Christmas egg-nogging in 1866 Ellicott City

A British barrister, Henry Lantham (c1828-1871) kept a journal during his three month trip around the US in 1866. He spent Christmas Eve in Ellicott Mills, where egg-nogging was common when visiting, and guns were fired every 10 minutes "giving one the idea that the war had not ended yet at Ellicott's Mills." Egg nog was made cold and served cold, made from egg yolks, brandy, cream, milk mixed then topped with whipped egg whites.  Sugar-plums were given.

Humor: Ellicott - - a la cote

In a story from a NY ladies magazine in 1837, a visiting Frenchman forgot the name Ellicott's mills, but remembered that it sounded like the English word for jacket (cote/coat); so in broken English he asked a sailor what his jacket was called. Unfortunately he was at the Ellicott wharf in Baltimore, not the mills - which is why he could not see the mills with the whur, whur, whur of the wheel to grind the floo (flour).  The Frenchman was more than thirteen miles away from the mills.  The arrow shows the location of the early Ellicott wharf at the end of Light Street (north-south) and Pratt Street (west-east) Baltimore.