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NEAR WORTHING 187
academic. The people who now write in praise of beer are generally cultured folk who spend many hours in libraries dipping into old volumes on the chance of discovering some long-forgotten tippler who has hymned his beer in verse or acknowledged its transcendent qualities in prose. Rarely would such people delight in the jocund scenes pictured in Hogarth's engravings of " Beer Street " and " Gin Lane." Still less would they ever dream of becoming " fuddled." Modern business men are not willing to :
"... look into the pewter pot, And see the world, as the world's not."
One recalls Mr. Arthur Beckett's verses in praise of another famous Sussex inn—" The Star " at Alfriston:
" I've drunk the ' Mermaid's ' beer at Rye, I've tasted swipes at Firle, And once for a lark, at Glynde, near by, I kissed the ' Dewdrop's ' girl; In a dozen bars I've filled my skin, Toasting many a Sussex son, But of all the joys of the country inn, I've felt most at Alfriston.
I've munched bren-cheese, and tossed off my quart In the pub at Pevensey Bay ; |
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