let it stand six months, then peg it and see if it be fine, if it is, bottle it, if not, stop it for six months longer, and then bottle it: the longer it is kept the better it will be: it is necessary you put in bay leaves with your brandy.
To make bitter Wine.
Take two quarts of strong white wine, infuse in it one drachm of rhubarb, a drachm and an half of gentian root, Roman wormwood, tops of carduus, centaury, and camomile flowers, of each three drachms; yellow peel of oranges, half an ounce; nutmegs, mace, and cloves, of each one drachm; infuse all forty-eight hours, strain it, and drink a glass an hour before dinner.
To make Mead.
Having got thirteen gallons of water, put thirty pounds of honey to it, boil and scum it well; then take rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and sweet briar, one handful all together, boil it an hour; then put it into a tub, with two or three handfuls of ground malt; stir it till it is blood-warm; then strain it through a cloth, and put it into a tub again; cut a toast round a quartern loaf, and spread it over with good ale yeast, and put it into your tub; and when the liquor is quite over with the yeast, put it into your vessel; then take of cloves, mace and nutmegs, an ounce and an half; of ginger sliced, an ounce; bruise the spice, tie it up in a rag, and hang it in the vessel; then stop it up close for use.
