-338 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XXX. 



CHAPTEa XXX. 

 ON HOPS. 



The hop is indigenous to most parts of Europe ; but although found wild 

 in this country, it was long ere it excited the attention of agriculturists, for 

 many plants, which were for ages regarded as weeds, are now cultivated 

 among the most valued of our field productions. The English word " hop,'' 

 though probably derived from the Saxon hoppan, signifying to climb, yet 

 was adopted into our language from the German hoppe ; its botanical name 

 being humulus. The earliest known account of its culture is found among 

 the ancient records of France, in which mention is made of humolaricB, 

 which doubtless meant hop-gardens; but we learn from Beckmann, "that 

 the first positive notice of the use of hops occurs in the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century, when it appears that they began to be regularly employed 

 in the breweries of the Netherlands. But although their efficacy was ad- 

 mitted in the conservation of beer, yet they were long supposed to contain 

 qualities noxious to the constitution, among which it was said that they 

 dried up the body, and increased melancholy ; and accordingly we find in 

 the household regulations of our Harry the Eighth, an order to the brewer, 

 not to put any hops into the ale. Indeed, at a much later period, the Com- 

 mon Council of the City of London petitioned Parliament against the use of 

 hops, " in regard that they would spoil the taste of the drink, and endanger 

 the people :" they were also petitioned against in the reign of Henry VI., 

 " as a wicked weed !" 



" They were not brought into cultivation in this country until about the 

 year 1 524 ; and according to a distich to be found in Baker's Chronicles, 

 it would seem as if the introduction of beer should be attributed to the 

 same period. 



"Turkies, carps, hoppes, piccarell, and beere, 

 Came into Englande all in one yeare.'' 

 *' This, however, must be understood of beer, such as that still in use ; for 

 ale brewed from malt, without the addition of hops, was certainly known 

 here at a much earlier date. In the latter end of the thirteenth century, 

 during the reign of Edward I., there is a record of a grant from William 

 Earl of Warwick, to one Adam Underwood, one of the conditions of which 

 is, "that he should annually make lor the lord of the manor three quarters 

 of malt ;" but at that time, the herb called ground-ivy was generally used 

 for preserving the liquor*." 



SPECIES. 



Only one species of the hop is noticed by botanists, but many varieties 

 are distinguished by farmers: as, for instance, the " Gouldings," which are 

 grown on the rag-stone of mid-Kent ; the " Canterbury Grape," which is 

 chiefly cultivated on the rich soils of East Kent ; the " Mavfield," and the 

 " white-bine," on dry limestone land, and the " golden-tips," in the wealds of 

 Kent and Sussex, which are remarkable for their resistance of blight: added 

 to which there is the celebrated Farnham hop, which is grown throughout 

 that neighbourhood, in Surrey, and a kind much esteemed for the delicacy 

 of its flavour, which is chiefly produced in the counties of Hereford and 



* Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. i., p. 308. 



