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THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



been known to exceed forty pounds weight. It is supposed to equal, if not to exceed, 

 the oak in longevity; four and six hundred years being given by Pliny and Hose, 

 as its ordinary age. The Burgundy vineyards are many of them four hundred 

 years old ; and many of tliose in Italy are still flourishing, which are known to be 

 above three hundred. Vine-growers reckon the vine young at one hundred years ; 

 and many of those in England, still in prosperity, are equally old. 



At what period the vine was introduced into Britain is not exactly known. It is, 

 however, generally admitted to liave been brought from Italy by the Romans ; and 

 if not so early as the days of the Romans, it was afterwards introduced by the reli- 

 gious hordes who visited this country, either for the purpose of the conversion of its 

 inhabitants, or more probably in search of an asylum from the persecutions of some 

 of the Roman emperors. Tacitus, in A.D. 79, considered the soil and climate of 

 this country unfit for the vine. However, in the third century, under the Emperor 

 Probus, we find, not only the vine cultivated, but also wine made. It is very pro- 

 bable that the Roman generals cultivated this fruit, the want of which they would 

 naturally feel ; and as they introduced the cherry, and built and ornamented villas 

 after the fashion of their own country, it is very probable that they also introduced 

 the vine. The venerable Bede, in 731, expressly says, that there were vineyards in 

 many places ; and as the clergy from his time till the reformation assiduously cul- 

 tivated fruits round their monasteries, there is every probability that they also culti- 

 vated the vine, with the use of which they were so well acquainted before their 

 retreat and during their visits to Italy. Vines may have been neglected and ulti- 

 mately lost here after the dissolution of religious houses ; and as we held several 

 French provinces in subjettion in the time of the Henries, from whence wine may 

 have been procured sufficient for the then small consumption, the cultivation of it 

 might have been abandoned. 



It does not appear that the making of wine in this country would be of any 

 national importance, otherwise we might have our vineyards and wine presses as 

 well as our orchards and cider mills. It is sufficiently proved, by repeated success- 

 ful experiments, that we could produce wines in the southern parts of England as 

 good a^ many of those imported. Individuals, in favorable situations, may find much 

 real satisfaction in forming vineyards and drinking their own produce. The Duke 

 of Norfolk had a vineyard at Arundel Castle, from which was made excellent bur- 

 gundy ; and Warner, with whom Warner's Black Hamburg originated, made also 

 good wine from his vineyard at Rotherhithe. An excellent champagne was made by 

 the Hon. C. Hamilton, at Painshill. At present, Mr. J. Kirk, of the Brompton Nursery, 

 has a wall of 220 yards long covered with white muscidine grapes, which for many 

 years has borne immense crops. In front of thi-s wall are cultivated vines of the 

 same grape upon standards, or rather trained to poles about four feet high, which, 

 although the fruit does not always ripen, yet they bear great crops, and would pro- 

 duce very good wine. 



The varieties of grape-vines are extremely numerous ; many of them, it must be 

 confessed, are the effect of soil and cultivation ; and many kinds are kept in the 

 British nursery gardens for supplying the British foreign possessions with wine 

 varieties, rather than for any purpose to which they may be supposed to be appli- 

 cable in this country. Tusser, in 1560, only speaks of white and red grapes. Par- 

 kinson, in 1627, enumerates 23 sorts. Ray, in 168S, says that 12 sorts were in re- 

 quest. Rea, in 1702, enumerates 17 sorts. In the catalogue of the Luxemburg col- 

 lection, are enumerated 267 sorts. And the librarian to the botanic garden oi 

 Madrid, has described 120 sorts. The lists of both the Paris and London nurseries arc 

 very numerous ; and the Horticultural Society's Catalogue enumerates 159 varieties 

 of Fitis Vinifcra; three varieties of Vitis Vol^una, and five of Htis Labrusca ; from 



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