Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

94 RHYS LEWIS.
who had arrived before us, were enjoying their pipes. Several
more came in after us, Thomas Bartley greeting every one
upon his entrance -with the same words : "Put something to
your mouth," whereupon the new-arrival would walk straight
to the beer jug, pour out a glass, and cut himself a bit of bread
and cheese. Everyone kept his hat on, and each in turn spoko
of this, that, and the other thing, which had no sort of connection
with Seth's death. Nearly everybody smoked and expectorated
upon the iloor, which was somewhat thickly strewn with white
sand. The jug was many times replenished. The man who
last helped himself placed the glass opposite him who sat on his
left, and turned the handle of the jug in the same direction.
V/hen anyone forgot to do his duty within a reasonable space of
time, someone else, more impatient than his brethren, would cry:
" Whom does the handle point to?" which was a signal for the
man towards whom the handle pointed, either to drink up, or
turn the handle toward his neighbour. This business went
on for an hour and a half or two hours, until here and
there a member of the company had taken about as much as he
could comfortably hold, and had undergone a considerable
change of countenance. I remember, to this day, the tailor,
James Pulford, a little, talkative fellow, with a face that was
ordinarily as pale as death, but which was, on this afternoon, as
rosy as any farm labourer's I ever saw.
A few minutes before we turned out for the churchyard, two
men came in from the next room, with pewter vessels in their
hands, something like those now used for administering the
sacrament, only larger, and with handles ornamented with lemon
peel. One contained what was termed " mulled ale," but
which might have been more j)roperly called "boiling ale;"
and the other " cold ale," both being highly spiced. Directly
these vessels made their appearance, every man took his hat off,
and in the midst of a silence like the grave's, the cup-bearers
went around, serving out both kinds of drink in exactly the same
manner, and with almost exactly the same seriousness, as we
administer the Lord's Supper. What it all meant I did not, and
do not, to this day, know. This ceremony gone through, all
put on their hats again, and resumed the conversation. Shortly
afterwards, David the Carpenter took a plate round, the men con-