CULTIVATED NEAR MALAGA. 



55 



says, their attention has been so largely devoted to other 

 pursuits, that hitherto they have not paid so much atten- 

 tion to their wines as they will do now that they have 

 embarked so largely in the business. 



In the evening I accepted an invitation from an old 

 Irish merchant, who has been settled in Malaga for forty 

 years — Don Juan Langan — to visit his cellars. He has 

 been in the habit of sending choice wines to England and 

 Ireland, and particularly of supplying the cellars of noble- 

 men, and men of great wealth. Although his stock is 

 not very large, he has decidedly the best wines I have 

 tasted in Malaga — that is dry wines. Some of them, he 

 says, are twenty years old and upwards. Some of his 

 wines of seven or eight years old resembled a good Sherry, 

 and he agreed with me in thinking that his sweet wine of 

 that age was equal to those three times as old. He further 

 agreed with me, that the great age of those wines did by 

 no means add proportionably to their quality : and he 

 evidently understands the art of giving the qualities gene- 

 rally attributed to age, by mixing, and other manage- 

 ment. He himself hinted at the success with which he 

 had conducted this branch of trade, and he has the repu- 

 tation of having acquired great wealth. 



In the evening I for the last time took leave of my 

 kind and worthy friend Mr. Kirkpatrick, and embarked 

 on board the French schooner, in which I had engaged 

 my passage to Marseilles. I left with Mr. Kirkpatrick 

 the following memorandum ; — " A box three feet long, 

 by two feet deep, and two feet wide, will contain nearly 

 500 cuttings of vines, each the full length of the box. 

 The book called Conversaciones Malaguenas contains 

 a list of the varieties cultivated in the neighbourhood 

 of Malaga. Perhaps there are some new varieties 

 which were not known when it was published. About 



