42 
because I suppose it to be the best existing specimen of an old 
English Vineyard, and so is most interesting as the last record of 
an agricultural industry that once gave occupation to a large body 
of labourers in the Southern Counties, but which has now 
completely passed away, and can never return, at least, in its old 
form. In another form grape growing in England has had a 
great revival, chiefly in Sussex, where grapes are again grown by 
the acre, but they are under glass, and not on the open hillsides 
of the Cotteswold. 
A few other memories of the Vine in Gloucestershire remain 
in Viney and Viney Hill in the Forest of Dean, in Viney Farm 
near Mangotsfield, and perhaps in Winneycroft in Matson, and in 
the surnames of Viner and Wineyart (now Winyatt), once more 
common in Gloucestershire than they are now. 
There are one or two points in connection with our Vineyards 
which should be noted. One is the “lychetts” as the terraces 
are called which are so common on our hillsides, and which by 
many are supposed to be sites of ancient Vineyards. By others 
they are supposed to be natural formations, while Professor 
Seebomm sees in them the remains of common lands farmed by 
Village Communities. For this last suggestion I think the proofs 
are quite insufficient, and I feel sure they are not natural 
formations. They are found on all sorts of soils—they are 
abundant on the oolites of the Cotteswold, and on the chalk hills of 
Wiltshire, and last summer I saw them in several places on the 
limestones of the Jura. There can be really little or no doubt 
that they are the work of man. They are the necessary result of 
any attempt to bring a steep hillside under the spade or plough, 
and they have their prototypes in the tracks made by sheep’and 
cattle on steep hillsides. On the Cotteswolds nearly all are now 
covered with grass, but in Wiltshire you may see them still in 
process of formation, especially on the hills near Calne, and you 
may there see how the terraces have a tendency to get wider on 
their flat surfaces every year, while the sloping steps become 
