for it is the best, and the rest by

Some of these cordial-makers appear to have regarded their "waters" with feelings similar to those of the old alchemists in regard to their aqua vita; and the compiler of this book assures us that the water here described was good against "all cold diseases-it preserveth youth, comforteth the stomacke;" and he adds, "it preserved Dr. Stevens tenne yeares bed-red, that he lived to ninety-eight yeares.' In fact, it was a water which, under the name of Dr. Stephens's water, was popular from the days of Queen Elizabeth until the middle of the last century.

"The Ladies' Directory," by Hanna Wolley, printed in 1662, furnishes us with the following receipt for a water, which is stated to be good to "comfort the spirits :"

ANOTHER CORDIAL-WATER.

wormwood, mugwort, scordian, pimpernel, sca"Take cellondine, sage, coursmary, rue, bious, agrimony, betony, balm, cardus, centory, pennyroyal, elecampane roots, tormentel with the roots, horehound, rosa-solis, marygold flowers, angellico, dragon, margerum, time, camomile, of each two good handfulls; licorice, zeduary, of each an ounce; slice the roots, shred the herbs, and steep them in four quarts of white wine, and let it stand close covered two dayes, then put it in an ordinary still close detted; when you use it, sweeten it with sugar, and warm it."

Here, no doubt, the brandy is, as boys say in construing their Latin, "understood." This is not the case in the following receipt, taken from "The Closet of Rarities," printed in 1706 :

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TO MAKE SURFEIT-WATER.

"Take two gallons of brandy, or good spirit; steep in it the flowers of red poppies a night and a day, then squeeze them out hard into the liquor, and so put fresh ones in till it becomes of a deep red; then put in nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger, of each half an ounce, grosly bruised, and to each quart four ounces of fine sugar; set it in a warm place twenty days, often shaking it; then strain it."