Note E438 — 78.
Reading edition
"Beware that ye geue no persone palled drynke, for feere Hit mygtt brynge many a man in disese durynge many a yere." —John Russell's Boke of Norture, in Babees Book, p. 13.
"Sowre ale, and dead ale, and ale the whiche doth stande a tylte is good for no man."—Andrew Boorde, Regimen of Health.
"Of ale and beer, as well as of wine, we find various kinds mentioned. There were single beer, or small ale, which could do little more than quench thirst,—and double beer, which was recommended as containing a double quantity of malt and hops,—and double-double beer, which was twice as strong as that,—and dagger-ale, which, as the name implies, was reckoned particularly sharp and dangerous,—and bracket, a kind of ale which we are unable distinctly to describe. But the favourite drink, as well as the chief article of vulgar debauch, was a kind of ale commonly called huffcap, but which was also termed 'mad dog,' 'angel's food,' 'dragon's milk,' and other such ridiculous names, by the frequenters of ale-houses: 'and never,' says Harrison, 'did Romulus and Remus suck their she-wolf with such eager and sharp devotion as these men hale at huffcap, till they be as red as cocks, and little wiser than their combs.' The higher classes, who were able to afford such a luxury, brewed a generous liquor for their own consumption, which they did not bring to the table till it was two years old. This was called March ale, from the month in which it was brewed. But the servants had to content themselves with a more simple beverage that was seldom more than a month old. A cup of choice ale was often as richly compounded with dainties as the finest wines. Sometimes it was warmed, and qualified with sugar and spices; sometimes with a toast; often with a roasted crab or apple, making the beverage still known under the name of Lambs'-wool; while to stir the whole composition with a sprig of rosemary, was supposed to give it an additional flavour. The drinks made from fruit were chiefly cider, perry, and mum. Those that had formerly been made from honey seem to have fallen into disuse in consequence of the general taste for stronger potations; metheglin being now chiefly confined to the Welsh. A simple liquor, however, was still used in Essex, called by Harrison, somewhat contemptuously, 'a swish-swash,' made of water with a little honey and spice, but 'as differing,' he says, 'from true metheglin as chalk doth from cheese.' He informs us, moreover, that already the tapsters of England had learned to adulterate their ale and beer with pernicious compounds."—Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 883.
"In the parish of Hawsted, Suffolk, the allowance of food to the labourer in harvest was, two herrings per day, milk from the manor dairy to make cheese, and a loaf of bread, of which fifteen were made from a bushel of wheat. Messes of potage made their frequent appearance at the rustic board."—Knight, Pict. Hist. of England, i. 839.