ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY. 35 



This subject is of interest from more than one point of view. 

 I propose, therefore, in what follows, to repeat and amplify the 

 evidence in support of the foregoing statements which I adduced 

 when replying to Mr. Sergeant's enquiry. 2 



That viniculture was formerly carried on in many other 

 counties in the South of England is, of course, well known. 

 The subject has been discussed by not a few competent writers, 

 among the chief of whom may be mentioned the Rev. Samuel 

 Pegge,3 the Hon. Daines Barrington,4 Richard Gough,5 Hudson 

 Turner,^ Sir TIenry Ellis, 7 Charles Roach Smith, ^ J. Maskell, 9 

 Edmund Venables,'° and J. Horace Round." Moreover, a great 

 many notes relating to the former occurrence of vineyards in the 

 southern counties of England are to be found in the pages of 

 Notes and Queries. 



It should, howe\'er, be mentioned that one of the foregoing 

 writers, namely Harrington, criticising the statements of the Rev. 

 Samuel Pegge, altogether denies the possibility of the vine having 

 ever been cultivated in this country for the purpose of making 

 wine and declares that the numerous ancient records in which 

 vinec^ are mentioned refer, not to vineyards as we now understand 

 the term, but to gardens in which pears, apples, or other fruits 

 were cultivated for the purpose of making some kind of perry or 

 cider. Barrington's arguments, which he states' at great length, 

 may apply in some cases ; but they are altogether inconclusive 

 as proof that the vine could not be, and never has been, 

 cultivated in this country for the purpose of wine-making, and 

 they have failed to convince anyone. The controversy between 

 Pegge and Barrington is, however, interesting and amusing on 

 account of the vast amount of profound erudition which the 

 disputants displayed, side by side with a profound ignorance of 

 easily-accessible every-day knowledge. Each ostentatiously 

 quotes and discusses many obscure and abstruse passages from 

 the early Greek, Latin, Saxon, and Norman writers; but each 

 neglects, in a manner not uncommon at the period, to adduce 



2 Sae Essex County Chronicle, Dec. i6th, 1898 



3 Archceologia. vol. i. (1770), pp. 319-332 ; also vol. 111.(1776), pp. 53-66. 



4 Ibid, vol. iii, pp. 67-95. 



5 Gentleman's Magazine, 1775, pp. 513-516. 



6 A rchceologiail Journal, vol. v. (1848), pp. 295-300. 



7 General Introduction to Domesday Book (1833), vol . i, pp. 1 16-122. 



8 Collectanea Antigua, vol. vi. (1867), pp. 76-109. 



9 Notes and Queries, 7th series, vol vi. (1888), pp. 321-322. 



10 Notes and Queries. 7th series, vol.xii. C1891), p. 10. 



11 See post. 



