to the Vineyards of Spain and France. 95 



Paris, intending to sow them for the same purpose in the colony. 

 From Tain, on the Rhone, Mr. Busby went to the Hill of Her- 

 mitage^ of which he gives the following account: — " The Hill 

 of Hermitage is so called from an ancient hermitage, the ruins 

 of which are still in existence near its top. It was inhabited by 

 hermits till within the last 100 years. The hill, though of con- 

 siderable height, is not of great extent ; the whole front which 

 looks to the south may contain 300 acres ; but of this, though 

 the whole is under vines, the lower part is too rich to yield 

 those of the best quality, and a part near the top is too cold to 

 bring its produce to perfect maturity. Even of the middle 

 region, the whole extent does not pi'oduce the finest wines. 

 M. Machon, the gentleman whose property we were traversing, 

 pointed out to me the direction in which a belt of calcareous 

 soil crossed the ordinary granitic soil of the mountain; and he 

 said it requires the grapes of these different soils to be mixed 

 in order to produce the finest quality of Hermitage. I took 

 home a portion of the soil which he pointed out as calcareous ; 

 and the degree of eifervescence which took place on my pouring 

 vinegar upon it indicated the presence of a considerable portion 

 of lime. It is probably to this peculiarity that the wine of 

 Hermitage owes its superiority ; for, to all appearance, many of 

 the neighbouring hills on both sides of the Rhone present situ- 

 ations equally favourable, although the wine produced, even upon 

 the best of them, never rises to above half the value of the 

 former, and, in general, not to the fourth of that value. A 

 good deal may also be attributed to the selection of varieties. 

 The best red wines of Hermitage are made exclusively from one 

 sort of grape, which is named Ciras, properly spelled Scyras, 

 which is thought to be a corruption of Shiraz, in Persia, whence 

 this grape is said to have been brought originally, by one of the 

 hermits of the mountain. The white wines are made from two 

 varieties, the Roussette and the Marsan. The former yields, by 

 itself, a dry and spirituous wine, which easily affects the head, 

 and the plant produces indifferently ; the latter yields a sweeter 

 wine : they are mixed together to produce the best white Her- 

 mitage." (p. 108.) The vines of the Hermitage are strongly 

 manured ; and the proprietor said that, without frequent and 

 strong manuring, the vines would scarcely yield anything ; add- 

 ing, that providing only horse or sheep dun^ were used, there 

 was no danger of giving the wine a bad flavour ; which the dung 

 of cows, and especially of pigs, seldom failed to do. 



One of the most remarkable practices in the culture of the 

 vine, and the management of the vineyards, is what is called 

 provignage, by which the vine is rendered a travelling plant It 

 is but slightly practised in Spain ; but is almost universal in 

 France, except on very rich soils. We have already described 



a 4 



