By the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.8.A. 



57 



bury there was a real vineyard of grape-vines. In the Abbey 

 Register lately printed by Government, there is a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the work required, the planting, &e.> which leaves no doubt 

 upon the subject. 



I have known the experiment tried, by a friend of my own who 

 had plenty of money and was fond of experiments. He established 

 a vineyard on a warm situation in Kent : sent abroad for a variety 

 of grape-vines and spared no expense. It amused him for several 

 years as a plaything : if it injured anybody it was only himself, but 

 it certainly gave employment to several labourers. He was very 

 proud of the wine which he produced, which I have tasted and 

 found as good and pleasant as possible : pure juice of the grape at all 

 events, and so far, uncommon. But it required much perseverance 

 to go on with the vineyard ; so uncertain was the crop for want of 

 regular sunshine, that I believe it was at last given up. 



Unless the sun shone more steadily in former days than it does 

 in ours, the Abbot of Malmesbury's vineyard must have been, as a 

 speculation, about as successful as the one I have just mentioned. 

 .But the worthy abbot might have the same consolation as my friend 

 had. If he could not produce good wine in his w-yard, he was 

 safe to supply his neighbours with good vinegar. 1 



1 The following evidence as to Vineyards in England may be useful to those 

 who are interested in the subject. 



Vispre, F.X. " On the growth of wine in England," printed at Bath, 1786. 

 Mr. V. had a vineyard at Wimbledon. He says : — " Mr. John Warner, of 

 Botherhithe, near Southwark, makes good wine from his own vineyards." 



Stephen Switzer, vol. ii., p. 266, of his Ichnographia Rustica, published in 

 1742, says, " That Vineyards may be so cultivated in England as to produce large 

 quantities of grapes, and those so well ripened as to afford a good and substantial 

 vinous juice, needs no demonstration ; when, in several parts of Somersetshire 

 there are at this time, nourishing vineyards, and the vineyard of the late Sir 

 William Basset, in that county, has annually produced some hogsheads of good- 

 bodied and palatable wine, which I have been credibly informed by gentlemen 

 who have drank considerable quantities of it with the greatest satisfaction. 

 Bartholomew Rocque, a gardener at Waltham Green, made wine for thirty years, 

 from a vineyard he had planted in a common field garden : and although the 

 ground was flat the wine was as good as that of Orleans or Auxerre, in the 

 judgement of some acquaintance of mine still alive. Dr. Shaw made wines 

 from a little vineyard behind his garden at Kensington, which I have drank. 



