Littell's Living Age/Volume 128/Issue 1654/Hops

From The Gardener's Chronicle.

HOPS.

The history of the introduction of the hop into general use, as given in our public records, is by no means devoid of interest. It is stated that in the fourth year of King Henry VI. (1425-26) an information was laid against a person for putting into beer "an unwholesome weed called an hopp;" and that in the same reign Parliament was petitioned against "that wicked weed called hops." In the reign of Henry VIII. their use seems to have been fully established, although the brewer of the royal household was prohibited from using it in his ale. In the statute-book for 1552 the cultivation of hops is distinctly sanctioned; and in 1574 Reynolde Scot published a black-letter treatise, with woodcuts, expressly on the cultivation of hops, which is called "A Perfite Plat Forme of a Hoppe Garden." In 1603 English-grown hops were extensively used, as appears from an act of James I., and, although their use was petitioned against, and nominally condemned in the same reign, this prohibition was but little attended to. Another article which "the famous City of London" also petitioned against would be nowadays regarded as being even more indispensable than hops. Blith, in "The English Improver Improved" (published in 1653), says, "It is not many years since the famous City of London petitioned the Parliament of England against two nuisances, and these were Newcastle coals, in regard of their stench, etc., and hops, in regard they would spoil the taste of drink, and endanger the people." But from this time forward the general use of hops was thoroughly established. An act passed in the reign of Queen Anne inflicts a penalty of £20 upon all brewers who shall use any other bitter than hops in their malt liquors, and a similar enactment under George III. imposes a fine of £5 per cwt. upon those who shall adulterate hops by giving them scent or colour by drugs, while the cutting of hopbines growing in a plantation is made felony "without benefit of clergy." Although the chief use of the hop is that connected with our national beverage, it has been put to other purposes of some little importance. Cloth of considerable strength is made from the fibrous stems of the plant in Sweden, and the Society of Arts in 1791 awarded a premium to a Berkshire farmer who had succeeded in a similar manufacture. The attention of paper-makers has also been directed to this as to most other fibrous plants. The young shoots are sometimes cooked and eaten like asparagus, and are said to be very good; in Gerard's days these "buds or first sprouts" were used in salads, although that author regarded them as "more toothsome than nourishing."