VOL. LXIlI.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 45] 



kept in a cage, does not live often more than a year or two : nor does he sing 

 more than 3 or 4 months ; whereas the scholar pitched on may not only be more 

 vivacious, but will continue in song Q months out of 12.* 



XXXII. On the Tokay and other Wines of Hungary. By Sylvester Douglas,^ 



Esq. p. 292. 



The town, or rather village, of Tokay, whence this celebrated wine derives 

 its name, stands at the foot, and to the east of a high hill, close by the conflux 

 of the river Bodrog, with the Theis or Tibiscus. In the Norimberg map of 

 Hungary, it is erroneously placed between these rivers, for it is on the west side 

 of both. The inhabitants are chiefly either Hungarians of the protestant reli- 

 gion, or Greeks, who came originally from Turkey, but have been long settled 

 here for the purpose of carrying on the wine trade. The hills on which the 

 wine grows, lie all to the west of the river Bodrog, and beginning close by the 

 town of Tokay, thence extend westward and northward, occupying a space of 

 perhaps 10 English miles square; but they are interrupted and interspersed with 

 a great many extensive plains, and several villages. Near some of these the 

 wine is better than what grows on the hill of Tokay, but it all goes under the 

 same general name. The vineyards extend beyond the 48 th degree of northern 

 latitude. The soil, on all the hills where the wine grows, is a yellow clayish 

 earth, extremely deep, and there are interspersed through it large loose stones, 

 which it seems are limestone; but he had not an opportunity of examining them. 



As the hills do not run in a regular chain, but are scattered among the inter- 

 vening plains, all kinds of exposures are met with upon them, and there is wine 

 on them all, except perhaps where they are turned directly towards the south. 

 Yet the general rule is, that the exposures most inclining to the south, the 

 steepest declivities, and the highest part of those declivities, produce the best 

 wine. It is a vulgar error, that the Tokay wine is in so small quantity, as never 

 to be found genuine, unless when given in presents by the court of Vienna. 

 The extent of ground on which it grows is a sufficient proof to the contrary. It 

 is a common dessert wine in all the great families at Vienna, and in Hungary, 

 and is very generally drank in Poland and Russia, being used at table in those 

 countries, like Madeira in this. 



Another vulgar error is, that all the Tokay wine is the property of the empress 

 queen. She is not even the most considerable proprietor, nor of the best wme ; 

 so that every year she sells off her own, and purchases from the other proprie- 

 tors, to supply her own table, and the presents she makes of it. The greatest 



* The above is only a short sketch of the principal parts of Mr. Barrington's paper. But the whole 

 ' of it may be consulted in the 3d vol. of Pennant's British Zoology. 

 - t Now Lord Glenbervie. 



3 M 2 



