1 68 Gleanings from the 



bordering the Nile on each fide of its courfe which 

 forms Egypt is nothing but a natural garden of 

 the greateft fertility ; hence its ftore of grateful 

 and appetizing vegetables. 



The art of grafting and of confining fermenting 

 liquors in jars with corks alfo came to Britain 

 from Rome. Whether beer, the national drink 

 of Wales and England, was firft brewed here by 

 the Romans admits of a doubt. In Egypt, where 

 there were no vines, the natives drank a wine 

 made from barley, to which ^Efchylus feems to 

 allude when he makes his King of the Argives 

 fay : " You will not find the men of this country 

 drinking wine made of barley." 1 But it is more 

 than probable, judging from what we know of 

 favage races in Africa, that the Britons ftruck out 

 the procefs of fermentation, whereby a certain 

 kind of beer was produced, for themfelves. 

 Virgil's words imply this in his beautiful p v i<5ture 

 of life in the North of Europe, which is yet true 

 there in many points of Chriftmas revellings : 



" Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere, 

 Hie noftem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti 

 Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea forbis." 



Although a popular couplet afcribes the coming 

 of hops to England to a much later date, 

 probably they, too, were firft imported by the 

 Romans. The art of making butter has alfo 

 been fometimes attributed to Rome ; but from 

 the analogy of the Scythians and other paftoral 



1 Herod., ii. 77; jBfch., "Supp.," 953; Virg.,." Georg.," 

 iii. 376 (Viftor Hehn). 



