Leather Bottells: Singing Their Praises
Let's start by joining in the chorus of a 17th-century drinking song:
Then I wish in heaven his soul may dwel,
That first devised the Leather Bottell.
Leather bottells are often (wrongly) called "costrels." Costrels were used mainly by travelers to carry their refreshment with them. But contemporary songs tell a different story:
A Leather Bottell is good,
Far better than Glasses or Cans of Wood,
For when a man is at work in the Field,
Your Glasses and Pots no comfort will yield.
-- c. 1665
A bottell was what a farm laborer drank from, and here it provides a glimpse of the English class system: glasses or wooden tankards were for the middle and upper classes; leather bottells were for laborers -- and laborers were good, just like their bottells.
A 1510 drinking song tells a similar story, but in a pub not in the fields,
Come sing us a merry catch quo' Bob,
Quo Scraper, What's the words?
In praise o' th' Leather Bottell quo' Bob,
For we'll be as merry as lords.
What we're getting here is a picture of a drinking vessel used by the working man in the fields in daytime and in the tavern at night. It was a bottle, not a costrel.
Not many survive today, perhaps because, unlike with blackjacks, there was no way of making the interior leak-proof by coating it with pitch. The dried leather became leaky comparatively early, so leaky bottles were either discarded or were converted to storage by having a hole cut out of one side: today there are probably more with holes in their sides than ones in original condition. As storage vessels, they are usually thought to have been used as salt boxes on the kitchen wall. But a song from the late 17th century lists far more uses than that:
Then when this Bottell it doth grow old,
And will good liquor no longer hold,
Out of the side you may take a clout
Will mend your shooes when they are out.
Else take it and hang it upon a pin
It will serve to put many odd trifle in.
As Hinges, Aules and Candle ends
For young beginners must have such things.
Then I wish in heaven his soul may dwel,
That first devised the Leather Bottell.
One thing's for sure: the working folk of the 17th century really loved their leather bottells -- and so should we!
The songs are all from Oliver Baker, Black Jacks and Leather Bottells (1921), the only book on the subject. For more on blackjacks, see Acorns, April 2017.
Postscript
The Leather Bottle Inn is a charming English pub built in 1629 in Cobham, Kent. It takes its name from a leather bottle discovered there in 1720 that contained gold sovereigns, a considerable upgrade from the candle ends, hinges or salt that we might have expected.
The Inn's other claim to fame was that it was a popular drinking spot for Charles Dickens, who featured it in The Pickwick Papers. It was where the lovelorn Mr. Tracy Tupman drowned his sorrows with Mr. Pickwick after being jilted by his sweetheart Rachel Wardle.