Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
Clause 1. Be it enacted, that any person wishing to open a place for
the sale of beer, wine, ale, cider, or swankey, shall give notice
of the same to the overseers, churchwardens, town crier, and parish
beadle, of the parish wherein he lives, and stick one on the door of
the church or chapel, if there is one, and if not, he must pin one on
the seat of his breeches, and walk round the said parish from ten in
the morning till five in the afternoon, for two consecutive Sundays, or
live upon skilly for one month.
2. Any person keeping a house for the sale of any land of fermented
liquor, and who shall dare to keep the said house open one moment after
the clock has said cut it, and sell one half pint of malt tea, he shall
for the first offence have his head shaved, and for the second shall be
imprisoned for a term not exceeding his natural life.
3. Any keeper of any refreshment house who shall have the cheek to
sell, or cause to be sold, one glass of cooper, or one quarter of
Watling’s pork feed to any person, without being cock sure that his
character is strictly moral, he shall not draw another drop for 12
calendar months. This clause does not refer to the tribe of Overend and
Gurney’s, or any one connected with the Albert Assurance Company, or,
in fact, any gentlemanly swindlers whatever.
4. No chandler shop keeper, fruit shop keeper, or shop for the sale of
lollipops, shall dare to sell small beer or shandy-gaff to any wayfarer
during the hours stated in the act, or they will have to pay 40s., and
forfeit the swankey for Her Majesty’s own private use.
5. It is enacted that a body of vigilant officers from each, division
of police to be called the tasters, whose duty shall be to enter such
houses as they may think fit, swallow all they can find, and see that
none of the working classes get half seas over.
6. All brewers’ grooms, or draymen, shall sponge their horses on
Saturday night, lest they should smell of malt on the Sunday.
7. All persons who are in the habit of getting tight on Saturday night,
are requested to drink one quart of half-and-half before closing time,
lest they should be thirsty next morning.
8. All persons who have a custom of taking a stroll into the country
on a Sunday to get a blow after their week’s labour, or enjoy a picnic
at Hampstead or Wimbledon, will do well to provide themselves with
stone bottles, labelled cold tea, as there will be no such a thing as
bona-fide travellers while the new Beer House Act is in force.
9. All persons are forbidden to use any bottles, jugs, glasses, or tea
cups that has contained beer on Saturday night, without well scalding
out on the Sunday morning.
10. And woe betide any woman who is caught with a flask containing
cholic drops in her pocket.
11. All cowkeepers or dairymen are cautioned against feeding their cows
on grains, lest the milk should give the tea a beery flavour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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