I should think so.
This is what Howell (Clerk to the Privy Council in 1640) wrote about metheglin:—
The juice of Bees, not Bacchus, here behold,
Which British Bards were wont to quaff of old;
The berries of the grape with Furies swell,
But in the honeycomb the Graces dwell.
“Neither Sir John Barleycorn or Bacchus had anything to do with it, but it is the pure juice of the bee, the laborious bee, and the king of insects; the Druids and old British Bards were wont to take a carouse hereof before they entered into their speculations. But this drink always carried a kind of state with it, for it must be attended with a brown toast; nor will it admit but of one good draught, and that in the morning; if more it will keep a humming in the head, and so speak too much of the house it comes from, I mean the hive.”
M’yes. I question the advisability of any sort {30} of carouse before entering into speculations; more especially if Tattersall’s Ring be the scene of your speculations, and you intend getting back your losses.
There is no doubt that metheglin was the favourite drink of the Ancient Britons.