The Curse Upon Mitre Square — page 56: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

48 THE CURSE UPON MITRE SQUARE. once a year, in return for services Railton rendered them in their own part of the town. It may seem strange that they should travel to what was, even in those days, an unfashionable district ; but Railton was a man of weight, a famous cook, a maker of sood punch; a man the gallants liked to please, and secure for their own costly entertainments. Besides - which, Railton was a man of wit, and always prepared some amusement for his guests. ‘Their jaded palates liked his rich cheer, their worn-out sense of fun was tickled with his sparkling wit ; they enjoyed their day, and came again when asked. These were days of hard drinking; not in the sense in which this degenerate nineteenth century understands the term. Drinking was then an art, confined principally to the rich. Drink did not claim its thousand gutter-victims, as at present. The poor got drunk, of course, but not to the same extent as Now. The gentlemen of those days were careful as to the quality of the wine they drank, but not the quantity ; they vowed a man ill-bred who did not take his share. But just as they would not cross swords with a man of blood inferior to their own, and regarded duelling as a pastime only of the ‘gentle,’ so also did they consider drunkenness a privilege peculiar to themselves. hey sent their servants to the lock-up for a tipsy peccadillo, they drew long pious faces at the luxury of monks, and fell beneath their tables every day, which became them as true gentlemen. Eomicbooks.co mn