HEATHER ALE. 



the south side of a hill close to the margin of a brook 

 and with the door or narrow passage facing the 

 stream. 



Relative to this matter the editor of "Poetical 

 Remains of John Leyden" remarks: "From Heather, 

 perhaps, with an intermixture of Bog-gall they might 

 prepare a weak, exhilarating and intoxicating liquor. 

 It is a common tradition among the peasantry through 

 almost all parts of Scotland that the Pechts brewed 

 from Heather a liquor greatly superior to our com- 

 mon ale. They point out tracts of level or nearly 

 level heath from which the stones appear to have been 

 carefully gathered away, as fields from which the 

 Pechts moved and carried the crop of heath to prepare 

 ale from it by decoction. The Gaelic words, too, for 

 drinking are ol, elmi and lusadh, the latter of a 

 derivation which certainly implies the liquor drunk to 

 have been a decoction of herbs. It might be worth 

 while for some curious antiquarian to make a brewst 

 of heather ale." 



Logan, in "The Scottish Gael," says: "Many ex- 

 tensive tracts of Muir are observable that are level 

 and free from stones, and they are believed to have 

 been the fields cleared by the Picts for the cultivation 

 of the Heath, which they mowed down when in 

 bloom. This shrub, I have been told, made by a 

 certain process produced a good spirit, and a pleasant 

 liquor is often made in the Highlands from its flowers ; 

 but it differs from the ancient beverage in having an 

 addition of honey or sugar with other ingredients, 

 whereas the Heather ale of the Picts, it is thought, 

 required nothing extraneous to bring it to perfection. 



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