“I will therefore shut up with that admirable conclusion insisted upon in our time by a discreet Gentleman in a Solemne Assembly, who by a Politick observation, very aptly compares Ale and Cakes with Wine and {44} Waters, neither doth he hold it fit that it should stand in competition with the meanest wines, but with that most excellent composition which the Prince of Physicians Hippocrases had so ingeniously compounded for the preservation of Mankinde, and which (to this day) speakes the Author by the name of Hippocras. So that you see for Antiquity—Ale was famous amongst the Troians, Brittaines, Romans, Saxons, Normans, Englishmen, Welch, besides in Scotland, from the highest and Noblest Palace to the poorest and meanest Cottage.”
Other curious details with respect to the use of ale in the Middle Ages and in modern times will be found in their appropriate places, and having established clearly enough the highly respectable antiquity of the Prince of liquors, old or new, it is time, in the elegant language of the Water Poet, to “shut up” this portion of the subject; and so we pass on, concluding here with an extract from the Philosopher’s Banquet, on the pre-eminence of ale:—
Ale for antiquity may plead and stand Before the conquest, conquering in this land; Beere, that is younger brother of her age, Was not then borne, nor right to bee her page; In every pedling village, borough, town, Ale plaid at football, and tript all lads down; And tho’ shee’s rivall’d now by beere, her mate, Most doctors aiwt on herthis shewes her state.
CHAPTER III.
Heap high the fire, and, O ye Lares, smile; And, Innocence, with plenty hither bring Hilarity; while Friendship brims the cup With home-brewed Ale, and every welcom’d guest Forgets the storm . . .
I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, With your pockets full of money, and your cellar full of beer.
HOME-BREWED ALES. — OLD RECEIPTS. — HISTORICAL FACTS. — DEAN SWIFT ON HOME-BREW. — CHRISTOPHER NORTH’S BREW-HOUSE.
