Wine was probably always on the prior’s board, and would be set before him when he dined in the refectory. Its use by the Durham monks at large was rare in occurrence, and then in most moderate quantities. A curious custom prevailed on St. Aidan’s Day (August 31st), when wine and pears were provided for the whole establishment; the usual amount was 900 pears and nine gallons of wine. The wine was of a cheap light character, for on one occasion, when the separate price of this pittance is given, the pears cost 2_s._ 9_d._ and the nine gallons of wine only 6_s._ 6_d._ In 1413 four gallons and a pint of wine were given to the convent on the feast of the Purification, at a charge of 4_s._ 1½_d._, entered in the almoner’s accounts. A small quantity of wine was usually given to the novices in the common room on the day of their profession. The master of the conventual infirmary gave a pittance of spices and wine to those in his department of the monastery on St. Andrew’s Day; but he also regularly provided it for the sick and weakly in special cases. The quantity used for this purpose was but small; for several years in succession in the fifteenth century the infirmarian’s charge for wine only amounted to 5_s._ or 6_s._; but perhaps this was the wine for the altar of the infirmary chapel, that for the sick coming from the cellarer’s stores. The constant round of Masses in a religious house required a considerable supply of wine. Though sometimes a succession of sacrist rolls are found wherein there is no wine entry--in which cases the church wine would come from the common store--it is usual to find that the sacrist purchased specially for this purpose. At Durham, in the fifteenth century, this officer’s roll for many years contains the annual entry of a pipe of red wine for altar use. A pipe was 126 gallons, so that this works out at about three pints a day; from such a quantity as this, when the great number of altars and Celebrations are remembered, there could have been but little, if any, surplus. Henry III. granted charters to the great Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu, and four of the other large monasteries of the south of England, bestowing on each of them a yearly tun of wine, out of the prisage wine of Southampton, for sacramental purposes. The sacristan of St. Benet’s spent 26_s._ 8_d._ on wine for the church in the very year that preceded the Dissolution.