In Part collected by the late J. G. F ENNELL ; now largely augmented with manifold matters of singular note and worthy memory by the Author and his friend J. M. D——. T HAT the history and curiosities of Ale and Beer should fill a bulky volume, may be a sub­ject for surprise to the un­think­ing read­er; and that sur­prise will probably be intens­i­fied, on his learning that great dif­fi­cul­ty has been ex­perienced in keep­ing this book within reason­able limits, and at the same time doing any­th

Some years ago this strange neglect of so excellent a theme was observed by the late John Greville Fennell, best known as a contributor to The Field , and who, like “John of the Dale,” was a “lover of ale.” With him probably originated the idea of filling this void in our literature. As occasion offered he made extracts from works bearing on the subject, and in time amassed a considerable amount of material, which was, however, devoid of arrangement. Old age overtaking him before he was able to

“Bere is made of malte, of hoppes, and water; it is the naturall drynke for a Dutche man, and nowe of late dayes it is moche vsed in Englande to the detryment of many Englysshe people; specyally it kylleth them the which be troubled with the colycke, and the stone, and the strangulion; for the drynke is a colde drynke; yet it doth make a man fat, and doth inflate the bely, as it doth appere by the Dutche men’s faces and belyes. If the bere be well serued, and be fyned, and not new, it doth qualy

“What hath been and now is used by the English, as well since the Conquest, as in the days of the Britons, Saxons and Danes.”— Drinke and Welcome.—Taylor. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF ALE AND BEER W E must go back several thousand years into the past to trace the origin of our modern ale and beer. The ancient Egyptians, as we learn from the Book of the Dead , a treatise at least 5,000 years old, understood the manufacture of an intoxicating liquor from grain. This liquor they called hek , and under t

HOME-BREWED ALES. — OLD RECEIPTS. — HISTORICAL FACTS. — DEAN SWIFT ON HOME-BREW. — CHRISTOPHER NORTH’S BREW-HOUSE. H OGARTH’S Farmer’s Return re­pre­sents the worthy man just come in from his mor­ning round or from dis­tant mar­ket town. As he rests awhile in the farm­house kitch­en he draws sweet solace from the pipe brought him by his daugh­ter, while he eyes with keen ex­pec­tance the jug of foam­ing home-brew which his bux­om wife, in her hur­ry to serve her lord, is spil­ling on the tiled f

USE AND IMPORTANCE OF HOPS IN BEER: THEIR INTRO­DUC­TION AND HIS­TORY. — HOP-GROW­ERS’ TROU­BLES. — MED­IC­INAL QUALITIES. — ECO­NOM­I­CAL USES. — HOP-PICK­ERS. T HE hops used in beer-brewing are the female flowers of the hop plant known to botanists as the Humulus lupulus of Linnæus. At first sight it may seem strange that hops and wolves should have anything in common, but it has been explained that the word lupulus comes from the name by which the Romans called the hop plant— Lupus Salictariu

J ACK C ADE —“There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny, the three hooped pot shall have seven hoops, and I will make it felony to drink small beer.” — Hen. VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 2. ANCIENT AND CURIOUS LAWS RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF ALE AND BEER. K INGS, Par­lia­ments and Lo­cal Au­thor­i­ties have, from very early times up to the pre­sent, more or less in­ter­fered with the pro­duc­tion and sale of al­co­ho­lic li­quors. As a rule, the laws and reg­u­

BREWING AND MALTING IN EARLY TIMES. — THE ALE-WIVES. — THE BREWERS OF OLD LONDON AND THE BREWERS’ COMPANY. — ANECDOTES. — QUAINT EPITAPHS. I T seemeth well that before we record the doings of departed brewers, brewsters, and ale-wives, a page or so should be devoted to the two principal ingredients—malt and water—used by those ancient worthies in compounding their “merrie-goe-downe.” Old Fuller thus moralizes on the art of malting:—“Though commonness causeth contempt, excellent the Art of first

“The Almaynes with their smale Rhenish wine are contented; but we must have March beere, double beere, dagger ale, and bracket . . .” VARIOUS KINDS OF ALES AND BEERS.—SOME FOREIGN BEERS. — RECEIPTS. — SONGS. — ANECDOTES. A N attempt to describe, or even to specify, all the ales and beers that have gained a local or more wide-spread fame, would be a lengthy task. Nearly every county in England, and nearly every town of any size, has been at one time or another noted for its malt liquors. The reno

“Come on, you mad-cap. I’ll to the Alehouse with you presently, where, for one shot of fivepence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes.” Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii., sc. 5. ALE HOUSES: THEIR ORIGIN. — HOSPITALITY IN MEDIÆVAL TIMES. — OLD LONDON INNS AND TAVERNS. — ANECDOTES OF INNS AND INN KEEPERS. — CURIOUS SIGNS. — SIGN-BOARD AND ALE-HOUSE VERSES. — SIGN-BOARD ARTISTS. — ALE-HOUSE SONGS AND CATCHES. “N O, SIR;” said Dr. Johnson, “there is no­thing which has yet been con­trived by man, b

Sir Toby.—“Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Clown.—“Yes, by Saint Anne; and ginger shall be hot i’ the mouth too.” Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3. ANCIENT MERRY-MAKINGS, FEASTS AND CEREMONIES PECULIAR TO CERTAIN SEASONS, AT WHICH ALE WAS THE PRINCIPAL DRINK. — HARVEST HOME, SHEEP SHEARING, AND OTHER SONGS. E NGLAND was merry England then, and whatever may be thought of the utility of attempting to revive the ancient sports and amusements of the peopl

THE ALES. — ALE AT BREAKFAST. — BEQUESTS OF ALE. — DRINKING CUSTOMS. — A SERMON ON MALT. — EXCESSES OF THE CLERGY. — ANECDOTES. S O far we have only con­si­dered those merry-makings which were pe­cu­liar to cer­tain sea­sons of the year. It need hard­ly be said that there were also a num­ber of fest­i­vals in which ale fig­ured as the chief bev­er­age, in no way re­lat­ed to any par­ti­cu­lar day, and these, to­geth­er with a variety of curious cus­toms con­nect­ed with ale and beer, will be now

OLD BALLADS, SONGS AND VERSES RELATING TO ALE AND BEER. L ONG ago, in the merry days when the chil­ling in­flu­ence of Pu­ri­tan­ism had not yet put an end to the ma­jor­ity of our sports and pas­times, and when any­one who had ven­tured to speak of a May-pole as a “Stinckyng Idoll” would most likely have been ducked in the nearest pond as a proper reward for his calumny, the lower orders of England were far more musical than at present; and there existed a great demand for bal­lads to be sung a

BREWING IN THE PRES­ENT DAY. — AN­EC­DOT­AL AND BIO­GRAPH­I­CAL AC­COUNT OF SOME REP­RE­SEN­TA­TIVE LON­DON, DUB­LIN, BUR­TON, AND COUN­TRY BREW­ING FIRMS. — EDIN­BURGH ALES. P ASSING on to modern times and bidding adieu to the old brewers, brewsters, ale-wives, and tapsters, it behoves us to devote ourselves to giving some account of the brewing of the present day, thereby bringing our history up to date. With this intent, we cannot do better than commence with a few figures, startling enough,

PORTER AND STOUT. — CIR­CUM­STANCES WHICH LED TO THEIR INTRO­DUC­TION. — VALUE TO THE WORK­ING CLAS­SES. — AN­EC­DOTES. — “A POT OF PORTER OH!” B EFORE the Blue Last, an old public-house situate in Curtain Road, Shoreditch, there formerly hung a board which bore this legend:—“The house where porter was first sold.” Whether this was true or false we cannot say; certain it is, however, that the drink which has made London and Dublin brewers famed far and wide had its birthplace not far from this s

BEVERAGES COMPOUNDED OF ALE OR BEER WITH A NUMBER OF RECEIPTS.—ANCIENT DRINKING VESSELS.—VARIOUS USES OF ALE OTHER THAN AS A DRINK. V ERY few people, when warm­ing them­selves in the win­ter months with Mulled Ale, know that they are quaf­fing a direct de­scen­dant of that famous li­quor known to our fore­fath­ers as the Was­sail-Bowl, and near akin to Lambs-Wool, of which Her­rick wrote in his Twelfth Night :— A beverage of still greater antiquity, but certainly a family connection, is Bragget

C ONSTABLE OF F RANCE . “If every man is to forego his freedom of action because many make a licentious use of it, I know not what is the value of any freedom.” J. Risdon Bennett, M.D. “If every man is to forego his freedom of action because many make a licentious use of it, I know not what is the value of any freedom.” J. Risdon Bennett, M.D. OLD MEDICAL WRITERS ON ALE. — ADULTERATION OF ALE. — ADVANTAGES OF MALT LIQUORS TO LABOURING CLASSES. — TEMPERANCE versus TOTAL ABSTINENCE. — ANECDOTES. —

O NE talks glibly enough of fermentation, but the majority of us would be puzzled if asked to say what it is. For many years it has been known that minute particles of life are ever present in substances undergoing fermentation, but until recently proved beyond question by M. Pasteur, it was not known that the peculiar changes are wholly caused by these living atoms, which are so small that they can only be seen through the most powerful microscope. This discovery was the key to many problems. P