tory of Shakespeare's carouse, and his night passed under a
crab-tree near Bidford, about six miles from Aldington, is well known.
It is stated, but not without contradiction, that he excused himself
by explaining that he had been drinking with:

Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillborough, hungry Grafton,
Dudging Exhall, papist Wixford,
Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford.

A carousal at all these places would have been a heavy day's work, and
I have often thought that if the lines can really be attributed to
him, he might have meant that he had met people from all the villages
at one of the Whitsuntide merry-makings annually held in the
neighbourhood, and passed a jovial time in their company.

Perry is made in much the same way as cider, and when due care has
been taken in its manufacture, it is a most delicious and wholesome
drink. When bottled and kept to mature it pours out with a beautiful
creaming head, and is far superior to ordinary champagne. Both cider
and perry should be drunk out of a china or earthenware mug, whence
they taste much richer than from glass; but my men always used in the
field a small horn cup or "tot," holding about quarter of a pint. I
have a very interesting old cider cup, of Fulham or Lambeth
earthenware I think, holding about a quart, with three handles, each
of which is a greyhound with body bent to form the loop for the hand.
It was intended for the use of three persons sitting together at a
small three-cornered oak table, specimens of which are still, though
rarely, met with at furniture sales in farm-houses or cottages; the
cup was placed in the middle, and each person could take a pull by
using his particular handle with the adjacent place for his lips,
without passing the cup round or using the same drinking space as
another.

There are numerous kinds of perry pears, but certain sorts have a
great reputation, such as Moorcroft, Barland, Malvern Hills, Longdon,
Red Horse, Mother Huff Cap, and Chate Boy (cheat boy), a particularly
astringent pear; these are all small, and require quickly grinding
when gathered. In the New Forest there is a perry pear similar to the
Chate Boy, called Choke Dog, which in its natural state, is quite as
rough on the palate as the former, but it differs in colour and is not
the same sort. I had a splendid specimen of the Chate Boy pear-tree at
an outlying set of buildings, said to be the father of all the trees
of that