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THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 37 
‘* Pauillac is a small seaport on the Gironde, behind which 
at a distance of one and a half miles is the vineyard of the 
Chateau Lafitte, producing one of the three best wines of Bor- 
deaux. The Chateaus being situated in a malarious country 
are by their wealthy proprietors only inhabited a small part of 
the year; yet the district is populous, as every vineyard has 
its cottages inhabited by the peasants who cultivate it. The 
vintage takes place in the month of September, and it is then 
that Medoc presents a scene of bustle, activity and rejoicing. 
The proprietors then repair to their estates with their friends 
and families to superintend the proceedings and make merry ; 
vignerons pour in from the surrounding country to assist in 
the gathering. Busy crowds of men, women and children 
sweep the vineyard from end to end, clearing all before them 
like locusts, while the air resounds with their songs and laugh- 
ter. Every road is filled with carts loaded with high heaped 
tubs, which the labouring oxen are dragging slowly to the 
pressing trough. ‘This is placed usually in a lofty building re- 
sembling a barn, whence issue sounds of still louder merriment, 
and a scene presents itself sufficiently singular to the stranger. 
Upon a square wooden trough (pressoir) stand three or four 
men with bare legs, all stained with purple juice, dancing and 
treading down the grapes as fast as they are thrown in, to the 
tunes of a violin. The labour of constantly stamping down 
the grapes is desperately fatiguing, and without music would 
get on very slowly. A fiddler, therefore, forms part of every 
wine growers establishment, and as long as the instrument 
pours forth its merry strains, the treaders continue their dance 
in the gore of the grape, and the work proceeds diligently. 
** Chateau Lafitte occupies 262 acres, valued in 1803 at 
$1,000 per acre, and produces 100 tuns annually. 
** Chateau Margaux, next in fineness, with a rich colour, 
