21 8 The Honey-Makers 



metheglin : before that beginneth to boil, skim it, and put 

 in two or three bruised cloves, and a branch of rosemary : 

 then beat the yolk of an egg in a dish : put into it a 

 spoonful of the mead cold : and stir them together, to keep 

 the yolk from curdUng : then put to that a spoonful of the 

 hot meth ; and after that another, and an other, always 

 beating them together : and then, some and some, put all 

 into the pot, still stirring it about. Then as soon as it 

 boileth, take up the pot : and (saving your hands harmless) 

 pour it into another warm pot of like capacity, firing it as it 

 runneth : and so brew it till it will burn no more. A 

 metheglin posset is of the like virtue." 



To-day metheglin is made and used principally as a 

 medicine, being esteemed for coughs and colds, though 

 once the honey drinks were prized as good wines are now. 



" There are three things in court which must be commu- 

 nicated to the king, before they are made known to any 

 other person, ist, Every sentence of the judge; 2nd, 

 every new song; and, 3d, every cask of mead," are the 

 commands found in an ancient law of Wales. 



Moreover, at the courts of the Princes of Wales the 

 mead-maker was the eleventh person in dignity and took 

 precedence of the physician. 



Hydromel, as the name implies, is composed of honey 

 and water, and sometimes is not fermented, but drunk at 

 once ; again, however, it is indistinguishable from mead, 

 being but the Greek name for that liquor. 



Pliny says of the unfermented hydromel that it " is an 

 extremely wholesome beverage for invalids who take 

 nothing but a hght diet ; it reinvigorates the body, is sooth- 

 ing to mouth and stomach, and by its refreshing prop- 

 erties allays feverish heats. It is well suited for persons of 

 a chilly temperament, or of a weak and pusillanimous con- 

 stitution." 



