“Full oft have promis’d, with beer drunken, Over _the_ ale cup, sons of conflict, that they in _the_ beer-hall would await Grendel’s warfare with terrors of edges: then was this mead-hall, at morning tide, _this_ princely court, stain’d with gore; when _the_ day dawn’d, all _the_ bench-floor with blood bestream’d, _the_ hall, with horrid gore; of faithful _followers_ I own’d the less, of dear nobles, who then death destroyed. Sit now to _the_ feast, and unbind with mead _thy_ valiant breast with _my_ warriors as thy mind may excite. Then was for _the_ sons of _the_ Goths altogether in _the_ beer hall a bench clear’d; there the strong of soul went to sit tumultuously rejoicing: the thane observ’d _his_ duty, who in _his_ hand bare the ornamented ale-cup, _he_ pour’d _the_ bright, sweet _liquor_: the gleeman sang at times serene in Heorot: there was joy of warriors, no few nobles of Danes and Weders.” In Dugdale’s _Monasticon_ (ed. 1682, p. 126), in a Charter of Offa to the Monastery of Westbury, three sorts of ale are mentioned. Two tuns full of hlutres aloth (_Clear ale_), a cumb full of lithes aloth (mild ale), and a cumb full of Welisces aloth (Welsh ale), which is again mentioned as _cervisia Walliæ_. But though beer and ale were the drinks of the common folk, yet they were not despised by their leaders. [9]“At times before _the_ nobles Hrothgar’s daughter to _the_ earls in order _the_ ale cup bore.” We see the social difference between ale and wine drinkers in one of the Cotton MSS. (_Tib._ A. 3), where a lad having been asked what he drank replied: “Ale, if I have it; Water, if I have it not.” Asked why he does not drink wine, he says: “I am not so rich that I can buy me wine; and wine is not the drink of children or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise.” The English at that time grew the Vine for wine-making purposes; indeed, very good wine can now be, and is, made from English grapes. Every monastery had its vineyard, and to this day London has six Vine Streets and one Vineyard Walk. The wine-hall seems to have been a different apartment to either the mead or ale-halls, and of a superior order. [10]“_The_ company all arose; greeted then _one_ man another Hrothgar Beowulf, and bade him hail, gave _him_ command of _the_ wine-hall.” ...[11] “_He_ strode under _the_ clouds, until he _the_ wine-house, _the_ golden hall of men, most readily perceiv’d, richly variegated.” The mead-hall seems to have answered the purpose of a common hall, as we see by the following. Speaking of Hrothgar, the poet says:—