It is necessary to observe that the wines then common in England and Wales were of a very different quality from those now in use amongst the higher classes in this country; and unless we keep this fact in view we shall be apt to imagine that our ancestors were guilty of excesses that are not imputable to them. So far back as the year 1154 (on the accession of the Platagenet race) the English government gained possession of Bordeaux and some other important districts in the south-west of France, which they retained, nearly without interruption, for three centuries. Hence this kingdom was amply supplied with the light wines of France.
The bard and Morvyth were united in a manner not uncommon in those days: they repaired to the grove with their friend Madog Benfras, an eminent bard, who exercised the sacred functions on this occasion, in the presence only of the winged choristers of the woods; one of which, the thrush—the bride-groom says—was the clerk. They now considered themselves as one, and their subsequent conduct confirmed it in every respect; but the relations of Morvyth, disliking the union, encouraged a wealthy decrepid old man, Cynfrig Cynin[1], before alluded to, to become a rival of the bard; and they concerted their plan so well as to take Morvyth away from the latter, and to get her formally married to Cynfrig Cynin, agreeably to the rules of the church[2]. But the
