Two townes full of lovedrink.
Thus have arisen such words as ‘tunnel’ or ‘tun-dish,’ the vessel with broad rim and narrow neck, used for transferring the wine from cask to bottle. That our nomenclature should possess tokens of all this was inevitable. We find such names as ‘Edmund le Tonder’ (F.F.),[[389]] ‘William Tunder’ (F.F.), ‘William le Toneleur’ (H.), ‘William le Tonier’ (H.), ‘Richard le Tundur’ (T.), ‘Hugh le Tunder’ (A.), or ‘Ralph le Toneler’ (A.) Till the close of the fifteenth century wine of home-production was the common drink, for, though beer was not by any means unknown to us, it was not till the Flemings brought us the hop that it became a familiar beverage. We all know the old couplet—
Hops, Reformation, baize, and beer,
Came into England all in one year.
Previous to this various bitter ingredients had been admixtured, chiefly, however, wormwood. ‘John de la Bruere’ or ‘William de Bruario’ are the local surnames met with in early records.
But we have been wandering. The Mayor of York in 1273 was ‘John le Espicer, aut Apotecarius’[[390]] (so the record is put), and while the two trades were distinct in character, there can be no doubt at the period referred to there would be much in common between them. The one would sell certain spices and drugs as ingredients for dishes, while the other disposed of the same for medicinal uses. Our ‘Potticarys,’ of course, represent the latter. The term itself, professionally speaking, is fast becoming obsolete, having been forced into the background by our ‘chemists’ and ‘druggists.’ But in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was the one name for all such. In the ‘Pardoner’s Tale’ the abbreviated form[[391]] is familiarly used—
And forth he goth, no longer would he tarry,
Into the town unto a Potecary,
And praied him that he him wolde sell
Some poison, that he might his ratouns (rats) quell.