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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

print

are

as

telling

as