200 AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 



wine-growers who enjoy celebrity find it necessary to 

 keep up. 



At Walluf the mountains take a direction nearly at 

 right angles to the Rhine, and leave the bank unpro- 

 tected against the north and east winds. The soil 

 grows lighter, and although vineyards still follow the 

 course of the stream to Schierstein, yet no wine of note 

 is produced until we reach the river Maine. At 

 Mayence the Rhine again turns southward, and the 

 Maine runs into it with a westerly course. Near its 

 mouth an offset from the higher Taunus range slopes 

 to the river with a full southern aspect, and on its brow 

 stands the Cathedral of Hochheim, whose " close," in 

 German the " Dom Dechanei," furnishes the wine that 

 has supplied us with a general appellation for all 

 Rhenish wines. That the name of " Hock," from 

 Hochheim, has been so long used in this sense in 

 England, may be perhaps explained by the circumstance 

 that the Rhinegau being no thoroughfare for travellers, 

 and anciently shut in by a wall strictly guarded, strangers 

 had only access to Hochheim, and that this lies on the 

 road between Mayence and Frankfort. Next to the 

 Cathedral close, the best vineyards at Hochheim are at 

 the bottom of the hill near the river. Through one of 

 these the railroad between Wiesbaden and Frankfort 

 was carried, and the enormous sum demanded for com- 

 pensation formed the subject of a law-suit, that was last 

 ■year decided against the Company, We believe the 

 award was not much below 1250/. per acre. 



With Hochheim we take leave of the choice growths 

 that give merited celebrity to the Rhenish vineyards. 



