>From Bell's Weekly Messenger ( London, England ), Sunday, May 28, 1797; Issue 57. ANECDOTE. ORIGIN OF DRINKING HEALTHS. In this country was pertinent and sensible Rowena, a beautiful daughter of HENGISTUS, General of the Saxons, who having the Isle of Thanet given him by King VORTIGERN for assisting against the Picts and Scots, obtained as much ground as he could encompass with an ox's hide to build a castle, which being completed, he invited VORTIGERN to supper: after the entertainment, HENGIST called for his daughter Rowena, who entered with great dignity and magnificence, carrying a golden bowl full of wine in her hand, out of which she drank, and in the Saxon language said, "Be of health, Lord King." To this VORTIGERN replied, "drink health." This is the first health which we hear of in history, and boasts an antiquity of "thirteen hundred years." The story adds, that the King VORTIGERN, enamoured with Rowena's beauty, married her in a short time after, and gave her father the whole kingdom of Kent.