were meetings formerly held in England for the purpose of drinking ale, of which the expense was paid by joint contribution. Thus the tenants of South Malling in Sussex, which belonged to the archbishop of Canterbury, were, at the keeping of a court, to entertain the lord or his bailiff with a drinking, or an ale; and the stated quotas towards the charge were, that a man should pay threepence halfpenny for himself and his wife, and a widow and cottager a penny halfpenny. In the manor of Feering, in the same county, and under the same jurisdiction, it was the custom for the tenants named to make a feotale of fifteenpence halfpenny, and to allow out of each sixpence a penny halfpenny for the bailiff.

Common feotales in taverns, at which the clergy were not to be present, are noticed in several ecclesiastical canons. They were not to be published in the church by the clergy or the laity; and a meeting of more than ten persons of the same parish or vicinage was a feotale that was generally prohibited. There were also common drinkings, which were denominated feet-ale, bride-ale, clerk-ale, church-ale. To a feet-ale probably all the residents in a manorial district were contributors; and the expense of a bride-ale was defrayed by the relations and friends of a happy pair, who were not in circumstances to bear the charges of a wedding dinner. This custom prevails occasionally in some districts of Scotland even at this day, under the denomination of a penny bride-ale, and was very common about half a century ago. The clerk's-ale was in the Easter holidays, and was the method taken to enable clerks of parishes to collect their dues more readily.

Mr Warton, in his history of English Poetry, has inserted the following extract from an old indenture, which clearly shows the design of a church-ale. "The parishioners of Elveton and Okebrook, in Derbyshire, agree jointly to brew four ales, and every ale of one quarter of malt, betwixt this and the feast of St John the Baptist next coming; and that every inhabitant of the said town of Okebrook shall be at the several ales. Every husband and his wife shall pay twopence, every cottager one penny; and all the inhabitants of Elveton shall have and receive all the profits and advantages coming of the said ales, to the use and behoof of the said church of Elveton."

The give-ales were the legacies of individuals, and from that circumstance entirely gratuitous. They seem to have been very numerous, and were generally left to the poor; though, from the largeness of the quantity of ale enjoined to be brewed, it must have been sometimes intended that others were to partake of them. These bequests were likewise made to the altar of a saint, with directions for ringing masses at the obit, or anniversary of the testator. The give-ales were sometimes dispensed in the church, and frequently in the church-yard, by which means Godde's house was made a tavern of glutons. Such certainly would be Chalk-church, if in it was kept the give-ale of William May of that parish; for he ordered his wife "to make in bread six bushels of wheat, and in drink ten bushels of malt, and in cheese 20d. to give to poor people, for the health of his soul;" and he ordered that, after the decease of his wife, his executors and feoffees, should continue the custom for evermore."