1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

2i'9

Was once Toby Philpot, a thirsty old soul, As e'er cracked a bottle, or fathom'd a bowl; In bousing about, 'twas his pride to excel. And amongst jolly topers he bore off the bell. It chanced as in dog-days he sat at his ease, In his flower-woven arbour, as gay as you please, With his friend and a pipe, puffing sorrow away, And with honest Old Stingo sat soaking his clay. His breath-doors of life on a sudden were shut, And he died full big as a Dorchester Butt. And time into clay had dissolved it again, A potter found out, in its covert so snug, And with part of Fat Toby he form'd this brown jug ; Now sacred to friendship, to mirth, and mild ale So here's to my lovely sweet Nan of the Vale." Burton-on-Trent may be termed the Metropolis of English Beer, and there, veritably, ** Beer is King." This pre-eminence is attributed to the quality of the water, which seems peculiarly fitted for brewing pur- poses, and the fact that the large brewers there located use none but the finest malt and hops procurable. There is an old saying, that wherever an Englishman has trodden, and where has he not? there may be found an empty beer bottle. And, truly, he does carry the taste for his natural beverage wherever he goes, and the export trade is enormous, every ship wanting freight, filling up with bottled beer, as a safe thing. Fuller, in his Worthies of England (ed. 1662, p. 115), gives his account of the origin of bottled beer. Speaking of Alexander Nowell, who was made Dean of St. Paul's as soon as Queen Elizabeth came His body, when long in the ground it had lain.