HERB DRINKS AND HOME-MADE WINES 179 



a while and after they are in let it work over the Vessel as 

 little as may be when it has done working. Fill up the cask 

 and put into it five new-laid eggs not broken nor crack'd, 

 stop it close and it will be fit to drink in two years. Ibid. 



To MAKE MEAD. Set three gallons of water on the fire, 

 put in Balm, Lemon, Thyme, Sweet Marjoram, and Rose- 

 mary, let them boil some time, then put in five or six hand- 

 fuls of Borrage and Bugloss, and when they have boiled a 

 little take them off, strain them and set the liquor by to 

 settle for a Night. Then to every gallon of liquor add three 

 Pound of Honey ; put on the Fire, boil and scum as long as 

 any scum rises; then take thirty cloves, two ounces of 

 Nutmegs, and six ounces of Ginger, beat them, put them in 

 a Bag and boil them in the liquor, a little before you take 

 it off the Fire. Then empty it into a vessel, put to it a pint 

 and a half of Ale yeast, lay a sheet over it and a Blanket 

 upon that. Let it work sufficiently, then tun it, hang the 

 Bag of Spice in the Cask, and stop it up close for six or 

 seven weeks ; then bottle it off with some sugar. Ibid. 



To MAKE WHITE MEAD. Put a handful of Thyme, 

 Rosemary, Sweet Briar, Eyebright, Wood Betony, Scabious, 

 Roman Wormwood, Agrimony (of each a like quantity), and 

 steep for twenty-four hours in a Wooden bowl, uncovered, 

 then boil them in another water till it be very high coloured ; 

 then change the water and boil them till it is coloured green, 

 and as long as any green mess remain, then set it by for 

 twenty-four hours more. Then strain the liquor from the 

 Herbs and put a Pound of Honey to every two Quarts of 

 the liquor and when it will bear an egg to three pence 

 breadth above the water work it together till the Honey 

 is all dissolved ; then let it settle for a Night ; the next day 

 boil it with the shells and whites of half a dozen eggs ; then 

 strain it, set it by to cool ; then put it up into the Cask, then 

 bruise cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and put them in a 

 Bag and hang them in the Cask and stop it up. 



If you would have it fit to drink in a little time, beat 

 together the whites of three or four eggs; add to them a 



