[46] “Capped in the sakke” = probably with some good malt put on the top and defective malt beneath. Mowe brent barley = barley that has heated in the stack. Belyed = swollen. Acre-spired = with the shoot of the plant projecting from the husk. Wyvell-eten = weevil-eaten. Meddled = mixed.
All these rules and ordinances the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were graciously pleased to sanction and confirm.
The records contain many entries showing the difficulties the authorities had to contend with in keeping the brewers to the legal price and qualities of ale, a subject already touched on in Chapter V. The prices being fixed by law, and no allowance being made for the natural fluctuations of the market, it is not to be supposed that the brewers would give their customers any better ale than they were absolutely compelled by law to give. As old Taylor quaintly says:—
I find the _Brewer_ honest in his _Beere_, He sels it for small Beere, and he should cheate, Instead of _small_ to cosen folks with _Greate_, But one shall seldome find them with that fault, Except it should invisibly raine Mault.
Disputes arising between the officers of the Brewers’ Company and any members of the guild, were sometimes referred for settlement to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. In 1520 there was “variance and debate in the Court of Aldermen between the Master and Wardens of the ale-brewers and Thomas Adyson, ale-brewer, concerning the making of a growte” by the latter. The parties having submitted their case to the Court, it was adjudged that Adyson should go to the Brewers’ Hall, { 143} and there, before the Master and Wardens, “with due reverence as to them apperteynyng, standing before them his hed uncovered, shall say these words: ‘Maysters, I pray you to be good masters to me, and fromhensforth I promytte you that I shall be good and obedient to you . . and obey the laws and customs of the house.’”
Foreign brewers (_i.e._, brewers not members of the Company) were only allowed to sell ale within the City on paying 40s. annually to the use of the City, and in default of payment the Chamberlain “shall distreyne their carts from tyme to tyme.” There was also a duty called ale-silver, which had been paid from time immemorial to the Lord Mayor by the sellers of ale within the City.