This evokes oak paneled rooms in ancient colleges, and the quiet clinking of glasses interspersed with the odd guffaw.

‘A humor as dry as fino sherry.’

See also the quote-mosaic review of Harry Eyres’ splendid book on the charm and continuing relevance of Horace.

Source: Harry Eyres, Horace and Me: Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), p. 91