36 ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY, 



more modern facts and records which would have at once decided 

 the point at issue between them. As a matter of fact, the records 

 which speak of the former existence of vineyards in this country 

 are very numerous, and refer unquestionably (at least, in the vast 

 majority of cases) to true vineyards in which the grape-vine was 

 cultivated for the purpose of making wine. 



It can hardly be disputed that the vine was first introduced 

 into Britain by the Romans. At all events, records of its 

 cultivation here commence in their time ; and there can be very 

 little doul)t that, being a wine-drinking people, they cidtivated 

 it more or less extensively for the purpose of wine-making, 

 though there is very little direct evidence of the fact. Some 

 have held that the name Winchester was derived from the fact 

 that the vine was extensively culti\ated there by the Romans. 



In the middle of the Eighth Century, Bede wrote that the vine 

 was grown in some places in Britain ; and, in the Tenth Century, 

 King Alfred legislated for the regulation of English vineyards ; 

 but it may be doubted whether the vine was much cultivated in 

 Saxon times. 



After the Conquest, references to the cultivation of the vine 

 in England become frequent in old records. In the park at 

 Windsor, there must have been extensive vineyards, and a great 

 deal of information icspecting the methods of cultivation adopted, 

 the salaries paid, and the result obtained, especially during the 

 reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., may be gleaned from the 

 Public Accounts of the period, extensive extracts from which 

 have been published by Mr. Charles Roach Smith. '^ Moreover, 

 a small vineyard existed at Windsor as late as the reign of 

 George III.'^ 



It may even be doubted whether, since Norrnan days, there 

 has ever been a time when the vine has not been cultivated in 

 England to some small extent for the purpose of wine-making. 

 Before the Reformation, probably most of the larger Religious 

 Houses in the South of England had their vineyards. After 

 the Dissolution, the cultivation of the vine here probably became 

 more or less neglected ; but, that it was not altogether given up, 

 we may gather from a work on the subject published in 1666 by 

 John Rose, gardener to King Charles 11.'^ Erom this work 



12 Collcctana Antiqtia, vi, pp. g6-ioi. 



13 Tighe and Davis : Annals of Wimlsoy (185S;, p. 534. 



14 The English Vincyar.t Vinlicntcci (Loiul., 16 mo., 1666J. There were later editions in 

 1672, 1675, and 1691. 



