Note 612 — Chapter VIII · THE MAY-GAME
Reading edition
Cf. p. 91. On Scot-ale, cf. Ducange, s. v. Scotallum; Archaeologia, xii. 11; H. T. Riley, Munimenta Gildhallae Londin. (R. S.), ii. 760. The term first appears as the name of a tax, as in a Northampton charter of 1189 (Markham-Cox, Northampton Borough Records, i. 26) ‘concessimus quod sint quieti de ... Brudtol et de Childwite et de hieresgiue et de Scottale, ita quod Prepositus Northamptonie ut aliquis alius Ballivus scottale non faciat’; cf. the thirteenth-century examples quoted by Ducange. The Council of Lambeth (1206), c. 2, clearly defines the term as ‘communes potationes,’ and the primary sense is therefore probably that of an ale at which a scot or tax is raised.