2o8
DAVA'^VS.
Beer
was,
perforce,
drank
morning,
noon and
night
by
those,
and
they
were
the
vast
majority,
who
could
not
afford
wine
—
and,
as
a
rule,
after
the
Norman
Conquest,
when,
the
Anglo-Saxons
copied
the
soberer
customs
of
their
conquerors,
the
English
were
not
drunkards
as
a nation
;
in
fact,
although
almost
all
their
jests
hinge
on
drinking,
there
is
in
most
of
them
an
underlying
moral,
which
in
are
as
telling
as