hop. c 241 



their being put into beer.* The use of them 

 was, therefore, forbidden bv an Act of Parlia- 

 ment, in the reign of James the First. This 

 act was little attended to, and, never having 

 been repealed, is strongly contrasted by the 

 Act 9 Anne, cap. 12, which inflicts a penalty 

 of twenty pounds on all brewers who shall 

 use any other bitter than that of hops in 

 their malt liquors ; and to prevent their being 

 adulterated by giving them scent or colour 

 by drugs, an Act was passed in the 6th of 

 George the Third, which makes it a forfeiture 

 of five pounds per hundred weight to use 

 this deception ; and by the same act, the ma- 

 liciously cutting hop-bines growing on poles 

 in any plantation is made felony, without 

 benefit of clergy. 



The hop is the only native plant that is 

 under the control of the Excise. By 9 Anne, 

 cap. 12, a duty of one penny per pound was 

 laid on all hops growing in Great Britain and 



* Walter Blith says, in his third edition of " English 

 Improver Improved" (1653), " It is not many years since 

 the famous city of London petitioned the Parliament of 

 England against two anusancies, and these were Newcastle 

 coals, in regard of their stench, &c. and hops, in regard 

 they would spoil the taste of drink, and endanger the 

 people." 



VOL. I. R 



