CENTURY IX. 



bisond there was honey issuing from the box-trees 

 which made men mad. Again, in ancient time there 

 was a kind of honey, which either of its own nature, 

 or by art, would grow as hard as sugar, and was not 

 so luscious as ours. They had also a wine of honey, 

 which they made thus. They crushed the honey 

 into a great quantity of water, and then strained the 

 liquor : after they boiled it in a copper to the half; 

 then they poured it into earthen vessels for a small 

 time, and after turned it into vessels of wood, and 

 kept it for many years. They have also at this day, 

 in Russia and those northern countries, mead simple, 

 which, well made and seasoned, is a good wholesome 

 drink, and very clear. They use also in Wales a 

 compound drink of mead, with herbs and spices. 

 But meanwhile it were good, in recompense of that 

 we have lost in honey, there were brought in use a 

 sugar-mead, for so we may call it, though without 

 any mixture at all of honey, and to brew it, and 

 keep it stale, as they use mead : for certainly, though 

 it would not be so abstersive, and opening, and solu- 

 tive a drink as mead ; yet it will be more grateful to 

 the stomach, and more lenitive, and fit to be used in 

 sharp diseases : for we see, that the use of sugar in 

 beer and ale hath good effects in such cases. 



Experiment solitary touching the Jiner sort of base 



metals. 



849. It is reported by the ancients, that there 

 was a kind of steel in some places, which would polish 

 almost as white and bright as silver. And that there 



