Part 3

“Full oft have promis’d, with beer drunken, Over _the_ ale cup, sons of conflict, that they in _the_ beer-hall would await Grendel’s warfare with terrors of edges: then was this mead-hall, at morning tide, _this_ princely court, stain’d with gore; when _the_ day dawn’d, all _the_ bench-floor with blood bestream’d, _the_ hall, with horrid gore; of faithful _followers_ I own’d the less, of dear nobles, who then death destroyed. Sit now to _the_ feast, and unbind with mead _thy_ valiant breast with _my_ warriors as thy mind may excite. Then was for _the_ sons of _the_ Goths altogether in _the_ beer hall a bench clear’d; there the strong of soul went to sit tumultuously rejoicing: the thane observ’d _his_ duty, who in _his_ hand bare the ornamented ale-cup, _he_ pour’d _the_ bright, sweet _liquor_: the gleeman sang at times serene in Heorot: there was joy of warriors, no few nobles of Danes and Weders.”

In Dugdale’s _Monasticon_ (ed. 1682, p. 126), in a Charter of Offa to the Monastery of Westbury, three sorts of ale are mentioned. Two tuns full of hlutres aloth (_Clear ale_), a cumb full of lithes aloth (mild ale), and a cumb full of Welisces aloth (Welsh ale), which is again mentioned as _cervisia Walliæ_.

But though beer and ale were the drinks of the common folk, yet they were not despised by their leaders.

[9]“At times before _the_ nobles Hrothgar’s daughter to _the_ earls in order _the_ ale cup bore.”

We see the social difference between ale and wine drinkers in one of the Cotton MSS. (_Tib._ A. 3), where a lad having been asked what he drank replied: “Ale, if I have it; Water, if I have it not.” Asked why he does not drink wine, he says: “I am not so rich that I can buy me wine; and wine is not the drink of children or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise.”

The English at that time grew the Vine for wine-making purposes; indeed, very good wine can now be, and is, made from English grapes. Every monastery had its vineyard, and to this day London has six Vine Streets and one Vineyard Walk. The wine-hall seems to have been a different apartment to either the mead or ale-halls, and of a superior order.

[10]“_The_ company all arose; greeted then _one_ man another Hrothgar Beowulf, and bade him hail, gave _him_ command of _the_ wine-hall.” ...[11] “_He_ strode under _the_ clouds, until he _the_ wine-house, _the_ golden hall of men, most readily perceiv’d, richly variegated.”

The mead-hall seems to have answered the purpose of a common hall, as we see by the following. Speaking of Hrothgar, the poet says:—

[12]“_It_ ran through his mind that _he a_ hall-house would command, _a_ great mead-house, men to make, which the sons of men should ever hear of; and there within all distribute to young and old, as to him God had given, except _the_ people’s share, and the lives of men. Then I heard _that_ widely _the_ work _was_ proclaim’d to many _a_ tribe through this mid-earth that _a_ public place was building.”

Mead was considered a glorified liquor fit for MEN and is thus sung of by the bard Taliesin:—

“That Maelgwn of Mona be inspired with mead and cheer us with it, From the mead-horn’s foaming, pure, and shining liquor, Which the bees provide, but do not enjoy; Mead distilled, I praise; its eulogy is everywhere Precious to the creature whom the earth maintains. God made it to man for his happiness, The fierce and the mute both enjoy it.”

Mead was made from honey and water, fermented, and in many languages its name has a striking similarity. In Greek, honey is _methu_, in Sanskrit, _madhu_, and the drink made therefrom in Danish, is _miod_, in Anglo-Saxon, _medu_, in Welsh, _medd_, whence metheglyn—_medd_, mead, and _llyn_, liquor. In _Beowulf_ we frequently find mention of the _mead-horns_, and we see it vividly portrayed in the heading of this chapter, which is taken from the Bayeux Tapestry. These horns were generally those of oxen, although some were made of ivory, and were probably used because fictile ware was so easily broken in those drinking bouts in which they so frequently indulged. Another reason was doubtless that they promoted conviviality, for, like the classical _Rhyton_, they could not be set down like a bowl, but must either be nursed, or their contents quaffed.

Many examples of drinking horns remain to us, and illustrations of two are here given: one that of Ulph, belonging to, and now kept at, York Minster, and the other the Pusey horn. These are veritable _drinking horns_; but there are many other tenure horns in existence, which are hunting horns.

This horn is an old tenure horn. It was once the custom, when making a gift of land, instead of making out a deed of gift, to present some article of personal use, such as a knife, a drinking or hunting horn, and with it the manor or land, the recipient keeping the present, as a proof that the land was given him. This Pusey horn is said to have been given by King Knut to William Pewse, and on the silver-gilt band, to which are appended dog’s legs and feet, is inscribed in Gothic letters—

“Kyng Knowde geve Wyllyam Pewse This horne to holde by thy lond.”

It is an ox horn, dark brown, and is 25½ inches long, having a silver-gilt rim, and at the small end a hound’s head, also of silver-gilt, which unscrews, thus enabling it to be used either as a drinking or hunting horn.

Ulph’s horn is considered of somewhat later date, and is of ivory.

Of this horn Dugdale[13] says: “About this time also, Ulphe, the son of Thorald, who ruled in the west of Deira,[14] by reason of the difference which was like to rise between his sons, about the sharing of his lands and lordships after his death, resolved to make them all alike; and thereupon, coming to York, with that horn wherewith he was used to drink, filled it with wine, and before the altar of God, and Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, kneeling devoutly, drank the wine, and by that ceremony enfeoffed this church with all his lands and revenues. The figure of which horn, in memory thereof, is cut in stone upon several parts of the choir, but the horn itself, when the Reformation in King Edward the VIth’s time began, and swept away many costly ornaments belonging to this church, was sold to a goldsmith, who took away from it those tippings of gold wherewith it was adorned, and the gold chain affixed thereto; since which, the horn itself, being cut in ivory in an eight square form, came to the hands of Thomas, late Lord Fairfax.”

He, dying in 1671, it came into the possession of his next relation, Henry, Lord Fairfax, who restored its ornaments in silver-gilt, and restored it to the cathedral authorities. It bears the following inscription:—

“CORNV HOC, VLPHVS IN OCCIDENTALI PARTE DEIRÆ PRINCEPS, VNA CUM OMNIBVS TERRIS ET REDDITIBVS SUIS OLIM DONAVIT. AMISSVM VEL ABREPTVM. HENRICVS DOM. FAIRFAX DEMVM RESTITVIT. DEC. ET CAPIT. DE NOVO ORNAVIT. A.D. MDC. LXXV.”

Most of us know Longfellow’s poem of King Witlaf’s drinking horn, a story which may be found in Ingulphus, who says that Witlaf, King of Mercia, who lived in the reign of Egbert, gave to the Abbey of Croyland the horn used at his own table, for the elder monks of the house to drink out of it on festivals and saints’ days, and that when they gave thanks, they might remember the soul of Witlaf the donor. That they had some horn of the kind is probable, for the same chronicler says that when the monastery was almost destroyed by fire, this horn was saved.

Besides the liquors above mentioned, the Anglo-Saxons had others, as we see in a passage of Henry of Huntingdon (lib. vi.), which is probably an invention, the same story being told by Florence of Worcester, of Caradoc, the son of Griffith, A.D. 1065. However, he says that in 1063, in the king’s palace at Winchester, Tosti seized his brother Harold by the hair, in the royal presence, and while he was serving the king with wine; for it had been a source of envy and hatred that the king showed a higher regard for Harold, though Tosti was the elder brother. Wherefore, in a sudden paroxysm of passion, he could not refrain from this attack on his brother.

Tosti departed from the king and his brother in great anger, and went to Hereford, where Harold had purveyed large supplies for the royal use. There he butchered all his brother’s servants, and inclosed a head and an arm in each of the vessels containing wine, mead, ale, pigment,[15] morat,[16] and cider, sending a message to the king that when he came to his farm he would find plenty of salt meat, and that he would bring more with him. For this horrible crime the king commanded him to be banished and outlawed.

There is no doubt but that the Anglo-Saxons drank to excess, and thought no shame of it. Many times in Beowulf are we told of their being dragged from the mead-benches by their enemies and slaughtered, and in a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon poem on Judith we read:—

“Then was Holofernes Enchanted with the wine of men: In the hall of the guests He laughed and shouted, He roared and dinn’d, That the children of men might hear afar, How the sturdy one Stormed and clamoured, Animated and elate with wine He admonished amply Those sitting on the bench That they should bear it well. So was the wicked one all day, The lord and his men, Drunk with wine; The stern dispenser of wealth; Till that they swimming lay Over drunk. All his nobility As they were death slain, Their property poured about. So commanded the lord of men, To fill to those sitting at the feast, Till the dark night Approached the children of men.”

Even the clergy and monks drank probably more than was good for them, for a priest was forbidden by law to eat or drink at places where ale was sold. But that did not prevent their drinking at home; their benefactors provided well for that, as one instance will show. Ethelwold allowed the Monastery of Abingdon a great bowl, from which the drinking vessels of the brothers were filled twice a day. At Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Nativity and Assumption of the Virgin, on the festivals of Saints Peter and Paul, and all the other saints, they were to have wine, as well as mead, twice a day; and taking the number of Saints in the Anglo-Saxon Calendar, it must have gone hard with them, if this was not almost an every-day occurrence.

The Northern nations did not lose their love of drink as time rolled on, as we may find in the pages of Olaus Magnus. They drank wine, but owing to the extreme cold it was not of native production, but imported. In this illustration we see the vessel that has brought it, and the bush outside, denoting that it was to be sold. They got it from Spain, Italy, France, and Germany, but he says that the wine most in repute was a Spanish wine called Bastard, which Shakspeare mentions more than once, as (1 _Henry IV._ act ii. sc. 4) Prince Henry relating his adventures with a drawer, says, “Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of Bastard in the Half Moon.”

He gives receipts for making Hydromel, or Mead, which was to be made of one part honey, and four of boiling water, to be well stirred, boiled, and skimmed. Hops were then to be added, then casked, and brewers’ yeast added. Then to be strained, and it was fit for drinking in eight days. He tells a pathetic story of King Hunding, who being sorely grieved at the loss of his brother-in-law, Gutthorm, called all his nobility around him to a great feast, and had a large tun, filled with hydromel, placed in the middle of the hall. When his guests were sufficiently inebriated, he threw himself into the liquor, and died sweetly.

Beer had they, made of malt and hops, and he gives various methods of brewing, and also a list of divers beers and their medicinal qualities.

He also gives an illustration of various drinking vessels then (16th cent.) in use among the Danes and Swedes, where is here reproduced. Here we see some plain, others ornamental with runes, and some with very curious handles. He says they were mostly of brass, copper, or iron, because in that cold climate the liquor they held had to be warmed over the fire.

An old translation of a portion of his _Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus_ gives the following account “Of the manner of drinking amongst the Northern People.”

“It will not displease curious Readers to hear how the custom is of drinking amongst the Northern People. First, they hold it Religion to drink the healths of Kings and Princes, standing, in reverence of them; and here they will, as it were, sweat in the contention, who shall at one or two, or more draughts, drink off a huge bowl. Wherefore they seem to sit at Table as if they had Crowns on their heads, and to drink in a certain kind of vessel; which, it may be, may cause men that know it not, to admire it. But that were more admirable to see the servants go in a long train, in troops, as Pastours of Harts with horns, that they may drink up those Cups full of beer to the Ghests. And, not content with these Ceremonies, they will strive to shew their Sobriety, by setting such a high Cup full of Beer upon their naked heads, and dance and turn round with it; in like manner they deliver other Cups which they bring in both hands to the Ghests to drink off, at equall draughts, which are full of Wine, Ale, Mede, Metheglin, or new Wine.”

He winds up with a moral dissertation on the punishment of drinkers, and, after detailing the various effects of alcohol on different races, as rendering the Gaul petulant, the German quarrelsome, the Goth obstreperous, and the Finn lachrymose, he suggests that drunkards should be seated on a sharp wedge, compelled to drink a mighty horn of beer, and then be hauled up and down by a rope.

J. A.

WINES.

Definition—Various Meanings of Wine—Alcohol—Varieties of Wine—Miller—Professor Mulder—Origin of Wine—Brook of Eshcol—Strabo and Reland—Francatelli’s Order of Wines—Classification of M. Batalhai Reis.

In the matter of wine, as in that of beer, it is perhaps as well to commence with a dictionary description or definition. Ogilvie declares it to be the “fermented juice of the grape, or fruit of the vine.” It is, however, also the juice of certain fruits, prepared in imitation of wine obtained from grapes, but distinguished by naming the source whence it is derived, as currant wine, gooseberry wine, etc.; and a third meaning of wine—a meaning with which we have happily little to do—is the effect of drinking wine in excess, or intoxication.[17]

Wines are practically distinguished by their colour, flavour, stillness or effervescence, and what is known as hardness or softness. The differences in quality depend on the vines, the soils, the exposure of the vineyards, the treatment of the grapes, and the mode of manufacture. The alcohol[18] contained is the leading characteristic. In strong ports and sherries this varies from about 16 to 25 per cent. It is about 7 per cent. in claret, hock, and other so-called light wines. Wine containing about 13 per cent. of alcohol may be assumed to be _fortified_, as it is called, with brandy or other spirit.

The varieties of wine produced are said to be “almost endless.” This great number of wines is in some measure owing to an interesting fact mentioned by Miller in his _Organic Chemistry_ (3rd ed. p. 187), who tells us that a particular variety of grape, when grown upon the Rhine, furnishes a species of hock; the same grape, when raised in the valley of the Tagus, yields Bucellas, in which the palate of a connoisseur may possibly detect the flavour of hock; whilst in the island of Madeira the same grape produces the wine known as _Sercial_, which, though generally allowed to be a delicious wine, has suggested, it seems, to no skilled palate the flavour either of Bucellas or of hock.

It would therefore be more logical to commence an article on wines with an article on the grapes from which they are produced, but we fear it would be far less interesting. Of the chemical composition of wine, and of its _uses in health and disease_, on which so many books from the days of old have been already written, we shall, in accordance with our preface, say nothing at all, or very little. Every person who feels himself or herself interested in this latter matter may learn as much as he or she will from the pages of the _Lancet_, while Professor Mulder has probably written enough about the former to satisfy the most anxious student.

The origin of most things is obscure. Treatises have been composed about that of wine. We have no intention of reproducing aught of them in the present work. Let us be content to suppose that wine had its origin, again like most things, somewhere at some time in the East. The date of its introduction into Greece is no more known than that of its introduction into Italy. A traditional credit is due to Saturn, to Noah, and to Bacchus as early wine manufacturers. Certainly in Palestine they had the advantage of fine grapes. On the well-known historic occasion of Moses sending men to search the land of Canaan, in the time of the first ripe fruit, we learn that when they came unto the brook of Eshcol, they cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes and “bare it between two upon a staff.” It has been perhaps somewhat hastily assumed that the fruit was therefore necessarily of a large size. There may have been other reasons for this proceeding than an enormity of weight. But if, as is generally imagined, these grapes were unusually fine and large, wine makers would be clearly benefited thereby. In support of this interpretation of the passage in Numbers, Strabo has declared that some of the grapes in the Holy Land measured two feet in length; and Reland has not hesitated to declare, as if unwilling to be outdone by Strabo, that some bunches are of ten pounds weight.

This prefatory matter could make no pretence to completeness if it omitted an instruction for the service of wines, denoting the order in which they should be drank at the dinner table, which has already been given by an adept. Whether the matter is more admirable, or the style, it is difficult to determine.

“I would recommend,” says Francatelli, “all _bon vivants_ desirous of testing and thoroughly enjoying a variety of delectable wines, without being incommoded by the diversity of those introduced for their learned degustation, to bear in mind that they should be drunk in the following order;” viz., “When it happens that oysters preface the dinner, a glass of Chablis or Sauterne is their most proper accompaniment.”

After soup of any kind, genuine old Madeira, East India Sherry, or Amontillado are recommended as “welcome stomachics.” But you are to avoid, as you value your health, drinking punch after Turtle soup, especially Roman punch. With fish, a large variety of wines, such as Pouilly, Meursault, Montrachet, Barsac, and generally all dry white wines, is allowed. With the entrées you are permitted to drink any variety of Bordeaux or Burgundy.

Second course and dessert wines are given at too great a length to admit of reproduction. About these a “question of the highest importance” arises as to which should be preferred. But here Francatelli remembers a fact which might have spared him his vast labour on this service of wines: that “it is difficult, not to say impossible, to lay down rules for the guidance of the palate.” The sanguine person, we are told, will prefer the _genuine_ Champagne; the phlegmatic, Sherry or Madeira. The splenetic and melancholy man will be prone to select Roussillon and Burgundy. The bilious will imbibe Bordeaux. In few words, “Burgundy is aphrodisiac, Champagne is captious, Roussillon restorative, and Bordeaux stomachic.” By careful attention to the foregoing remarks, the reader will happily be preserved from any serious mistake in the matter of his dinner. But other meals must also be taken into consideration, about which Francatelli preserves a Sibylline and mysterious silence. For instance, luncheon. We learn, however, from another source that there are luncheon sherries and dessert sherries. With lunch the brown, rich, and full-bodied Raro may be suitably drunk; but the pale Solera and the soft yet nutty Oloroso should make their appearance at dessert alone.

M. Batalhai Reis, Consul for Portugal at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a report on the wine trade of England, has troubled himself thus in the interests of posterity to classify the wines of the world.

CLASS I.—TABLE WINES.

Alcohol and sugar imperceptible. Taste acid and astringent.

Division A. Red.

Group 1. _Acid._ Examples: Inferior Bordeaux and Burgundies, Wines from North of Portugal.

Group 2. _Astringent._ Examples: Superior Bordeaux and Burgundies, Collares from Portugal.

Division B. White.

Group 1. Simple Flavour. Example: Rhine Wines.

Group 2. Complex Flavour. Example: Bucellas of Portugal.

CLASS II.—TRANSITION WINES.

Alcohol and sugar perceptible. Taste astringent. Flavour complex.

Division A. Red. Examples: Many Spanish and Portuguese wines.

Division B. White. Examples: Many Spanish and Portuguese wines.

CLASS III.—GENEROUS WINES.

1st Family. Madeira type. Wines of the Canaries, Azores, Lisbon; Carcanellas, Sherry, Marsala, and Cyprian wines.

2nd Family. Port type.

3rd Family. Tokay, Malaga.

4th Family. Château Yquem, Johannisberg, Steinberg.

CLASS IV.—SPARKLING WINES.

Group A. Natural.

Group B. Artificial.

This division of the wines of the world is presented to the reader as a literary curiosity. It is at once simple and scientific. In a word, no book on wines can be considered complete without it. In the succeeding pages Wines as Beers are, for convenience of reference, arranged after the alphabetical order of their countries.

AFRICA: Constantias—Rota—Mascara. AMERICA: Catawbas—Muscatel—Chacoli—Mosto. AUSTRALIA: Carbinet—Kaludah—Verdeilho—Conatto. CANARIES: Vidueño—Sack. ENGLAND: Home-made Wines.

AFRICA.

Of this country the most important wines of the present are, perhaps, Pontac, Hanepoot, Frontignac, and Drakenstein. On the wines of the Cape of Good Hope, Dr. Edward Kretschmar is a great authority. _Kokwyn_, made from Muscat grapes, resembles Malaga. The best dry white wines, called Cape Hocks, are produced in the village of _Paarl_. The _Constantias_, so called from the wife of the Dutch governor, Van der Stell, are of three kinds. These excellent sweet wines are too frequently falsified and adulterated before reaching the palate of the English consumer. A red wine, called _Rota_, is made at Stellenbosch. Cape Madeira is a boiled and mixed wine. Stein wine is excellent when old. Red Cape, when drunk in the country, is a “sound, good wine,” says Cyrus Redding.[19] The wine of Morocco is chiefly made by the Jews; it is light, acid, and will not keep. In Tetuan a wine is made nearly equal, according to Cyrus Redding, to the Spanish wine of Xeres. Palm wines are, of course, common. The people of Cacongo prepare a wine called _Embeth_, and those of Benin _Pali_ and _Pardon_. The Caffres make a wine called _Pombie_, from millet or Guinea corn.[20] In Congo they drink a wine called _Milaffo_, which will not keep beyond three days.