Note 272 — Chapter XVI · FOOD. (Liquid.)
Reading edition
But, for well-to-do people, wine was the drink, and the variety was nearly as great as in our time. It was a hard-drinking age, and the habit was universal. 'I look'd to have found you with your Head ake and your morning Qualms'[272] must have been a not unusual salutation; but it was not done for the same reason as by those gentlemen mentioned in the Guardian (No. 58), 'who drink vast quantities of ale and October to encourage our manufactures; and another who takes his three bottles of French claret every night because it brings a great custom to the Crown.'