112 OUR COMMON FETJITS. 



tinued to flourish in Britain until about the time of the 

 [Reformation ; but when the decline of the feudal sys- 

 tem caused more attention to be directed to corn hus- 

 bandry, and the introduction of the hop did so much for 

 the improvement and preservation of malt liquor, little 

 time or thought was left for grape-gardens ; while in 

 tracing the cause of their decline, something, too, may 

 doubtless be attributed to the loss of monkish care which 

 we may well believe had been ungrudgingly bestowed on 

 so rich a source of monkish solace. Surrey was at one 

 time famous for its Champagne, Sussex for its Burgundy, 

 and at Arundel Castle, in the latter county, so lately as 

 in 1763, there were 60 pipes of native wine in the cellars 

 of the Duke of Norfolk. The rebuilding of our obsolete 

 wine-presses has every now and then been urged by some 

 enthusiastic supporter of the claims of a British Bacchus, 

 and one of its latest advocates, Professor Martyn, has 

 suggested that any disadvantages of climate might be 

 overcome by training the vines near the ground, as is 

 done in the north of France, a system which increases 

 the size of the berries, as well as promotes their earlier 

 ripening. Whether for wine making or to serve for 

 humbler uses, it would certainly be well were more general 

 attention paid to the open-air cultivation of a plant which, 

 however it may require greenhouse pampering to secure 

 its full perfection, may yet be made to attain no slight 

 degree of excellence at the cost of but a little care and 

 trouble. Many a wall now bare and unsightly might be 

 turned into an object of beauty and a source of pleasure 

 and profit were it taken advantage of and dedicated to 

 the vine, for properly prepared soils and judicious prun- 

 ing are the chief requisites for the production of good 

 grapes ; and it is owing to the general ignorance on these 

 points, rather than to ungenial climate, that this fruit so 

 rarely ripens in the open air in England. There is an 

 extra difficulty to be encountered, it is true, to which the 

 vine planter in regions farther south is not exposed, in 

 the fact of our short summer being apt to pass away before 

 the vine has absorbed all the heat which it requires, the 

 sunshine not lasting long enough, though being quite hot 



