102 Miner alogical Notices, — Plumbiferous Arragonite. 



I repeat, that to prove a change of climate it is necessary to 

 show, not merely the existence of vineyards in a few localities, 

 but the extensive growth of the grape for the purpose of 

 making wine. In fact, Plot 1 * tells us, that in the year 1685, 

 Dr. Bathurst, President of Trinity College, made as good 

 claret at Oxford, " in a very mean year for that purpose," as 

 any one could wish to drink ; and Pepys says, that in the 

 reign of Charles II. very good wine was made at Waltham- 

 stow. As far then as vineyards in particular localities prove 

 anything, the climate of Britain has been constant from the 

 time of Bede to the year 1685. Nor has it degenerated since ; 

 for Miller gives a list of places at which wine has been made in 

 the course of the last century ; among which are Rotherhithe, 

 Brompton, Kensington, Hammersmith, Walham Green (wine 

 was made at this place for 30 years), Arundel, and Pain's 

 Hill, near Cobham. The wines of many of these places are 

 described as being equal or superior to the French wines of 

 the second class. That made by Mr. Hamilton at Pain's 

 Hill is said to have been fully equal to the best Champagne, 

 and to have sold for fifty guineas a hogshead. 



While on the one hand there is no sufficient testimony in 

 favour of the growth of wine on a large scale in ancient times, 

 there is on the other some direct testimony against it. Pe- 

 trarch, according to Miller, speaks of the people in England 

 as not drinking wine ; and Daines Barrington has quoted 

 Lord Bacon f 5 who says that grapes require a south wall to 

 ripen. 



All these considerations make it difficult to admit, with 

 Arago, that the climate of Britain was warmer formerly than 

 at the present time. This idea rests solely on the cultivation 

 of the vine in this island ; a fact which cannot be disputed, 

 but does not, I conceive, lead to the inferences that have been 

 drawn from it. The testimony adduced merely indicates a 

 very local and partial cultivation of the plant; such, in fact, as 

 numerous experiments have shown to be practicable in recent 

 times. R. W. R. 



XVI. Miner alogical Notices. Communicated by W.H.Miller, 

 Esq., Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cam- 

 bridge. 



PLUMBIFEROUS ARRAGONITE. 

 [From Poggendorff's Annalen, B. xlviii.] 

 A VARIETY of arragonite from Tarnowitz, found by Pro- 

 -£*■ fessor Breitjiaupt to have a specific gravity of 2' 99 5, 



* Camden, Staffordshire. f Cent. v. Exp. 430. 432. 



