“Ev’en you alas! with grief o’ercome, shall lend Some tears, and lose ye stoick in ye Friend: So stern Achilles wept—But you, and I Observant of Decorum, will not cry Like children (for we all were born to Die); Basse’s Immortal Ale shall make us gay, He Holds out longest yt dilutes his clay.
“Your faithful Friend,
“SAM CATHERALL.
“To Mr. Thomas Hearne
“At Edmund Hall, in Oxford.
“By the cross post.”
{343}
Though there are records extant of persons bearing the name of Bass who did various notable things, such as undertaking a pilgrimage to Canterbury in 1506 (not forgetting a certain Mrs. Laura Bassi, who was promoted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Bologna, in Italy “having first passed a strict examination and answered all points with surprising capacity and learning), this is nevertheless the first mention of Basse’s ale. Who was this Basse”? Frankly, we cannot say, but from the date of the letter it is certain that he was not the founder of the present firm.
The year 1877 was the centenary of that great commercial enterprise now known as Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, Limited. It was when George the Third was King, and Pitt, the youngest Prime Minister this country has ever known, was in power, that Mr. William Bass, the proprietor of a considerable carrying business, commenced to brew ale at Burton. His brewhouse was situated in the High Street, and the building on that site, still in the hands of the firm, is always spoken of as the “Old Brewery.” The land occupied was about equal in extent to a moderately large garden, and the power in the brewery was probably altogether manual, for Watt had not at that time fully developed the greatest invention the world has ever known. Bass and Co.’s Brewery and its belongings now cover forty-five acres of freehold and over a hundred of leasehold land, on which are thirty-two steam engines of altogether 610 horse power!
Mr. William Bass, finding that his new undertaking was proving a success, sold his carrying business to the well-known house of Pickford & Co. The brewery did not, however, begin to take any important place in the trade until the beginning of the present century, some few years after Mr. Michael Thomas Bass, grandson of the founder, had been taken into the business, which then soon began to increase with marvellous rapidity, owing, there can be no doubt, to the fact that Mr. Michael Bass’s principal aim was to brew the very best beer that could possibly be brewed. In 1834 Mr. Ratcliff was taken into partnership, and a few years later Mr. Gretton joined the firm. In 1853 was built the middle brewery, between Guild Street and Station Street. In 1864 a third brewhouse was opened in Station Street, only thirty-six weeks after the foundations were commenced. Both the Middle Brewery and the New Brewery have been greatly enlarged within the last few years, and the Old Brewery has been entirely rebuilt. In 1884 Mr. M. T. Bass died, and was probably more deeply lamented than any other inhabitant of Burton since that place became a town. In 1880 the {344} business was turned into a private Limited Company, of which the eldest son of Mr. M. T. Bass is the chairman.[66]