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DRINKS.
267
The
foregoing
verses
epitomise
the
praise
of
good
beer.
The
first
is
from
one
of
the
earHest
known
drinking
songs
in
the
English
language
—
the
last
is
an
old
Wassail
song
—
the
Wassail
bowl,
which
was
of
hot
spiced
ale,
with
roasted
apples
bobbing
therein,
—
a
kindly
way
of
welcome
on
New
Year's
Eve,
of
Saxon
derivation
as
its
name
"
Wes-hal,"
be
of
health,
ox
your
healthy
testifies.
That
the
Anglo-Saxon
took
kindly
to
his
beer,
we
have
already
seen
;
and
that that
feeling
exists
at
the
present
day
is
undoubted,
for
what
says
the
refrain
of
a
comparatively
modern
drinking
song
?
"
I
loves
a
drop
of
good
beer
—
I
does
I'se
partickler
fond
of
my
beer
—
I
is
And
their
eyes,
If
ever
they
tries
To
rob
a
poor
man
of
his
beer."
Its
popularity
has
never
waned
—
and
it
has
reached
to
such
a height
that
the
brewing
trade
seems
to
be
instituted
for
the
propagation
of
Peers
of
the
realm
a
fact
which
Dr.
Johnson
even
could
not
have
fore-
seen,
although,
at
the
sale
of
Thrale's
brewery,
he
did
say
that
they
had
not
met
together
to
sell
boilers
and
vats,
but
"
the
potentiality
of
growing
rich
beyond
the
dream
of
avarice."
It
was
the
national
drink
—
for
tea
and
coffee
were
not
introduced
into
England
until
the
middle
of
the
seventeenth
century
—
and
it
is
only
of
very
modern
times
that
the
''
free
breakfast
table
"
fad
of
statesman-
ship
has
made
those
beverages
so
popular,
by
bring-
ing
them
within
the
means
of
the
very
poorest.