At the beginning of the 18th century, the English were well known for their love of alcohol. One Swiss visitor wrote, “Would you believe it, though water is to be had in abundance in London, and of fairly good quality, absolutely none is drunk? The lower classes, even the paupers, do not know what it is to quench their thirst with water.”1 Though Londoners drank hard, the perception of their drunkenness was mostly red noses and good cheer. But by the 1720s, a new pattern of drinking, associated with gin, had emerged.