190 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
Speechly says : “‘ From the foregoing accounts it is evident, that good wine may be 
made in this country in a propitious season.” ‘There can be little doubt but that the 
opinion of Speechly would have been verified, with great profit to any individual, so for- 
tunate as to possess a vineyard, in a favourable soil in England in the year 1826. But 
where the seasons are so uncertain, such a speculation would be hazardous indeed. 
Evelyn, in 1655, writes thus: ‘I went to see Colonel Blount’s subterranean warren, 
and drank of the wine of his vineyard, which was good for little.” Phillips in his Po- 
marium Britannicum, has the following very sensible remark on the subject of 
English wine. . ‘‘ We may conclude that as our intercourse increased with the conti- 
nent, it was found more advantageous to import wine, than to depend on the product 
of our own crop, which must have been an uncertain one from the variableness of our 
climate.” ; 
When the English army assembled at York in the year 1327, to repel an inyasion of 
the Scots, Froissart informs us that “ good wines from Gascony, Alsace, and the Rhine, 
were in abundance, and reasonable.” —Froissart’s Chronicles, by Johnes, Vol. I. p. 55. 
The fact of wines from such distant places being conveyed to the centre of Eng- 
land, and sold at reasonable prices there, proves that the climate then was not suited 
to the cultivation of the vine. 
The statement of the production of wine in England at a distant period, can be met 
by similar statements in modern times, and the description of the vale of Gloucester, 
by Malmesbury, bears with it the marks of being an exaggerated statement. 
Where the climate is so variable, it would not be an easy matter to attempt to draw 
precise conclusions by means of a calendar of Flora ; in some years vegetation is more 
forward than in others ; and it has been remarked by close observers, that after a suc- 
cession of favourable years, many plants acquire, as if by habit, the power of blossom- 
ing somewhat earlier for some time. 
Lord Bacon, in his celebrated essays, gives us an account of gardening, and of the 
time several plants come into flower, near London; probably the description was 
drawn up from the state of the gardens in the year the essay was written ; we shall 
compare some of his accounts with those of modern times. 
“There followeth for the latter part of Janu- ** The mezereon sometimes blossoms as early 
ary and February, the mezereon tree which then as the end of January or beginning of Febru- 
blossoms. ’’— Bacon. ary.”—Phillips's Sylva Florifera. 
“Por March there come violets.” —Bacon. “ Violet—This favourite flower is a native of 
Europe, flowering in March and April.’’—Mil- 
ler’s Gardener's Dictionary by Martyn. 
