Tire TURKEY. 83 



printed in 1496. Turkeys and hops were 

 unknown till 1524, previous to which worm- 

 wood and other bitter plants were used to pre- 

 serve beer; and the parliament in 1528, peti- 

 tioned against hops as a wicked weed. Beer 

 was licensed for exportation by Henry vii. in 

 1492, and an excise on beer existed as early 

 as 1284, and also in the reign of Edward i." 



Difficult as it is to rear broods of turkeys in 

 our country, they appear to have greatly mul- 

 tiplied soon after their introduction, for in 

 1541, we find them enumerated among the 

 delicacies of the table. Archbishop Cranmer 

 (Leland's 'Collectanea') ordered that of cranes, 

 swans, and turkey-cocks, there should be at 

 festivals only one dish ; and in 1573, Tusser, in 

 his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, 

 enumerates these birds as gracing the farmer's 

 table at Christmas. In the present day the 

 turkey, in a state of domestication, is very 

 widely spread. In India it is reared, according 

 to colonel Sykes, in great numbers by the 

 Portuguese. It has not, we believe, extended 

 to Persia. Thex-e is a humorous story told in 

 the Sketches of Persia, that these birds are at 

 least not generally known there. It appears 

 that two English gentlemen, on their arrival 



