ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE- O 



yards were cultivated in the monasteries of Bri- 

 tain, for the purpose of making wine. It appears, 

 however, by the records of Ely, that the grapes 

 did not ripen every year, but that the vineyards, 

 as might be expected in this climate, were subject 

 to occasional failures. We have therefore no rea- 

 son to conclude, from the establishment of this fact, 

 that our climate has undergone any material and 

 steady alteration, a supposition which is often 

 hazarded by discontented horticulturists without 

 sufficient grounds, and apparently from no other 

 cause, than that ill humour which delights, as it 

 has at all times delighted, in praising the past 

 at the expence of the present. 



The physical history of Europe, indeed, shews, 

 that its .climate has, for ,many centuries, been 

 in a state of amelioration. Whether this amelio- 

 ration may not now have attained its maximum, 

 is another consideration. If it has so done, it is 

 certainly within a period comparatively very 

 recent. As far as we are capable of judging, no 

 material variation in the success of our horticultu- 

 ral speculations has occurred for the worse, pro- 

 vided we choose periods of sufficient length to ad- 

 mit of an average result. Occasional seasons of 

 peculiar severity, or unusual irregularity, can afford 

 no ground for judgment. The suppression of the 

 monasteries, the great and splendid changes which 

 our whole system of agriculture has undergone 



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