

INTRODUCTION OF THE VINE I-VTO FRANCE. ^1 



agricultural pursuits in all the provinces, and rescinded the 

 edict of Domitian. The renewal of this privilege appears to 

 have been received with great satisfaction ; for tradition still 

 retained in the memory of the Gauls the great advantages 

 that species of culture had afforded them, and the vines of 

 Sicily, Italy, Greece, the Archipelago and Africa, were again 

 transplanted to the provinces of Gaul, and became the origin 

 of the innumerable varieties which now cover with vineyards 

 the territories of France. The formation of these new plan- 

 tations of the vine are said to have presented a delightful and 

 inspiring spectacle. Crowds of persons of both sexes and of 

 all ages were seen spontaneously and enthusiastically devoting 

 themselves to an occupation in which all could take part to 

 that gratifying restoration of liberty, the replanting of vine- 

 yards. It appears, also, to have been about this period (though 

 some authors say it was in 270) that the vine was planted in 

 the northern parts of Gaul, and about the rivers Rhine, Mo^ 

 selle, and Maine, and in Hungary. The vineyards of France 

 had very early attained to celebrity, wines having been even 

 exported from them to Italy during the reign of Vespasian. 



In the beginning of the fourth century, Eumenius mentions 

 the vines of the territory of Autun, which had become de- 

 cayed from age, and the first plantation of which was entirely 

 unknown ; and M. D'Anville supposes the Pagus Arebrignus 

 to be the district of Beaune, celebrated even at the present day 

 for some of the finest vineyards of Burgundy. St. Martin 

 planted vines in Touraine before the end of the fourth cen- 

 tury ; and St. Remi, who lived about the end of the fifth, 

 left in his will to different churches the vineyards which he 

 possessed in the territories of Rheims and Laon, with the 

 slaves which he employed to cultivate them. The export ofl 

 wines, however, from Bordeaux to England, did not commence 

 until about the year 1 1 72. 



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