The reason that a representation of this very secular custom is seen in the church probably arises from the fact that the Church ales were feasts instituted for the purpose of raising money for the repair of the church.

On seeing Selkirk enter, she exclaimed to the boy, pointing to the newly-arrived: 'A pot of ale!' 'No,' cried the young man smiling; 'the ale which I once drank here was for me a philter full of bitterness; a glass of whiskey, if you please,' and, pointing to the little table opposite the bar at which he was formerly accustomed to place himself, he said: 'Serve me there; I will return to my old habits.

Why prethee sweet heart what's your Ale?

Lamb's-Wool Ale is hot ale mixed with the pulp of roasted apples, sugared and well spiced.

A church-ale with its attendant festivities for drawing visitors was an important business matter.

The English beer of by-gone times underwent many vicissitudes, and it was long before our ancestors conquered their dislike to the bitter hop, after having been accustomed to a thick, sweet liquor of which the modern Kentish ale is in some measure a survival.

In that vale, heren men often tyme grete tempestes and thondres and grete murmures and noyses, alle dayes and nyghtes: and gret noyse, as it were sown of tabours and of nakeres and trompes, as thoughe it were of a gret feste; This ale is alle fulle of develes, and hathe ben alle weyes.

At Stratton, Cornwall, up to 1547, at any rate, if not later, ales were the chief source of income.

The chemists tell us that the London ale is a horrid and narcotic compound; and so, in truth, by far the largest portion of it is.

Ale is their eating and their drinking surely, which keeps their bodies clear, and soluble.