Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/227

 or fifty of perry. These liquors seemed to have been kept in butts, hogsheads, and runlets. A great quantity of peach and apple brandy was also manufactured.

In addition to beer and ale, the liquors most generally used by the wealthier planters in the early history of the Colony were sack and aquavit&aelig;. With the passage of time, madeira became the most popular form of spirits with the members of this class in use at meals, and punch, manufactured either from West Indian rum or apple or peach brandy, at other times. The people at large drank rum or brandy if a strong drink was desired. Mathegelin, a mixture of honey and water, was also consumed. Among the lighter wines in use were claret, fayal, and Rhenish. It is a fact of curious interest, from our present point of view, that the rarest French, Portuguese, and Spanish wines and brandies were found in the ordinaries of Virginia in the seventeenth century, and the rates at which they were disposed of were carefully fixed by law. Where now only