The Isle of Ely also was in the first times of the Normans
called Le Ile des Vignes. And good record appeareth that the bishop
there had yearly three or four tun at the least given him _nomine
decimae_, beside whatsoever over-sum of the liquor did accrue to him
by leases and other excheats whereof also I have seen mention.
Wherefore our soil is not to be blamed, as though our nights were so
exceeding short that in August and September the moon, which is lady
of moisture and chief ripener of this liquor, cannot in any wise
shine long enough upon the same: a very mere toy and fable, right
worthy to be suppressed, because experience convinceth the upholders
thereof even in the Rhenish wines.
The time hath been also that woad, wherewith our countrymen dyed
their faces (as Caesar saith), that they might seem terrible to their
enemies in the field (and also women and their daughters-in-law did
stain their bodies and go naked, in that pickle, to the sacrifices of
their gods, coveting to resemble therein the Ethiopians, as Pliny
saith, [lib. 22, cap. 1]), and also madder have been (next unto our
tin and wools) the chief commodities and merchandise of this realm, I
find also that rape oil hath been made within this land.
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