and explains _russin_ to be wine between meals, often condemned of old; and connects with it the terms _rouse_ and _carouse_, which, says he, denote emptying of the wine-cup, quoting, ‘The queen _carouses_ to thy fortune, Hamlet.’ But the words are generally referred to _gar aus_, all out. ‘Russin,’ in the eastern counties, still denotes drink at odd hours. The household roll of the Countess of Leicester, widow of Simon de Montfort, reveals some secrets of the private life of the English towards the end of this thirteenth century. Among the wines in use in that family, _Gascon_ and _Bastard_ are prominent. Bastard was a sweet Spanish wine, of which there were two sorts, white and brown. Little is told in the roll of the price of wine. Nine shillings and twopence was paid for twenty-two gallons. We are able to get a comparative view of the prices of food at this time from a list of articles supplied by his tenants when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited his lands at Tarrings in Sussex, about 1277. The prices seem very low. _s._ _d._ A bushel of wheat 0 2¼ Carcass of beef 1 4 Yearling hog 0 8 4 gallons of beer 0 1 2 good hens 0 1 5 score eggs 0 1 The quantity of beer consumed in the household of the countess was immense. On April 18, they brewed five quarters of barley and four of oats; on the 25th of the same month they bought 188 gallons of beer, and on the 29th brewed again. Cider is mentioned once, but was not especially relished. One tun was distributed among 800 paupers. Cordials were in demand.[74] In the ‘Squire of Low Degree,’ probably of early fourteenth century date, the King of Hungary offers to provide for his daughter wines from all manners of countries-- Ye shall have Rumney and Malmesyne, Both Hippocras and Vernage wine, Mount Rose and wine of Greke, Both Algrade and despice eke, Antioche and Bastarde, Pyment also and garnarde; Wine of Greek and Muscadell, Both claré, pyment, and Rochell, The reed your stomake to defye, And pottes of Osey sett you bye.[75]