more commonly used; and the vine was extensively cultivated in England. Nevertheless, the people held to the beverage of their forefathers with great pertinacity; and neither the juice of the grape, nor of the apple, were ever general favourites. On the contrary, the love of ale increased, so that, in the time of Henry III. in 1256, its manufacture had become of such consequence, that the price of it was fixed in proportion to that of corn and wine, and that a brewer might sell two gallons of it for a penny in cities, and three or four for the same price in the country. The penny of that time was worth about three-pence of the currency in the time of Hume, the historian, from whom this last fact is taken. Holinshed calculates the first cost of ten score gallons of beer in his day, about the year 1550, at twenty shillings, that is, not quite one penny farthing per gallon. It may here be mentioned that brewers were formerly women, and that ancient brewhouses had troughs of lead usually placed on the ground. Shopkeepers in some towns were forbidden to brew for fear of fires; and in the feudal times were obliged to buy the permission. The English beer was said. to be the best in Europe; though the beer drunk at the tables of persons of consequence, was generally but a year old, and brewed in March; that of the household was not drunk under a month, each desiring to have it stale, though not sour. That ale had now become the characteristic beverage of English yeomen is attested by Camden, about the year 1586, writing of the "old ale knights of England." Hitherto hops had not entered into the composition of beer; but early in the fourteenth century, they were introduced by the brewers of the Netherlands with great success; from them we adopted the practice, and they came into general use about two centuries afterwards. It has been affirmed that Henry VI. forbade the planting of hops; but, it is more certain that Henry VIII. forbade brewers to put either sulphur or hops in their ale. The taste of the nation changed in the reign of Edward VI. as we find in the records of that time privileges granted to hopgrounds; and the introduction of hops is dated about 1524, and thus noticed by an old writer: Hops, reformation, bays, and beer*, Came into England all in one year. From this line it has been inferred that the use of hops first gave the drink the name of beer, to distinguish it from the ancient and softer malt liquor called ale. Thus, in a book published in 1616, it is said "The general use is by no means to put any hops in ale: making that the difference between it and beer, that the one hath hops, the other none; but the wiser housewives do find an error in that opinion, and say that the utter want of hops is the reason why ale lasteth so little a time, but either dyeth or soureth, and therefore, * Or, in Baker's Chronicles: Turkies, carps, hoppes, piccarell, and beere. they will to every barrel of the best ale allow half a pound of good hops." Tusser, the celebrated writer on husbandry, had sung the praises of the hop about half a century before, thus: The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink and it flavoureth malt; In another work, published in 1649, we find further mention of the introduction of hops as follows: "Hops were then grown to be a national commodity; but it was not many years since the famous city of London petitioned the parliament of England against two nuisances; and these were Newcastle coals, in regard to their stench; and hops, in regard they would spoyl the taste of drink, and endanger the people." How greatly the consumption of hops and malt must have increased with the population, may be learned by these important facts. In the year 1830, there were forty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven acres occupied in the cultivation of hops in Great Britain. Of barley, there are above thirty million bushels annually converted into malt in Great Britain, and more than eight million barrels of beer, of which, fourfifths are strong beer, are brewed yearly. As ale became the national beverage of England, its manufacture was improved, and our forefathers became celebrated for the excellence of their ales, their variety and richness. Thus, old writers enumerate many sorts, as Stepney, Stitchback, Hall, Derby (in high repute two centuries and a half ago), Northdown, Nottingham, Sandbach, Betony, Scurvy-grass, Sageale, College-ale, China-ale, Butler's-ale, &c. Of these ales, Nottingham is best known in the present day; but others have risen to almost equal celebrity, as Burton, Dorchester, Taunton, Kennett (Wilts), Birmingham, Scottish, and Welsh ales. These varieties result from many causes, as difference in the natural ingredients, and the process of manufacture; as the various properties of water in different parts of the country, the water becoming impregnated with the substance, rock, or soil through which it flows; to which are added the respective modes of malting, quantities, and brewing. Hard water is preferable: thus, the Trent running over a rock of gypsum, or carbonate of lime, produces the best ale, and Burton, Nottingham, and other towns on this river are unrivalled; while the same brewer cannot, with the same malt, produce an equal beer in any other part of the kingdom. The Barnstaple and Liverpool ales, and some others also of excellent quality, are brewed with hard water. The Derby malt, much used in Lancashire, is found to make better beer in that county than in Derbyshire; and it may be supposed that the Lancashire waters, generally containing much carbonate and sulphate of lime, occasion the difference. To return to ancient ales. Such as were me dicated, were those wherein medicinal herbs were infused or added during the fermentation. Gill ale is that in which the dried leaves of gill, or ground ivy, have been infused; and was esteemed in disorders of the breast and obstructions of the viscera. It was formerly customary to give a bowl of medicated or spiced ale to a criminal, on his road to execution; and from time immemorial it has been customary for the lord mayor of London to call at Newgate, and drink a cool tankard" with the governor, on his way to proclaim Bartholomew Fair; the contents of this tankard anciently being medicated ale or wine; though, in all probability, the "cool tankard" visit of our times implies a well-appointed déjeuné à la fourchette. Ale likewise formed an important luxury in the wasteful banquets of the sovereigns and prelates of by-gone ages. Thus, at Archbishop Nevill's installation feast, in the reign of Edward IV. (1470), the guests had the liberal allowance of three hundred tuns of ale, and one hundred tuns of wine; that is, in all, above one hundred thousand quarts of liquor. Hume relates that at the Earl of Leicester's magnificent entertainment to Queen Elizabeth, in Kenilworth Castle, there were drunk three hundred and sixty-five hogsheads of beer, or twenty-three thousand gallons-an almost incredible quantity. We likewise find ale in the chimney-corner of the cottage as well as in the courtly banquet; and so general was this taste, that the word ale, in composition with other words, is used by some ancient English |