in the Act alluded to, that the duty is imposed on the liquor composed from the articles specified, and not on the simple articles themselves. The Act says, "for every gallon of coffee made and sold, to be paid by the maker, 4d.; for every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea, made and sold, to be paid by the maker thereof, 8d.;" from which it may be inferred, that none of those articles were then made by private families, but were purchased ready mixed from the compounder. The difficulty of collecting the duties in this form, their general unproductiveness, and the expenses they caused, occasioned the act to be repealed in the reign of William and Mary. Another writer says, tea or chaa, as it is called in China, was first brought to this country from Holland by Lord Arlington, in 1666. It is said to have been first brought to Europe by the Portuguese, and not understanding its qualities, or the mode of preparing it, the leaves were boiled, served up as greens, and eat with melted butter, the water in which they were boiled being thrown away! Within the last few years tea has been imported from Assam, and efforts have been made to promote its culture in our East India possessions; but as our recent relations with China have facilitated the commercial intercourse, the Chinese trade is still the principal source of supply. The consumption of Tea as a beverage has, however, been considerably affected by the substitution of Coffee, which is more nutritious and cheaper; and affords a greater encouragement to our Colonial trade.

TOBACCO.

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Tobacco is a native of the East and West India, and particularly the island Tobago, or Tabago, from whence Tabacco, or Tobacco, is derived. Tobacco is said to have been first brought into England by Captain R. Greenfield and Sir Francis Drake about the year 1586, and Sir Walter Raleigh to have introduced smoking it. Aubrey says, "Sir Walter Raleigh standing in a stand in Sir Robert Poyntz' park at Acton, took a pipe of Tobacco, which made the ladies quit it till he had done." Fosbroke, in his Encyclopædia of Antiquities, says, women as well as men used to smoke after supper, and when the children went to school, they carried in their satchels, with their book, a pipe of Tobacco; this their mothers took care to fill early in the morning, to serve them instead of a breakfast. At an accustomed hour every one laid aside his book and lit his pipe, the master smoking with them, and teaching them how to hold their pipes. People went to bed with pipes in their mouths and rose in the night to light them, a custom retained in Spain. Our first Tobacco came from the Spanish West Indies; and in 1599 the seeds were brought to Portugal, and in the sixteenth century it began to be cultivated in the East Indies."

HOPS.

They were, according to "Baker's Chronicles," introduced into England in the year of our Lord 1524.

Turkies, carps, hoppes, picarell,* and beere,
Came into Englande all in one yeare."

Hops were brought into England from the Netherlands, and are first mentioned as growing here, in the 5th and 6th Edward VI., and towards the middle of the same century were a favourite cultivation of English farmers. The best hops are produced in England, and are chiefly cultivated in Kent and Sussex; they are also grown to a limited extent in Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire, the soil and climate of each district giving a peculiar character to the crop. On the continent of Europe hops have been extensively cultivated. but never to perfection, the flowers having generally a rank smell and flavour. The plant has also been introduced into Canada, Van Diemen's Land, and on the Himalaya mountains, with various success.

BARLEY, BEER, BARME.

The month of September was called by our Saxon ancestors Gerstmonat, for that barley, says Verstegan, which that moneth commonly yeelded, was antiently called gerst, the name of barley being given unto it by reason of the drinke therewith made, called beere, and from beerlegh it came to be berlegh, and from berlegh to barley. So in like manner beereheym, to wit, the overdecking or covering of beere, came to be called berham, and afterwards barme, having since gotton I wot not how many names besides.† This excellent and healthsome liquor, beere, antiently called ael, as of the Danes it yet is (beere and ale being in effect all one), was of the Germans invented, and brought in use." It has been maintained by some authors that there was no malt liquor known by this name, as distinguished from ale, which was the ancient liquor of England, and superseded mead; and was drank as early by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. It was merely an inferior kind of barley, fermented, without any hops or other bitter ingredient. Beer as we now have it, is however of ancient date, being mentioned in a statute of 1482 (23 James III. of Scotland), by which it was made a capital offence to mix "wine" and beer; and in 1492 we find a licence to a brewer of Greenwich in Kent to export fifty tone of ale called "beer" or "bere,” though hops were not used till a later period, yet other bitters as wormwood were used to promote its keeping.

ALE.

This term, denominating another truly English beverage, is derived from the Saxon ael. The Saxons called October aelmonat, or ael-monath, i. e., the month which was principally *Pike or Jack. † Yeast, &c.

dedicated to the brewing of this liquor. Dr. Paris, On Diet, says, the liquor called ale was originally made of barley,* malt, and yeast alone. We are told by one of the oldest writers on medical subjects (Andrew Boorde), that those who put in any other ingredient, sophisticated the liquor. It is, he says, the natural drink of an Englishman; but beer, on the other hand, which is made of malt, hops, and water, is the natural drink of a Dutchman, and of late is much used in England, to the great detriment of many Englishmen. There existed, for a long time, a strong prejudice against hops, which were considered as pernicious weeds; but it is now generally admitted, that they constitute the most valuable ingredient in malt liquors. Independent of the flavour and tonic virtues which they communicate, they precipitate, by means of their astringent principle, the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the active principle of its fermentation; without hops, therefore, we must either drink our malt liquors new and ropy, or old and sour. There are several varieties of ale, distinguished by their colour; when the malt is slenderly dried, the ale is pale; or brown, when the malt is more roasted, or high dried. Those who sold Ale in England in olden time were called Ale-wives. John Skelton the Poet wrote and published a curious pamphlet on this subject, entitled "Elynor Rummin, or Elynor of Rummyng, alias, The Tunning of Elynor Rumpkyn, the famous Ale-wife of England," &c. This was several times printed, and particularly in 1624. Two sheets, Lond. 4to. In the Title-page is the picture of an old ill-favoured woman, holding in her hand a black pot of ale, and underneath her these verses are written. When Skelton wore the Laurel Crown, My Ale put all the Ale-wives down.

DAVIES'S Icon Libellorum, p. 29.

PORTER AND ENTIRE.

Before 1730, the malt liquors in general use in London were called ale, beer, and a drink called twopenny. It was then customary to call for a pint, or tankard, of half-and-half; i. e., half of ale and half of beer, or half of ale and half of twopenny. In course of time, it also became the practice to call for a pint, or tankard of three-threads, meaning a third of each, ale, beer, and twopenny, and thus the publican had the trouble to go to three casks, and turn three cocks for a pint of liquor. To avoid this inconvenience and waste, a brewer of the name of Harwood conceived the idea of making a liquor, which should partake of the united flavours of ale, beer, and twopenny; he did so, and succeeded, calling it entire, or entire-butt, meaning that it was drawn entirely from one cask or butt; and as it was a very hearty and nourishing liquor, and supposed to be very suitable for porters, and other working people, it obtained the name of porter.

*See Barley.

GIN.

The Genevese, in imitation of the Dutch (Hollands) were the first makers of this spirit, and called it Geneva, from whence originated the English term of Gin. Although it is inferior in flavour to Hollands, it is considered, when unadulterated with noxious mixtures, to be equally as wholesome.

PORT WINE.

This wine derives its name from Oporto, in Portugal, which, like Bordeaux in France, is the principal port in that country from whence the Portugal wines are exported.

Howell says, "Portugal affords no wines worth transporting.” In our day, however, we think different. The custom of drinking Port wine began about 1703, the date of the Methuen treaty, it being deemed impolitic to encourage the vintage of France. Wine was first made in England in 1140.

SHERRY.

This wine derives its name from the province of Xeres, in Spain, where it is produced.

HOCK.

We have heard much of Hock, and many of us, no doubt, have tasted it: it is made at a village called Hocheim, in Germany, from which it derives its name. The following epitaph may be seen on a tombstone there:

"This grave holds Gaspar Schink, who came to diue
And taste the noblest vintage of the Rhine:

Three nights he sat, and thirty bottles drank,
Then lifeless by the board of Bacchus sank,

One only comfort have we in the case—

The trump will raise him in the proper place."

GROG.

Old Admiral Vernon first introduced rum and water as a beverage on board a ship; the veteran used to wear a grogram cloak in foul weather, which gained him the appellation of Old Grog: from himself the sailors transferred this name to the liquor, and it may be a question to which of the grogs they were most attached.-See Notes and Queries, vol. i. pp. 52, 168.

PUNCH Liquor.

The liquor called Punch, says the "Asiatic Journal," has become so truly English, that it is often supposed to be indigenous in

this country, though its name at least is oriental. The Persian punji, or Sanscrit pancha, i. e., five, is the etymon of its title, and denotes the number of ingredients of which it is composed. Addison's fox-hunter, who testified so much surprise when he found, that of the materials of which this truly English beverage was made, only the water belonged to England, would have been more astonished, had his informant also told him that it derived its name even from the East.

NEGUS.

Wine and water first received this name from Francis Negus, Esq., in the reign of George the First. Party spirit ran high at that period between Whigs and Tories, and wine-bibbing was resorted to as an excitement. On one occasion, some leading Whigs and Tories having, par accident, got over their cups together, and Mr. Negus being present, and high words ensuing, he recommended them in future to dilute their wine, as he did, which suggestion fortunately directed their attention from an argument which probably would have ended seriously, to one on the merits of wine and water, which concluded by their nicknaming it Negus.

COFFEE AND COFFEE HOUSES.

Coffee Houses were first established at Oxford. In the year -1650, Jacob, a Jew, opened a Coffey-house at the Angel, in the parish of Saint Peter in the East, Oxon; and there it was by some, who delighted in noveltie, drank.

In 1654, Cirques Jobson, a Jew and a Jacobite, born near Mount Lebanus, sold coffee in Oxon; and in 1655, Arthur Tillyard, apothecary, sold coffee publicly in his house against All Souls' College.

This coffey-house continued till his Majesty's (Charles II.) return and after, and then became more frequent. It is also recorded in a "New View of London," published in 1708, that one James Fair, a barber, who kept the house (which is now the Rainbow) by the Inner Temple Gate, one of the oldest in England, was in the year 1657 presented by the Inquest of St. Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a sort of liquor called coffee, to the great nuisance and prejudice of the neighbourhood. And who (adds the author) could then have thought London would ever have had 3000 such nuisances, and that coffee would have been, as now, so much drank by the first quality and physicians. See also Notes and Queries, vol. i. p. 314.

CHICORY.

Chicory is the Cichorum intybus, a plant of the order Compositæ, indigenous in most parts of Europe. The root of Chicory and endive greens is used as a substitute for coffee. The leaves