86 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



that Is all we do to our wine. We know from a century 

 of study what our wines want, and we can prepare them 

 accordingly. If you want ' Brut ' wine you can have 

 It, but all champagnes want a little sometlilng to bring 

 out the highest flavour of the grapes." And this 

 opinion, from a long experience of the taste of many 

 eminent judges of wine in England, I can strongly 

 endorse. I remember I also remarked jokingly whilst 

 on the hill-sides In the midst of his vineyards, that I did 

 not see any gooseberry-trees or rhubarb. He answered 

 seriously but good-humouredly, and said, " That Is 

 another folly of your people and shows their ignorance. 

 We can get more juice out of an acre of vines than out 

 of three or four acres devoted to the cultivation of either 

 of the vegetables you mention, and I believe you would 

 not find as many rhubarb plants in the many miles of 

 country you are overlooking as you find in half an acre 

 of any gardens round London." 



I little thought when I was visiting this fair land and 

 marvelling at its beauty and fruitfulness, and seeing in 

 every direction the result of centuries of thought, labour, 

 and skill, that in less than two years it was to be over- 

 run and occupied by thousands of foreign troops on 

 their hostile march to Paris ; yet with all the German 

 hatred of the French, and the memory of the years of 

 misery and degradation that they underwent, under a 

 greater Napoleon than the then ruler of France, Napoleon 

 II L, the German troops carefully protected the people 

 of this district, and I was told that a record was kept of 

 every bottle of wine the soldiers consumed, and that it 

 was all honestly paid for. My kind old friend, Mr. 



