eleven o’clock at night
Madeira , for instance , never can be drunk in perfection anywhere out of the Tropics . You may have the wine as good at home , although I doubt it , but then you have not the climate to drink it in -- I would say the same of most of the delicate French wines -- that is , those that will stand the voyage -- Burgundy of course not included ; but never mind , let us get along . All the decanters were covered with cotton bags , kept wet with saltpetre and water , so that the evaporation carried on powerfully by the stream of air that flowed across the room , through the open doors and windows , made the fluids quite as cool as was desirable to worthies sitting luxuriating with the thermometer at 80 or thereby ; yet , from the free current , I was in no way made aware of this degree of heat by any oppressive sensation ; and I found in the West Indies as well as in the East , although the wind in the latter is more dry and parching , that a current of heated air , if it be moderately dry , even with the thermometer at 95 in the shade , is really not so enervating or oppressive as I have found it in the stagnating atmosphere on the sunny side of Pall Mall , with the mercury barely at 75 . A cargo of ice had a little before this arrived at Kingston , and at first all the inhabitants who could afford it iced every thing , wine , water , cold meats , fruits , and the Lord knows what all , tea , I believe , amongst other things ; -LRB- by the way , I have tried this , and it is a luxury of its kind ;-RRB- but the regular old stagers , who knew what was what , and had a regard for their interiors , soon began to eschew the ice in every way , saving and expecting to cool the water they washed their thin faces and hands in ; so we had no ice , nor did we miss it , but the judge had a plateful of chips on the table before him , one of which he every now and then popped into his long thin bell-glass of claret , diluting it , I should have thought , in rather a heathenish manner ; but n'importe , he worked away , sawing off pieces now and then from the large lump in the blanket , -LRB- to save the tear and wear attending a fracture , -RRB- which was handed to him by his servant , so that by eleven o'clock at night , allowing for the water , he must have concealed his three bottles of pure claret , besides garnishing with a lot of white wines . In fine , we all carried on astonishingly , some good singing was given , a practical joke was tried on now and then by Fyall , and we continued mighty happy . As to the singing part of it , -- the landlord , with a bad voice , and worse ear , opened the rorytory , by volunteering a very extraordinary squeak ; fortunately it was not very long , but it gave him a plea to screw a song out of his right-hand neighbour , who in turn acquired the same right of compelling the person next to him to make a fool of himself ; at last it came to Transom , who , by the by , sung exceedingly well , but he had got more wine than usual , and essayed the coquette a bit . `` Bring the wet nightcap ! ''