24 SEPTEMBER 1842, Page 14

"HOT ELDER-WINE."

Ammo other indications of the approaching change of seasons, is what a Scotsman would call "changing the drink on us." Passing the corner of St. Martin's Church, we find that the ginger-beer, cooled by being immersed in water, which was exposed for sale at the stall there stationed, has been superseded by "hot elder-wine." There is something in the autumnal sharpness of the atmosphere that renders this transition fruitful in cosy associations. The liquor is in excellent keeping with the season, and with the hot potatoes exposed for sale in the tin stand, resplendent with brass and ver- milion, 'on, of the female agent (if indeed she be not the whole com- pany itself) of " the royal company" at the top of the Haymarket. Cheap luxuries these for hodmen, cab-drivers, watermen, and crossings-sweepers, whose out-of-doors occupations give them a sense of cold, supply them with appetites, and leave them a mo- ment's leisure at times to gratify them. The unfortunate slaves of "the step "—the conductors, whirled on the incessant round of their periodical machines—the men of "the movement," appear to have no spare moments for enjoyment. The merits of a smok- ing mealy potato are obvious to the meanest apprehension, and "hot elder-wine" is not without its good qualities when mulled with a sufficiency of sugar and spices. We have sipped it our- selves -of an evening, when the conversation was agreeable, and no other liquor at hand. Its very name is suggestive of poetical associations,—" Susannah and the elders" ; the Laird of Cockpen stalking in with his awful proffer of marriage to Miss Jean while engaged in making "the elder-flower wine,' (though the brewage from elder-flowers is decidedly inferior to that of the berry); BURNS'S Dell "rustling through the bourtrees [Scotch for elder] coming, wt' eldritch moan" ; "elder brothers," who snap up the estate to the prejudice of "us youth " •i and elderly lovers for young ladies who can get no others. The list might be extended.