Chad boasted its own "vineyard," where grapes flourished in abundance, and ripened in the autumn as they will not do now.
Nothing, perhaps, shows more clearly the change that has passed upon our climate by slow degrees than a study of the parish records of ancient days.

Vineyards were common enough in England some hundreds of years ago, and wine was made from the produce as regularly as the season came round.

Then there were the simpler fruit wines from gooseberries, currants, and elderberries, to say nothing of cowslip wine and other light beverages which it was the pride of the mistress to contrive and to excel in the making.

Our forefathers, though they knew nothing of the luxuries of tea and coffee, were by no means addicted to the drinking of water.
Considering the sanitary conditions in which they lived in those days, and the fearful contamination of water which frequently prevailed, and which doubtless had much to do with the spread of the Black Death and other like visitations, this was no doubt an advantage.

Still there were drawbacks to the habit of constant quaffing of fermented drinks at all hours of the day, and it was often a difficult matter to keep in check the sin of drunkenness that prevailed amongst all classes of the people.
At Chad the gentle influence of the lady of the manor had done much to make this household an improvement on many of its neighbours.
Although there was always abundance of good things and a liberal hospitality to strangers of all sorts, it was not often that any unseemly roistering disturbed the inmates of Chad.