Purl or wormwood ale is an English drink. It was originally made by infusing

ale Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...

with the tops of various species of Artemisia ("wormwood"), especially those of ''

Artemisia maritima ''Artemisia maritima'' is a European species of wormwood known as sea wormwood, and also formerly often by its synonym ''Seriphidium maritimum''.Streeter D, Hart-Davies C, Hardcastle A, Cole F, Harper L. 2009. ''Collins Flower Guide''. Harper Co ...

'', "sea wormwood", which grows in coastal

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

and bears the alternative English common name of "old woman" ("old man" being a common name of the related '' A. abrotanum''). Other

purgative Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...

or bitter herbs such as

orange peel The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', between the pomelo (''Citrus m ...

or senna might also be used. The drink was commonly drunk in the early hours of the morning at which time it was popular with labourers. By the middle of the 19th century, wormwood had been forgotten and the recipe was to mull ale instead with

gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and spices such as

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

. It was sold by purl-men from purl-boats on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

who were licensed by the

Watermen's Hall The Company of Watermen and Lightermen (CWL) is a historic City guild in the City of London. However, unlike the city's 111 livery companies, CWL does not have a grant of livery. Its meeting rooms are at Waterman's Hall on St Mary at Hill, London ...

. The drink had ceased to be popular by the end of the 19th century, being replaced by beer, especially the variety known to the English as bitter. Purl-royal was a similar concoction made using wine in place of ale or beer. The English took the drink with them to North America and a purl house was opened in New York, where rich punches and

posset A posset (, also historically spelled possot poshote, possyt or poshotte), was originally a popular British hot drink made of milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced, which was often used as a remedy. The original drink became extinct and ...

s were popular. Purl was traditionally drunk during the winter and spring seasons.

In fiction

Shakespeare mentions purl in his play, ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

''.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

recorded in his diary entry for February 19, 1660, "Thence forth to Mr Harper's to drink a draft of purle, whither by appointment Monsieur L'Impertinent". On March 21, 1662, he writes, "Thence to Westminster Hall ... Here I met with Chetwind, Parry, and several others, and went to a little house behind the Lords' house to drink some wormwood ale, which doubtless was a bawdy house, the mistress of the house having the look and dress". Two centuries later, purl appeared in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

's ''

The Old Curiosity Shop ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is the fourth novel by English author Charles Dickens; being one of his two novels (the other being ''Barnaby Rudge'') published along with short stories in his weekly serial ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', from 1840 t ...

'', published in 1840–1841. The character

Dick Swiveller Richard "Dick" Swiveller is a fictional character in the 1841 novel ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' by Charles Dickens. Initially a comical accessory to the antagonists in the novel, he undergoes a transformation, becoming a key helpmate bridging the d ...

makes a show of kindness by bringing from a public house a boy "who bore in one hand a plate of bread and beef, and in the other a great pot, filled with some very fragrant compound, which sent forth a grateful steam, and was indeed choice purl, made after a particular recipe which Mr Swiveller had imparted to the landlord, at a period when he was deep in his books and desirous to conciliate his friendship." And, in the next chapter: "Mr. Swiveller emerged from the house; and feeling that he had by this time taken quite as much to drink as promised to be good for his constitution (purl being a rather strong and heady compound)...." Dickens described the final period of the drink in his last complete novel, ''

Our Mutual Friend ''Our Mutual Friend'', published in 1864–1865, is the last novel completed by English author Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. ...

'': "Early" purl is depicted as being served in an English coach house in the 1830's in

Tom Brown's School Days ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (sometimes written ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'', also published under the titles ''Tom Brown at Rugby'', ''School Days at Rugby'', and ''Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby'') is a novel by Thomas Hughes, published in 1 ...

by Thomas Hughes.

Recipe

According to ''The London and Country Brewer'', purl was made in the following manner: Another way of making purl is described in Accum's ''Treatise on the Art of Brewing'' (1820): "Amber Ale, which is also called ''Two-penny'', because it was sold for two-pence a pint, when

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., a locom ...

was retailed at three-pence the quart, was formerly employed for making the liquor called ''Purl'', or warmed two-penny beer, mixed with a small quantity of a bitter

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

: usually with tincture of

bitter orange The bitter orange, sour orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the hybrid citrus tree species ''Citrus'' × ''aurantium'', and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of th ...

peels".

References

{{reflist, 2 Types of beer English alcoholic drinks Historical alcoholic drinks

In fiction

Recipe

See also

References