ls, and
subsequently preacher. In 1877 Disraeli secured for him the crown living of
Toppesfield, Essex. There he had time to continue his task of preparing his
_Letters and Papers of the Reign of King Henry VIII_., the Introductions to
which (published separately, under the title _The Reign of Henry VIII_., in
1884) form a scholarly and authoritative history of Henry VIII.'s reign.
New editions of several standard historical works were also produced under
Brewer's direction. He died at Toppesfield in February 1879.

[v.04 p.0506] BREWING, in the modern acceptation of the term, a series of
operations the object of which is to prepare an alcoholic beverage of a
certain kind--to wit, beer--mainly from cereals (chiefly malted barley),
hops and water. Although the art of preparing beer (_q.v._) or ale is a
very ancient one, there is very little information in the literature of the
subject as to the apparatus and methods employed in early times. It seems
fairly certain, however, that up to the 18th century these were of the most
primitive kind. With regard to _materials_, we know that prior to the
general introduction of the hop (see ALE) as a preservative and astringent,
a number of other bitter and aromatic plants had been employed with this
end in view. Thus J.L. Baker (_The Brewing Industry_) points out that the
Cimbri used the _Tamarix germanica_, the Scandinavians the fruit of the
sweet gale (_Myrica gale_), the Cauchi the fruit and the twigs of the
chaste tree (_Vitex agrius castus_), and the Icelanders the yarrow
(_Achillea millefolium_).

The preparation of beer on anything approaching to a manufacturing scale
appears, until about the 12th or 13th century, to have been carried on in
England chiefly in the monasteries; but as the brewers of London combined
to form an association in the reign of Henry IV., and were granted a
charter in 1445, it is evident that brewing as a special trade or industry
must have developed with some rapidity. After the Reformation the ranks of
the trade brewers were swelled by numbers of monks from the expropriated
monasteries. Until the 18th century the professional brewers, or brewers
for sale, as they are now called, brewed chiefly for the masses, the
wealthier classes preparing their own beer, but it then became gradually
apparent to the latter (owing no doubt to improved methods of brewing, and
for others reasons) that it was more economical and less troublesome to
have their beer brew