I.] BREWING. 21 



bread, bacon, and beer, which is to carry him on to 

 the hour of dinner, he has to force his limbs along 

 under the sweat of feebleness, and at dinner time 

 to swallow his dry bread, or slake his half-feverish 

 thirst at the pump or the brook. To the wretched 

 tea-kettle he has to return at night, with legs hardly 

 sufficient to maintain him; and thus he makes his 

 miserable progress towards that death, which he finds 

 ten or fifteen years sooner than he would have found 

 it had he made his wife brew beer instead of making 

 tea. If he now and then gladdens his heart with the 

 drugs of the public house, some quarrel, some acci- 

 dent, some illness, is the probable consequence; to the 

 affray abroad succeeds an affray at home ; the mischiev- 

 ous example reaches the children, corrupts them or 

 scatters them, and misery for life is the consequence. 



34. I should now proceed to the details of brew- 

 ing; but these, though they will not occupy a large 

 space, must be put off to the second number. The 

 custom of brewing at home has so long ceased 

 amongst labourers, and, in many cases, amongst 

 tradesmen, that it was necessary for me fully to state 

 my reasons for wishing to see the custom revived. 

 I shall, in my next, clearly explain how the operation 

 is performed ; and it will be found to be so easy a 

 iking, that I am not without hope, that many trades- 

 men, who now spend their evenings at the public 

 house, amidst tobacco smoke and empty noise, may 

 be induced, by the finding of better drink at home, 

 at a quarter part of the price, to perceive that home 

 is by far the pleasantest place wherein to pass their 

 hours of relaxation. 



35. My work is intended chiefly for the benefit of 

 cottagers, who must, of course, have some land; for, 

 I purpose to show, that a large part of the food of even 

 a large family may be raised, without any diminution 

 of the labourer's earnings abroad, from forty rod, or a 

 quarter of an acre, of ground ; but at the same time, 

 what I have to say will be applicable to larger estab- 

 lishments, in all the branches of domestic economy : 

 and especially to that of providing a family with beer. 



