GRAPE-VINE. 



189 



also have contributed much towards the loss of our vine- 

 yards, as few of the greater religious foundations were 

 without them ; and the present high duties on wine could 

 not have been anticipated by our forefathers, when they 

 neglected their vines. 



The first duty on wines was one penny per tun, which 

 was in the year 1272, when wine gaugers were first ap- 

 pointed at London and the principal sea-ports. The new 

 gauge duty at London alone amounted to fifteen pounds 

 sixteen shillings and sevenpence, which makes the quan- 

 tity imported amount to seven thousand five hundred and 

 ninety-eight pipes. The principal customs for importation, 

 at that period, seem to have been on wines chiefly French 

 and Rhenish, as there is yet scarcely any mention of 

 Spanish, or Portuguese, or Italian wine. (Madox's His- 

 tory of the Exchequer.) 



In the year 1409, the duty on wine was three shillings 

 per tun. 



Grapes seem to have become rare about the year 1560. 

 Strype, in his Life of Grindal, bishop of London, (who 

 was one of the earliest encouragers of botany in this 

 kingdom,) writes, that his grapes at Fulham " were 

 esteemed of that value, and a fruit Queen Elizabeth stood 

 so well affected to, and so early ripe, that the bishop used 

 every year to send her Majesty a present of them." 



The vintage is a season of mirth in all the wine coun- 

 tries, and seems to have been equally so in the earliest 

 times. The prediction of Isaiah concerning Moab is par- 

 ticularly characteristic : " And gladness is taken away, 

 and joy, out of the plentiful field ; and in the vineyards 

 there shall be no singing, neither shall there be any 

 shouting : the treaders shall tread out no wine in their 

 presses ; I have made their vintage shouting to cease." 



The various wines made from the juice of the grape are 

 go numerous, that to give a short description of each 



