The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History: (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts)Bickerdyke, John
History
The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History: (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts)
Bickerdyke, John
Drinking customs; Drinking songs
citee, upon payn of forfaiture of the same.” No one is to buy his own
malt or corn in the market, “to high the price of corn in the Market,”
under pain of the pillory. No one is to sell malt “at the Market of
Gracechurch or Greyfreres before 9 of the clock till market bell
therfor ordeigned be rongen,” and at one o’clock all the unsold malt is
to be cleared away.
[46] “Capped in the sakke” = probably with some good malt put on the
top and defective malt beneath. Mowe brent barley = barley that has
heated in the stack. Belyed = swollen. Acre-spired = with the shoot
of the plant projecting from the husk. Wyvell-eten = weevil-eaten.
Meddled = mixed.
All these rules and ordinances the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were
graciously pleased to sanction and confirm.
The records contain many entries showing the difficulties the
authorities had to contend with in keeping the brewers to the legal
price and qualities of ale, a subject already touched on in Chapter
V. The prices being fixed by law, and no allowance being made for the
natural fluctuations of the market, it is not to be supposed that
the brewers would give their customers any better ale than they were
absolutely compelled by law to give. As old Taylor quaintly says:—
I find the _Brewer_ honest in his _Beere_,
He sels it for small Beere, and he should cheate,
Instead of _small_ to cosen folks with _Greate_,
But one shall seldome find them with that fault,
Except it should invisibly raine Mault.
Disputes arising between the officers of the Brewers’ Company and any
members of the guild, were sometimes referred for settlement to the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen. In 1520 there was “variance and debate in the
Court of Aldermen between the Master and Wardens of the ale-brewers
and Thomas Adyson, ale-brewer, concerning the making of a growte” by
the latter. The parties having submitted their case to the Court,
it was adjudged that Adyson should go to the Brewers’ Hall, {143}
and there, before the Master and Wardens, “with due reverence as
to them apperteynyng, standing before them his hed uncovered, shall
say these words: ‘Maysters, I pray you to be good masters to me, and
fromhensforth I promytte you that I shall be good and obedient to you
. . and obey the laws and customs of the house.’”
Foreign brewers (_i.e._, brewers not members of the Company) were
only allowed to sell ale within the City on paying 40s. annually to
the use of the City, and in default of payment the Chamberlain “shall
distreyne their carts from tyme to tyme.” There was also a duty called
ale-silver, which had been paid from time immemorial to the Lord Mayor
by the sellers of ale within the City.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account