In the year 1799 two important events happened in the town. That which probably created the most profound sensation among the inhabitants was the death of a most eccentric person, James Wilson, the corpulent butcher of Romford. This worthy was in the habit of going to church on Sunday sometime before the hour of service, and loudly singing psalms by himself, until the minister came to the desk. On the last fast-day before his death he remained in church between morning and evening services, repeating the Lord’s Prayer and singing psalms in each of the pews, only leaving the church when there remained no pew in which he had not performed his devotions. Another peculiarity was the peripatetic manner in which he sometimes took his meals. Armed with a shoulder of mutton in one hand, some salt in the bend of his arm, a small loaf, and a large knife, he would wander up and down the street until all was consumed. He was, moreover, an {352} excellent penman, as the vestry books to this day witness, and his meat bills were well worthy of framing. One line would be in German text, another in Roman characters; no two meats being written in the same coloured ink. The death of such a man naturally attracted more attention than the second event alluded to, a small commercial transaction, which we venture to think was of more importance to the community at large than the decease of the butcher. This was the purchase of the Star Inn and Brewery by Mr. Ind, who, in conjunction with a Mr. Grosvenor, carried on the business of a brewer. Seventeen years later the partnership was dissolved, Mr. John Smith took the place of Mr. Grosvenor, and until 1845 the firm traded as Ind and Smith. In that year Mr. Smith sold his share in the Brewery, and Mr. O. E. Coope and his brother, George Coope, joined the firm, which then, for the first time, adopted its present title of Ind, Coope & Co.

A few years back the following epigram appeared in one of the London comic papers in connection with the name of the firm and Drink, the English version of the play L’Assomoir:—

Mr. Ind, the founder of the Romford Brewery, died in 1848, his place being taken by his son, the present Mr. Ind. Mr. E. V. Ind, another son of the founder, was also made a partner, as was Mr. Charles Peter Matthews, to whose skill as a brewer Romford Ales owe much of their reputation. In 1858, Mr. Thomas Helme (who has recently assumed the name of Mashiter) joined the firm, which consisted in 1886 of Messrs. O. E. Coope; Edward Ind; C. P. Matthews (the general managing partner); T. Mashiter; together with their four sons, and Major F. J. N. Ind, son of the late Mr. E. V. Ind.

In 1853 Messrs. Ind, Coope & Co. purchased a brewery at Burton, which, having been enlarged from time to time, now rivals in size the old brewhouse at Romford. It is under the direction of Mr. E. J. Bird, the Burton managing partner.

The mash tuns, vats, coppers, &c., of the Romford brewery differ but little from those used by other firms of the first rank. In the brewhouse are thirty-two malt bins, the eight largest of which hold 900 quarters, and are each about as large as a small dwelling-house. {353} Altogether 10,000 quarters of malt can be stored. Extensive hop rooms, one of which is 110 feet long by 80 feet wide, afford storage for 5,000 pockets of hops. There are six coppers, the largest of which holds 32,400 gallons. In the fermenting room are twenty-four squares with capacities ranging up to 500 barrels. The stores are in seventeen buildings connected by tramways, and the tram lines on which the casks are rolled are about eight miles in length. About 600,000 full casks of various sizes are sent out from the store every year. In the stores are twenty-three huge vats used for storing old ale.

The cooperage is one of the largest departments in the brewery, giving employment to thirty-two coopers and fifty-six assistants. In the stables are some forty or fifty horses, and the more thoroughly to dispel the popular delusion that brewers’ horses are fed on grains, it may be worth while stating that these have each an allowance of 42 lbs. per day of oats, beans, clover, meadow-hay, oat-straw and bran, all either cut or bruised and mixed together.

On the brewery are kept three fire-engines (a steamer and two manuals) and a well organised fire-brigade of ten men, which is ever ready to render its services at fires in the neighbourhood. A laudable feature in connection with the brewery is a Friendly Society, to which all the employés belong, and which ensures their receiving, among other benefits, a substantial allowance during sickness.

At Romford the firm give employment to three hundred men and boys, exclusive of officials, collectors, &c., and are large employers of labour at their London stores (where eighty horses are in use); at their Burton brewery, and at their twenty-five country depôts. The firm is a great supporter of the Volunteer movement. For many years Mr. Coope was Major of the Essex Volunteers, and one company of the battalion to which he was attached is entirely made up of brewery employés, “doughty sons of malt and hops.”

Messrs. Ind, Coope & Co. stick to the old-fashioned materials for their beer, and the large extent of what may be termed their private family trade is an indication not to be lightly disregarded that we English still adhere to our ancient friendship for Sir John Barleycorn.

One other Burton Brewery yet remains to be mentioned, that of Messrs. Thomas Salt & Company, at the head of which firm is Mr. Henry Wardle, the present (1886) member for South Derbyshire, the other partners being Messrs. Edward Dawson Salt, William Cecil Salt, and Henry George Tomlinson.

To trace the origin of the firm, it is necessary to go back as far as {354} the year 1774, when Messrs. Salt & Co.’s maltings were worked in conjunction with the brewery of Messrs. Clay & Sons. It was about this time that the great-grandfather of two present members of the firm added a brewery to the malting business, and thus, in the list of brewers, then few in number, given in the records of the town for 1789, we find the name of Thomas Salt. In 1822 the only Burton Brewers mentioned in Pigott’s Commercial Directory were S. Allsopp & Co.; Bass and Ratcliffe; Thomas Salt & Co.; John Sherrard; and William Worthington.

When in 1823 the Burton brewers determined to brew an ale which could compete with Hodgson’s then well-known India pale ale, Salt & Co. were among the first to bring the idea to a practical issue. There must indeed have been no lack of energy on the part of the firm, for in 1884 they came off with flying colours at the International Health Exhibition, gaining a gold medal for the excellence of their ale.

Salt & Co.’s brewery is bounded on the front by the High Street, while at the back flows the silvery Trent, the waters of which are not used in brewing, as many people suppose. Even in Burton, famous as it is for its waters, every well sunk does not produce the right sort of “liquor,” and Messrs. Salt & Co., after many fruitless borings on their own premises, were obliged to sink an artesian well a quarter of a mile distant before they could obtain the water most suitable for their purpose.

The firm have several maltings in Burton, the most important of which is that situated on the Wallsitch. It consists of three huge blocks of buildings, each of which is seventy yards long, thirty wide, and four storeys high. As a malting has not yet been described in this book, some account of the interior of John Barleycorn’s Crematory, taking that last erected by Messrs. Salt & Co. as a sample, may be read with interest.

On the ground floor is the cistern, into which the barley, after being cleansed (technically “screened”), is placed for the purpose of being steeped. At the end of about fifty hours the clear water is drained off, and the soaked barley is thrown into the couch frame, where it remains about twenty-five hours. The grain has now commenced to germinate. The next process is to distribute it over various floors (by means of baskets lowered and raised by steam windlasses), where it is spread on clean red tiles, in layers varying from two to four inches in thickness, according to the temperature of the weather. For four or five days the barley is left to grow. At the end of that time its vitality begins to flag {355} for lack of moisture, and more water is added, the skill of the maltster being taxed to the utmost in assigning such a proportion of water as will develop the grain into perfect malt. At the end of about ten days germination is complete. A great and wonderful transformation has now taken place, the hard stubborn corn having been reduced to tender friable malt. The next process is to dry the malt, and for this purpose it is placed in a kiln and subjected to a high temperature until the vital principle of germination is extinguished, and the desired colour has been acquired. Any dry rootlets which adhere to the grain are then separated by trampling, a second screening takes place, and the malt is measured into sacks, every precaution being taken to prevent exposure to the atmosphere, until it is finally placed in the big bins above the mash tub.

In the process of malting the most ingenious apparatus used is the screen, which may be described as a multum in parvo piece of mechanism. Of these machines there are three, each being worked by an endless leathern rope, and by an ingenious system of graduated riddles, performing four distinct operations. In one compartment the dust is blown away by revolving fans, in another the broken half-corns are removed; the third action clears all stones, rubbish, &c., away, and finally the thin inferior corns are separated.

To avoid repetition, we are obliged to omit a description of the brewery, those of the first class at Burton being very similar to one another. In order to give some idea of the extent of Messrs. Salt and Co.’s operations, it may be mentioned that in the new house are five mash tubs, each with a capacity of fifty-five qrs. of malt. The cooperage belonging to this firm is noteworthy, the casks being made by elaborate machinery worked by steam, a system followed in very few English breweries, but which is not uncommon in America.

In the archives of the firm of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co., is a document bearing the date 1719, which purports to be “An Inventory of the Goods, Chattels, and Credits of Joseph Truman, which since his death have come into the hands, possession and knowledge of Benjamin Truman, Daniel Cooper, and the Executors named in the will of Joseph Truman.” No earlier written record of the firm is in existence, but there is a tradition that at some remote period of history there existed one John Oliver Truman, who carried on the business in Brick Lane, and to this day all casks leaving the brewery are branded I.O.T. Even in 1741 the business transacted was considerable. There were then four partners—Benjamin Truman, John Denne, Francis Cooper and the {356} executors of Alud Denne. Among the customers were two hundred and ninety-six publicans, one of whom was John Denne, who retailed the beer made by this firm.

To the Benjamin Truman above-mentioned must be given the credit of having made the brewery one of the most important in London. In 1737, when the Duchess of Brunswick (grand-daughter of George II.) was born, the Prince of Wales ordered bonfires to be made before Carlton House, and four barrels of beer to be given to the populace. But the brewer to the royal household provided beer of the smallest, and the mob threw it in each other’s faces and into the fire. The Prince good-naturedly ordered a second bonfire the succeeding night, and Benjamin Truman supplied the beer. He had the wisdom to send a sturdy brew, the best his cellars could produce, and the people were greatly pleased. With such a shrewd trader at its head, it is not surprising that by 1760 Truman’s had taken its place as third among the great London Breweries. Calvert and Seward came first with 74,704 barrels, Whitbread’s next with 60,508 barrels, Truman’s following with 60,140 barrels.

Benjamin Truman was knighted by George III., and portraits of him and his daughter, by Gainsborough, still hang in the drawing room of the house in Brick Lane. In the same room is a portrait of Mr. Sampson Hanbury (the first of the name who joined the firm), a famous sportsman, who for thirty-five years was Master of the Puckeridge Hounds. He entered the firm in 1780, and was subsequently joined by his brother. Sampson Hanbury’s sister, Anna, married Thomas Fowell Buxton, of Earle’s Colne. This gentleman was High Sheriff of his county, and served the office with special credit. He died in 1792, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters. The eldest son, Thomas Fowell Buxton, was only six years old at his father’s death. This little fellow was destined to be, perhaps, the most distinguished partner in the firm. He was educated at Greenwich, and Trinity College, Dublin, at which latter place he carried off the highest honours, and when only twenty-one years of age received an influential requisition to represent the University in Parliament. This honour he declined. He had originally been intended for the Bar, but in 1808, when on a visit to the brewery, his uncles, Osgood and Sampson Hanbury, being struck with his undoubted abilities, offered him a situation in the business, and in 1811 made him a partner. The other members of the firm at that time were Mr. Sampson Hanbury, Mr. John Truman Villebois, and Mr. Henry Villebois. {357}

To the young partner was soon given the work of re-modelling the Establishment, a task in which he succeeded admirably. A few years later he began to take an interest in public affairs, devoting himself more particularly to a consideration of subjects connected with prison discipline and the criminal code, into which his early training for the Bar gave him some insight. In 1818 he was elected for Weymouth, and, owing in a great measure to his exertions and co-operation, Sir Robert Peel carried his Bill for the abolition of capital punishment for trivial offences. Mr. Buxton’s great work was in connection with the Slavery question. Into the cause of Liberty he threw himself heart and soul, and to his unceasing endeavours were in great measure due the glorious results ultimately achieved. The Beer Act, passed in 1830, had Mr. Buxton’s approval. “I have always voted for free trade when the interests of others are concerned,” he said, “and it would be awkward to change when my own are in jeopardy. I am pleased to have an opportunity of proving that our real monoply is one of skill and capital.”

In June, 1831, occurred a noteworthy event in the history of the firm. This was a visit by a number of Cabinet Ministers to inspect the brewery. Mr. Buxton had provided an elaborate banquet, but Lord Brougham said that beef-steaks and porter were more appropriate to the occasion, so of those excellent comestibles the dinner in great part consisted. Of this visit Mr. Buxton has left a very lively account, too long, unfortunately, to be given here. Among the guests, who numbered twenty-three, were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Grey, the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Cleveland, Lords Shaftesbury, Sefton, Howick, Durham, and Duncannon, General Alava, Dr. Lushington, Spring Rice and W. Brougham. Mr. Buxton first took them to see the steam engine. Lord Brougham immediately delivered a little lecture upon steam power, and, as the party went through the brewery, had so much to say about the machinery that Joseph Gurney said he understood brewing better than any person on the premises. At dinner “the Chancellor lost not a moment, he was always eating, drinking, talking or laughing.” Later on the Ministers inspected the stables, and the Lord Chancellor surprised everyone by his knowledge of horseflesh. Some one proposed that he should mount one of the horses and ride round the yard, which he seemed very willing to do—such is the power of brown stout!

On the 9th November, 1841, a large new structure was opened, and to celebrate the event a supper was given to the men. In the midst of it the good news came that the Queen had given birth to a son. In honour of Her Majesty’s first-born, a huge vat was christened. “The {358} Prince of Wales.” The inscription can still be seen. Twenty-five years later, when on a visit to the brewery, his Royal Highness had the satisfaction of drinking a glass of stout drawn from his namesake.

In 1837, after twenty years’ faithful service, Mr. Buxton was defeated at Weymouth. Finding his health demanded repose, though invited by twenty-seven constituencies to represent them, he determined to leave Parliamentary life, and in 1841 a baronetcy was conferred on him by Lord John Russell. Even when out of Parliament he gave himself no rest, his mind being full of philanthropic schemes. He died in 1845, at the age of fifty-nine, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

In 1820 Mr. Robert Hanbury, nephew of Mr. Sampson Hanbury, became a partner in the firm, of which he was the head for many years. He was born in 1796, and during the few years previous to his death was the oldest member of the London brewing trade. He is remembered for his philanthropy and benevolence. During the period when Mr. Thomas F. Buxton was engaged with public affairs nearly the whole management and control of the brewery fell on Mr. Hanbury.

In 1814 the first steam-engine was erected in the brewery. Previously the mashing was accomplished with long oars worked by sturdy Irishmen, and each brewing occupied twenty-four hours.

At the present time (1886) the members of the firm are Messrs. Arthur Pryor; C. A. Hanbury; T. F. Buxton; Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Bart.; Messrs. E. N. Buxton; J. H. Buxton; E. S. Hanbury; A. V. Pryor; R. Pryor; J. M. Hanbury; and Gerald Buxton. Of these perhaps the best known to the public is Mr. Edward North Buxton, whose name has long been before them in connection with many measures of national importance.

Messrs. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. have always been a little ahead of the times, and it is not surprising to find in the brewery appliances of the most improved description. As an instance of this, when Lord Palmerston was at the Home Office he ordered that all London manufacturers should erect smoke-consuming furnaces. Mr. Buxton had, however, already adopted the principle, so that when the Home Secretary was abused by the manufacturers for ordering them to do the impossible, he was able to point out that what he desired had been already done. Palmerston publicly thanked the firm for this in the House of Commons.

The brewery, cooperage, and stables in Brick Lane cover about five acres, and near at hand are the Coverley Fields, where are the {359} signboard and wheelwright shops, cellars, &c., covering about three and a half acres. As may be imagined, a small army of men is employed in the brewery, numbering in all about four hundred and fifty.

Worthy of special notice in the brewhouse are the cleansing vessels, which, being very shallow, do their work with great rapidity. On the ground-floor is a novelty, one room being completely filled with shallow slate vessels for holding the yeast in summer. Each of these vessels has a false bottom, under which cold liquor (in vulgar parlance, water) constantly circulates, rendering the yeast so cool that is may be kept for some time in the hottest summer weather.

In the brewery are ninety-five vats, which have a total capacity of 3,463,992 gallons, an amount which it has been calculated is about five times the capacity of all the swimming-baths in London put together. These huge vats are, however, but rarely used. Nearly 80,000 casks are always in use.

When the light ales came into fashion Messrs. Truman & Co. wisely determined to start a pale-ale brewery at Burton. They carried out their resolve in 1874. Of this it can only be said that everything Science could do to make the brewery perfect was done, and that the pale ales are brewed on the most approved Burton principles.

The founder of the firm of Whitbread & Co. was the son of a yeoman who lived on a small estate at Cardington, in Bedfordshire. On his father’s death he improved the property by building, and from one propitious circumstance to another gradually amassed an immense fortune. It was in the year 1742 that Mr. Whitbread commenced business as a brewer, at the Brew House, Old Street, St. Luke’s, the premises now occupied by the firm of More & Co. In 1750 he removed to Chiswell Street, where for fifty years previously had been a brewery. Here the business was developed with great vigour, and from the returns made necessary in 1760 by the imposition of a Beer-tax, we learn that in that year Whitbread’s brewed no less than 63,408 barrels of beer, only one other London firm—Calvert & Seward—brewing a greater quantity. In 1785 steam power was introduced into the brewery. In connection with this event are two very celebrated names, for the Sun and Planet engine, still in use, was manufactured by the firm of which Watt was a partner; and John Rennie adapted the other machinery to the new motive power. About the same period six huge underground cisterns were made, after designs by Smeaton, varying in capacity from 700 to 3,600 barrels each. Two years later Mr. Whitbread had the honour of a visit from King George and Queen Charlotte, the particulars {360} of which are recorded in a humorous poem of considerable length, by Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcot), a few verses from which will suffice to give some idea of what took place on that auspicious occasion. A more prosaic, and no doubt more credible, account will be found in the Daily Chronicle of that period.

The preparations at the brewery are then described, followed by the arrival of King, Queen, Princesses and Courtiers. The conversation of the King, who “asked a thousand questions with a laugh, before poor Whitbread comprehended half,” was, according to the poet, as “five hundred parrots, gabbling just like Jews.”

George III. was no doubt of opinion that a thing worth doing was worth doing well, and no detail of the manufacture of beer seemed too insignificant to interest him. “Thus microscopic geniuses explore,” says Peter Pindar.

The extent of the business at that time may be gathered from the following verse:—

To this Mr. Whitbread replies that they would probably reach to Windsor.

After awhile the King began to take notes.

After the brewery had been inspected Mr. Whitbread entertained the King and Queen at a banquet.

For several sessions Mr. Whitbread sat in Parliament as the member for Bedford. He was a man of much benevolence, and it is said of him that his charity, which was as judicious as it was extensive, was felt in every parish where he had property. His private distributions annually exceeded 3,000. Among the records of the Brewers’ Company we came upon a conveyance from him to the Company of three freehold farms in Bedfordshire, the income arising from which was to be devoted to supporting “one or two Master brewers of the age of fifty years or upwards, who had carried on the trade of a brewer within the bills of mortality or two miles thereof for many years in a considerable and respectable manner with good characters but by losses in the brewing trade only shall have come to decay or been reduced in circumstances and want relief.” By another indenture of the same date three dwelling houses in Whitecross Street, London, are conveyed to the Company, the income to be devoted towards the “support and relief of poor freemen of the Co^y. of Brewers being proper objects and their widows (particularly preferring such objects as shall be blind, lame {363} afflicted with palsy or very aged).” The date of the gift is 1794. Only two years later the donor died. His portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is still to be seen in the Hall of the Brewers’ Company.

Mr. Samuel Whitbread, son of the founder, and remembered as Mr. Whitbread the politician, now became the head of the firm, and, having associated with himself partners, carried on the business as Whitbread & Co. He sat in Parliament for several years, and was a firm supporter of the Liberal party. It is related of him that being one evening at Brooks’s he talked loudly and largely against the Ministers for laying what was called the war-tax upon malt; every one present of course concurred with him in opinion; but Sheridan could not resist the gratification of displaying his ever ready wit. Taking out his pencil, he wrote upon the back of a letter the following lines, which he handed to Mr. Whitbread across the table:—

Mr. Whitbread the politician is mentioned in Rejected Addresses, and it is worthy of note that he took a considerable part in the rebuilding of Drury Lane Theatre after it had been destroyed by fire.

Since 1760 the business had wonderfully increased. In 1806 we find Whitbread & Co. stand fourth among the London brewers, brewing 101,311 barrels. In the succeeding ten years the business more than doubled itself, the beer brewed in 1815 amounting to 261,018 barrels.

Mr. Whitbread, the son of the founder, died in 1820. A writer in the London Magazine of that date gives a careful study of his character as a politician. “He was an honest man, and a true Parliamentary speaker. He had no artifices, no tricks, no reserve about him. He spoke point-blank what he thought, and his heart was in his broad, honest, English face. . . . . If a falsehood was stated, he contradicted it instantly in a few brief words: if an act of injustice was palliated, it excited his contempt; if it was justified, it roused his indignation; he retorted a mean insinuation with manly spirit, and never shrank from a frank avowal of his sentiments.”

Mr. Whitbread the politician left two sons, the younger of whom represented Middlesex for several years, and died in 1879. Of the present member for Bedford, grandson of the politician, we need say but little. {364} He was born in 1830, was educated at Rugby and Cambridge, has sat for Bedford since 1852, and is one of the most respected members of the House of Commons.

There are, it need hardly be said, many other brewing firms of the first rank in the United Kingdom. The length to which this chapter has grown absolutely prohibits us from giving, as we had intended, a sketch of a large Edinburgh firm. There is, however, scattered through these pages continual reference to the good ale—“jolly good ale and old”—of Scotland. The old ales of Edinburgh are now giving way somewhat to the pale ales affected by the temperate drinkers of the period, but old Scotch ale is by no means a thing of the past, and has a world-wide reputation. Most of the Edinburgh breweries have been established a very long time, in some cases over a hundred years.

In the earlier portions of this book punning allusions to ale by old writers have been freely quoted; with them may be compared the following extract from a modern play, Little Jack Sheppard, written by Messrs. Stephens and Yardley, and which contains facetious references to some of the firms whose histories have just been related.