44 ESSEX AS A WINE-PRODUCING COUNTY. 



At the end of the Thirteenth Century, there appear to have 

 been, in the parish of Wicham. fields or parcels of land known 

 respectively as Over and Nether Winefield, or Winesfield, or 

 Winesland, which probably were or had been vinej'ards. These 

 are referred to in several deeds recently printed. 5-; 



The late Dr. J. E. Thorold-Rogers has recorded 3.i that, in a 

 terrier of the rents of Barking Abbey, dated 1540, he found the 

 following entry : — 



" Item : a vineyard, empaled with elmes, well stored with 

 vines, by estimacon 5 acres, — [rent] 20 shillings." 



As late as the }ear 1667, Admiral Sir William Battens 

 vinted the produce of the vines growing in his beautiful garden, 

 at W'althamstow, where he had his country house. 34 Pepys, 

 referring to the taking of some prizes by a ship in which he and 

 Batten both had an interest, says, on July 17th 166735; — 



" I at Sir W. Batten's [where I] did hear the particulars of 

 " it ; and there, for joy, he did give the company that were 

 " there a bottle or two of his own last year's wine, growing 

 " at Walthamstow ; than which the whole company said they 

 " never drank better foreign wine in their Hves." 



Doubtless careful search through early records would bring 

 to light many other instances of the existence of vineyards in 

 Essex in former days. Indeed, it seems probable that, from the 

 time of Domesday Book onwards, the residence of each of the 

 great Norman lords and all the great monasteries had a vineyard 

 attached to it almost as a matter of course. At the same 

 time, it is practically certain (as Sir Henry Ellis has already 

 remarked 36] that at no time were English vineyards sufficiently 

 mmierous and extensive to [Moduce the quantity of wine needed 

 to meet the home demand, which had, therefore, to be supple- 

 mented by wine imported from other countries. 



Various reasons may be advanced to account for the discon- 

 tinuance of viniculture in Essex -or, for the matter of that, in 

 the south of England generally. Most people would, no doubt, 

 attribute it to a marked deterioration of the climate of this 

 country which they believe to have taken place since the time 

 of the Romans. A belief in such a deterioration of our climate 



^2 Sue llie CJiaitulary of St. Joint's Abbey, Colchester, pp. 481-486. 



33 Notes ami Queries, Jan. loth, 1880. 



34 Batten, who was Surveyor of the Navy, died Oct. 5th 1667. 



35 Diary, vol. iv. (1848), p. 122. 



36 Gen. Intro, to Domesday Book, i., p. ui. 



