The Virginians claim the merit of having invented this superb compound, but I must dispute it for my own country, although it has been forgotten of late. In the times of Charles the First and Second it must have been known, for Milton expressly refers to it in his Comus:--
"Behold the cordial julep--here Which flames and dances in its crystal bounds With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. Not that Nepenthes, which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena Is of such power to stir up joy like this, To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst ."
If that don't mean mint-julep, I don't know the English language.
The following lines, however, which I found in an American newspaper, dates its origin very far back, even to the period when the heathen gods were not at a discount
