conveys a false idea of the Scandinavian's festive goblets, which were certainly, generally speaking, the horns of oxen, which at times were accoutred with silver. But it is highly probable that the glass cornets occasionally discovered in the Anglo-Saxon barrows were frequently filled with the favourite metheglin.

It is uncertain when the ordinary mead cup came into vogue, but it positively dates back to the seventeenth century, and is probably of much older date. In some respects it may be likened to the Roman calix, inasmuch as it is broader than it is high, and contracts at the mouth like the old Bohemian hock-glasses. In a seventeenth-century 12mo work, the title-page of which is unfortunately lost, which appears to be a sort of pictorial encyclopedia in Dutch and Latin, wine is figuratively expressed by a tall glass, beer by a Wiederkomman, and mead by a low cup, wide in proportion to its height,

rather contracted at the mouth, and standing on a flat foot, p. 252.

I possess a fine example of a mead cup of the seventeenth century, 24 ins. high, 3 ins. in diameter at its

Mead Cup of White Glass.
(Cuming Collection.)

greatest swell, and 23 ins. in diameter at the mouth. It is of colourless transparent glass, the whole surface displaying a bold reticulated pattern, much like that seen on some of the Roman vitrea of the third and fourth centuries. This rare cup is thought by some to be of

foreign fabric, but I know no reason why it should not be of English manufacture, p. 255.

I have another mead cup, of somewhat later date than the foregoing, which is said to be of German origin. The bowl is of milk-white hue, 211 ins. deep, 4 ins. in diameter at its greatest swell, and 3 ins. in diameter at the mouth. It stands on a short, thick, annulated stem, with a foot 3 ins. in diameter, making the entire height of the vessel 43 ins.; the stem and foot being of transparent glass; and the under surface of the latter indicates that it has been pushed about the festive board for a lengthy time.

Samuel Pepys extols the ice-cooled metheglin which King Charles II and himself found so refreshing at Whitehall, on July 27th, 1666, but says nothing about the vessels out of which the "most brave drink" was taken.

Though these desultory notes do not record the name of the inventor of mead, they fully establish the high antiquity of the beloved beverage, and trace its career from the simple hydromel, the honey-water of the classic ages, to the rich spicy compound of medieval and later times, when “metheglin" was its familiar title. They also show that the vessels out of which mead was quaffed were of different shapes, and wrought of metal, horn, wood and glass. In these degenerate days, if mead can be obtained in some far remote country cottage, the thirsty soul must be content to drink it out of a common earthen mug or glass tumbler of ordinary type, and look not for the golden cup and silver-mounted horn, nor treen beaker adorned with graven work, such as his ancestors indulged in.

NOTES ON THE PARISH OF GRESSINGHAM,

CO. LANCS.

BY T. CANN HUGHES, M.A.
(LOCAL MEMBER OF COUNCIL FOR LANCASHIRE).

(Read May 18th, 1898.)

HE village which is the subject of this paper is situated about seven miles from the old county town of Lancaster. It is reached from that town by the Midland Railway. From the Green Ayre station. a good view is obtained of the group composed of the ancient castle of Lancaster and the adjoining parish church of St. Mary. At the first station from Lancaster the village of Halton is reached. Here is a church whose foundation is even earlier than that of the church of Lancaster. In the churchyard may be seen the handsome cross which has received such ample elucidation in our Journal and elsewhere at the capable hands of the Bishop of Bristol, Mr. Romilly Allen, Mr. Holme Nicholson, Dr. ColleyMarch, and other antiquaries. Adjoining the church is the castle mound of Halton, and on the opposite side of the road the ancient building known as Halton Hall, where is preserved one of the finest Roman altars found in this neighbourhood. On the moor above Halton was found the silver drinking-cup which is now preserved in the British Museum, and which has received full attention in the pages of Archæologia.

Just

The train pursues its way up the valley of the Lune, which, between Halton and the next stopping-place at Caton, passes the beautiful Crook of Lune. beyond Caton station, on the right-hand side, may be observed in the distance the church of Brookhouse, restored some years ago by Messrs. Paley and Austin,

Embedded

the well-known Lancaster church architects. in the external west wall of the north aisle are several fragments of monuments from the older church, and on one of these is an inscription which has, for many years past, been a puzzle to antiquaries. It was well treated some few years ago by my co-representative from Lancashire on the Association Council (Mr. W. O. Roper, F.S.A.), in his paper published in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society.

At some further distance beyond Caton may be observed, again on the right-hand side of the line, the ancient hall of Claughton with its adjacent church, in the belfry of which is preserved the oldest dated bell known in England. This has been illustrated and fully described in the Palatine Notebook, by Mr. Robert Langton, F.R. H.S. The credit of its discovery is due to that courteous antiquary, the Rev. W. B. Grenside, the vicar of Melling.

We alight from the train at the station of Hornby, within sight of the fine castellated mansion of Colonel Foster, the member for the Lancaster division. Immediately after leaving the station may be found, on the left-hand side, one of those curious ancient door-lintels so prevalent in North Lancashire. Passing on through the village and crossing the Lune by Hornby Bridge, and passing the main entrance to the castle, we arrive, at the righthand side, at the parish church of Hornby, with its octagonal tower so intimately associated with the Stanley family. In the churchyard is a curious four-square stone, about 5 ft. high, on each face of which is sculptured a circular arch. It appears that at one time it was surmounted with a sun-dial, but the base itself is considerably older than such a use would imply. Just outside the church is the base of what has been an ancient cross. A similar base exists in the adjacent parish of Claughton. Leaving the church we pass onwards, noticing on the left Hornby Hall, the residence of F. A. Darwin, Esq., the clerk to the West Riding County Council. Some mile further on may be observed, on the right-hand side, just before we cross the Lune by the Gressingham or Loyne Bridge, the ancient Gressingham Mound, particulars of which will be found in a recent volume of the