194 



ON VINEYARDS. 



which still retain the name of vineyards, were 

 plantations of Vines, for the purpose of making 

 wine. 



acquiring a vinous quality, supplied them with a more grateful 

 liquor, which strengthened and exhilarated their spirits after 

 labour. 



" The Indians, in the same manner, discovered similar vir- 

 tues in the palm-trees ; they first made incisions in the bark, 

 with a view of drinking the cooling liquor which distilled from 

 them ; but soon found that, by being kept in vessels, it acquired 

 different and more agreeable qualities. 



" In these times they certainly drank their wine recent and 

 pure, soon after the fermentation had ceased ; but observing, 

 that by acquiring a greater age, it became more generous, they, 

 with art and industry, endeavoured to prepare and preserve it 

 for future use. This, probably, was the first origin and pro- 

 gress of wine : it is mentioned that Noah first planted the Vine ; 

 and that wine was offered with bread by the Patriarch Melchise- 

 dech, amongst his first fruits, as a well-pleasing sacrifice to 

 God. 



" The poets, who were inspired by it, celebrate its praise ; 

 and, not satisfied with allowing it to be a most useful human in- 

 vention, ascribe it to the gods, to Osyris, Saturn, and Bacchus, 

 and call it their ambrosial nectar. 



" The greatest philosophers, legislators, and physicians, give it 

 due praises, when temperately taken ; and Plato, who strictly 

 restrains the use of it, and severely censures the excess, says, 

 that nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever 

 granted by God to mankind." — Barry's Observations, &c, on 

 Wines, p. 27. 



c The debate arose from a Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Pegge, 

 in the first volume of the Archceologia, of the Society of An- 

 tiquaries, London, on the introduction, progress, state, and 

 condition of the Vine in Britain. The Honourable Daines Bar- 

 rington, in his Observations on the more ancient Statutes, p. 207, 



