M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 189 
spontaneously produces fruit in taste and colour far exceeding others, many of which 
will keep the year round, so as to serve their owners till others come in again, No 
county in England has more or richer vineyards, or which yield greater plenty of 
grapes, or of a more agreeable flavour. The wine has not a disagreeable sharpness to 
the taste, as it is little inferior to that of France in sweetness. 
Camden comments on this passage thus: ‘“ What he says of the hundred-fold 
999 
increase of the land, is a mistake. Not that I am of the opinion of those peevish 
lazy husbandmen, whom Columella complains of, that the soil is worn out and ren- 
dered barren by its excessive ancient plenty. But on this account, not to mention 
others, we need not wonder that so many places in this county were called vineyards 
from their vines, since wine was one of the productions of this county ; and certainly 
it seems more owing to the indolence of the inhabitants than to the alteration of the 
climate, that it now yields none.”— Gough’s Camden, Vol. I. p. 379. 
Here we have the opinion of Camden, that no alteration had taken place in the 
climate from the time of William of Malmesbury to his time ; and the experience of 
latter days shows, that in favourable years, wine may be produced in England, which 
may be mistaken for continental wine by good judges, instead of being inferior, as 
William of Malmesbury described the wine in his time. 
Mr. Williams,* who advocates the opinion of a change of climate, of course has not 
passed by the celebrated passage in Malmesbury ; he thinks with Camden on the sub- 
ject of the hundred-fold produce from the land, that the learned monk may have drawn 
rather too flattering a picture; if so, it can be immediately retorted, that the learned 
monk may have also drawn too flattering a picture of the-fruit trees and vineyards. 
The archives of the Church of Ely, give us positive information of the making of 
wine from a vineyard for some years, and we learn that in an unfavourable year no 
wine but verjuice was made. 
Speechly, in his treatise on the culture of the vine, mentions a controversy between 
the Rey. Mr. Pegg, and another, on the subject of vineyards in England, formerly. 
The Rey. Mr. Pegg, after stating the evidence, observes, that it appears plainly, that 
at Ely grapes would sometimes ripen, and the convent made wine of them, and some- 
times not, and then they were converted into verjuice. 
Speechly gives an account of many successful attempts at raising vines in England, 
for the purpose of making wine at subsequent periods. He describes the vineyards 
at Pain’s Hill, which belonged to the Hon. Charles Hamilton. This gentleman pro- 
duced wine, which was supposed by good judges, to be superior to any champagne they 
ever drank, and which was sold for fifty guineas a hogshead ; one merchant purchased 
£500 worth.— Speechly on the Vine, p. 213, 3d edition. 
* Williams on the Climate of Great Britain, p. 125. 
