A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



entered Parliament in i8i8,and distinguished 

 himself there by his efforts in the cause of 

 philanthropy and in the reform of our judicial 

 and penal systems. The great work of his life 

 and the cause which lay nearest to his heart 

 was that in which he was associated with 

 William Wilberforce the abolition of slavery 

 in the dominions of Great Britain. In 1816, 

 when almost the whole population of Spital- 

 fields was on the verge of starvation, a meeting 

 was called at the Mansion House, and Buxton 

 delivered a forcible speech. He narrated the 

 results of his personal investigations ; the large 

 sum of ^43,369 was raised at the meeting, 

 and an extensive and well-organized system of 

 relief was established. He was for twenty 

 years the representative of Weymouth in Par- 

 liament, and was made a baronet in 1841. 

 He did not live long to enjoy his honours, but 

 died in 1845, worn out by his great labours in 

 public and private life. 



Mr. Osgood Hanbury was succeeded by his 

 son Robert, who was born in 1796 and en- 

 tered the firm in 1820. He possessed great 

 business abilities, and when Mr. Buxton's 

 Parliamentary duties withdrew him from the 

 active management of the brewery, the super- 

 intendence and control of the business passed 

 entirely into his hands. Amongst other 

 alterations which he carried out was the insti- 

 tution of the ale department, an example 

 speedily followed by other London breweries. 

 One of Mr. Hanbury's sons, Mr. Charles 

 Addington Hanbury, became a member of the 

 firm, and a son of the last-named, Mr. John 

 M. Hanbury, is a director. The Pryor family 

 became connected with the brewery in 1816, 

 when Messrs. T. M. Pryor and Robert Pryor, 

 who were owners of the Shoreditch brewery, 

 and came from an old Hertfordshire family, 

 joined the firm. Mr. Robert Pryor died in 

 1839, having the previous year introduced his 

 nephew, Mr. Arthur Pryor, who became a 

 partner and succeeded him in his duties. Mr. 

 Arthur Pryor died in September 1904; two 

 of his sons, Mr. Arthur Vickris Pryor and 

 Mr. Robert Pryor, became directors. Mr. 

 A. V. Pryor is now the head of the corn- 

 company's brewery at Burton-on-Trent, but 

 Mr. Robert Pryor died in July 1905. 



The premises in Spitalfields are of enormous 

 extent. At the entrance to the brewery yard 

 is the weighbridge, where the van-loads of 

 malt as they arrive from the railway are easily 

 unloaded by one man, who tips the sacks over 

 the tail of the van into a bin or receiver. 

 From this receptacle the malt is conveyed to 

 the top of the brewery, where it is screened, 

 and then passed along one of two Archimedean 

 screws which deliver the grain into the malt- 



bins. The malt stores adjoin the brewhouse 

 on its western side, and are contained within a 

 building 20O ft. long, 30 ft. wide, and 60 ft. 

 high ; this great storehouse is divided off into 

 twenty-one bins, each of which holds from 

 500 qrs. to 1,200 qrs. of malt. When re- 

 quired for use the malt is conveyed by screws 

 to crushing-mills erected on a gallery in the 

 brewhouse, supported on massive columns and 

 girders. Eight pairs of rolls or cylinders are 

 employed, each having its own screening 

 machinery, and being fitted with dust de- 

 stroyers ; these rollers are driven by the main 

 engine or by another of 30 h.p. on the same 

 floor, and crush over looqrs. of malt per hour. 

 The malt is bruised or crushed sufficiently to 

 detach the husk from the grain, so that the 

 latter may be easily reached by the water and 

 the whole of its valuable qualities extracted. 

 The grinding accomplished, the bruised malt 

 or grist is next conveyed by large copper tubes 

 to the elevators into the six grist cases at the 

 top of the building, each of which contains 

 1 60 qrs. The next process is that known as 

 mashing, and the water used for this purpose 

 is obtained from a well bored to a depth of 

 850 ft. For 200 ft. it has a diameter of 8 ft. ; 

 here the chalk of the London basin was 

 reached, and the curious discovery made of a 

 bed of oysters i8in. thick, and probably ex- 

 tending for a great distance, as a similar bed 

 was afterwards found on sinking a well at 

 Stratford. A bore-pipe of 12 in. diameter 

 carries the well down to its full depth of 

 850 ft. Good water, hard and free from or- 

 ganic matter, is indispensable to the manufac- 

 ture of good beer. The object of the process 

 of mashing is to mix the malt with water at 

 such a temperature as shall not only extract 

 the saccharine matter existing in the malt, but 

 shall also change the still unconverted starch 

 into grape sugar. The appliances for this pro- 

 cess at Truman's brewery are said to be among 

 the finest in England. There are six mash- 

 tuns having a total capacity of 700 qrs. ; each 

 is provided with a Steel's mashing-machine 

 and other modern contrivances, and has a 

 copper cover lifted up by springs and pulleys. 

 The mash-tuns are supported by circular iron 

 frames raised on stout iron columns to enable 

 the mashmen to get beneath the tuns. The 

 wort is drawn off into a copper receiver by 

 means of several pipes running from different 

 parts of the mash-tun ; each of these is fitted 

 with a trap top to enable the brewer to test 

 the strength of the liquor from every part 

 of the tun. The furnaces employed for 

 heating the boilers were fitted with Jucke's 

 smoke -consuming contrivances in 1848. 

 Mr. Fraser, who introduced their use into 



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