Pub Odyssey 33

Wednesday 24 August:  THE WHITE HART, WELWYN VILLAGE (Chris Haden, Gerry Murphy, Bob Polydorou, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms)

COMMENT: I missed this one, cycling in the Yorkshire Dales with Anne (very nice pubs there too).  The White Hart was the emblem of King Richard II (1377-99), therefore yet another royal emblem like the Rose and Crown, the Plume of Feathers, the Sun, etc etc.  The White Hart is a very common pub name, therefore suggesting that King Richard II was more successful as provider of pub nomenclature than he was as a ruler.  He lost out in a medieval power struggle, was deposed and starved to death in Pontefract Castle by his successor, King Henry IV.  You didn't want to be the loser in medieval cabinet reshuffles.  Apart from Richard II, King William II (1087-1100) may well have been assassinated at the instigation of his brother and successor Henry I;  King Edward II (1307-27) was murdered by his wife and her lover (red hot poker up anus); King Henry VI (1415-71) was rubbed out by his cousins Edward IV and Richard Duke of Gloucester; and the boy king Edward V (1485) and his brother were assassinated (smothered with pillows) by the order of their uncle, the same Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III.

Not having been at the White Hart, I've nothing to say about it, so this seems a good moment for a short essay on beer consumption.  Beer plays an important role in all our lives, but its nothing compared with the role it played in the lives of our ancestors.  Water was unhealthy and dangerous in all periods until quite close to the end of the nineteenth century, being the carrier of many diseases, whereas beer was nutritious and also healthier inasmuch as the boiling would have destroyed the waterborne bacteria.  Strength and quantities varied widely but a typical daily intake for most people would have been a gallon; two pints for breakfast, a pint mid-morning, two pints with the midday meal, another pint at at 4pm and the remaining two pints after work.  All medieval castles and palaces, and all substantial houses in later periods, would have had their own brewhouses.  In fact, the word "toddler" is thought to derive from a "tod", a drinking vessel with handles from which a child would have drunk "small beer" as soon as it left its mother's breast.

Can we reach the standards of our ancestors?  We do our bit but  I fear these standards are beyond us..