ANOIEN? VINBYARfcS. 15 



torn is said also to have had its inconveniences from the eager- 

 ness which some evinced in offering and others in receiving 

 the proof of that abstinence. 



But the law that has been referred to could not, from its too 

 great severity, be effective or of long continuance, in regard 

 to the use of an article which had become so common and 

 abundant ; and it was consequently soon altered so as to fix 

 the age of thirty years as the period after which it might be 

 drank by all, and finally they were compelled to alter it again, 

 and allow an entire freedom in its use. 



The same abuse of wine caused a similar law in the Mar- 

 seilloise republic ; but there, as among the Romans, its extreme 

 severity was an obstacle to its application, and it was in like 

 manner annulled. * 



CHAPTER II. 

 Ancient Vineyards. 



It would be a task both pleasing and interesting, to form a 

 chronological table of the formation of the principal French, 

 Spanish, German, and other vineyards; but the various histories^ 

 of national agriculture furnish us with no doicuments suffi- 

 ciently precise on that subject, and whatever may be said of it, 

 we have not a complete one from Pliny of those of early date : 

 the only course, therefore, by which we may attain to correct 

 conclusions, is to examine with care the books and manuscripts 

 which exist on the subject, and to draw from each its quota of 

 knowledge, and to condense them as far as possible under one 

 head. It may however be deemed worthy of remark, that at 

 the second epoch of the planting of vineyards in France, 

 present circumstances fully prove, that the propagation of 

 the vine extended itself in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, 

 in the direction from the meridian sun. The culture afterwards 

 advanced in two directions, almost diametrically opposed, to 

 the north and south-west ; the first penetrated Dauphiny, by 



