WARE MALTS QUOTATIONS FROM ELLIS. 349 



brewery is used by those who prefer that colour and 

 spirit, or the flavour which high-dried malt imparts. 

 Pale and amber malts are used indifferently by 

 private persons. Hertfordshire has been imme- 

 morially, and still continues, celebrated for the finest 

 malt, and there is, at present, more malt made at 

 Ware than at any former period. There is no doubt, 

 I believe, of the superior quality, and also cheapness, 

 of wheat malt, at a certain comparative rate with the 

 malt of barley. Such was the opinion of Ellis, as 

 appears from the following quotation : 



Ellis was engaged in both the London and country 

 brewery, between the years 1740 (or somewhat 

 earlier) and 1760. In his seventh edition of " The 

 London and Country Brewer," published by Baldwin, 

 in 1759, he avers that no other grain can equal wheat 

 for its virtues as malt ; yet to his great surprise, it was 

 neglected, although it had been during three succes- 

 sive years as low in price as three shillings the bushel, 

 at which price it was equal to barley at two shillings, 

 and oats at eighteen-pence the bushel, for malting ; 

 and far beyond both for making strong beer ; and 

 most particularly for the then famous and nutritious 

 liquor Mum, imported from Germany. This writer 

 continues to reason on the virtues of his favourite 

 malt as follows : 



" First then, the flour of wheat is much finer than 

 that of barley, and the finer the flour the finer the 

 drink ; so also is the bread made of the one and the 

 other, that bears very distant proportions of goodness. 

 The wheat bread eats smooth, mellow, sweet, light, 

 and nourishing ; the barley rough, coarse, moist, 



