Mythology

99 Whatever fancy and superstition may do by way of investing the robin with a glory that does not belong to him, the plain truth is that there is no more impertinent or mischievous thief in the whole tribe of feathers. (7) DRINKING CUSTOMS: TOASTS. When John Smith raises his glass in the saloon bar of The World s End, and proposes the health of his friend, John Jones, he little thinks he is perpetuating a custom which goes back in unbroken succession to the days of the Greeks and Romans. A Roman gallant would drink as many glasses as there were letters in the name of his mistress. Thus Martial: Six cups to Naevia s health go quickly round, And he with seven the fair Justina crowned. The Tatler (vol. i. 24) ventures to account for the origin of the word toast in the following man ner, stating that it had its rise from an accident at Bath in the reign of Charles the Second: It happened that, on a public day, a celebrated beauty of those times was in the Cross Bath, and one of the crowd of her admirers took a glass of the water in which the fair one stood, and drank her health to the company. There was in the place a gay fellow, half fuddled, who offered to jump in, and swore, though he liked not the liquor, he would have the toast. He was opposed in his resolution; yet this whim gave foundation to the present honour which is done to the lady we mention in our liquor, who has ever since been called a toast. This is not con vincing, although it cannot be disproved. But in a book called Checmono

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