However, as by degrees the vineyards increased in all places having a suitable soil and climate, the use of beer was almost entirely given up, so that in central Gaul wine became so common and cheap that all could drink it.  In the northern provinces, where the vine would not grow, beer naturally continued to be the national beverage (Fig. 104).

In the time of Charlemagne, for instance, we find the Emperor wisely ordered that persons knowing how to brew should be attached to each of his farms.  Everywhere the monastic houses possessed breweries; but as early as the reign of St. Louis there were only a very few breweries in Paris itself, and, in spite of all the privileges granted to their corporation, even these were soon obliged to leave the capital, where there ceased to be any demand for the produce of their industry.  They reappeared in 1428, probably in consequence of the political and commercial relations which had become established between Paris and the rich towns of the Flemish bourgeoisie; and then, either on account of the dearness of wine, or the caprice of fashion, the consumption of beer again became so general in France that, according to the “Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris,” it produced to the revenue two-thirds more than wine.  It must be understood, however, that in times of scarcity, as in the years 1415 and 1482, brewing was temporarily stopped, and even forbidden altogether, on account of the quantity of grain which was thereby withdrawn from the food supply of the people (Fig. 105).

[Illustration:  Fig. 105.—­The Brewer, designed and engraved, in the Sixteenth.  Century, by J. Amman.]

Under the Romans, the real cervoise, or beer, was made with barley; but, at a later period, all sorts of grain was indiscriminately used; and it was only towards the end of the sixteenth century that adding the flower or seed of hops to the oats or barley, which formed the basis of this beverage, was thought of.

Estienne Boileau’s “Book of Trades,” edited in the thirteenth century, shows us that, besides the cervoise, another sort of beer was known, which was called godale.  This name, we should imagine, was derived from the two German words god ael, which mean “good beer,” and was of a stronger description than the ordinary cervoise; this idea is proved by the Picards and Flemish people calling it “double beer.”  In any case, it is from the word godale that the familiar expression of godailler (to tipple) is derived.

In fact, there is hardly any sort of mixture or ingredient which has not been used in the making of beer, according to the fashions of the different periods.  When, on the return from the Crusades, the use of spice had become the fashion, beverages as well as the food were loaded with it.  Allspice, juniper, resin, apples, bread-crumbs, sage, lavender, gentian, cinnamon, and laurel were each thrown into it.  The English sugared it, and the Germans salted it, and at times they even went so far as to put darnel into it, at the risk of rendering the mixture poisonous.