IV.] BREWING BEER. 63 



market j and in all villages, hamlets, and scattered 

 places* 



109. Another thing is, can a man who has brewed 

 beer at his own house in the country, bring that beer 

 into town to his own house, and for the use of his 



"family there? This has been asked of me. I can- 

 not give a positive answer without reading about 

 seven large volumes in quarto of taxing laws. The 

 best way would be to try it ; and, if any penalty, pay 

 it by subscription, if that would not come under the 

 law of conspiracy ! However, I think, there can be 

 no danger kere. So monstrous a thing as this can, 

 surely, not exist. If there be such a law, it is daily 

 violated ; for nothing is more common than for coun- 

 try gentlemen, who have a dislike to die by poison, 

 bringing their home-brewed beer to London. 



1 10. Another correspondent recommends parishes 

 to make their own malt. But, surely, the landlords 

 mean to get rid of the malt and salt tax ! Many 

 dairies, I dare say, pay 50/. a year each in salt tax. 

 How, then, are they to contend against Irish butter 

 and Dutch butter and cheese ? And as to the malt 

 tax, it is a dreadful drain from the land. I have heard 

 of labourers, living " in unkent places," making their 

 own malt, even now ! Nothing is so easy as to make 

 your own malt, if ypu were permitted. You soak 

 the barley about three days (according to the state of 

 the weather.) and then you put it upon stones or 

 bricks and keep it turned, till the root shoots out; 

 and then to know when to stop, and to put it to 

 dry, take up a corn (which you will find nearly trans- 

 parent) and look through the skin of it. You will 

 see the spear, that is to say, the shoot that would 

 come out of the ground, pushing on towards the point 

 of the barley-corn. It starts from the bottom, where 

 the root comes out ; and it goes on towards the other 

 end ; arid would, if kept moist, come out at that other 

 end when the root was about an inch long. So that, 

 when you hav"e got the root to start, by soaking and 

 turning in heap, the spear is on its way. If you look 

 in through the skin, you will see it; and now observe; 



