That the hop was known to the English before the Conquest in some form or other, is proved by the reference to the hymele, or hop plant, in the Anglo-Saxon version of the _Herbarium_, of Apuleius. Although no trace of the word hymele now remains in our every-day language, it is found in Danish as “humle,” and is only the English form of the Latin _humulus_. The _Herbarium_ just mentioned contains a remarkable passage with reference to “hymele.” “This wort,” it says, “is to that degree laudable that men mix it with their usual drinks.” The usual drinks of the English were undoubtedly malt liquors, and this passage would go far to show that even in Saxon times the hop was used in English brewing. Cockayne, the learned editor of _Saxon Leechdoms_, is inclined to this opinion, and he instances in confirmation of it that special mention is made of the hedge-hymele, as though there existed at that time a cultivated hop from which it had to be distinguished; he also cites the name Hymel-tun, in Worcestershire (now Himbleton), which he states is mentioned in Anglo-Saxon deeds, and which could hardly have signified anything less than hop yard. The word _hopu_ (_i.e._, hops) also occurs in Saxon documents. _Ewe-hymele_ is mentioned in _Saxon Leechdoms_, and would probably signify the female hop. In the year 822 there is a record that the millers of Corbay were freed by the abbot from all labours relating to hops, and a few years later hops are mentioned by Ludovicus Germanicus. The introduction of hops into England has been generally assigned to the early part of the sixteenth century. The old but unreliable distich, {67} Hops, Reformation, bays and beer Came into England all in one year,[35] points to a period subsequent to 1520 as the time when the great improvement of adding hops to malt liquors was first practised in this country. This rhyme probably refers to the settling of certain Flemings in Kent, to be mentioned anon, which no doubt gave a great impulse to the use of hops; it cannot well refer to their first introduction, as they were known in England for many years previously and were used in beer-brewing nearly a century before the Reformation. [35] Two other versions are to be found: “Hops and turkeys, carp and beer Came into England all in one year;” and “Turkeys, carps, hops, pickerel, and beer Came into England all in one year.” The couplets also err as to pickerel, which are mentioned in mediæval glossaries at a date long before the Reformation. In that curious old work the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (1440), which is, in fact, an old English-Latin dictionary, occur some passages which, when taken in conjunction with the London Records of a slightly later date, seem to show that the introduction of hops into English brewing (excepting their possible use in Saxon times) should be assigned to a period a little before the middle of the fifteenth century.