The Portland daily press., 1880-09-15
Cambridge Ale.
Described with Learning and Gusto by
Richard Grant White.
September Atlantic.

toCptSiuDSi xAtdHtlc.
Between my visit to Trinity Library and one
to be made to Fitzwilliam Museum 1 went tc
luncheon with my friend at his rooms in Trim.
lty. On our way from the gate to the quad.
rangle from which his stairway ascended, we
passed the 'buttery hatch," and my host
pausing moment said to man in atten
dance, "Send a stoup Of ale and manchet to
my room, please" and was going on, when he
checked himself, and changed his order: 'sNo,
send plate of ale." The term buttery hatch
may possibly need explanation to some of my
readers. 1t means the hatch. or half-door, OF
the buttery. There are old houses in rural
New England in which such half-doors or
matches may yet be found Their purpose was
to close the door against entrance by ordinary
methods, and yet to permit speech between
those who are within and those who are with
out. To get over the hatch was to effect an
irregular and indecorous entrance Shakes
peare makes the Bastard FauIconbridge reply
to Queen Elinor, when she says that sac is his
graIidam:-
MADAM, by chance but not by truth; what though,
something about a little from the right
Ia al the window, or else o er the hatch"
The buttery hatch Is much the same as the
butlery oar which the saucy Maria mentions
IN Twelfth Night, when, meaning to tell Sir
Andrew Aguecheek that his hand is dry, she
says, Il pray you bring your hand to the but
terry bar and let it drink" The modern bar
as in bar rooms, is remnant of the buttery
bar; and its name is mere abbreviation OF
that OF The place where ale and wine used to
be served out III great houses of old. The term
piaIe as applied TO ale, was, my host informed
me, III constant use to mean vessel of two
quarts. Ii stoup of ale were ordered quart
pot would be sent; if plate, a great tankard
containing two quarts. Although he was a
man well up in all such questions, he said
that SO constantly as the word was used, and
mad been used from time immemorial, no one
knew why two quarts of ale was called plate
1t occurred TO mo that possibly the word was
used because the large tankard was, from its
size, brought on a saiyer of silver or pewter
and lie was kind enough to receive my hasty
conjecture with favor.
However this might be, the ale-brewed by
the college-Was excellent, and l enjoyed it SO
much, and IN his Judgment, it would seem,
With such discrimination, that ne declared
should have some ''audit ale." This ale is pe-
culiar to Trinity, and one Of the privileges OF a
fellow OF Trinity is THAT he is entitled to six
dozen of it every year. 1t has its name from
being served to the farmers and other tenants
OF the college when they come to the audit OF
accounts and the payment OF rents The farm.
ers, he told me, preferred it to any kind of
VINE that could be given them. And well
euOy uiisHo w 81, iOr Ou d uOltlo D6lng brought
and broached, / found that such product of
malt and hops had never passed my lips be-
fore. 1t was as mighty as that which Cedric
found at TorQuilstone, as clear as crystal, and
had mingled richness and delicacy OF flavor,
as superior to that OF the best brewage L had
ever before tasted as that OF Chateau Yquem
is TO ordinary Sauterne. 1t would have just-
lied the eulogy OF the host in the Beaux Strait
agem: "As smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear
as amber, and strong as brandy: . :. fancy
it Burgundy, only fancy it, and It's worth 10
shillings quart" AS absorbed it l began
to think that it is because "they who drink
ale think ale" that Trinity produces Newtons
and Macaulays l afterward found that, like
some of the more delicate kinds of wine and
finer growJhs OF tea, it was somewhat impaired
by transportation across the ocean, even when
it was allowed a fortnight's quiet to recover
from the effects of the voyage. And yet per-
haps it rather owed some loss of its supreme
excellence to the absence of the circumstances
pnder which first made its acquaintance;
those still, book-lined chambers, the very air
OF which seemed saturated with the aroma OF
elegant scholarship; that noble old quadrangle
upon which they opened: and the mingling of
common sense, wit, and learning in the dis
cussion OF subjects in which we had both been
long interested, with which my host had be-
fore beguiled our walk and then seasoned our
repast.