The idea that ale and beer are good, honest, nourishing and make men strong has been deeply ingrained in the English psyche for 2000 years. This book is the story of English drink and the places where it was consumed during those years. The Church, war, the Puritans, temperance crusaders and the taxman have all tried to curb the boisterous habits of the English, to no avail. Tracing the Englishman's drinking habitat through all its manifestations from rude hovel to alehouse, tavern, inn and beershop to pub, this book examines the various phases in its history from the golden days of the coaching inns to the darkest days of the gin fever.