Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/239

tot THE HI'S * 6 RY &wkL lord with his family and his guefts about him, ail l&eniftg to the hiftorical fong and the five-ftrfciged harp of his bards or to the fongs and the harps of his daughters, and all drinking from cups of fhell 8 . The venifon of the Britons was prepared in a manner equally curious and artful. It was laid upon a bed of flaming fern, and it was covered with a layer of fmooth flat (tones and another of fern above it *. And their ordinary liquors were only water, milk, or metheglin * But upon all feftival occafioris they drank that well-known beverage which was then denominated 'Curmi and is now denominated Cufwi by the Wfelch and Ale by the Englifti ". This liquor, originally the fubftitute of wine in fuch countries as could not produce the grape, was ofigihaliy made in Egypt, the nrft planted country in the difperfibtt from the eaft that was founcl unable to produce it * And as the great Noachkn colonies pierced further into the weft, they found or thought they found the fame defe&, and fupplied it in the fame manner. Thus the natives of Spain the inhabitants ojf France and the aborigines of Britain all ufed an infufion of barley for their ordinary liquor, which was called l^y the. various names of Caclia and Ceria in Spain of Cervifia in France and ojf Curmi in England^ all literally importing only the ftrong water 13 ^ This was more ^particularly the drink of the Britons. And this alone was tranfmitt^d from hand to hand in their cups of flieilj when they ferffted with their chief, when the bujriaing oak lighted up the circuit of his hall, and when th£ winds whittle^ through his Open windows I+ * With this wtry chief muft have been Sufficiently provided^ thd -barltfy being undoubtedly brought mpo Lancashire frpip the more fotftherly regions of the ifland, and bei^T^gul^rly. ex- changed with the Siftuntians for their cattle. For fcch or a fimilar comrtidrce only could the Siftuntians have maintained half their numerous herds of cattle, as they appear to have lived equally upon venifon as them."* And fuch a commerce appears to have been dually carried on, even, after the arrival; of the Romans, to the extremeft boundaries of the north 16 . Each chief