In the reign of Elizabeth the demand for ale increased very largely, and we find mention of an export of five hundred tuns of the precious liquor at one time. This was sent to Amsterdam for the use of the thirsty army in the Netherlands. Mary Queen of Scots in the midst of her troubles seems not to have been altogether insensible to the attractions of English beer, for when she was confined in Tutbury Castle, Walsingham, her secretary asked “At what place near Tutbury beer may be provided for her majestie’s use?” To which Sir Ralph Sadler, governor of the castle made reply, “Beer may be had at Burton, three miles off.” This Burton on Trent began to be famous for its water in the thirteenth century. There is a document still extant, dated 1295, in which it is stated that Matilda, daughter of Nicholas Shoben had released to the abbot and convent of Burton on Trent certain tenements, for which release they granted her daily for life two white loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer and one penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men. In the fifteenth century the monks in Germany brewed two kinds of beer in the convents, one kind for the _Patres_, and an inferior beer for the convents. In the sixteenth century the breweries in Germany were already celebrated for their malt beer. Cities not having good cellars, on account of which good beer could not be produced, were provided with the beverage through their city fathers from other places, stored and sold in the cellars of the city hall, hence the origin of the name Rathskeller. The most celebrated beer at that time, was the Braunschweiger Mumme, and the beer of Eimbeck, Merseburg and Bamberg. Beer before it could be sold had to pass a strict examination by a committee consisting of brewers of the greatest reputation, appointed by the burgomaster under and by advice of the city fathers; and a “Brauherr,” (proprietor and brew-master of a brewery) was a man of importance. In the principality of Brandenburg—afterwards the kingdom of Prussia—it was thought as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that beer was the most wholesome of all beverages, and the electors of Brandenburg, later the kings of Prussia, fostered breweries by the concession of numerous privileges which were increased from time to time. Grants of this character and of no small advantage were held by brewers in Cottbus,[1] Province of Brandenburg, and were considerably enlarged by Frederick the Great in favor of Huguenots who had at his invitation settled in the kingdom after being forced by the revocation of the edict of Nantes to leave France. These privileges, enjoyed by the Toussaints, Salems and others for many years, were abolished by the declaration of the freedom of trade in 1838. [1] Celebrated for the famous white beer which was at that time largely exported to Upper Silesia, Bohemia, Berlin, Hamburg, etc. [Illustration: MYNHER JACOBUS,