CHAPTER VII. 



To Thomas Barker. 



Selborne, Jan. 10, 1787. 



Dear Sir, — I have herewith sent you the Selborne rain, 

 an account of which, I think, has been kept very exactly : 

 but know nothing of the Fyfield and S. Lambeth rain. 

 There fell such a glut of rain in the beginning of October 

 that men were in some pain about the wheat season : how- 

 ever, such lovely weather followed quite into November that 

 the sowing time was unusually good. Again during the 14 

 first days of December there fell 5 inches of rain: this 

 deluge washed our malm-grounds sadly. 



As to strong beer at Mr. Yalden's, I can say nothing 

 about the management of it, because John Pullinger, who 

 had the sole conducting of it, has left Edmund White: 

 I only know that my strong beer is much admired by those 

 that love pale beer, made of malt that is dryed with billet. 

 My method is to make it very strong, and to hop very 

 moderately at first ; and then to put in it, at two or three 

 times, half a pound at a time of scalded hops, before I tap 

 it. This is the Wilts method, and makes the beer as fine as 

 rock-water. As my family is small, I never brew more than 

 half a hogshead at a time ; but then I put malt at the rate 

 of 13 bushels to the hogshead, and only 3 pounds and a half 

 of hops at a brewing. I tap my half-hogsheads at about 

 12 months old ; and always brew with rain water, when 



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