HERE’S A HEALTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4740, 20 August 1924, Page 2

HERE’S A HEALTH.

DRINKING OF TOASTS. HOW IT ORIGINATED IN ENGLAND. Drinking to a man’s good health began m- England as far back a$ the vanish invasion, when it was customary with the Danes whilst an Englishman was drinking tp take the oppor- * i.iii.ly oi slabbing him. To guara against this Danish treachery the English entered into a combination to be mutual pledges of security to each other while drinking. When, therefore, an Englishman of that period drank to his friend, his tacit language was, “Sir, I fear that some malicious Dane will stab me or cut my throat whilst I am drinking, I beg the favour of you to watch carefully, that I may drink, in safety.” To which his friend was supposed to answer, “Sir, I will pledge you and be your surety.” He then replied, "I am much obliged, to you. Sir, your health, that you may live.till I have done drinking, and save me from his wicked intentions.” There is some doubt as to how" the word ’Toast” came to be used as implying complimentary drinking, but it is probably derived from the piece of toast which used tp be put into the Loving Cup to add piquancy to the draught; a custom still known at our universities. - - For the piece of toast was after-1 wards substituted the name of a lady to whose welfare the company were invited to drink, and who thus became the toast, or savour of the wine. , Tn that age of -gallantry, the time of King Charles 11., it Was the custom when a gentleman drank a lady’s health to throw" some part of his dress to the flames, in order to do her still greater honour. And his companions were obliged to follow him in this proof, of veneration by commiting to the flames a similar article of apparel, whatever it might be. The term “toast” has, however, in course of time, developed from a particula, into a general sense, and now-a-days there is no limit to the numberor variety of different toasts which may be given when men. drink together. At any formal gathering the first toast to be drunk is, of course, “The King” : this loyal toast was not always drunk so loyally, some two hundred years ago, when supporters of the Stuarts ’would secretly drink to “the King across the water.” Macaulay tells us how the Jocohites,-in the time of Will’am ITT . had a way of drinking treasonable healths by limping about the room with glasses rate-' 1 ed to their lips. Limp meaning: L Louis the Fourteenth. I James. M Mary of Medena. P Frince of Wales. The present-day custom of touching glasses prigniated when Prince Charles fled to France, after the failure of his expedition in 1745. His supporters, if obliged in society to drink the King’s health, tacitly understood that they drank not to King George, but to “the King over the water.’’ and they expressed their real toaist symbolically. One glass would he passed over another, and later on the foot of one glass w’as touched against the rim of another. Another method of secretly drinking this romantic toast was to hold the wine-glass over the finger-bowl containing water, and to this secret sign is said to be due the curious custom in connection with royal visitors, before whom alone finger-bowls are placed on the dinner table.