four-ale

How many a waverer has halted on the brink, gone perhaps to some public meeting and watched self-conscious Socialists dutifully addressing one another as ‘Comrade’, and then slid away, disillusioned, into the nearest four-ale bar!

The Road to Wigan Pier 2004

There had been four-ale to drink at supper mixed with gingerbeer, very free and jolly in a jug.

The History of Mr. Polly 2003

They are in the fields and the streets, in the factories and the armed forces, in the four-ale bar and the suburban back garden; and at present they are still kept under by a generation of ghosts.

The Lion and the Unicorn 1941

How many a waverer has halted on the brink, gone perhaps to some public meeting and watched self-conscious Socialists dutifully addressing one another as ‘Comrade’, and then slid away, disillusioned, into the nearest four-ale bar!

The Road to Wigan Pier 1937

Cousin George, his collar and tie unloosed, his swollen face purple and sagging, wallowed across the desk which now had a surface like a four-ale bar on a Saturday night.

Sweet Danger Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966 1933

Cousin George, his collar and tie unloosed, his swollen face purple and sagging, wallowed across the desk which now had a surface like a four-ale bar on a Saturday night.

Police at the Funeral Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966 1931

I like him best sitting round his open kitchen-range, piled with coke, or sitting in the four-ale bar of "The Griffin."

Nights in London Thomas Burke 1915

"God ... it's old Georgie!" and then went to attend the four-ale bar.

Nights in London Thomas Burke 1915

By the time we reached Priddlestone, we had a quart of four-ale down us, let alone what we'd had before, and, as the saying is, one glass leads to another.

The Lord of the Sea 1906

There had been four-ale to drink at supper mixed with gingerbeer, very free and jolly in a jug.

The History of Mr. Polly 1906