GRAPE VINES VINEYARDS. 231. 



The battle of Hastings was fought near a great plantation of vines. Domesday Book, 

 a record of a statistical survey of England made by command of William the Conqueror, 

 towards the latter part of his reign (1066-1087), contained thirty-eight entries of 

 valuable vineyards, two of six acres each, one at Ware, and one in Essex, the latter 

 yielding 20 hogsheads of wine in a good year. The Isle of Ely was called by the Nor-, 

 mans " L'Isle de Vignes" (Isle of Vines), and the Bishop of Ely's yearly tithe of wine 

 was three or four tuns. The vineyard of Peterborough was planted by the abbot in the 

 time of Stephen (1135-1154). Prior John, of Spalding, planted both vineyards and 

 orchards, and others were planted by the Abbots of Denny Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, 

 of Dunstable, Bury St. Edmund's (remains of which still exist), and other abbeys. In 

 1140 the barons as well as the monks possessed vineyards. "Vineyard Holm," a 

 sheltered, sunny hollow of the Hampshire Downs, tells its own history ; and the warm 

 slopes of the " vineyard hills " at Godalming, in Surrey, were once hung with vines. 

 Canterbury had its vineyards, at the Abbey of St. Augustine and the Priory, and several 

 places derive their names from their having been the site of vineyards, though none 

 appear to have existed farther north than Derbyshire. Gloucestershire was the chief 

 wine district in England. William of Malmesbury states " there were more vineyards 

 and better grapes grown in that county than in any other part of England." That was 

 about 1148, and traces of a vineyard still exist at Tortworth. 



Vineyards were successful as long as they were connected with the abbeys and 

 priories, because many of their inmates were foreigners understanding vine culture. 

 But in the reign of Henry II. (1154-1183) vineyards began to be neglected, partly on 

 account of disputes with the ecclesiastics, but mainly through our actual possession of a 

 portion of the vine-producing districts of France. Yet vineyards are mentioned in the 

 reign of Henry III. (1216-1272) that produced grapes making excellent " native wine." 

 In Edward II.'s reign (1307-1327) the Bishop of Eochester sent the king " a present of 

 his drinks, and withal both wine and grapes of his own growth at his vineyard at 

 Hailing." The battle of Poictiers was fought (1356) in a French vineyard, and French 

 wine became the fashion relished as the produce of English provinces in France ; but 

 ''native wine" was made in considerable quantities from the produce of the grape vine 

 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as attested by Dr. Plot, Barnaby 

 Googe, Samuel Hartlib and others. 



The first Earl of Salisbury planted a vineyard at Hatfield about 1605. Dr. Ealf Bathurst 

 made claret at Oxford in 1685, " as good as one could wish to drink." Vines were grown 



