"born out of necessity"

Link

Mineral Waters

Here's an advertisement I found in the front of The Useful Family Herbal by John Hill, M.D., printed in 1770. Mineral Waters! If you're interested in any of these esoteric waters, you can read a contemporary account, The Methodical Synopsis Of Mineral Waters, by John Rutty, M.D. You can also read "Dr. Russel's Dissertation on the Use of the Sea-Water, with Dr. Speed's Commentary" that's mentioned in the ad. A few of the waters are still bottled and sold.

Interestingly, William Owen, bookseller and mineral water salesman, was also the publisher of Mr Hill's book in which this advertisement appears. This is the only time I can recall a publisher of that era advertising his side business in one of his own publications.

Further research into William Owen reveals that he was charged with libel against the House of Commons and the King's Bench in 1752, for printing a pamphlet which the attorney-general called "wicked, false, scandalous, seditious, and malicious libel".

An account of two trials, including William Owen's trial, was published in 1765 by J. Almon. The Owen section of the pamphlet begins with this:

and to what, you may ask, does that asterisk refer? To this, at the bottom of the page:

 Well played. A toast, to Mr William Owen, with the mineral water of your choice.

To make Catchup to keep twenty Years

A scan of the title page of my late copy
of The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse

In the comments about my previous post, Secret Ingredient: Anchovies, there was interest in Hannah Glasse's recipe for "Catchup to keep twenty Years". I used to be the proud owner of a 1778 copy of Glasse's book The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, but difficult times forced me to sell it earlier this year. Not to worry, as another edition of it is available for free, courtesy of Google.

The Art of Cookery, written by Glasse in 1747, was a huge success and became the standard reference cookbook in England and in the American colonies in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Because the book was published in earlier editions as simply "By a Lady", Hannah Glasse was assumed for many years to be a pseudonym. Her biography was not researched and her authorship of the book was not confirmed until the early 20th century.