1863 Cups and their customs

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

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Saxon graves, pitchers from which the drink was poured, differing but little from those now in common use, as well as buckets in which the ale was conveyed from the That drinking-cups among the Anglo-Saxons were held in high esteem, and were probably of con- siderable value, there can be no doubt, from the frequent mention made of their being bequeathed after death in proof of which, from among many others, we may quote the instance of the Mercian king Witlaf giving to the Abbey of Crowland 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 ^ 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/^ 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 ^^not the drink of children or of fools, but of elders and wise men P and the scholar says he does not drink wine, because he is not rich enough to buy it ; 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 cellar.