1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

30 THE FLOWING BOWL ofcarouse before entering intospeculations ; more especially if Tattersall's Ring be the scene of your speculations, and you intend getting back your losses. There is no doubt that metheglin was the favourite drink of the Ancient Britons. Mead and Braggon^ or Braggonet^ do not differ materially from metheglin. Here is the recipe :— Mix the whites of six eggs with twelve gallons of spring-water ; add twenty pounds of the best virgin honey and the peeling of three lemons ; boil it an hour, and then put into it some rosemary, cloves mace, and ginger ; when quite cold add a spoonful' or two of yeast, tun it, and when it has done working stop it up close. In a few months bottle it off, and deposit in a cool cellar. If this liquor is properly kept, the taste of the honey will go off, and it will resemble Tokay both in strength and flavour. And the chief objection to this as to other ancient potations appears to be the intolerable quantity of water' whether " spring " or " fair." ' We do not make Birch wine nowadays, although the Birch itself frequently makes small boys whine, after conviction of orchard-robbing, or train-wrecking. But it was a favourite tipple with our ancestors, who during the month of March were wont to cut the ends off the birch- boughs, and let the sap drip into bottles suspended from the boughs. For twopence or threepence a gallon the villagers would catch this sap for