r dishes were then used, the
composition of which is now unknown, or doubtful. Persons of rank and
wealth had variety of drinks, as well as meats; for, besides wines of
various kinds, they had pigment, morat, mead, hypocras, claret, cider,
perry, and ale. The claret of those times was wine clarified and mixed
with spices, and hypocras was wine mixed with honey.

[Illustration: A COOK OF THE PERIOD.]

The profusion of viands and drinks, obtained at great expense from
different parts of the world for the gratification of the animal
appetites at such festivals as have been described, naturally led to

EXCESSES IN EATING AND DRINKING,

and from the statements and illustrations in old manuscripts it would
appear that "the merry monks" were prominent in gastronomical circles.
And extant records also state that the abbots of some of the
monasteries found it necessary to make regulations restraining the
monks, and to these regulations the monks objected. Consequently the
monks of St. Swithin at Winchester made a formal complaint to Henry
II. against their abbot for taking away three of the thirteen dishes
they used to have at dinner. The monks of Canterbury were still more
luxurious, for they had at least seventeen dishes every day besides a
dessert; and these dishes were dressed with spices and sauces which
excited the appetite as well as pleased the taste. And of course the
festive season of Christmas was an occasion of special indulgence.
Sometimes serious excesses were followed by severe discipline,
administered after the manner shown in the ancient illustration which
is reproduced here.

[Illustration: MONK UNDERGOING DISCIPLINE.]

But these excesses were by no means confined to the monks. The Norman
barons and gentry adopted many of the manners of the English among
whom they lived, and especially was this the case in regard to the
drinking customs of Christmastide. Instead of commending the Normans
of his time for their sobriety, as he might have done their ancestors,
Peter of Blois, who was chaplain to Henry II., says: "When you behold
our barons and knights going upon a military expedition you see their
baggage horses loaded, not with iron but wine, not with lances but
cheeses, not with swords but bottles, not with spears but spits. You
would imagine they were going to prepare a great feast rather than to
make war. There are even too many who boast of their excessive
drunkenness and gluttony, and labour to acqu