1784.—"London Porter and Pale Ale, light and excellent ... 150 Sicca Rs. per hhd...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 39.
1810.—"Porter, pale-ale and table-beer of great strength, are often drank after meals."—Williamson, V. M. i. 122.
1814.—
"What are the luxuries they boast them here?
The lolling couch, the joys of bottled beer."
From 'The Cadet, a Poem in 6 parts, &c. by a late resident in the East.' This is a most lugubrious production, the author finding nothing to his taste in India. In this respect it reads something like a caricature of "Oakfield," without the noble character and sentiment of that book. As the Rev. Hobart Caunter, the author seems to have come to a less doleful view of things Indian, and for some years he wrote the letter-press of the "Oriental Annual."
BEER, COUNTRY. At present, at least in Upper India, this expression simply indicates ale made in India (see [COUNTRY]) as at Masūri, Kasauli, and Ootacamund Breweries. But it formerly was (and in Madras perhaps still is) applied to ginger-beer, or to a beverage described in some of the quotations below, which must have become obsolete early in the last century. A drink of this nature called Sugar-beer was the ordinary drink at Batavia in the 17th century, and to its use some travellers ascribed the prevalent unhealthiness. This is probably what is described by Jacob Bontius in the first quotation:
1631.—There is a recipe given for a beer of this kind, "not at all less good than Dutch beer.... Take a hooped cask of 30 amphorae (?), fill with pure river water; add 2lb. black Java sugar, 4oz. tamarinds, 3 lemons cut up, cork well and put in a cool place. After 14 hours it will boil as if on a fire," &c.—Hist. Nat. et Med. Indiae Orient., p. 8. We doubt the result anticipated.
1789.—"They use a pleasant kind of drink, called Country-beer, with their victuals; which is composed of toddy ... porter, and brown-sugar; is of a brisk nature, but when cooled with saltpetre and water, becomes a very refreshing draught."—Munro, Narrative, 42.
1810.—"A temporary beverage, suited to the very hot weather, and called Country-beer, is in rather general use, though water artificially cooled is commonly drunk during the repasts."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 122.