154 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



the purpose. The vintage was a season of 

 great rejoicing. Very often the vine was, and 

 is still, trained over a verandah of trellis-work, 

 which is often fixed by the side of a well, 

 inviting the owner and his family to gather 

 beneath its grateful shade. This beautifully 

 illustrates the u fruitful bough by a well," 

 Gen. xlix. 22, the emblem of the rich blessings 

 which were promised to Joseph and his descend- 

 ants ; and that delightful representation of the 

 effects of the gospel on the hearts of men, pro- 

 ducing universal peace, when every man shall 

 sit " under his vine and under his fig tree ; and 

 none shall make them afraid," Micah iv. 4. 

 The Phocceans first carried the vine into the 

 south of France ; the Romans planted it on the 

 banks of the Rhine. 



It is indubitable, that formerly there were 

 many and extensive vineyards in this country ;* 

 they are mentioned in the earliest Saxon 

 charters, as well as in Doomsday Book. William 

 of Malmesbury, who flourished in the twelfth 

 century, mentions a sweet and palatable wine, 

 little inferior to that of France, which was 

 made in abundance in the vale of Gloucester. 

 It is stated that, at Arundel Castle, in Sussex, 

 the duke of Norfolk had a vineyard, of which 

 there were in his grace's cellar, in 1763, about 

 sixty pipes of excellent Burgundy. About the 

 same time, the hon. Charles Hamilton, of 



* There is evidence to prove that there were some in the 

 year A.D. 280, and Bede, writing in 731, speaks of vineyards 

 growing in several places. 



