owned, has taste. What so smart as a cocked hat? and who but sees the advantages of short petticoats, unless it be some squire's awkward daughter, who never yet heard of a Poloneze, and never accidentally shews her leg without blushing?

It is true, their similitude in dress now and then occasions some droll mistakes. In the park the joke has been sometimes carried so far, I have been obliged to call the sentry: and how did a young templar start and stare, when, having just made an appointment with him, he saw me step into a chair adorned with coronets!

If you frequent Ranelagh, you must undoubtedly have seen or heard me there. I am always surrounded with a croud of fellows; and my voice and laugh is sure to be the loudest, especially while Beard is singing. One is my dear lord, another my sweet colonel; and the rest I call Tom, or Dick, or Harry, as I would their footmen. At the play I always enter in the first act. All the eyes of the house are turned upon me. I am quite composed. Before I am settled the act is over; and to some I nod or court'sy, with others I talk and laugh, till the curtain falls.

What would I give to change my sex! Entre nous, I have a strong inclination to see the world in masquerade. If you love me, keep it secret, and should you hear of any prank more wild and buckish than usual, conclude it to be played by me in men's clothes. Your's, as you mind me,

HARRIOT HARE-BRAIN.

No 53. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1755,

Aconita bibuntur.

juv.

Drams are our bane, since poisons lurk within,
And some by cordials fall, and some by gin.

NOTHING is more natural than for the quacks of all professions to recommend their wares to those persons, who are most likely to stand in need of them. Thus Mrs. Giles very properly acquaints the fair sex, that she sells her fine compound for taking off superfluous hairs at a guinea an ounce and ladies of quality are constantly informed, where they may be furnished with the newest brocades, or the choicest variety of Chelsea China figures for deserts. It is very necessary, that the beau monde should be acquainted, that Eau de Luce may be had here in England, the same as at Paris: but I must own, I was very much surprised at seeing repeated advertisements in the papers from the "Rich Cordial Warehouse," introduced by an address "to the people of fashion." I cannot but look upon this as a libel on our persons of distinction, and I know not whether it may not be construed into scandalum magnatum; as it tacitly insinuates, that our Right Honourables are no better than dram-drinkers.

There is a well-known story of the famous Rabelais, that having a mind to impose on the curiosity of his landlord, he filled several vials with an innocent liquor, and directed them with Poison for the King,-Poison for the Dauphin,-Poison for the Prime Minister, and

for all the principal courtiers. The same might be said of these rich cordial liquors; which however they may recommend themselves to the people of fashion by their foreign titles and extraction, are to be considered as poisons in masquerade: and instead of the pompous names of Eau d'Or, Eau divine, and the like, I would have labels fixed on the bottles (in imitation of Rabelais) with-Poison for my Lord Duke,-Poison for the Viscount,-Poison for the Countess.

We live, indeed, in so polite an age, that nothing goes down with us, but what is either imported from France and Italy, or dignified with a foreign appellation. Our dress must be entirely à la mode de Paris: and I will venture to ensure great success to the Monsieur taylor, who tells us in the public papers, that he has just been to France to see the newest fashions. A dinner is not worth eating, if not served up by a French cook; our wines are of the same country; and the dram-drinkers of fashion are invited to comfort their spirits with rich cordials from Chamberry, Neuilly, and l'Isle de Rhè. A plain man must undoubtedly smile at the alluring names, which are given to many of these; nor is it possible to guess at their composition from their titles. The virtues, as well as the intent, of Viper Water may be well known: but who would imagine, that Flora Granater, or Belle de Nuit should be intended only to signify a dram? For my own part I should rather have taken Marasquino for an Italian fiddler, and have concluded that Jacomonoodi was no other than an Opera-singer.

But dram-drinking, however different in the phrase, is the same in practice, in every station of life; and sipping rich cordials is no less detestable, than in the vulgar idiom bunging your eye. What signifies it, whether we muddle with Eau de Millefleurs or plain aniseed? or whether we fetch our drams from the Rich Cordial Warehouse, or the Blackamoor and Still?

The lady of St. James's, who paints her face with frequent applications of Coffee or Chocolate Water, looks as hideous as the trollop of St. Giles's, who has laid on the same colours by repeated half-quarterns of Gin Royal. There are many customs among the great, which are also practised by the lower sort of people: and if persons of fashion must wrap up their drams in the disguise of a variety of specious titles, in this too they are rivalled by the vulgar. Madam Gin has been christened by as many names as a German princess: every petty chandler's shop will sell you Sky-blue, and every night-cellar furnish you with Holland Tape, three yards a penny. Nor can I see the difference between Oil of Venus, Spirit of Adonis, and Parfait Amour, for the use of our quality, and what among the vulgar is called Cupid's Eye-water, Strip me naked, and Lay me down softly.

To these elegant and genteel appellations it is, indeed chiefly owing, that drams are not confined merely to the vulgar, but are in esteem among all ranks of people, and especially among the ladies. Many a good woman, who would start at the very mention of strong waters, cannot conceive there can be any harm in a cordial. And as the fair sex are more particularly subject to a depression of spirits, it is no wonder that they should convert their apothecaries' shops into rich cordial warehouses, and take drams by way of physic; as the common people make gin serve for meat, drink and clothes. The ladies perhaps may not be aware, that every time they have recourse to their Hartshorn or Lavender Drops, to drive away the va pours, they in effect take a dram; and they may be assured, that their Colic, Surfeit, and Plague Waters are to be ranked among spirituous liquors, as well as the common stuff at the gin-shop. The College of Physicians, in their last review of the London Dis. pensatory, for this very reason expelled the Strong

Water, generally known by the soothing name of Hysteric Water; because it was a lure to the female sex to dram it by authority, and to get tipsy secundùm

artem.

If any of my fair readers have at all given into this pernicious practice of dram-drinking, I must intreat them to leave it off betimes, before it has taken such hold of them, as they can never shake off. For the desire of drams steals upon them, and grows to be habitual, by imperceptible degrees: as those who are accustomed to take opiates, are obliged to encrease the dose gradually, and at last cannot sleep without it. The following letter may serve to convince them of the deplorable situation of a lady, who covers her drinking under the pretence of mending her constitution.

SIR,

TO MR. TOWN.

I HAVE the misfortune to be married to a poor sickly creature, who labours under a complication of disorders, and which nothing can relieve but a continued course of strong liquors; though, poor woman! she would not else touch a dram for the world. Sometimes she

is violently troubled with the tooth-ach, and then she is obliged to hold a glass of rum in her mouth, to numb the pain at other times she is seized with a racking fit of the cholic, and nothing will so soon give her ease as some right Holland's gin. She has the gout in her constitution; and whenever she feels a twitch of it, the only thing is sheer brandy to keep it from her head but this is sometimes too cold for her, and she is forced to drive it out of her stomach with true Irish usquebaugh. She is never free from the vapours, notwithstanding she is continually drinking hartshorn and water: and ever since she miscarried, she is so bysterical in the night time, that she never lies with