192 AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE. 



charged with a responsibility which does not attach to 

 the retailer ; for his growth must preserve its character, 

 whereas the retailer shifts the burden of his sins upon 

 the grower. Wine bought in these cellars is therefore 

 unadulterated, and is a delicious and most wholesome 

 beverage in that state ; but it is rendered difficult for 

 private consumers by the immense size of the casks ; 

 since few private consumers can make use of 100 dozen 

 of a wine that costs four pounds per dozen in the grovrer's 

 cellar. 



After passing Geisenheim, the traveller turns up a road 

 that leads to the left directly from the river, in the 

 direction of the mountains, and after winding up a steep 

 ascent about three quarters of a mile, finds himself upon 

 a small plateau that stretches like a neck from the Tau- 

 nus towards the river, and drops with a sudden slope, 

 presenting a rounded front to the level of the villages on 

 the river's bank. This is the celebrated Johannisberg, 

 the pearl of the Rhinegau, and one of the most delight- 

 fully situated mansions in Europe. The full advantage 

 of the situation can be supposed from a distant view of 

 the commanding site, retiring, as it were, from the brunt of 

 the storm between the projecting eminences on the east 

 and the v.est, and presenting its full breadth to the sun 

 which sliines upon it from its rise to its setting. The 

 attention that is paid to the direction of the rows in the 

 Rhenish vineyards is perceptible even to the traveller as 

 he passes before it in the steam-boat. The rows open 

 one after another as the boat advances like the meridians 

 on a map, and the want of picturesque effect which their 

 regularity supposes, is not regretted where art has so 

 evidently sought to court the co-operation of Nature in a 



