[51] Sir Walter Scott defends the character of the Norman nobles from the charge of intemperance. See _Ivanhoe_, p. 100. [52] Wright, _Homes of other Days_, p. 100. [53] Bridgett, _Disc. of Drink_, p. 102. [54] _De Nugis Curialium_, lib. viii. [55] Cutt’s _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_. [56] Canon ix. Cp. Johnson’s _English Canons_, pt. ii. p. 26. Wilkins, _Concil._ I. 382. Concil. Londinens. A.D. 1102, ap. Spelm. II. 24. CHAPTER VI. PLANTAGENET PERIOD.--HENRY II. TO THE DEATH OF RICHARD I. The period on which we now enter, called, in compliance with usage, the _Plantagenet_, might for our present purpose more strictly be named _The Light Wine Period_. And it is instructive; and might have served for instruction to certain of our legislators in the present reign, who first tried beer (houses) to put down spirit drinking, and then tried wine to put down spirits and beer. The facts of English history were disregarded, and these _remedial_ expedients were adopted, in the light of which the irony of the Spartans pales, who to put down drunkenness made their slaves drunk, and then exhibited them as hideous examples. We have seen that the traffic of wines with Bordeaux was brought about through the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor of Aquitaine. That ‘great Provence dower,’ as Dante calls it, was the secret of the new trade with Guienne and Gascony, provinces which had both been erected into the dukedom of Aquitaine in the preceding century. The Normans were the great carriers. In the centre of the vessels that brought home the produce of the new English possessions in France were large fixed tanks (_Pipæ gardæ_), and right well did the sailors understand the process known as ‘sucking the monkey,’ or, in plain English, furtively drawing off the wine from its receptacle in course of transit. And they must have had plenty of choice, for amongst the wines imported were Muscadell, Malmsey, Rhenish, Dele, Stum, Wormwood, Gascony, Alicant, Canary, Sack, Sherry, and Rumney. At the very time that the English were enjoying the wines of France, our French neighbours were reciprocally appreciative. William FitzStephen, in his _Life of Thomas à Becket_, states that when he went as chancellor into France to negotiate a royal marriage, two of the waggons which accompanied him were laden with beer in iron-bound casks for presents to the French, ‘who admire that kind of drink, for it is wholesome, clear, of the colour of wine, and of a better taste.’ To this period many writers refer the origin of _Distillation_.