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COTE d'oR. 



could give me the address of a proprietor at Gevray, and 

 also of the proprietor of the Clos Vougeot. The day was, 

 however, too far spent to proceed to either of these places. 

 I therefore walked through the mud to the nearest vine- 

 yards, and entered into conversation with some of the 

 people whom I found employed in them. The place I 

 visited was a gentle slope, with a south-east exposure. 

 The soil seemed good, and at the same time perfectly 

 loose and full of gravel. It belonged to the mayor of the 

 town, and produced, the man said, a fine wine; by which 

 term the French characterise, generally, those wines which 

 are drunk pure and in wine glasses, in contradistinction 

 to those which are drunk in tumblers mixed with water 

 at their ordinary meals. If, however, I had sought a 

 reason for the wine not having a high name, I might 

 perhaps have found it in the quantity of strong dung he 

 was adding to the soil, and to the mixture of different 

 kinds of vines — the infamous game, as it is sometimes 

 called, holding a considerable place. He was busily 

 employed in the provignage^ which seems almost the 

 only work going on at present. He had commenced the 

 same morning, and had dug about twenty trenches, three 

 or four feet long by about two feet wide. In each of 

 these were half-a-dozen provins ; that is, the ends of the 

 shoots which belonged to the stock that had been buried 

 in the trench. These trenches are never more than half- 

 filled, as the shoots are never sufficiently long to come up 

 to the level of the surface. From this circumstance the 

 whole of the vineyards of Burgundy are full of these 

 holes at irregular distances, and have a very rugged and 

 unworkman-like appearance. I remained while he com- 

 pleted two of these trenches, and he endeavoured to 

 explain to me the process; but all that I could compre- 

 hend was, that the shoots were so disposed as to preserve 



