1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

CUPS JJTB THEIR CUSTOMS,

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to the Abbey of Crowlatid the horn of his table, "that the elder monks may drink from it on festivals, and in their benedictions remember sometimes the soul of the donor/' as well as the one mentioned in Gale's r History of Ramsey/ to the Abbey of which place the Lady Ethelgiva presented " two silver cups for the use of the brethren in the refectory, in order that, while drink is served in them, my memory may be more firmly im- printed on their hearts/ 1 Another curious proof of the estimation in which they were held is, that in pictures of warlike expeditions,,where representations of the valuable spoils are given, we invariably find drinking-vessels por- trayed most prominently. The ordinary drinks of the Anglo-Saxons were ale and mead, though wine was also used by them | but wine is spoken of as a not the drink of children or of fools, but of elders and wise men ;" and the scholar says he does not drink wine, because he is not rich enough to buy itj from which, en passant, we may notice that scholars were not rich men even in those days, and up to the present time, we fear, have but little improved their worldly estate. We cannot learn that the Saxons were in the habit of compounding drinks, and, beyond the fact of their pledging each other with the words et Drinc-hsel n and " Wfiess-hsel/* accompanying the words with a kiss, and that mitt* strelsy formed a conspicuous adjunct to their drinking- festivities, we can obtain but little knowledge of the customs they pursued. The Vedic €t cup-drink *' was i€ Soma/* which is described as being e€ sweet, honied, sharp and well-flavoured/ 1 the liquor of the Gods, One