Bonum vinum cum sapore Bibit abbas cum priore Sed conventus de pejore Semper solet bibere. John of Brokehampton, who became abbot of Evesham in 1282, had himself filled the office of cellarer, and amongst many other benefits conferred by him upon the House during his abbacy, he built a bakehouse and a brewhouse “not only strongly but sumptuously.” On certain special days set apart for “_doing the great O_,”[27] which was a facetious way of saying that they were holidays when nothing was done, a more liberal allowance of ale was made, and on the occasion of the election of a Canon for St. Paul’s, foreign wine and other delicacies were added to the feast. [27] “Facere O” in some places had reference to the introit beginning “O Sapientia.” Some slight idea of a monastic feast in the thirteenth century may be gathered from the accompanying illustration. The presence of women is significant, and the quaint spit, and the round-bottomed glass which one of the monks holds in his hand and which cannot be set down until empty, are noteworthy. What a gentleman’s cellar ought to contain is thus described by Alexander Neckam, a twelfth-century writer:—“In promptuario sive in celario,” he writes, “sunt cadi, utres,[28] dolea, ciphi,[29] cophini, . . . vina, scicera, cerevicia, sive celia, mustum, claretum, nectar,[30] medo {53} sive ydromellum,[31] piretum, vinum rosetum, vinum feretum, vinum falernum, vinum girofilatum.” Some old scribe has noted this work in the same way as the annotator of the _Treatise of Walter de Biblesworth_, and taking up the hints he has given, the passage may be translated:—“In the cellar are barrels, leather bottles or wine skins, tuns, beakers, baskets, . . . wines, cyder, ale, new wine, claret, piment, meed or ydromellum, perry, Mount Rose wine, Falernian, garihofilac, &c. . . .” Not a bad assortment of liquors for an Early Englishman! Our cut, taken from the Roxburghe ballads, represents a well-stocked cellar of the olden times. [28] Utres is noted ‘coutreus.’ [29] Ciphi = anaps, cophini = anapers. On this word anaps, or hanaps, see page 395. [30] Nectar or Piment was a luscious kind of drink compounded of wine, honey and spices; it was called after the pigmentarii, or apothecaries who prepared it, and was in fact a liqueur. [31] Ydromellum is explained in the _Ortus_ as _potus ex aqua et melle_, _Anglice mede or growte_ (Growte = wort in an early stage of the brewing). In _Alfric’s Colloquy_, however, it is said to be _beor_, or _mulsum_. The true explanation of this discrepancy seems to be that ydromellum, while properly signifying an inferior sort of mead, was also used by analogy to denote the sweet liquor _wort_. [Illustration] [Illustration] {54} The requisites of a brewhouse of the fourteenth or fifteenth century are described in a Latin-English Vocabulary of the period:—