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 persun: 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 snirits, 
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, 
