12 
is not a fingle map, which muft ever be 
an effectual bar to the attainment of 
geographical knowledge. The pupil 
may Jearn from his béok that Portugal is 
bounded in part by’ Spain, and in part 
by the Atlantic, or that the Pyrenees are 
the boundaries between France and Spain; 
but if he have no map before him to 
which he may refer, for: the relative poti- 
tion which one country bears to another, 
the memory will be wearied, but the un- 
derftanding cannot be informed, 
How far thefe and other defe&ts with 
which a multitude of what are called 
“Introductions orGuides to Geography,” 
are chargeable, have been remedied in 
the little book. to which I have referred, 
‘the public will judge for themfelves. Mr. 
Barrett will, in {ome refpeéts, at leatt, 
find in it, what he conceived were fill 
‘among the defiderata in this pleafing and 
highly ufeful {cience. 
Dre. 14. 18038 Tam, &c. 
. A Constanr Reaper. 
Ta the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
_ SIR, 
N compliance with the with expreffed 
by Egoracensrs, I have tranfcribed 
from my common-place book a few me- 
moranda in regard to. Beer. 
BERE is an Anglo-Saxon word for 
barley, fo that we have not far to go for 
its etymology. Indeed they who are 
beft fkilled mm the analogy that exifts 
‘among the languages in the North of 
Europe, find a fingular coincidence in the 
word before us, which is ufed with litthe 
variation for the fame article, amone 
them all, The Germans fay bier; the 
Danes bier. 
Tacitus, who knew the forefathers of 
eur anceftors among their native woods, 
has left us a curious picture of thelr man- 
ners. 
fimpleft kind; fuch as wild apples, the 
ficth of an animal recently killed, or coa- 
sulated milk, Without (kill in cookery, 
and without feafoning to {timulate the 
-.palate, they ate to fatisfy nature. But, 
he tells us, they did not drink with the 
fole view of quenching thirft ; their love 
of liquor was indulged to particular ex- 
_cefs: they were carelefs indeed as to its 
quantity, but not its quality. The Ro- 
man author fays ‘ Their beverage is 
@ liquor drawn from barley, or from wheat, 
and, like the juice of the Grape, fer- 
mented to a fpirit. The fettlers on the 
banks of the Rhine provide themfelves 
with wine.”” (Tacitus de Moribus Gere 
Hiftory of Malt Liquor. 
“than with plates and dithes. 
He fays their food was of the 
[Feb. }, 
manorum, fe&. 23.) The original words 
are, “* Potui humor ex hordeo aut fru- 
mento, in quamdam fimilitudinem vini 
corruptus. Proximi ripe & vinum mer- 
cantur.”” 
The Anglo Saxons, as -well as all the 
northern tribes, were addiéted to hard 
drinking, which accounts for the numer- 
ous dricking-horns with which the ban- 
quets, as they. ave exhibited in our earlieft 
inanufecripts, feem much better provided 
Among the 
ancient Germans, fays Tacitus, it was 
no difgrace to be fitting day and night, 
caroufing and drinking. And fuch great 
drinkers were the Danes who were in 
England in the time of Edgar, that that 
monarch not only put down a great num- 
ber of the alehoufes which then ‘exifted, 
but fuffered one only to be open in each 
of the villages and fmall towns, and or- 
daimed that pegs or ftuds fhould be faf- 
ened in the drinking cups and horns at 
{tated diftances, and that whofoever fhould 
drink beyond his mark fhould be obnoxi- 
ous to a fevere punifhment. 
The brewing veffel of thofe times was 
called alfath, from cl, ale, and fet a vat: 
and if we may credit the Laws of Athel- 
ftan (ap. Bromp. c. 19.) was made in- 
differently of iron, brafs, or Jead. ‘Phe 
word vat, applied by our brewers at the 
prefent day, is, I believe, the only inftance 
where the Saxon word is ftill-ufed, 
The Laws of Ina king of Weffex, in 
the year 728, mention both ale and ale. 
houfes: though the firft affize was not fixed 
till the famous ftatute of the fifty firft of 
Henry the 3d. - 
Although the brewers of London were 
not incorporated as a company till the 
time of Henry the Sth, 1458, they occur 
as a fraternity among the Rolls of Parlia- 
ment confiderably fooner, and are called 
the Bere-brewers, 
From the’ patents in the Record Office’ 
at the Tower, it appears that in the firk 
year of Edward the 4th the fupervifor- 
fhip ‘of the bere-brewers throughout the 
kingdom was beftowed by the king ‘on 
John Devenifhe and others; and that 
their fee was a half-penny of filver upon 
every barrel. In tne sth of the fame 
king this office was granted, for their lives, 
to Richard Bele, Robert Oldum and John 
Gyles. And in his 11th year we have 
a patent appointing ‘ John Gyles, William 
Gull, aad John Nicholl, /crutatores et 
Jupervifores de lex Beerebrewers London? 
That the expoit trade exifted foon after, 
we have full proof, fince in 1492, Henry 
the 7th granted licenle to a Fleming to 
3 wat export 
