500 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



tinued a dweller in the home of my ancestors — the spot on 

 earth of all other that I moat love— and you would have had 

 the man still a resident amongst you, who has purchased so 

 much of your labour, and won so much of your esteem. 

 During the last two months, few men have received so many 

 marks of sympathy as I have, both personal and by letter. I 

 have received one communication from the editor of a leading 

 London journal, which does so much honour to human nature, 

 that I will read you one short extract ; I am sure his noble 

 heart will forgive the liberty I take : — " It is a solemn thing 

 to be compelled by the dispensations of Providence to break 

 old ties, and to have to leave the home of our childhood, and 

 the spot on which our forefathers have dwelt in peace and 

 honour for centuries ; but an awful responsibility rests upon 

 the man, who, regardless of all these things, and intent merely 

 upon the gratification of some selfish or revengeful feeling, 

 violently breaks these ties, and forces a fellow-man from the 

 hearth of his home and the graves of bis kindred. Deeply 

 sympathizing with you, sir, and trusting that as a Christian 

 man you will find that even this calamity is among the ' all 

 things that work together for good.' All honour to such a 

 man ; there may be many such, did they not lack the power 

 of giving expression to their hearts' convictions. Be assured, 

 this mark of your esteem will be cherished by me while life 

 endures ; and when I am gone it will be cherished by my 

 children. Wherever my lot in future shall be cast, whether 

 far away or near, I shall frequently offer up to the Throne of 

 Grace a prayer for your temporal and eternal welfare ; that 

 your temporal wants may be supplied with a more liberal band 

 than mine, and that eternally you may be made kings and 

 priests for ever." 



The Ch AIRMAN next proceeded to read the following 

 address to Mrs. Everard : 



" We desire most sincerely to express our gratitude for the 

 many benevolent acts of kindness received from your hands, 

 and especially for the administering so liberally to the wants 

 of the sick and needy, in remembrance of which it is also our 

 desire that you should possess a small token, and to accom- 

 plish that object we have selected a Church Service, thinking 

 that an appropriate accompaniment to the Bible, inasmuch as 

 the doctrines therein contained can be proved by most certain 

 warrants of Holy Writ. It is our most earnest prayer that 

 you may yet be spared many years of happiness, to be to 

 others a blessing, and be the able instrument in the bands of 

 the Almighty as you have hitherto been, employing the talent 

 thus given to you to the benefit and blessing of your fellow- 

 creatures, trusting that you may ere long be greeted with 

 that heavenly voice, ' Well done, thou good and faithful 

 servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' " 



The Chairman then'preaented a Church Service bearing the 

 following inscription : 



" ' She stretcheth out her hand to the poor ; 



Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.' 

 Proverbs xxxi. 20. 

 Presented by the working classes of Groby, October 29th, 

 1857, to Mrs. Breedon Everard, as a token of remembrance 

 for her undeviating kindness, and unlimited acta of benevo- 

 lence manifested to the sick and needy." 



In returning thanks for Mrs. Everard, Mr. Everard spoke 

 as follows : It affords me the highest satisfaction to return 

 my thanks for the studied honour conferred upon my wife. 

 She ofteu, I assure you, complains to me of her own short- 

 comings, and compares the little she has done to the much 

 she might have done. Many circumstances have occurred to 

 knit our hearts to yours ; nothing on this earth can destroy 

 that bond. May eternity cement it 1 God bless you all. 



HOP PICKING. 



Though our Saxon forefathers were great beer-drinkers, and 

 this old English beverage was quaffed by even the ancient 

 Britons, who called it beer as we still do, yet these fine be- 

 nighted old fellows were too busy hacking and hewing each 

 other to pieces to bestow a thought on the hops, which even 

 then grew wild about their homesteads. They contented 

 themselves by giving a flavour to their malt liquor with bit- 

 ter herbs, amongst which the St. John's wort and betony were 

 chiefly predominant, though, like our modern brewers, they 

 did not altogether lose sight of the camomile, whose aroma 

 largely predominates in some modern bitter beer ; and it may 

 be some consolation to the imbibers of this fashionable drink 

 to know, that one of our oldest herbalists has said that " ye 

 sunne never shone on a betterer or wholesomer floure." But 

 our ancestors went groping and grumbling about in the twi- 

 light of Time until as late as the period of Henry VII., with- 

 out making any other use of the bop than that of a lotion, or 

 it may be as a gargle occasionally, when some old fellow, pro- 

 bably taken with a fit of coughing — for history is silent on 

 the matter — while gurgling at " his own sweet will," like 

 Wordsworth's river, chanced to swallow a few drops, and the 

 hop from that hour became immortal ; or he may have dipped 

 his finger in and caught the twang, as far-famed Ella's novice 

 discovered the deliciousness of roasted sucking-pig ; for who 

 can tell? But to quit conjecture — all that is really known of 

 the first use of the hop in brewing is, we find it mentioned 

 among the items in old household books of the above-named 



period, though it may have been used for the same purpose a 

 little earlier, and mention have been made of it among the my- 

 riads of records that were lost for ever before the art of print- 

 ing was in vogue. But long before this discovery took place, 

 the young hop-shoots were dressed as vegetables and eaten 

 with meat, while the potato lay buried in " the womb of Time.'' 

 Tea was served up in the same way at first, by the ignorant 

 and uninitiated — the leaves eaten with sugar, and the liquor 

 thrown away. But both hop-drinkers and tea-drinkers are 

 wiser now, and, we think, in consideration of this great dis- 

 covery, ought to fraternise. Let not the fair patronesses of 

 the pump curl their pretty poutiog lips in contempt when told 

 that their long since-departed grandmothers never sat down to 

 breakfast without lifting the foaming ale flagon to their honied 

 lips, thus making metheglin of it, without the aid of those 

 little confectioners, the bees. 



For a short stroll there is no spot more refreshing to the 

 eye than a hop-garden at this season of the year. No other 

 garden looks more beautiful, though the dahlias, China-asters, 

 and a few other autumnal flowers, are still in bloom. To our 

 eye there is nothing prettier than the golden-coloured bine, 

 peeping out in pale rich bunches, through which the sunshine 

 is reflected as you look upward, as through a lady's coquettish- 

 looking parasol. The air, all around, too, is dreamy, odorous, 

 sleepy ; and the last of the summer butterflies, as they come 

 darting in and out between the tall festooned poles, in their 

 rich livery of scarlet and purple bedropped with white— for 



