When able to resume work on the book, with the object of hastening its publication, I obtained the assistance of my friend, Mr. J. M. D——. By the collection of fresh matter, in amplification of that already arranged, and the addition of several new features, we have considerably increased the scope of the work, and, it is to be hoped, added to its attractiveness. To my friend’s researches in the City of London and other Records is due the bringing to light of many curious facts, so far as I am aware, never before noticed. He has also rendered me great assistance in those portions of the book in which the antiquities of the subject are specially treated. The illustrations have been in most part taken from rare old works. As any smoothing away of defects in such relics of the past would be deemed by many an offence against the antiquarian code of morality, they have been reproduced in exact fac-simile, and will no doubt appeal to those interested in the art of the early engraver, and amuse many with their quaintness. As aptly terminating the chapter devoted to an account of the medicinal qualities of ale and beer, I have ventured to enter upon a short consideration of the leading teetotal arguments. In extending their denunciations to ale and beer drinkers, the total abstainers are, in my opinion, working a very grievous injury on the labouring classes, who for centuries have found the greatest benefit from the use of malt liquors. Barley-broth should be looked upon as _the_ temperance drink of the people or, in other words, the drink of the temperate. I have gratefully to acknowledge the kindness and courtesy accorded me during the preparation of this work by the authorities of the British Museum, by Dr. Sharpe, Records Clerk of the City of London, by Mr. Higgins, Clerk of the Brewers’ Company, and by several eminent brewers and a large number of correspondents. JOHN BICKERDYKE. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] _CONTENTS._ CHAPTER I. Suppression of Beer-shops in Egypt 2,000 B.C. — Brewing in a Teapot. — Ale Songs. — Distinctions between Ale and Beer. — Ale-Knights’ objection to Sack. — Hogarth and Temperance. — Importance of Ale to the Agricultural Labourer. — Sir John Barleycorne introduced to the Reader . . . 1 CHAPTER II. Origin and Antiquity of Ale and Beer . . . 25 CHAPTER III. Home-brewed Ales. — Old Receipts. — Historical Facts. — Dean Swift on Home-brew. — Christopher North’s Brew-house . . . 45 CHAPTER IV. Use and Importance of Hops in Beer: Their Introduction and History. — Hop-growers’ Troubles. — Medicinal Qualities. — Economical Uses. — Hop-pickers . . . 65 CHAPTER V. Ancient and Curious Laws relating to the manufacture and sale of Ale and Beer . . . 96 CHAPTER VI. Brewing and Malting in Early Times. — The Ale-wives. — The Brewers of Old London and the Brewers’ Company. — Anecdotes. — Quaint Epitaphs . . . 120 CHAPTER VII.