68 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



wassail song of the fifteenth century, whose burden 

 was 



Bring us home good ale,' 



has been quoted in another volume of this work.* 

 ' The old ale knights of England,' as Camden calls 

 the sturdy yeomen of this period, knew not, however, 

 the ale to which hops in the next century gave both 

 flavour and preservation. Hops appear to have been 

 used in the breweries of the Netherlands in the 

 beginning of the fourteenth century. In England 

 they were not used in the composition of beer till 

 nearly two centuries afterwards. It has been 

 affirmed that the planting of hops was forbidden in 

 the reign of Henry VI ; and it is certain that 

 Henry VIII forbade brewers to put hops and sul- 

 phur into ale.| In the fifth year of Edward VI, 

 the royal and national taste appears to have changed ; 

 for privileges were then granted to hop-grounds. 

 Tusser, in his five hundred points of good husbandry, 

 printed in 1557, thus sings the praises of this plant: 



' The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, 

 It strengthened drink and it flavoureth malt ; 

 And being well-brewed long kept it will last, 

 And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast.' 



In the reign of James I the plant was not sufficiently 

 cultivated in England for the consumption ; as there 

 is a statute of 1608 against the importation of spoilt 

 hops. In 1830, there were 46,727 acres occupied 

 in the cultivation of hops in Great Britain. 



Of barley, there are above thirty million bushels 

 annually converted into malt in Great Britain ; 

 and more than eight million barrels of beer, of 

 which four-fifths are strong beer, are brewed yearly. 

 This is a consumption, by the great body of the 



* ' Timber Trees and Fruits,' p. 255. 

 t ' Archseologia,' vol. iii. 



