GRAPE-VINE. 



207 



very top, and even out-top the highest poplars ; on which 

 account the grape-gatherers, in time of vintage, put a 

 clause in the covenant of their bargains when they were 

 hired, that in case their foot should slip and their necks 

 be broken, their masters should give orders for their 

 funeral fire and tomb at their own expense. 



This mode of culture is still continued in that country. 

 Swinburne tells us in his " Travels in the two Sicilies," 

 " The verse in Virgil 



Hinc altd sub rupe canet frondator ad auras, 



Eel. 1. 

 The lopper shall sing to the winds under the lofty rock, 



naturally occurs, when in our walks under the rocky cliffs 

 of Posilipo, we see the peasant swinging from the top of 

 a tree on a rope of twisted willows, trimming the poplar 

 and the luxuriant tendrils of the vine, and hear him make 

 the whole vale ring with his rustic ditty. 



" A classical scholar cannot stroll under the groves of 

 the plain without calling to mind Horace's 



Durus 



Vindemiator et invictus, cui scepe viator 

 Cessisset, magnd compellans voce cucullum. 



A rough and invincible vine-dresser, before whom the tra- 

 veller often retired, calling him with a loud voice, ' Cuckoo,' 



if he attend to the vine-dresser sitting among the boughs, 

 lashing raw lads and bashful maidens as they return from 

 market, with the same gross wit and rough jokes that 

 gave such zest of old to the farces of Atella." 





