Chapter II: Introduction (2)

The distance between the healer and the cook has grown to be immense in recent times. The College of Physicians and Mary Jane in the kitchen are not on nodding terms--though one sees faint signs of an effort to bridge the wide gap. But in the seventeenth century the gap can hardly be said to have existed at all. At the back of the doctor is plainly seen the figure of the herbalist and simpler, who appear again prominently in the still-room and the kitchen, by the side of great ladies and great gentlemen, bent on making the best and the most of the pleasures of the table no doubt, but quite as much on the maintenance of health as of hospitality. Simpler, herbalist, doctor, distiller, cook--Digby was all of them, and all of them with the utmost seriousness; nor in this was he in the least singular. The great Bacon was deeply concerned with such cares, though in certain of his recommendations, such as: "To provide always an apt break-fast," to take this every morning, not to forget to take that twice a month, one may read more of the valetudinarian than in Digby. _The Closet Opened_ is but one of an interesting series of books of the kind, which have been too much neglected by students of seventeenth-century manners and lore and language. Did not W.J. issue the Countess of Kent's _Choice Manual of Physic and Chirurgey_, with directions for Preserving and Candying? Patrick, Lord Ruthven's _Ladies' Cabinet Opened_ appeared in 1639 and 1655. Nor was it only the _cuisine_ of the nobles that roused interest. One of the curiosities of the time is _The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, commonly called Joan Cromwell, the Wife of the Late Usurper Truly Described and Represented and now made Publick for general Satisfaction,_ 1644. The preface is scurrilous beyond belief. Compiled from the gossip of servants, it is meant to cast ridicule on the housekeeping of the Protector's establishment. But the second part is a sober collection of by no means very penurious recipes from Joan's own kitchen books.

Hartman, his steward, made an excellent thing out of Digby's receipts--though the publishing of _The Closet Opened_ was not his doing, I think. His _Choice and Experimented Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery_ had already appeared in 1668, which suggested to some other hanger-on of the Digby household that John Digby's consent might be obtained for printing Sir Kenelm's culinary as well as his medical note-books. Hartman followed up this new track with persistence and profit to himself. As a mild example of the "choice and experimented," I transcribe "An Approved Remedy for Biting of a Mad Dog": "Take a quart of Ale, and a dram of Treacle, a handful of Rue, a spoonful of shavings or filings of Tin. Boil all these together, till half be consumed. Take of this two spoonfuls in the morning, and at night cold. It is excellent for Man or Beast." I need not continue. The receipts are there for curious searchers. They were applied to aristocratic patients; and they are no more absurd or loathsome than those of other books of the time and kind. Even Bacon is fantastic enough with his "Grains of Youth" and "Methusalem Water." In 1682, George Hartman published, "for the Publike Good," _The True Preserver and Restorer of Health_. It is dedicated to the Countess of Sunderland, and is described as "the collection for the most part (which I had hitherto reserved) of your incomparable kinsman and my truly Honourable Master, Sir Kenelm Digby, whom I had the Honour to serve for many years beyond the Seas, as well as in England; and so continued with him till his dying Day, and of whose Generosity and Bounty I have sufficiently tasted, and no less of your illustrious Fathers, both before and after my Glorious Masters Decease." Of this book he says, "The world hath not yet seen such another Piece." Commend me to the forthright methods of seventeenth century advertisement! In the second part, "Excellent Directions for Cookery," _The Closet Opened_ was largely drawn on. In 1696 appeared _The Family Physician_, by George Hartman, Phylo-Chymist ... who liv'd and Travell'd with the Honourable Sir Kenelm Digby in several parts of Europe, the space of Seven Years till he died. This other choice compilation owes much to the "incomparable" one, and is described as "the marrow of collections."

But Hartman is not the only witness to Digby's connoisseurship in the joint mysteries. Better to my mind than even Hartman's are the style and the spirit of Master May. In 1660 appeared _The Accomplisht Cook,_ or the Art and Mystery of Cookery ... approved by the fifty years experience and industry of Robert May, in his attendance on Several Persons of Honour. It is dedicated to Lord Lumley, Lord Lovelace, Sir Wm. Paston, Sir Kenelme Digby, and Sir Frederick Cornwallis, "so well known to the Nation for their admired Hospitalities," and generally to

"the race
Of those that for the Gusto stand,
Whose tables a whole Ark command
Of Nature's plentie."

"He is an Alien, a meer Stranger in England that hath not been acquainted with your generous housekeeping; for my own part, my more particular Tyes of Service to you, my Honoured Lords, have built me up to the height of this experience." His preface is a heartrending cry of regret for the good old times before usurping Parliaments banished splendidly extravagant gentlemen across the seas, "those golden days of Peace and Hospitality, when you enjoy'd your own, so as to entertain and relieve others ... those golden days wherein were practised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery, then was Hospitality esteemed and Neighbourhood preserved, the Poor cherished and God honoured; then was Religion less talk't on and more practis't, then was Atheism and Schisme less in Fashion, and then did men strive to be good rather than to seem so." High-souled were the _chefs_ of the seventeenth century!

The 1669 edition of _The Closet Opened_ is evidently the first. The interleaved example mentioned in the Catalogue of the Digby Library is of the same date. Whoever prepared it for the press and wrote the egregious preface "To the Reader"--Hartman, or as I think, another--gave it the title; but it was a borrowed one. Some years earlier, in 1655, had appeared _The Queen's Closet Opened, Incomparable Secrets which were presented unto the Queen by the most Experienced Persons of the Times, many wherof were had in Esteem when she pleased to descend to Private Recreation_. The Queen, of course, is Henrietta Maria, and chief among the "Experienced Persons" referred to was certainly her Chancellor, Digby. Possibly he may even have suggested the printing of the collection. Like titles are met with again and again. _Nature's Cabinet Opened_, a medical work, was attributed to Browne, though he repudiated it. Ruthven's book I have already alluded to. _The Queen-like Closet_, a Rich Cabinet, by Hannah Wolly, came out in 1670.

Of the two books, the Queen's and her Chancellor's, Digby's has afforded me by far the most delight. Though many of the receipts are evidently given as sent in, the stamp of his personality is on the whole; and he is the poet of all these culinary artists. But on the score of usefulness to the housewife I forbear all judgment. The recipes may be thought extravagant in these late hard times--though epicurism has changed rather than vanished. Lord Bacon's receipt for making "Manus Christi for the Stomach" begins, "Take of the best pearls very finely pulverised one drachm"; and a health resolution runs, "To take once during supper wine in which gold is quenched." Costly ingredients such as pearls and leaf gold appear only once among Digby's receipts. The modern housewife may be aghast at the thought of more than a hundred ways of making mead and metheglin. Mead recalls to her perhaps her first history-book, wherein she learnt of it as a drink of the primitive Anglo-Saxons. If she doubt the usefulness of the collection in her own kitchen, let her take the little volume to her boudoir, and read it there as gossiping notes of the _beau monde_ in the days when James I and the Charleses ruled the land. She will find herself in lofty company, and on intimate terms with them. They come down to our level, without any show of condescension. Lords and ladies who were personages of a solemn state pageant, are now human neighbourly creatures, owning to likes and dislikes, and letting us into the secrets of their daily habits.

It pleases me to think of Henrietta Maria, in her exile, busying herself in her still-room, and forgetting her dangers and sorrows in simpling and stilling and kitchen messes; and of her devoted Sir Kenelm, in the moments when he is neither abeting her Royalist plots, nor diverting her mind to matters of high science, or the mysteries of the Faith, but bringing to her such lowlier consolations as are hinted in "Hydromel as I made it weak for the Queen Mother." We are not waiting in a chill ante-chamber when we read, "The Queen's ordinary Bouillon de Santé in a morning was thus," or of the Pressis which she "used to take at nights--of great yet temperate nourishment--instead of a Supper." And who can hint at Court scandals in the face of such evidence of domesticity as "The Queen useth to baste meat with yolks of fresh eggs, &c." or "The way that the Countess de Penalva makes the Portuguese eggs for the Queen is this"? We cannot help being interested in the habits of Lady Hungerford, who "useth to make her mead at the end of summer, when she takes up her Honey, and begins to drink it in Lent." My Lady Gower and her husband were of independent tastes. Each had their own receipts. It must be remembered that Dr. Johnson said no woman could write a cookery-book; and he threatened to write one himself. And Sir Kenelm had many serious rivals among his own sex.

In such an _embarras de choix_ as given by all these drink receipts, we may be in doubt whether to try "My Lord Gorge's Meath," or "The Countess of Newport's" cherry wine, or "The sweet drink of my Lady Stuart," or of Lady Windebanke, or "Sir Paul Neile's way of making cider," or "my Lord Carlisle's Sack posset"; but one is strongly influenced by such a note as "Sir Edward Bainton's Receipt which my Lord of Portland (who gave it me) saith, was the best he ever drank." I had thought of Saint-Evremond as warrior and wit, delightful satirist and letter-writer. But here is a streak of new light upon him: "Monsieur St. Euvremont makes thus his potage de santé of boiled meat for dinner being very valetudinary.... When he is in pretty good health, that he may venture upon more savoury hotter things, &c." The most rigorous Protestants will relax to hear how "To make a Pan Cotto as the Cardinals use in Rome." And if "My Lord Lumley's Pease Pottage" sounds homely, be it known, on the word of the eloquent Robert May, that his lordship "wanted no knowledge in the discerning this mystery." What fastidious simplicity in the taste of the great is suggested by "My Lord d'Aubigny eats Red-herrings thus boiled"!

But if Sir Kenelm consorted only with the great, it was with the great of all social ranks. It was not merely on high questions of science he discoursed with the discoverer of the circulation of the blood--witness "Dr. Harvey's pleasant water cider." Then there was that "Chief Burgomaster of Antwerpe," with whom he must have been on pretty intimate terms, to learn that he "used for many years to drink no other drink but this [mead]; at Meals and all times, even for pledging of healths. And though He was an old man, he was of an extraordinary vigor every way, and had every year a Child, had always a great appetite, and good digestion; and yet was not fat." Digby was too great a gentleman to be above exchanging receipts with the professors of the "mystery," such as the Muscovian Ambassador's steward; and when "Master Webbe who maketh the King's meath," on the 1st of September, 1663, came to his house to make some for him, Sir Kenelm stood by, a little suspicious lest the other great artist was bamboozling him. He had an eye for all--though it may have been one of his correspondents who says of the remnants of a dish that it "will make good Water-gruel for the Servants."

The seriousness of the business is tremendous; and to ignore the fine shades in the 106 receipts for mead and metheglin would have been a frivolity unknown in Digby's circle. There is care; there is conscience; there is rivalry. The ingredients are mingled with a nice discrimination between the rights of the palate and the maintenance of health. "Use only Morello cherries (I think) for pleasure, and black ones for health." You may not wait your own convenience in such serious business. "It is best made by taking all the Canicular days into your fermentation." Now and again other methods of calculating than ours are used; but "whiles you can say the Miserere Psalm very leisurely" is as easily computed as "while your Pulse beateth 200 stroaks." Quantities are a more difficult affair. How is one to know how much smallage was got for a penny in mid-seventeenth century? The great connoisseur Lord Lumley is very lax, and owns that his are "set down by guess."

It is a curious old world we get glimpses of, at once barbarous, simple, and extravagant, when great ladies were expected to see to the milking of their cows, as closely as Joan Cromwell supervised her milch-kine in St. James's Park, and to the cleanliness of their servants' arms and hands, and when huntsmen rode at the bidding of the cook; for in order that venison be in good condition, "before the deer be killed he ought to be hunted and chased as much as possible." The perusal of the section, "To Feed Chickens," will shock our poultry-breeders. "To make them prodigiously fat in about twelve days," "My Lady Fanshawe gives them strong ale. They will be very drunk and sleep; then eat again. Let a candle stand all night over the coop, and then they will eat much all the night."

"Lord Denbigh's Almond Marchpane," and the 'current wine' of which it is said "You may drink safely long draughts of it," will appeal perhaps only to the schoolboy of our weaker generation. Yet there are receipts, doubtless gathered in Sir Kenelm's later years, that have the cautious invalid in view. Of these are the "Pleasant Cordial Tablets, which are very comforting and strengthen nature much," and the liquor which is called "smoothing." "In health you may dash the Potage with a little juyce of Orange" is in the same low key. The gruels are so many that we must wish Mr. Woodhouse had known of the book. If the admixture of "wood-sorrel and currens" had seemed to him fraught with peril, he could have fallen back on the "Oatmeal Pap of Sir John Colladon."

Where are all the old dishes vanished to? Who has ever known "A smoothening Quiddany of Quinces?" Who can tell the composition of a Tansy? These are tame days when we have forgotten how to make Cock-Ale. They drank 'Sack with Clove-gilly-flowers' at the "Mermaid," I am sure. What is Bragot? What is Stepony? And what Slipp-coat Cheese? Ask the baker for a Manchet. The old names call for a _Ballade. Où sont les mets d'antan?_ And, cooks, with all your exactness about pounds and ounces and minutes of the clock, can you better directions like these? Watch for "a pale colour with an eye of green." "Let it stand till you may see your shadow in it"; or "till it begin to blink." Your liquid may boil "simpringly," or "in a great ebullition, in great galloping waves." "Make a liaison a moment, about an Ave Maria while." And all the significance of the times and seasons we have lost in our neglect to kill male hogs "in the wane of the moon!" For there is a lingering of astrology in all this kitchen lore. The irascible Culpeper, Digby's contemporary, poured scorn on such doctors as knew not the high science, "Physick without astronomy being like a lamp without Oil."

As for the poetry I promised--well, I have been quoting it, have I not? But there is more, and better. Surely it was a romantic folk that kept in its store-rooms the "best Blew raisins of the sun," or "plumpsome raisins of the sun," and made its mead with dew, and eagerly exchanged with each other recipes for "Conserve of Red Roses." And now we come to an essential feature of the whole. It is a _cuisine_ that does not reek of shops and co-operative stores, but of the wood, the garden, the field and meadow. Like Culpeper's pharmacopeia, it is made for the most part of "Such Things only as grow in England, they being most fit for English Bodies." Is it any wonder that the metheglin should be called the "Liquor of Life," which has these among its ingredients: Bugloss, borage, hyssop, organ, sweet-marjoram, rosemary, French cowslip, coltsfoot, thyme, burnet, self-heal, sanicle, betony, blew-button, harts-tongue, meadowsweet, liverwort, bistort, St. John's wort, yellow saunders, balm, bugle, agrimony, tormentilla, comfrey, fennel, clown's allheal, maidenhair, wall-rue, spleen-wort, sweet oak, Paul's betony, and mouse-ear?

The housewife of to-day buys unrecognisable dried herbs in packets or bottles. In those days she gathered them in their season out of doors. The companions to _The Closet Opened_ should be the hasty and entertaining Culpeper, the genial Gerard, and Coles of the delightful _Adam in Eden_, all the old herbals that were on Digby's bookshelves, so full of absurdities, so full of pretty wisdom. They will tell you how to mix in your liquor eglantine for coolness, borage, rosemary, and sweet-marjoram for vigour, and by which planet each herb or flower is governed. Has our sentiment for the flowers of the field increased now we no longer drink their essence, or use them in our dishes? I doubt it. It is surely a pardonable grossness that we should desire the sweet fresh things to become part of us--like children, who do indeed love flowers, and eat them. In the Appendix I have transcribed a list of the plants referred to. Most cooks would be unable to tell one from another; and even modern herbalists have let many fall out of use, while only a few are on the lists of the English pharmacopeia. To go simpling once more by field and wood and hedgerow would be a pleasant duty for country housewives to impose upon themselves; and as to the herbalists' observations on their virtues, we may say with old Coles, "Most of them I am confident are true, and if there be any that are not so, yet they are pleasant."

There is an air of flippancy about that reflexion of Coles you will never find in Sir Kenelm. Of the virtues of each plant and flower he used he was fully convinced; and when he tells of their powers, as in his "Aqua Mirabilis," the tale is like a solemn litany, and we are reminded of Clarendon's testimony to "the gravity of his motion." And so, his Closet once more open, he stands at the door, his majesty not greatly lessened; for the book contains a reminiscence of his rolling eloquence, something of his romance, and not a little of his poetry.

ANNE MACDONELL.

_Chelsea_, 1910.

THE CLOSET Of the Eminently Learned Sir _Kenelme Digbie_ K^{t}. OPENED:

Whereby is DISCOVERED Several ways for making of _Metheglin, Sider, Cherry-Wine, &c._

_TOGETHER WITH_ Excellent Directions FOR COOKERY:

As also for _Preserving, Conserving, Candying, &c._

* * * * *

Published by his Son's Consent.

* * * * *

_London_, Printed by _E.C._ for _H. Brome_, at the Star in _Little Britain_. 1669.

[_Facsimile of the original title-page._]

TO THE READER

This Collection full of pleasing variety, and of such usefulness in the Generality of it, to the Publique, coming to my hands, I should, had I forborn the Publication thereof, have trespassed in a very considerable concern upon my Countrey-men, The like having not in every particular appeared in Print in the English tongue. There needs no Rhetoricating Floscules to set it off. The Authour, as is well known, having been a Person of Eminency for his Learning, and of Exquisite Curiosity in his Researches, Even that Incomparable Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight, Fellow of the Royal Society and Chancellour to the Queen Mother, (Et omen in Nomine) His name does sufficiently Auspicate the Work. I shall only therefore add, That there is herein (as by the Table hereunto affix'd will evidently to thee appear) a sufficiency of Solids as well as Liquids for the sating the Curiosities of each or the nicest Palate; and according to that old Saw in the Regiment of Health, Incipe cum Liquido, &c. The Liquids premitted to the Solids. These being so Excellent in their kinde, so beneficial and so well ordered, I think it unhandsome, if not injurious, by the trouble of any further Discourse, to detain thee any longer from falling to; Fall to therefore, and much good may it do thee,

FARE-WELL.

A RECEIPT TO MAKE METHEGLIN AS IT IS MADE AT LIEGE, COMMUNICATED BY MR. MASILLON

Take one Measure of Honey, and three Measures of Water, and let it boil till one measure be boiled away, so that there be left three measures in all; as for Example, take to one Pot of Honey, three Pots of Water, and let it boil so long, till it come to three Pots. During which time you must Skim it very well as soon as any scum riseth; which you are to continue till there rise no scum more. You may, if you please, put to it some spice, to wit, Cloves and Ginger; the quantity of which is to be proportioned according as you will have your Meath, strong or weak. But this you do before it begin to boil. There are some that put either Yeast of Beer, or Leaven of bread into it, to make it work. But this is not necessary at all; and much less to set it into the Sun. Mr. Masillon doth neither the one nor the other. Afterwards for to Tun it, you must let it grow Luke-warm, for to advance it. And if you do intend to keep your Meathe a long time, you may put into it some hopps on this fashion. Take to every Barrel of Meathe a Pound of Hops without leaves, that is, of Ordinary Hops used for Beer, but well cleansed, taking only the Flowers, without the Green-leaves and stalks. Boil this pound of Hops in a Pot and half of fair water, till it come to one Pot, and this quantity is sufficient for a Barrel of Meathe. A Barrel at Liege holdeth ninety Pots, and a Pot is as much as a Wine quart in England. (I have since been informed from Liege, that a Pot of that Countrey holdeth 48 Ounces of Apothecary's measure; which I judge to be a Pottle according to London measure, or two Wine-quarts.) When you Tun your Meath, you must not fill your Barrel by half a foot, that so it may have room to work. Then let it stand six weeks slightly stopped; which being expired, if the Meath do not work, stop it up very close. Yet must you not fill up the Barrel to the very brim. After six Months you draw off the clear into another Barrel, or strong Bottles, leaving the dregs, and filling up your new Barrel, or Bottels, and stopping it or them very close.

The Meath that is made this way, (_Viz._ In the Spring, in the Month of April or May, which is the proper time for making of it,) will keep many a year.

WHITE METHEGLIN OF MY LADY HUNGERFORD: WHICH IS EXCEEDINGLY PRAISED

Take your Honey, and mix it with fair water, until the Honey be quite dissolved. If it will bear an Egge to be above the liquor, the breadth of a groat, it is strong enough; if not, put more Honey to it, till it be so strong; Then boil it, till it be clearly and well skimmed; Then put in one good handful of Strawberry-leaves, and half a handful of Violet leaves; and half as much Sorrel: a Douzen tops of Rosemary; four or five tops of Baulme-leaves: a handful of Harts-tongue, and a handful of Liver-worth; a little Thyme, and a little Red-sage; Let it boil about an hour; then put it into a Woodden Vessel, where let it stand, till it be quite cold; Then put it into the Barrel; Then take half an Ounce of Cloves, as much Nutmeg; four or five Races of Ginger; bruise it, and put it into a fine bag, with a stone to make it sink, that it may hang below the middle: Then stop it very close.

The Herbs and Spices are in proportion for six Gallons.

Since my Lady Hungerford sent me this Receipt, she sent me word, that she now useth (and liketh better) to make the Decoction of Herbs before you put the Honey to it, This Proportion of Herbs is to make six Gallons of Decoction, so that you may take eight or nine Gallons of water. When you have drawn out into your water, all the vertue of the Herbs, throw them away, and take the clear Decoction (leaving the settlings) and when it is Lukewarm, Dissolve your proportion of Honey in it. After it is well dissolved and laved with strong Arms or woodden Instruments, like Battle-doors or Scoops, boil it gently; till you have taken away all the scum; then make an end of well boyling it, about an hour in all. Then pour it into a wooden vessel, and let it stand till it be cold. Then pour the clear through a Sieve of hair, ceasing pouring when you come to the foul thick settling. Tun the clear into your vessel (without Barm) and stop it up close, with the Spices in it, till you perceive by the hissing that it begins to work. Then give it some little vent, else the Barrel would break. When it is at the end of the working, stop it up close. She useth to make it at the end of Summer, when she takes up her Honey, and begins to drink it in Lent. But it will be better if you defer piercing it till next Winter. When part of the Barrel is drunk, she botteleth the rest, which maketh it quicker and better. You clear the Decoction from the Herbs by a Hair-sieve.

SOME NOTES ABOUT HONEY

The Honey of dry open Countries, where there is much Wild-thyme, Rosemary, and Flowers, is best. It is of three sorts, Virgin-honey, Life-honey, and Stock-honey. The first is the best. The Life-honey next. The Virgin-honey is of Bees, that swarmed the Spring before, and are taken up in Autumn; and is made best by chusing the Whitest combs of the Hive, and then letting the Honey run out of them lying upon a Sieve without pressing it, or breaking of the Combs. The Life-honey is of the same Combs broken after the Virgin-honey is run from it; The Merchants of Honey do use to mingle all the sorts together. The first of a swarm is called Virgin-honey. That of the next year, after the Swarm was hatched, is Life-honey. And ever after, it is Honey of Old-stocks. Honey that is forced out of the Combs, will always taste of Wax. Hampshire Honey is most esteemed at London. About Bisleter there is excellent good. Some account Norfolk honey the best.

MR. CORSELLISES ANTWERP MEATH

To make good Meath, good white and thick Marsilian or Provence-honey is best; and of that, to four Holland Pints (the Holland Pint is very little bigger then the English Wine-pint:) of Water, you must put two pound of Honey; The Honey must be stirred in Water, till it be all melted; If it be stirred about in warm water, it will melt so much the sooner.

When all is dissolved, it must be so strong that an Egge may swim in it with the end upwards. And if it be too sweet or too strong, because there is too much Honey; then you must put more water to it; yet so, that, as above, an Hens Egge may swim with the point upwards: And then that newly added water must be likewise well stirred about, so that it may be mingled all alike. If the Eggs sink (which is a token that there is not honey enough) then you must put more Honey to it, and stir about, till it be all dissolved, and the Eggs swim, as abovesaid. This being done, it must be hanged over the fire, and as it beginneth to seeth, the scum, that doth arise upon it, both before and after, must be clean skimed off. When it is first set upon the fire, you must measure it first with a stick, how deep the Kettel is, or how much Liquor there be in it; and then it must boil so long, till one third part of it be boiled away. When it is thus boiled, it must be poured out into a Cooler, or open vessel, before it be tunned in the Barrel; but the Bung-hole must be left open, that it may have vent. A vessel, which hath served for Sack is best.

TO MAKE EXCELLENT MEATHE

To every quart of Honey, take four quarts of water. Put your water in a clean Kettle over the fire, and with a stick take the just measure, how high the water cometh, making a notch, where the superficies toucheth the stick. As soon as the water is warm, put in your Honey, and let it boil, skiming it always, till it be very clean; Then put to every Gallon of water, one pound of the best Blew-raisins of the Sun, first clean picked from the stalks, and clean washed. Let them remain in the boiling Liquor, till they be throughly swollen and soft; Then take them out, and put them into a Hair-bag, and strain all the juice and pulp and substance from them in an Apothecaries Press; which put back into your liquor, and let it boil, till it be consumed just to the notch you took at first, for the measure of your water alone. Then let your Liquor run through a Hair-strainer into an empty Woodden-fat, which must stand endwise, with the head of the upper-end out; and there let it remain till the next day, that the liquor be quite cold. Then Tun it up into a good Barrel, not filled quite full, but within three or four fingers breadth; (where Sack hath been, is the best) and let the bung remain open for six weeks with a double bolter-cloth lying upon it, to keep out any foulness from falling in. Then stop it up close, and drink not of it till after nine months.

This Meathe is singularly good for a Consumption, Stone, Gravel, Weak-sight, and many more things. A Chief Burgomaster of Antwerpe, used for many years to drink no other drink but this; at Meals and all times, even for pledging of healths. And though He were an old man, he was of an extraordinary vigor every way, and had every year a Child, had always a great appetite, and good digestion; and yet was not fat.

A WEAKER, BUT VERY PLEASANT, MEATHE

To every quart of Honey take six of water; boil it till 1/3 be consumed, skiming it well all the while. Then pour it into an open Fat, and let it cool. When the heat is well slakened, break into a Bowl-full of this warm Liquor, a New-laid-egge, beating the yolk and white well with it; then put it into the Fat to all the rest of the Liquor, and stir it well together, and it will become very clear. Then pour it into a fit very clean Barrel, and put to it some Mother of Wine, that is in it's best fermentation or working, and this will make the Liquor work also. This will be ready to drink in three or four Months, or sooner.

AN EXCELLENT WHITE MEATHE

Take one Gallon of Honey, and four of water; Boil and scum them till there rise no more scum; then put in your Spice a little bruised, which is most of Cinnamon, a little Ginger, a little Mace, and a very little Cloves. Boil it with the Spice in it, till it bear an Egge. Then take it from the fire, and let it Cool in a Woodden vessel, till it be but lukewarm; which this quantity will be in four or five or six hours. Then put into it a hot tost of White-bread, spread over on both sides, pretty thick with fresh barm; that will make it presently work. Let it work twelve hours, close covered with Cloves. Then Tun it into a Runlet wherein Sack hath been, that is somewhat too big for that quantity of Liquor; for example, that it fill it not by a Gallon; You may then put a little Limon-pill in with it. After it hath remained in the vessel a week or ten days, draw it into Bottles. You may begin to drink it after two or three Months: But it will be better after a year. It will be very spritely and quick and pleasant and pure white.

A RECEIPT TO MAKE A TUN OF METHEGLIN

Take two handfuls of Dock (_alias_ wild Carrot) a reasonable burthen of Saxifrage, Wild-sage, Blew-button, Scabious, Bettony, Agrimony, Wild-marjoram, of each a reasonable burthen; Wild-thyme a Peck, Roots and all. All these are to be gathered in the fields, between the two Lady days in Harvest. The Garden-herbs are these; Bay-leaves, and Rosemary, of each two handfuls; a Sieveful of Avens, and as much Violet-leaves: A handful of Sage; three handfuls of Sweet-Marjoram, Three Roots of young Borrage, leaves and all, that hath not born seed; Two handfuls of Parsley-roots, and all that hath not born Seed. Two Roots of Elecampane that have not seeded: Two handfuls of Fennel that hath not seeded: A peck of Thyme; wash and pick all your herbs from filth and grass: Then put your field herbs first into the bottom of a clean Furnace, and lay all your Garden-herbs thereon; then fill your Furnace with clean water, letting your herbs seeth, till they be so tender, that you may easily slip off the skin of your Field-herbs, and that you may break the roots of your Garden-herbs between your Fingers. Then lade forth your Liquor, and set it a cooling. Then fill your Furnace again with clear water to these Herbs, and let them boil a quarter of an hour. Then put it to your first Liquor, filling the Furnace, until you have sufficient to fill your Tun. Then as your Liquor begins to cool, and is almost cold, set your servants to temper Honey and wax in it, Combs and all, and let them temper it well together, breaking the Combes very small; let their hands and nails be very clean; and when you have tempered it very well together, cleanse it through a cleansing sieve into another clean vessel; The more Honey you have in your Liquor, the stronger it will be. Therefore to know, when it is strong enough, take two New-laid eggs, when you begin to cleanse, and put them in whole into the bottome of your cleansed Liquor; And if it be strong enough, it will cause the Egge to ascend upward, and to be on the top as broad as sixpence; if they do not swim on the top; put more.

THE COUNTESS OF BULLINGBROOK'S WHITE METHEGLIN

Take eight Gallons of Conduit-water, and boil it very well; then put as much Honey in it, as will bear an Egge, and stir it well together. Then set it upon the fire, and put in the whites of four Eggs to clarifie it; And as the scum riseth, take it off clean: Then put in a pretty quantity of Rosemary, and let it boil, till it tasteth a little of it: Then with a scummer take out the Rosemary, as fast as you can, and let it boil half a quarter of an hour; put it into earthen pans to cool; next morning put it into a barrel, and put into it a little barm, and an Ounce of Ginger scraped and sliced; And let it stand a Month or six Weeks. Then bottle it up close; you must be sure not to let it stand at all in Brass.

MR. WEBBES MEATH

Master Webbe, who maketh the Kings Meathe, ordereth it thus. Take as much of Hyde-park water as will make a Hogshead of Meathe: Boil in it about two Ounces of the best Hopp's for about half an hour. By that time, the water will have drawn out the strength of the Hopp's. Then skim them clean off, and all the froth, or whatever riseth of the water. Then dissolve in it warm, about one part of Honey to six of water: Lave and beat it, till all the Honey be perfectly dissolved; Then boil it, beginning gently, till all the scum be risen, and scummed away. It must boil in all about two hours. Half an hour, before you end your boiling, put into it some Rosemary-tops, Thyme, Sweet-marjorame, one Sprig of Minth, in all about half a handful, and as much Sweet-bryar-leaves as all these; in all, about a handful of herbs, and two Ounces of sliced Ginger, and one Ounce of bruised Cinamon. He did use to put in a few Cloves and Mace; But the King did not care for them. Let all these boil about half an hour, then scum them clean away; and presently let the Liquor run through a strainer-cloth into a Kiver of wood, to cool and settle. When you see it is very clear and settled, lade out the Liquor into another Kiver, carefully, not to raise the settlings from the bottom. As soon as you see any dregs begin to rise, stay your hand, and let it remain unstirred, till all be settled down. Then lade out the Liquor again, as before; and if need be, change it again into another Kiver: all which is done to the end no dregs may go along with the Liquor in tunning it into the vessel. When it is cold and perfect clear, tun it into a Cask, that hath been used for Sack, and stop it up close, having an eye to give it a little vent, if it should work. If it cast out any foul Liquor in working, fill it up always presently with some of the same liquor, that you have kept in bottles for that end. When it hath wrought, and is well settled (which may be in about two months or ten weeks) draw it into Glass-bottles, as long as it comes clear; and it will be ready to drink in a Month or two: but will keep much longer, if you have occasion: and no dregs will be in the bottom of the bottle.

He since told me, that to this Proportion of Honey and water, to make a Hogshead of Meathe, you should boil half a pound of Hopps in the water, and two good handfuls of Herbs; and six Ounces of Spice of all sorts: All which will be mellowed and rotted away quite, (as well as the lushiousness of the Honey) in the space of a year or two. For this is to be kept so long before it be drunk.

If you would have it sooner ready to drink, you may work it with a little yeast, when it is almost cold in the Kiver: and Tun it up as soon as it begins to work, doing afterwards as is said before; but leaving a little vent to purge by, till it have done working. Or in stead of yeast, you may take the yolks of four New-laid-eggs, and almost half a pint of fine Wheat-flower, and some of the Liquor you have made: beat them well together, then put them to the Liquor in the Cask, and stop it up close, till you see it needful, to give it a little vent.

Note, that yeast of good Beer, is better then that of Ale.

* * * * *

The first of Septemb. 1663. Mr. Webb came to my House to make some for Me. He took fourty three Gallons of water, and fourty two pounds of Norfolk honey. As soon as the water boiled, He put into it a slight handful of Hops; which after it had boiled a little above a quarter of an hour, he skimed off; then put in the honey to the boyling water, and presently a white scum rose, which he skimed off still as it rose; which skiming was ended in little above a quarter of an hour more. Then he put in his herbs and spices, which were these: Rose-mary, Thyme, Winter-savory, Sweet-marjoram, Sweet-bryar-leaves, seven or eight little Parsley-roots: There was most of the Savoury, and least of the Eglantine, three Ounces of Ginger, one Ounce and a half of Cinnamon, five Nutmegs (half an Ounce of Cloves he would have added, but did not,) And these boiled an hour and a quarter longer; in all from the first beginning to boil, somewhat less then two hours: Then he presently laded it out of the Copper into Coolers, letting it run through a Hair-sieve: And set the Coolers shelving (tilted up) that the Liquor might afterwards run the more quietly out of them. After the Liquor had stood so about two hours, he poured or laded out of some of the Coolers very gently, that the dregs might not rise, into other Coolers. And about a pint of very thick dregs remained last in the bottom of every Cooler. That which ran out, was very clear: After two hours more settling, (in a shelving situation,) He poured it out again into other Coolers; and then very little dregs (or scarce any in some of the Coolers) did remain. When the Liquor was even almost cold, He took the yolks of three New-laid-eggs, a spoonful of fine white flower, and about half a pint of new fresh barm of good strong Beer (you must have care that your barm be very white and clean, not sullied and foul, as is usual among slovenly Brewers in London). Beat this very well together, with a little of the Liquor in a skiming dish, till you see it well incorporated, and that it beginneth to work. Then put it to a pailful (of about two Gallons and a half) of the Liquor, and mingle it well therewith. Then leave the skiming dish reversed floating in the middle of the Liquor, and so the yest will work up into and under the hollow of the dish, and grow out round about the sides without. He left this well and thick covered all night, from about eleven a clock at night; And the next morning, finding it had wrought very well, He mingled what was in the Pail with the whole proportion of the Liquor, and so Tunned it up into a Sack-cask. I am not satisfied, whether he did not put a spoonful of fine white good Mustard into his Barm, before he brought it hither, (for he took a pretext to look out some pure clean white barm) but he protested, there was nothing mingled with the barm, yet I am in doubt. He confessed to me that in making of Sider, He put's in half as much Mustard as Barm; but never in Meathe. The fourth of September in the morning, he Bottled up into Quart-bottles the two lesser Rundlets of this Meathe (for he did Tun the whole quantity into one large Rundlet, and two little ones) whereof the one contained thirty Bottles; and the other, twenty two. There remained but little settling or dregs in the Bottom's of the Barrels, but some there was. The Bottles were set into a cool Cellar, and He said they would be ready to drink in three weeks. The Proportion of Herbs and Spices is this; That there be so much as to drown the luscious sweetness of the Honey; but not so much as to taste of herbs or spice, when you drink the Meathe. But that the sweetnes of the honey may kill their taste: And so the Meathe have a pleasant taste, but not of herbs, nor spice, nor honey. And therefore you put more or less according to the time you will drink it in. For a great deal will be mellowed away in a year, that would be ungratefully strong in three months. And the honey that will make it keep a year or two, will require a triple proportion of spice and herbs. He commends Parsley roots to be in greatest quantity, boiled whole, if young; but quarterred and pithed, if great and old.

MY OWN CONSIDERATIONS FOR MAKING OF MEATHE

Boil what quantity of Spring-water you please, three or four walms, and then let it set the twenty four hours, and pour the clear from the settling. Take sixteen Gallons of the clear, and boil in it ten handfuls of Eglantine-leaves, five of Liverwort, five of Scabious, four of Baulm, four of Rosemary; two of Bay-leaves; one of Thyme, and one of Sweet-marjoram, and five Eringo-roots splitted. When the water hath drawn out the vertue of the herbs (which it will do in half an hours boiling,) let it run through a strainer or sieve, and let it settle so, that you may pour the clear from the Dregs. To every three Gallons of the Clear, take one of Honey, and with clean Arms stripped up, lade it for two or three hours, to dissolve the honey in the water; lade it twice or thrice that day. The next day boil it very gently to make the scum rise, and scum it all the while, and now and then pour to it a ladle full of cold water, which will make the scum rise more: when it is very clear from scum, you may boil it the more strongly, till it bear an Egge very high, that the breadth of a groat be out of the water, and that it boil high with great walms in the middle of the Kettle: which boiling with great Bubbles in the middle is a sign it is boiled to it's height. Then let it cool till it be Lukewarm, at which time put some Ale yest into it, to make it work, as you would do Ale. And then put it up into a fit Barrel first seasoned with some good sweet White-wine (as Canary-sack) and keep the bung open, till it have done working, filling it up with some such honey-drink warmed, as you find it sink down by working over. When it hath almost done working, put into it a bag of thin stuff (such as Bakers use to bolt in) fastened by a Cord at the bung, containing two parts of Ginger-sliced, and one apiece of Cinamon, Cloves and Nutmegs, with a Pebble-stone in it to make it sink; And stop it up close for six Months or a year, and then you may draw it into bottles. If you like Cardamon-seeds, you may adde some of them to the spices. Some do like Mint exceedingly to be added to the other herbs. Where no yeast is to be had, The Liquor will work if you set it some days in the hot Sun (with a cover, like the roof of a house over it, to keep wet out, if it chance to rain) but then you must have great care, to fill it up, as it consumeth, and to stop it close a little before it hath done working, and to set it then presently in a Cool Cellar. I am told that the Leaven of bread will make it work as well as yest, but I have not tryed it. If you will not have it so strong, it will be much sooner ready to drink; As if you take six parts of water to one of Honey. Some do like the drink better without either herbs or spices, and it will be much the whiter. If you will have it stronger, put but four Gallons and a half of water to one of honey.

You may use what Herbs or Roots you please, either for their tast or vertue, after the manner here set down.

If you make it work with yeast, you must have great care, to draw it into bottles soon after it hath done working, as after a fortnight or three weeks. For that will make it soon grow stale, and it will thence grow sower and dead before you are aware. But if it work singly of itself, and by help of the Sun without admixtion of either Leaven or Yeast, it may be kept long in the Barrel, so it be filled up to the top, and kept very close stopp'd.

I conceive it will be exceeding good thus: when you have a strong Honey-liquor of three parts of water to one of Honey, well-boiled and scummed, put into it Lukewarm, or better (as soon as you take it from the fire) some Clove-gilly-flowers, first wiped, and all the whites clipped off, one good handful or two to every Gallon of Liquor. Let these infuse 30 or 40 hours. Then strain it from the flowers, and either work it with yeast, or set it in the Sun to work; when it hath almost done working, put into it a bag of like Gilly-flowers (and if they are duly dried, I think they are the better) hanging it in at the bung. And if you will put into it some spirit of wine, that hath drawn a high Tincture from Clove-gilly-flowers (dried I conceive is best) and some other that hath done the like from flowers and tops of Rosemary, and some that hath done the like from Cinnamon and Ginger, I believe it will be much the nobler, and last the longer.

I conceive, that bitter and strong herbs, as Rosemary, Bayes, Sweet-marjoram, Thyme, and the like, do conserve Meathe the better and longer, being as it were in stead of hops. But neither must they, no more than Clove-gilly-flowers, be too much boiled: For the Volatil pure Spirit flies away very quickly. Therefore rather infuse them. Beware of infusing Gillyflower in any vessel of Metal, (excepting silver:) For all Metals will spoil and dead their colour. Glased earth is best.

SACK WITH CLOVE-GILLY FLOWERS

If you will make a Cordial Liquor of Sack with Clove-gilly-flowers, you must do thus. Prepare your Gilly-flowers, as is said before, and put them into great double glass-bottles, that hold two gallons a piece, or more; and put to every gallon of Sack, a good half pound of the wiped and cut flowers, putting in the flowers first, and then the Sack upon them. Stop the glasses exceeding close, and set them in a temperate Cellar. Let them stand so, till you see that the Sack hath drawn out all the principal tincture from them, and that the flowers begin to look palish; (with an eye of pale, or faint in Colour) Then pour the Sack from them, and throw away the exhausted flowers, or distil a spirit from them; For if you let them remain longer in the Sack, they will give an earthy tast to them. You may then put the tincted Sack into fit bottles for your use, stopping them very close. But if the season of the flowers be not yet past, your Sack will be better, if you put it upon new flowers, which I conceive will not be the worse, but peradventure the better, if they be a little dried in the shade. If you drink a Glass or two of this sack at a meal, you will find it a great Cordial.

Upon better consideration; I conceive the best way of making Hydromel with Clove-gilly-flowers, is thus: Boil your simple Liquor to its full height (with three parts of water to one of Honey), take a small parcel out, to make a strong infusion of flowers, pouring it boyling hot upon the flowers in earthen vessels. If you have great quantity, as six to one, of Liquor, you will easily draw out the tincture in fourteen or sixteen hours infusion; otherwise you may quicken your liquor with a parcel of Sack. In the mean time make the great quantity of Liquor work with yest. When it hath almost done fermenting, but not quite, put the infusion to it warm, and let it ferment more if it will. When that is almost done, put to it a bag with flowers to hang in the bung.