THAMES.
CHAPTER XIII.
And what this flood of deeper brown, Which a white foam does also crown, Less white than snow, more white than mortar? Oh, my soul! can this be Porter?
P raised and caress’d, the tuneful Philips sung O f Cyder fam’d, whence first his laurel sprung; R ise then, my muse, and to the world proclaim T he mighty charms of Porter’s potent name: E ach buck from thee shall sweetest pleasure taste, R evel secure, nor think to part in haste.
PORTER AND STOUT. — CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO THEIR INTRODUCTION. — VALUE TO THE WORKING CLASSES. — ANECDOTES. — “A POT OF PORTER OH!”
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 spot.
It appears that in the early years of last century the lovers of malt liquors in London were accustomed to regale themselves upon three classes of these beverages; they had ale, beer, and twopenny. Many who preferred a more subtle combination of flavours than either of these liquors {366} alone could impart, would ask for half-and-half, that is, half of ale and half of beer, half of ale and half of twopenny, or half of beer and half of twopenny. Others again—and these were the real connoisseurs of malt liquors—would call for a pot of three threads, or three thirds, i.e., one-third of ale, one-third of beer, and one-third of twopenny. The drawer would therefore have to go to three different casks, and through three distinct operations, before he could draw a pint of liquor. But the hour had come—and the man. One Ralph Harwood, whose name is too little known to an ungrateful posterity of beer-drinking Britons, some time about the year 1730, kept a brewhouse on the east side of High Street, Shoreditch. In that year, or perhaps a little earlier, as this great man brooded over the inconvenience and waste occasioned by the calls for the “three threads,” which became more and more frequent, he conceived the idea of making a liquor which would combine in itself the several virtues of ale, beer, and twopenny. He carried the idea into action, and brewed a drink which he called “Entire,” or “Entire Butts.” It was tasted; it was approved; it became the fruitful parent of a mighty offspring; and from that day to this has gone on increasing in name and fame.