Ivy-ale and Chop-houses

[tgarnsl]

 I've been doing some reading (as you do) about 18th/19th century dining, and I came across this fascinating bit of trivia: apparently at certain chop-houses, roast beef was served with "gill-ale", which is an ale made with ground ivy (from what I've read, in place of hops.) Now, of course, it's very difficult to find such a thing nowadays, but BUT I have found that apparently Lincoln College, Oxford serves it on May 25th to students of Brasenose!

(For the record, I don't know if it actually contains ivy, but the tradition is it does. That being said, All Souls no longer does their Duck Hunt with a real duck, so we shall see.)

Comments

[sanguinity]

once a century, a man, known as Lord Mallard, is paraded around on a chair followed by people with flaming torches...

O_o

Well, as long as everyone is having a good time, I guess.

but I'm fairly certain there's got to be some experimental archaeologist somewhere who's making it in their back garden.

I should certainly hope so!

[tgarnsl]

Everyone had a good time, barring the duck.

(Oxford is a very weird place. It has one foot firmly in this world and the other foot firmly in another world altogether. I was fortunate to spend two years of my life in that strange place and enjoyed collecting bits of odd trivia about it.)

There's bound to be SOMEONE. It combines two things that practically every experimental archaeologist love: beer and the danger of poisoning yourself.