GRAPE-VINE. 183 



novvned Roman grammarian, bought a farm within ten 

 miles of Rome, for which he gave six hundred thousand 

 sesterces. By cultivation he so improved it, that the 

 produce of his vines in one year sold for four hundred 

 thousand sesterces. Pliny says, that many people ran to 

 see the huge and mighty clusters of these grapes, which 

 his idle neighbours attributed to his deep learning, while 

 others accused him of using magic and the black art. 



We have at the present time some remarkable vines in 

 England ; for since the introduction of stoves, no country 

 has been able to rival us in the variety and perfection of 

 this fruit, which has been so much increased since the 

 introduction of steam into our vineries, that the last 

 year, it is supposed, produced more fine grapes than hud 

 ever been gathered in any two preceding years. Several 

 kinds of this fruit ripen well in the open air. 



" The vine, too, here, her curling tendrils shoots, 

 Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the south, 

 And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky." 



The Duke of Portland has upwards of a hundred kinds 

 of grape-vines at his seat at Welbeck ; and in the year 

 1781, his Grace made, a present to the Mar*quis of Rock- 

 ingham of a bunch of grapes that grew in his vinery, which 

 weighed nineteen pounds and a half: it was nineteen inches 

 and a half in the greatest diameter, four feet and a half 

 in circumference, and twenty-one inches and three quar- 

 ters in length. It was conveyed to Wentworth House, a 

 distance of twenty miles, by four labourers, who carried it 

 suspended on a staff, in pairs, by turns. 



In the year 1821, the Hon. F. G. Howard grew in his 

 garden at Elford Hall, Staffordshire, a bunch of white 

 grapes, which were of the extraordinary weight of fifteen 

 pounds. 



The vine at Hampton Court Palace, which was planted 



