197 



Appears to have received at least three or 

 four tons of wine annually, as tithes from the 

 vines in his diocese ; and in his leases he 

 made frequent reservations of a certain quan- 

 tity of wine by way of rent : many of these 

 wines were little inferior to the French wines 

 in sweetness. Few ancient monasteries were 

 without a vineyard attached to them. Malms- 

 bury mentions the county of Gloucester, as 

 excelling every other part of the country, in 

 his time, in the number and richness of its 

 vineyards. In the reigns of Stephen and 

 Henry the Third, we meet with accounts of 

 vineyards. The first Earl of Salisbury plant- 

 ed a vineyard in his park adjoining Hatfield 

 House, Hertfordshire, which was in existence 

 when Charles the First was conveyed there a 

 prisoner to the army. 



Historians and antiquarians appear remiss, 



in not accounting for the total neglect of the 



British vineyards; but we may conclude 



that, as our intercourse increased with the 



continent, it was found more advantageous 



to import wine than depend on the product 



of our own crop, which must have been an 



uncertain one, from the variableness of our 



climate. Again, the low price of foreign 



wines must have contributed much to the 



neglect of making it in England, as in the 



