Their habit of drinking it out of
skulls, at their feasts, is well known to the reader of romance. It
was then, as it is now, commonly sold at houses of entertainment to
the people. After the Norman Conquest, the vine was very extensively
planted in England, but was drunk alone, as a chronicle of that time
says, "by the wise and the learned;" the people did not lose their
relish for the beverage of their forefathers, and wine was never held
in much respect by them. Hops had hitherto not been used in the
composition of beer; but about the fifteenth century they were
introduced by the brewers of the Netherlands with great success; from
them we adopted the practice, and they came into general use about two
centuries afterwards. Some historians have affirmed that Henry VI.
forbade the planting of hops; but it is certain that "bluff King Hal"
ordered brewers to put neither hops _nor sulphur_ into their ale. The
taste of the nation in the reign of Henry VI. seems to have changed,
as we find in the records of that time that extensive "privileges"
(_monopolies_ these _enlightened_ times would have called them) were
annexed to hop-grounds. In the reign of James I. the produce of
hop-grounds were insufficient for the consumption, and a law was made
against the introduction of "spoilt hops.
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