The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 99: what you’re looking at

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66 THE STEAM PACKET, with all the good things Margate could produce. The sea-air: had given them all a wonderful appetite; and this circumstance was an apology for every one eating as much as he possibly could. Nor was the liquor spared; and while wings of poultry flew about as if alive, sherry was poured forth with an abundance which would have induced - a simple- minded man to have inferred that it had rained wine in the morning, and that the generous fluid had been caught by pails-full. Even Captain Pentonville himself—head over heels as he was in love with Aramintha and her money—ventured a Latin quotation—/Szne Baccho et Cerere frigit Venus—which he translated for the behoof . of Mr. Rumtutch in the followmg elegant manner :—‘‘ Without bread and cheese and celery Venus isn’t worth a fig;” and Mr. Buckram made himself so generally agreeable, as Lord Noodleton, that his ‘“‘Groves of Blarney”’ were literally as tuneable as if he had been = with a nest of nightingales under his midriff. The ladies retired to partake of tea and coffee in another apartment; and then the gentlemen commenced a little business connected vid the Club. The party sate im luamine—that is, in their capacity of Luminaries—in the same way as the judges, on certain occasions, are said to sit 2x banco. Mr. Buckram (under the style and title of the Earl of Noodleton, of Diddleham Hall, Notown) was duly admitted a member of the Honourable and Independent Order; and he made a most eloquent speech upon the occasion. Other little arrangements were then made, connectéd with the plan of the voyage; and such was the general hilarity and good feeling, that even Messieurs ‘Tiptile and Turnchurch forgot their hostility towards Captain Pentonville, who made three speeches and sang five songs after the business was con- cluded. -In fact, never did joviality seem to prevail amongst the Luminaries more heartily than on this memorable evening. Wit flew about, which was not always caught; toasts were drunk, and presently so were those who pledged them; and unbounded mirth was the order, or rather the disorder of the night. Mr. Pifpaf, overcome by the fatigues of the day (some said the punch), fell asleep; Mr. Rum- tutch was observed, about twelve o’clock, vainly attempting to direct the neck of an empty bottle to the mouth of his wine-glass; Mr. Smale was inveterately pouring out his wine upon a glass which his most generous patron Mr. Buckram had waggishly turned upside ~ down; of Mr. Turnchurch no trace was to be seen save his boots, which had taken the vacant place in their master’s chair; and Mr, Jeremiah Crumplings was with the greatest difficulty in the world prevented by Captain Pentonville from ‘‘ blackimg old Pifpaf’s face with a burnt cork.” GEomicbooks.co