Uisge-beatha - "My Stint" - Its Manufacture - Good and Bad -Early Mentions of Whiskey - Materials used in its Manufacture - St. Thorwald - Duncan Forbes and Ferrintosh - Duty on Whiskey - Silent Spirit - Artificial Maturing.

No matter in what country, wherever it was known, alcohol has been hailed as the Water of Life, even in the Gaelic. Uisge-beatha, or, as we term it, whiskey, bears literally that interpretation. This is "the wine of the country," both in Ireland and Scotland, and the quantities drank, without any apparently hurtful effect, is astonishing to a southern Englishman. Northwards, on the border land, it is a question whether more whiskey is not drunk, pro rata, than in Scotland.

Still, even there, every one is not gifted, as was the Irishman spoken of by John Wilson Croker. He tells the story of a lawsuit, in which a life insurance company disputed a claim, on the ground that the death was caused by excessive drinking. One witness for the plaintiff was called, who deposed that, for the last eighteen years of his life, he had been in the nightly habit of imbibing twenty-four tumblers of whiskey punch. The cross-examining counsel wished to know whether he would swear to that, or whether he ever overstepped that limit. The witness replied that he was upon his oath, and would swear no farther; "for I never kept count beyond the two dozen, though there is no saying how many beyond I might drink to make myself comfortable; but that's My stint."

Good whiskey should be made solely from the finest barley malt, and is so made by the largest and best distillers; but the smaller ones, and those who are in a hurry to get rich by any means, use all kinds of refuse grain, and produce a spirit which, if drank new, is neither more nor less than rank poison. The fusel oil, which is present in all distillations from grain, requires time to resolve itself into those delicate ethers, which, while enhancing the flavour and bouquet of the spirit, are harmless, Good whiskey, properly matured, mixed with a sufficient quantity of water, and used in moderation, is a good and a wholesome drink, acting also in lieu of food.

When this life-giving liquor was discovered is uncertain. Edward Campion, in his History of Ireland, 1633, speaking of a famine which happened in 1316, says that it was caused by the soldiers eating flesh and drinking aqua vitae in Lent; and, in another place, he states that a knight, called Savage, who lived in 1350, having prepared an army against the Irish, allowed to every soldier, before he buckled with the enemy, a mighty draught of aqua vitae, wine, or old ale.

Walter Harris, in his Hibernica, 1757, says that in the reign of Henry VIII. it was decreed that there be but one maker of aqua vitae in every borough town, upon pain of 6s. 8d.; and that no wheaten malt go to any Irishman's country, upon pain of forfeiture of the same in value, except only bread, ale, or aqua vitae.

In a little book, Delightes for Ladies, etc., 1602, is. the following recipe for Usquebath, or Irish Aqua Vitce: "To every gallon of good Aqua Composita, put two ounces of chosen liquerice, bruised and cut into small peeces, but first clensed from all his filth, and two ounces of Annis seeds that are cleane and bruised, Let them macerate five or six daies in a wodden Vessel, stopping the same close, and then draw off as much as will runne cleere, dissolving in that cleare Aqua Vitae five or six spoonfuls of the best Malassoes you can get; Spanish cute, if you can get it, is thought better than Malassoes; then put this into another vessell; and after three or foure daies (the more the better), when the liquor hath fined itself, you may use the same; some add Dates and Raisons of the Sun to this receipt: those groundes which remaine, you may redistill, and make more Aqua Composita of them, and of that Aqua Composita you may make more Usque-bath."

The distillation of whiskey in Ireland, on a large scale, is of comparatively modern date, the poteen having been manufactured in illicit stills, in inaccessible and unhandy places. Now, Roe's distillery turns out over two million gallons a year, and Jameson's more than a million and a half. The whiskey made by these firms, that of Sir John Power & Sons, and some others, is distilled from pure malt; but there are many distilleries that send out a spirit made from molasses, beet-root, potatoes, and other things, which cannot possibly be called whiskey, which has brought Irish whiskey somewhat into disrepute, to the great advantage of the Scotch distillers. Again, unmalted grain is used, which gives a practically tasteless spirit, which is almost entirely deficient in the grateful ethers, and is only so much raw alcohol and water, a very different article to that which occasioned the following verses:

"Oh, Whiskey Punch, I love you much, for you're the very thing, To level all distinctions 'twixt a beggar and a king. You lift me up so aisy, and so softly let me down, That the devil a hair I care what I wear, a caubeen or a crown.

"While you're a-coorsin' through my veins I feel mighty pleasant, That I cannot just exactly tell whether I'm a prince or peasant; Maybe I'm one, maybe the other, but that gives me small trouble, By the Powers ! I believe.i'm both on 'em, for I think I'm seem' double."

Scotch whiskey is the same as Irish, and should be similarly made from pure malted barley. No one knows when it was first made; but, until the time of the Pretender, it was hardly known in the Lowlands, being a drink strictly of the Highlanders. There is a tradition of a certain St. Thorwald, whose name may be sought for in vain in the pages of Alban Butler, who had a cell in the side of a hill looking upon the Esk. He is said to have possessed a wonderful elixir, famous for curing all diseases, and, consequently, he was resorted to by pilgrims both far and near. Could it be that he had a whiskey still ? I know not; but to this day a spring on the site of his hermitage helps to supply the Langholm distillery.