414 



SECTION XXI. 



British Wines, with Remarks on Foreign. 



WINE, that maketh glad the heart of man and that 

 maketh sorrowful the heart of the intemperate man. 

 Wine ! that inspires us, and fires us with courage, 

 love, and joy ! Wine that is the milk of old age, as 

 the writer has some years since, and does at the 

 present experience, having derived a similar benefit 

 in the artificial and wilful old age of youth, when he 

 found more consolidating and strengthening effect 

 from the genuine tawny wine of Oporto, than from 

 bark and steel. Wearing out this miserable remnant 

 of life, he now, from the example of Voltaire at his 

 more advanced period, seldom exceeds the portion of 

 a single glass per day, saving and excepting in com- 

 pany, a rare occurrence, when he bravely ventures 

 on half a dozen, and that with impunity. 



About ten years since, I published in one of the 

 Annuals, the following sentiments on the present 

 subject, and on a late reference, finding no reason to 

 change my opinions, I here repeat them : 



" It is certain that, neither the culture of the 

 grape, nor the manufacture of wine in England, 

 has yet arrived at any degree near to perfection. 

 Immense quantities of wines have indeed been made 

 of late years, and chiefly from the currant, but it has 

 been mostly for the purpose of admixture with the 



