Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



Crusaders, seem already very far ofF. " Plumpy 

 Bacchus, with pink eyne " is no longer the 

 monarch that he was. 



But the wine trade of Madeira has passed 

 through many vicissitudes in the past, and 

 perhaps when the world has recovered from its 

 headache and is athirst again the rich golden 

 wine without rival of its kind will once more 

 enjoy a vogue. 



The first vines introduced into Madeira are 

 said to have come from Crete. It is probable 

 that the famous " butt of Malmsey " which 

 figured so prominently in the history books of 

 our childhood was of Cretan, and not Madeiran 

 growth ; but Malmsey is still one of the finest 

 wines made here. The English had certainly 

 found out the merits of Madeira wine before 

 the close of the sixteenth century. It is re- 

 corded in the "Voyage of Lopes," in 1588, in 

 "Purchas His Pilgrimes," that "wine groweth 

 in great abundance in Madeira, yea, and in my 

 opinion, the best in the world, whereof they 

 carry abroad great store into divers countries, 

 especially into England." A hundred years 

 later there are said to have been ten English 

 commercial houses in the island, the first 



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