_Cider_ became known to the Britons at an early date. John Beale, a seventeenth-century authority on orchard produce, thought _seider_ to be a genuine British word; but it is generally referred to the Greek σίκερα, which, curiously enough, is rendered in Wycliffe’s version of the Bible, _sydyr_:--‘For he schal be gret before the Lord; and he schal not drinke wyn ne sydyr.’[1] Macpherson, in his _Annals_, rightly says that cider extracted from wild apples was early known to the British in common with other Northern nations, whilst Whitaker (_History of Manchester_) thinks that this beverage was introduced by the Romans. The opinion entertained by some that it was a Norman invention is entirely a mistake. The principal cider districts of the present day are Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Monmouth, Somerset, and Devon. Its medicinal qualities are variously stated. Lord Bacon accounted it to promote long life. Sir George Baker considered it a cure for dropsy. On the other hand, Dr. Epps (_Journal of Health and Disease_) speaks of dropsy and insanity as common diseases in Herefordshire, and says it is easy to understand how diseased kidneys are produced by the acid in the cider, and how dropsy follows from these diseased kidneys. We next inquire what kind of _Inns_ were known to the Ancient Britons. During the time of the Druids there was an order of people called _Beatachs_, _Brughnibhs_, or keepers of open houses, established for the express purpose of hospitality. These were pretty much of the same character as the chaoultries in India, and the caravanseries in the East. In Ireland, the _bruigh_ was a person provided with land and stock by the prince of the territory, to keep beds, stabling, and such amusements as backgammon boards. The character of these houses was, as we shall find, vastly altered in Saxon times, when their names, _Eala-hus_, _Win-hus_, &c., sufficiently betokened the rationale of their existence.