IN PRAISE OF ALE

Table

TIME out of mind, Beer has been the National Beverage, and its history, as embodied in songs and stories, will give a fair reflex of the manners and customs of the various periods at which they were written. I had intended originally to have classified my facts and fancies in a very severe manner, after the style of the Learned Smelfungus or Dryasdust, but I found objections to that plan. To have made my facts as bald as billiard balls, and have arranged them in parallelograms, would have deprived them of much of their charm. A book like this does not come under the hard and fast laws of editing, or the strict canons of criticism, but is rather like a song, without beginning or ending-- a book to be taken up at odd moments, and opened at any page, without undue strain on the reader's consecutive attention.

From the preface of "In Praise of Ale" or "Songs, Ballads, Epigrams, & Anecdotes Relating To Beer, Malt, And Hops," "With Some Curious Particulars Concerning Ale-Wives and Brewers, Drinking-Clubs and Customs," collected and arranged by W. T. Marchant, 1888.

Aside from the fantastic title and great opening paragraph, I suspect we'll be citing this source quite regularly here at Drinking Healths. And about that opening paragraph: we will be attempting to channel exactly that sentiment going forward.