J.V.R.W.
Ale-draper (Vol. ii., p.310.).—A common designation for an ale-house keeper in the sixteenth century. Henry Chettle, in his very curious little publication, Kind-Harts Dreame, 1592 (edited for the Percy Society by your humble servant), has the following passage:
"I came up to London, and fall to be some tapster, hostler, or chamberlaine in an inn. Well, I get mee a wife; with her a little money; when we are married, seeke a house we must; no other occupation have I but to be an ale-draper." (P. 37. of reprint.)
Again, in the same tract, the author speaks of "two milch maydens that had set up a shoppe of "ale-drapery."
In the Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste, 1597, is another notice of the same occupation:
"So that now hee hath left brokery, and is become a draper. A draper, quoth Freeman, what draper—of woollin or linnen? No, qd. he, an ale-draper, wherein he hath more skil then in the other."
Probably these instances of the use of the term may be sufficient for your correspondent.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
P.S. The above was written before J.S.W.'s note appeared (Vol. ii., p. 360.), which does not carry the use of this term further back than Bailey's Dictionary.
George Herbert (Vol. ii., p. 103.) was buried under the communion table at Bemerton, but there is no monument to his memory. The adornment of his little church would be one of the most fitting offerings to his memory. It is painful to contrast the whitewash and unpainted deal of the house of God with the rich furniture and hangings of the adjoining rectory. In the garden of the latter is preserved a medlar-tree, planted by "the sweet singer of the temple."