199 



gaugers were first appointed at London and 

 the principal sea-ports. The new gauge duty 

 at London alone amounted to fifteen pounds 

 sixteen shillings and sevenpence, which makes 

 the quantity imported amount to 7,598 pipes. 

 The principal customs for importation, at that 

 period, seem to have been on wines chiefly 

 French and Rhenish, as there is yet scarcely 

 any mention of Spanish, or Portuguese, or 

 Italian wine. (Madox's History of the Ex- 

 chequer.) 



In the year 1409, the duty on wine was 

 three shillings per ton. 



Grapes seem to have become rare about 

 the year 1560. Strype, in his Life of Grind- 

 all, Bishop of London, (who was one of the 

 earliest encouragers of botany in this king- 

 dom) writes, that his grapes, at Fulham, 

 " were esteemed of that value, and a fruit 

 Queen Elizabeth stood so well affected to, 

 and so early ripe, that the bishop used every 

 year to send her Majesty a present of them/' 



The vintage is a season of mirth in all the 

 wine countries, and seems to have been equally 

 so in the earliest times. The prediction of 

 Isaiah concerning Moab is particularly cha- 

 racteristic: " And gladness is taken away, and 

 joy, out of the plentiful field; and in the vine- 

 yards there shall be no singing, neither shall 



