nduct was regulated by legal enactments from the reign of Henry II onwards. The alehouse, on the contrary, might conduct its business as its owner pleased, subject only to the n

of the ducking-stool in the city of Chester du

endorse the maxim. Good old-fashioned wheaten and rye bread, made from the whole flour from which only the coarser brans had been sifted, built up the stamina of our forefathers. Their chief drink was ale brewed from barley or oaten malt. The small proportion of alcohol served as a vehicle for the organic phosphates necessary for the sustenance of strong nerv

eleven barrels of single beer." Hops only came into use about the reign of Henry VII; previously ivy berries, heath or spice had been used as a flavouring for ale. Leonard Maskall, of Plumpton, a writer on ga

resy, car

ngland all

ute of Henry VI; and about the same time mention of beer occu

teenth century, home-brewed ale was commonly on draught fifty or sixty years ago. The White Horse at Pleshy, that village that boasts of knowing neither a teetotaller nor a dru

r the best of their ale. There is a very old brewhouse at Derby, at the Nottingham Castle Inn, into which any passer-by may step from the street and see, twice a week, a huge cauldron containing about a hundred and twenty gallons, bub

Horse,

of standard capacity and stamped with some recognized official mark. Alehouses abounded everywhere, known by a long pole surmounted by a tuft of foliage. An Act of 1375 regulates the length of the ale-stake at not more than seven feet over the public way. The poles

illustrated in the fourteenth century MS.[9], where a hermit is being entertained by an alewife with a very large b

nd byten

of anxiety to well-disposed people, and no doubt the Church Houses were partly instituted with the idea of inducing the faithful to spend their time in a less disreputable manner. All kinds of bad char

kere and tweyn

neyman and Hug

lane, and the cle

ere and a do

idie and Perone

ratonere, a ra

ynkyng, and Ros

kehithe, and Gr

lderes a

, joke coarsely a

tton is hopeles

steppe ne stande, e

he go, liche a

ide, and somm

h lynes for to

lies helpless through Saturday and Sunday, waking i

en came to pledge their weddi

the ale

onviction imprisonment for one month. But none of these measures were enforced throughout the country, and they were easily evaded. Anyone was still free to sell ale in booths at fair time, and many trades had by custom the privilege to sell ale as a part of their business: for example, barbers and blacksmiths, whose customers required entertainment while waiting their turn. Two centuries after the first Licensing Act, the nation was still unconvinced

e, and a system of forfeits prevailed, nominally to enforce order, but in pract

or all

tenanced that th

forfeits in a

in mock

pied the following list of forfe

r Seemly

rst served-the

rived keep

om these rule

e forfeits-

ere with boo

s nook; for

ith armed h

pays for e

takes ano

mug may ma

less shall s

n farthings f

the barber

or each a

r cannot m

ng, pays a p

can or wi

be sent half

, nill he,

must in m

o is alread

in must ne

uers, Do

avellers to be content with moderate prices, recognizes the class of Herbergers[11] or keepers of unlicensed hostelries. And these inns as a class are deserving of close study

he most primitive form of ready reckoner; and as the innkeeper was the person best qualified to act as money-changer he readily undertook the business. Small tradesmen still send their assistants to the public-house when they require to change a sovereign. Many heraldic shields are painted with checks, and Brand, in his "Popular Antiquities," suggested that the Chequers represent the c

quers,

may have stood on the sites of Roman inns; but with these as with the thatched Chequers on the Watling Street, near Redbourne, or the Chequers at Loose or Doddington, speculation is vain. Like the needy knife-grinder, whose breeches

ny old leases exist they are described merely as tenements or farms. Thus the Dorset Arms at Withyham, a very picturesque old shingled and barge-boarded inn

eshoes near Pa

aring this sign and also known as Kisby's Hut. At Lickfold, about six miles from Haslemere, almost under the shadow of Black Down, the highest hill in Sussex, there is a cosy half-timbered Three Horseshoes, which has come down to our time practically unaltered since the day of its erection in 1642, and it is well worth examination. The roads around it are liable to be flooded, and it is a likely pla

eshoes,

l signs such as these point to a very high antiquity. The Plough

-planned fireplace with an ancient fireback and dogs. Up till quite recently it was the custom to keep a fire constantly burning, and in the hottest weather the warmth of this fire was far from unwelcome owing to the thickness of the outer walls. This tradition of the ever-burning fire is a

e all to be found in rural districts throughout England. The Wheatsheaf, whether it surmounts a fine old coaching house in a market town, or a little wayside inn far from the madding cro

ants of these districts are unduly given to convivial habits. The reports of the petty sessions show that drunkenness is exceedingly rare. In Steeple Ashton division no charge of drunkenness has been heard for the past six years. Such villages are decayed market towns, which become important at the time of their periodical sheep fairs, when an army of grazie