A historical overview of drinking in the UK:

A well-documented body of Civil War literature depicts the conflict between Royalists and Parliamentarians as a battle between sophisticated wine and provincial ale. After the Restoration, both Whig and Tory satirists continued this tradition contrasting, depending on allegiance, suspiciously Francophile (or admirably sophisticated) wine with dull (or reliably English) beer.

(Image: William Hogarth’s 1751 engraving Gin Lane)