Thursday 31 December 2020

see what one or toucan do

For a not so princely sum amounting to just over four-hundred thousand pounds once the lease lapses in the year 10759 CE (by which time the red giant Antares is expected to have gone supernova and is visible in the daytime sky of the Earth), Arthur Guinness (*1725—†1803), entrepreneur, brewer and philanthropist took over facilities established just outside of Saint James Gate in Dublin by Sir Mark Rainsford in exchange for an annual rent of 45£ on a contract to span the next nine-thousand years. Having wisely invested an inheritance from an uncle who was the archbishop of Cashel, Guinness first leased a brewery in nearby Leixlip on the Liffey, County Kildare (ᛚᛅᚼᛋ ᚼᛚᛅᚢᛒ—meaning salmon leap), and perfected his craft at ale and then porter, stout.