subs. phr. (common).—Gin: see WHITE SATIN.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v.
1832. P. EGAN, Book of Sports, xvii, 268, ‘Oh! For a Glass of Max.’
| When Love turns his back, and old friendships are failing, | |
| And the spirits are sinking therefrom— | |
| The only receipt, that is ne’er unavailing, | |
| Is a jolly stiff glass of ‘OLD TOM.’ |
1837. BULWER-LYTTON, Ernest Maltravers, IV. i.
| OLD TOM, he is the best of gin, | |
| Drink him once, and you’ll drink him agin! |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii. p. 256. Rum he preferred to gin, only it was dearer, but most of the scavengers, he thought, liked OLD TOM (gin) best.
1854. Punch, xxxvii. 75. Mr. Stuggers was promptly thrust into a cell into which five of his companions followed him, and their united consolations, and those of a bottle of the ANCIENT THOMAS Vintage which was speedily produced, restored the Varmint to something of his habitual placidity.
1868. BREWER, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, s.v. OLD TOM. Thomas Norris, one of the men employed in Messrs. Hodges’ distillery, opened a gin palace in Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, and called the gin concocted by Thomas Chamberlain, one of the firm of Hodges, OLD TOM, in compliment to his former master.
1892. SYDNEY WATSON, Wops the Waif, i. 2. And a-slides along from ‘shampain’ to brandy, and from that to OLD TOM.
