1892 Drinks of the world

DRII^KS.

158

the board for the refreshment of the Knight Templar. It is mentioned in company with the oldest wine, the best mead, the mightiest ale, the richest morat^" and the most sparkling cider. The poets of the thirteenth century speak of this decoction with transport. They regarded it in the light of an exquisite delicacy. As no gentleman's library is complete without the presence of some par- ticular ijw)rk of which a bookseller is anxious to dis- pose, so no feast at which pigment was not present was held to be complete by the medieval gourmet. Indeed this drink seems to have been all too sweet' and was, in consequence of its inebriating property, like the honied Falernian, partially prohibited. The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817 decreed that on festival days only might this voluptuous cup be intro- duced into conventual repasts. Hydromel and hippocras were allied to this cate- gory of fermented and almost alcoholic drinks, but they were not liqueurs. Finally certain liqueurs were composed entirely of juices of fruits and held the rank and title of wines. Such were cherry, gooseberry, strawberry wine, and others. Another liqueur wine often cited by the thirteenth-century poets is Murrey^ a thin drink coloured or otherwise affected by mul- berries. The word liqueur appears to have had a con- siderable latitude of signification. We talk now of

^ Scott's Ivanhoe, cap. iii. 2 Morat is a composition of honey and mulberries, from which

name is derived.

latter its