That curious ballad entitled _Skelton’s Ghost_, which was probably the work of a rhymer of the seventeenth century, points to the same distinction. The ghost of Skelton the Laureate is supposed to be addressing some of the jovial characters of the period much in the tone of one who, having lived in the golden age (of liquor), looks down with pity and scorn at a later-day’s degenerate topers. These are the particular lines in point:—
For in King Harry’s time When I made this rhyme * * * * * Full Winchester gage We had in that age The Dutchman’s strong beere Was not hopt over here, To us ’twas unknowne; Bare ale of our owne, In a bowle we might bring, To welcome the King.
At the present day, in the eastern counties, and indeed over the greater portion of the country, _ale_ means strong, and _beer_ means small malt liquor; in London _beer_ usually means porter (_i.e._, the small beer of stout); while in the west country _beer_ is the “mighty” liquor, and _ale_ the small. In the trade, however, _beer_ is the comprehensive word for all malt liquors. { 154}
Ale was not the only word employed in late Saxon times to signify the “oyle of barly,” for _wœt_, from the Saxon _swatan_, was in common use as a synonym, and now, perhaps, finds its representative in the slang phrase, “heavy wet.” The same term lingers in Scotland, and lovers of Burns will remember his line, “It gars the _swats_ gae glibber doun.” In former times wheat and oats were malted, as well as barley, and though, as has been previously stated (p. 105), the law from time to time prohibited this use of wheat, as tending to enhance the price of bread, the practice was stronger than the precept, and continued to prevail down to a comparatively recent date.
Cogan, in _The Haven of Health_ (1586), thus describes the effect of the different malts on the resultant liquor:—“For beere or ale being made of wheat inclineth more to heat, for wheat is hot. If it be made of barley malt, it enclineth more to cold, for barley is cold. And if it be made of barley and otes together it is yet more temperate and of less nourishment.” In the reign of Edward VI. even beans were used in brewing, for the Brewers’ Company, in a petition to the Common Council asking for a revision of the prices of ale and beer, complain that the articles they use in brewing, viz., “wheate, malte, oates, beanes, hoppes . . . . . . at these days are comen unto greate and exceeding pryces.”