206 THE M^DOC 



lowering topsails ; wherefore, it is said, the sailor- men 

 called it Chateau Baisse- voile ; but I am not to be held 

 as endorsing this dubious piece of etymology. 



And so forward by Chateau Langoa, passing Latour 

 and Lafite, as we enter the commune of Pauillac, by 

 Mouton- Rothschild, Pichon - Longueville, Gruard-la- 

 Rose, the two Leovilles, into the district of Saint 

 Estephe, where a host of familiar names may be 

 noted Cos-Labory, Cos d'Estournel, Pontet - Canet, 

 and so on. 



If the grinding of corn is admitted to be, probably, 

 the oldest human industry, that of wine-making seems 

 entitled to the second place. To one standing in one 

 of the great steam flour-mills of Liverpool or Cardiff, 

 watching the multiple and complex machinery whereby 

 the raw wheat is converted into the finest flour, it may 

 occur to muse on the vast development of the industry 

 from the primitive method of triturating grain by 

 hand-rolling one stone upon another, as may still be 

 seen practised by the women of many savage nations. 



On the other hand, the wine-press remains in all 

 essential features the same simple affair as the earliest 

 literature shows it to have been. A few mechanical 

 conveniences have been devised and adopted in some, 

 not all, of the vineyards of France the dgrappoir, for 

 instance, which is a machine outwardly resembling a 

 turnip-slicer, and which, driven by hand, strips the 

 grapes from the stalks before they pass into the press. 

 Also, in the larger cuviers or wine-sheds the press 

 itself is now usually constructed so as to run upon 

 rails laid in the floor, and to discharge the precious 



