310 PURITY OF BURTON ALE. 



both parties. The following passage in Mr. 

 Brougham's speech, could scarcely fail of affording 

 me a share hi the general satisfaction " The 

 learned person who had written the treatise, had 

 himself been a practical brewer twenty years, and 

 had been misled by a circumstance which was suf- 

 ficient to mislead any one he found it impossible 

 to make ale of the quality of Burton ale, without 

 the aid of certain saline ingredients, gypsum, for in- 

 stance, the water at Burton flowing over a rock of 

 that substance." This gypsumized rock, then, has 

 proved a rock of mutual defence and security ; and 

 the Rock of Burton ! ought to become an established 

 toast with all brewers of the pure and genuine in- 

 gredients of ' malt, hops, and water,' one only saline 

 addition. Should I live to see a seventh edition of 

 my little book, I shall not fail to revise and palate 

 the new editions of Burton ale. I think I have re- 

 marked that the ale of the retail, or shop-brewers, 

 which I have tasted, has been the least adulterated ; 

 however, if I may be guided by a single instance, 

 they also have entered upon the march of improve- 

 ment. A bill of one recently embarked, with high 

 pretensions to genuineness and purity, being put 

 into my hands, I sent for a sample bottle. The 

 beer proved as saline and tropically sweet, and as 

 heating and stimulant to the stomach, as bay or 

 common salt, sugar, and grains of paradise could 

 render it. Now, after all my diatribes on this sub- 

 ject, gentle readers, who can blame the brewers, 

 as brewing, not for themselves, but their customers ; 

 seeing that the English people have an inveterate 



8 



