come from the countries where it was a common article of culture : and they could, therefore, the more readily meet the uncongeniality of the soil and climate by their skill and attention.

It would appear that the use of wine was formerly prohibited in those religious establishments, as we find that in the year 738, wine was permitted to the monks of England, by a decree of Bishop Ardan, founder of the monastery of Lindesfern in Northumberland.*

The Isle of Ely is said, from the abundance of its vintage, to have been denominated the isle of vines; and the bishop of which, shortly after the conquest, commonly exacted three or four tuns of wine as the tithe of the vineyard, while a certain quantity was reserved in his leases for rent. But even in that island, which was the most favoured place of its culture, the growth was neither permanent nor valuable; for it appears that in seasons the produce was mere verjuice, shewing clearly that no human skill nor exertions could make the vine flourish in a country to which it was an alien.

At Roganeia, in the hundred of Rochford, a vineyard is said to have consisted of six arpents, and to have yielded, on an average, 20 modii of wine; while we are told that Gloucester excelled all other parts of England, in the abundance and pleasant taste of its grapes, and that the wine was of a superior description, little inferior to the wines of France. Windsor Park was noted for its grapes, part of the produce the king kept to himself, a part was sold for his profit, and the tithe on the whole formed a part of the living of the Abbot of Waltham, parson both of old and new Windsor. Notwithstanding these historic records, it may be asked, if the growth of the vine was natural or flourishing in England, why discontinue it, or send such. sums of money to foreign countries for an article, which might be so cheaply procured at home? The answer is obvious. England is not the country for its cultivation either with respect to soil or climate, and we find that even in the times in which the vine is said to have flourished most, foreign wines were imported very largely, a proof that the home produce was very scanty, and that to prosecute the cultivation of the vine, was neither successful nor profitable. Misled by the specious reports of William of Malmsbury, Bede, Stowe, and others, many in England attempted to cultivate the vine, but without any advantageous effect; and we find in the present day that it thrives best when treated as an exotic in our gardens and greenhouses: England being a country so far north and so exposed to cold and the moisture of the great Western Ocean, that it could not

* Hollinshed's Chron. vol. i. p. 281. Speed's Chron. fol. sec. viii. p. 252.

be expected to be favourable to its culture. This is fully corroborated by the endeavours made some years since to establish vineyards in the Isle of Wight, but those efforts completely failed in consequence of the causes just mentioned.

There are, however, instances in England of the vine growing to great perfection, such as that planted in 1758 at St. Valentine in Essex, which has extended to more than 200 feet; and it was known in one year to yield 2,000 bunches of ripe grapes. The vine at Hampton palace, planted in 1769, has a stem 13 inches in circumference, with branches 14 feet long. It has produced in one year upwards of 2,000 bunches of grapes, the average weight of each bunch being a pound.*

The Romans who remained so long masters of England, and to whom wine was so familiar, must have made their British vassals acquainted with this grateful liquor; and the Saxon invaders, their immediate successors, do not appear to have diminished the prevailing taste for this luxury. Hence we find that a feast given by Hengist, about the year 450 to Vortigern, the British king, after the completion of Hide castle, that Rowena, the beautiful daughter of the Saxon chief, is represented with a golden goblet filled with wine, drinking to the health of the monarch; and this is regarded as the first instance on record of drinking healths in Britain. When the practice of drinking healths first commenced, cannot be determined, but the earliest Persian records afford many instances of it. In that country it was fashionable to drink the health of the reigning monarch in bumpers of Zabul wine, and afterwards to kiss the ground in token of respect and submission. Among the Jews, drinking healths implied either a blessing or a curse, according as good or evil was desired for the individual toasted. In the time of Homer, the practice of pledging in drinking was customary; and from the Greeks, the Romans borrowed that ceremony. At the feasts and social meetings of both the Greeks and Romans,it was a common practice to toast the healths of their respective friends, in as many cyathi or goblets as there were letters in the name of the individual mentioned thus six cups were usually drunk during the reign of Augus tus Cæsar, answering to the number of letters in his name, by the way of paying him divine honors. At these feasts, it was also frequent to drink to the honour of the gods and goddesses, and it has

On the coast of Barbary, vines have been found with stems of 8 or 9 feet in girth; and in Italy, vines have continued productive for 300 years. Pliny mentions one of continued bearing for 600 years.

been reported that six hundred glasses have been quaffed on one of these occasions by a single individual. The glasses, however, could not have been more capacious than thimbles, while the time for consumption must have been very lengthened. Roman antiquarians state, that a person was appointed at every public feast or entertainment, to regulate the toasts and the quantity of the liquor to be drunk. This person was chosen by a throw of dice, and denominated Arbiter Bibendi, decider of drinking; and after first pouring out a libation to the gods, the guests saluted each other with the words bene mihi, my own health; or bene vobis, your health, or some such similar convivial sentiment.

Among these assemblies, each guest was obliged to keep the round or leave the company; hence the proverb "drink and begone." To this Horace refers, but gives more license :—

From the Olympic songs of Pindar, we learn that an opulent father used to pledge, in the midst of his relations and friends, the youth on whom he had fixed for his son-in-law, as a public announcement of his sanction.†

From all this it is reasonable to think, that the practice of drinking healths was first introduced into England by the Romans, and not by the Saxons, who were more a savage than a polished people, little accustomed to the luxuries or refinements of civilized nations. Some suppose that the drinking of healths in Britain was of Scandinavian origin, and draw the conclusion from the writings of Snorro Sturluson, who, when speaking of the practices at the feasts of their gods, and even after the introduction of Christianity, says it was customary to drink the health of Christ, St. Michael, and other saints, in the place of Odin, Niord, and Frey, the early objects of their national idolatry. This practice of the Scandinavians may be easily traced to the Greeks, by whom three cups were always taken at their meals; the first dedicated to Mercury, the second to the Graces, and

* Horat. Sat. Lib. ii. s. vi. v. 67.

† Pind. Olymp. 7.

Henderson's Iceland, vol. ii. p. 67.

the third to Jupiter. Besides these, they drank healths to all their tutelary deities; to Mercury, the god of sleep, on going to bed, in order to have pleasant dreams; to Jupiter, as their great preserver; and to the other gods in their respective superintendencies. The Greek Scholiasts affirm, that in taking a cup or glass, it was customary to name a friend, and having drunk his health, to pour a portion of the liquor on the ground, repeating his name a second time in token of high regard. Apuleius tells us that drink was taken not only in remembrance of the dead, but more particularly in honor of fellow-soldiers, whose memories were toasted out of golden cups in honor of their valorous actions-hence perhaps the origin of the modern custom of drinking in solemn silence to the memory of an exalted or venerable character. A drink called wassail, a word compounded of waes, wishing, and hael, health, implying the wish of good health, seems to convey an idea of the origin of this practice, which was once very common in England. At Christmas, it was customary for young persons to go about with a large bowl of liquor, drinking healths. This beverage was a preparation of ale, made by the admixture of spices, apples, sugar, and other ingredients, and denominated wassail, while those who served it were called wassailers, which at length became the common appellation for topers and drunkards. Thus Shakspeare

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,

Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels."

Baily says, this drink was customary among the monks of St. Albans, and usually placed before the abbots, to drink the health of their fraternity.

It appears from the most authentic accounts of the earliest settlement of the Saxons in Britain, that wine was familiar among them, yet it was not used with profusion. A great bowl of wine from which the obba, or big-bellied jugs of the monks, were filled twice a day, for their dinner and supper, was all that Ethelwold allowed to the entire inmates of his monastery; and at festivals, a sextarium of mead was the quantity distributed among six of the brethren at dinner, and among twelve at supper. On certain occasions, such as one of the great high feasts of the year, a measure of wine was allowed. The favourite drinks of these people were ale and mead; and in the well-known dialogues preserved in the Cotton library in the British Museum, and quoted by Turner, in his history of the AngloSaxons, where a youth is questioned as to what he drank, he replied, "ale if I have it, or water if I have it not. I am not so rich that I can buy me wine, and wine is not the drink of children but of the

elders and the wise." Of ale, indeed, there were at that time three sorts, but these were merely modifications of the same beverage. Pigment, morat, and cider were in use. The first of these liquors was sweet and odoriferous, being made of honey, wine, and spices of various kinds; while the second was made of honey diluted with the juice of mulberries; and the third was prepared from such fruits as the country afforded. It was customary, however, to use pure wine without any mixture of spices, but to serve the spices on a plate by themselves, which were taken after the wine as a stomachic.* The pigment, or pimint, as it was called, was rather a medicinal preparation of the wine, made and sold by the apothecaries who were styled pigmentarii, from which it took its name. During these times, it would appear to have been a custom among the Saxons that when dinner was over, and the dishes removed, they continued drinking till the evening.† Wine was used, and the stronger it was, the more it was desired. In old times, the best was called Theologicum, because it was obtained from the clergy and religious men, to whose houses many of the laity would often send for bottles, being sure that they should not be served with the worst sort, as the vintners would have thought that their souls would go to the devil if they served the elergy with any but the best.

At entertainments among the Britons, the gentry sat in the centre of the hall around a table, behind whom the attendants, or guards, formed another circle. When dinner was over, the principal person called for a cup of ale and pledged the guest on his right; the same cup filled to the brim was drunk by each person in succession, the attendants at the same time regaling themselves behind. Women were admitted and highly honoured on those occasions; but they always retired before intemperance commenced. In the reign of Edgar, drinking was so prevalent, and carried to such excess, that a law was enacted that no man should drink beyond certain nicks or marks made in the pots and sometimes pins for the purpose of limiting the potation :‡ hence the phrase, that when an individual had become jolly, he was said to be in a merry pin, having the limits assigned to temperance; and we are told that a whole company drank out of a single vessel handed from one to another, such being the practice of those times.§ Pledging each other in drinking was another

Mill's Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. p. 169, note.

† Turner's Hist. Ang. Saxons, vol. ii. chap. iv. p. 51, &c.

Basil Kennet's Hist. England, vol. iv. p. 91.

§ William of Malmsbury, B. ii. p. 31.