Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
* Sur les Vignobles de Tokay.”—An 
Account of the Vineyards of Tokay. 
‘Yhe celebrated vineyards of Tokay 
have been described with great care and, 
precision, by an inhabitant of the vici- 
ity, in a little work, the title of which 
is: “ Notitia Historica, poetica, cecono- 
mica Montium Vineferorum comitatus 
Zemplin, Auctore Ant. Szirmay de Szir- 
ma,a Kaschan 1698.” The rising grounds, 
or hills, appertaining to the Count de 
Zemplin, forma small chain, in front of 
the Carpathian mountains. These are 
designated by the Hungarians, under the 
name of Hegyn-Allya, which signitiesthe 
foot uf the mountain, and the hill of Ma- 
gorhegy obviously appears to have been 
volcanic, for it presents a crater, sur- 
rounded by lava. 
It is on a stratum of basaltes, ina 
state of decomposition, that the cele- 
~ brated vines of Tallya-Mada, Tolesma, 
Liska, Terrazal, &c. usually known by 
the appellation of the vineyards of Tokay, 
are prodnced ; a preference, however, is 
given to those of Tallya and Trazal. The 
whole canton, or district, produces, one 
year with another, 240,000 eimers, aimea- 
sure which, in this part of Hungary, is 
equivalent to five decalitres, six-litres, and 
89 cent litres, according to the new 
French calculation. 
One might be tempted to consider the 
vines of Tokay as the remnant of those 
planted in Illyria by the Romans; but 
the author just alluded to asserts, that it 
was Bela LV. who first consecrated this 
fertile district to the God Bacchus, 
This king, in 1241, taking advantage of 
the first moments of repose, which the 
discontinuance of the war allowed him, 
obtained from Italy, by the way of Ve- 
nice, beth plants and vine-dressers. As 
acertain species of vrape is still called, 
at Tokay, the Foryint, it has been ime-- 
_ gined by some, that these were the vine- 
yards of Formi, so much celebrated by 
Torace. Another species is supposed to 
have descended from the plants which the 
Venetians brought from Malvoisia, in the 
Morea. 
The grapes of Tokay, however, had 
no manner of occasion for nobility of ori- 
gin, as they have acquired the nobility of 
merit. During the celebrated council of 
Wrent, the Prelates of Italy were all vaunt- 
ing the wines of their own country. 
George Drascowich, Archbishop of Co- 
boeza, on this assured them, that Hun- 
gary excelled them all in that article. 
fvery one deemed this position hetero- 
dox ; but the good arehbishop having ore 
659 
dered some wine to be brought from 
Tallya-Mada, they were immediately con- 
vinced of their error. 
The Pope himself, on tasting it, de- 
clared its pre-eminence in 1562, accord- 
ing to M. de Skirmay. It was not, how- 
ever, until the year 1650, that the Hun- 
garians discovered the new method, to 
which the superior excellency of their 
wine has been attributed. ‘This method 
is founded chiefly on the observation 
made by them, that_those grapes which 
possess most of the saccharine principle, 
begin to ripen before the rest, or, in other 
words, crystallize, by means of the rays 
of the sun, while they at the same time 
become spoiled by the least humidity. 
Great care is therefore taken to select, 
and gather with precaution, those grapes 
that are first ripe, whence they extract 
an essence similar to honey in taste, 
and treacle in consistency. 
It is by mingling this essence with the 
ordinary wine of the canton, that they 
produce the real Tokay, of which there 
are two sorts: the one called the Aus- 
bruch, and the other the Nachlass. The 
former of these is sold by antals, the lat- 
ter by barrels, each of which contains 
two antals. In the masklass, there is 
just twice as much of the ordinary wine, 
with the same quantity of essence, as in 
the ausbruch. The vegetable gold, which 
is pretended to have been found in soma 
of the Tokay grapes, is nothing’ more 
than the little egg of an insect, around 
which the juice of the grape crystallises, 
and has assumed a golden colour, This 
observation, made by M. de Szirmay, 
does not, however, refute the assertion 
relative to the existence of gold in cer- 
tain invisible portions, in certain vegeta- 
bles, this fact having been demon-' 
strated by several experiments, quoted 
in Chaptal’s’ Elements of Chemistry, 
tom. iil. p. 401. 
“ Tableaux de Constantinople.”—A De- 
scription of Constantinople, by Frepsric’ 
Murwarp. 
This traveller, who is a Hessian by 
birth, gives the following account of the 
Bazar of Constantinople: 
This market is one of the richest in 
the East, and no foreigner ever leaves 
Perau without having visited it: but it is 
not one visit that can convey the least 
idea of its magnificence. The principal’ 
part is composed of large stone edifices, 
adorned with corridors and colonnades ; 
some of these have stone, others wooden 
ceilings, while a few are covered with 
simple foliage, These arcades receive 
the 
