312 AUSTRALASIAN 



them is med or meda. The name metheglin seems to be pecu- 

 liarly Welsh ; mezyglin, derived, according to Owen, " from 

 mezyg, a physician, and llyn, water, — a medicinal liquor." But 

 we must recollect that mead in the same language is Bez. Mr. 

 Harris, the author of " The Honey Bee," who seems to have 

 turned his attention to the history of honey drinks in Britain, 

 says, " Properly speaking, the word Betheglin was applied to 

 the superior sorts of mead, the two beverages being related 

 much in the same way as effervescing cider and the ordinary" 

 draught cider." He tells us that the manufacture of mead was 

 considered of such importance, that the brewer of that beverage 

 for former princes of Wales was the physician of the household, 

 and ranked eleventh in point of dignity; that Athelstan, when 

 king of Kent, is recorded to have expressed his satisfaction 

 that " there was no stint of mead" when he paid a visit to his 

 relative Aethelfleda ; and that, " according to an antique rule 

 of the Welsh court, there were ' three things which must be 

 communicated to the king before they were imparted to any 

 other person : first, every sentence of the judge ; second, every 

 new song ; and third, every cask of mead.' " Mr. Harris also 

 gives us the recipe according to which the mead was made 

 every year for Queen Elizabeth, who was, it appears, very fond 

 of that beverage. It will be found amongst the recipes at the 

 end of this chapter. 



There appears to be no sufficient reason why the making of 

 mead should have been given up, except that the great increase 

 of population, without a corresponding increase in the produc- 

 tion of honey, rendered it impossible to supply the requisite 

 quantity of such drinks, and brought into fashion the use of 

 beer and ale, which can be manufactured in any quantities 

 from malted grain. It is nevertheless indisputable that mead 

 continued in great favour, as Mr. Harris remarks, long after 

 the introduction of malt liquors, and it is probable that it only 

 ultimately gave way to foreign wines and to more potent, but 

 less wholesome, distilled spirits. 



Considering the increased supply and reduced price of ex- 

 tracted honey at the present day, there is no reason why the 

 taste should not be revived, and some portion at least of the 

 beverages now in common use be replaced, probably with ad- 

 vantage in a sanitary point of view, by drinks prepared from 

 honey. For home use in country places where bees are kept, 



