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 imprinted 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 portrayed 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:" 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 that the Saxons were in the habit of compounding drinks, and, beyond the fact of their pledging each other with the words "Drinc-hæl" and "Wæss-hæl," accompanying the words with a kiss, and that minstrelsy formed a conspicuous adjunct to their drinking-festivities, we can obtain but little knowledge of the customs they pursued. The Vedic "cup-drink" was "Soma," which is described as being "sweet, honied, sharp and well-flavoured," the liquor of the Gods. One of the many hymns in the Vedas in its praise may be thus translated-- "We have drunk the Soma And are entered into Light, So that we know the Gods. What can now an enemy do to us? What can the malice of any mortal effect Against thee and us, O! thou immortal God?"