LORD BUTE'S VINEYARDS IN SOUTH WALES. 



103 



wine on the table were most excellent as a British production ; 

 not only of full alcoholic strength, but containing an agree- 

 able amount of natural acid tartrate, as well as aroma being 

 far in advance of Grape wines generally manufactured in this 

 country ; and he thought his Lordship was deserving of the 

 very hearty thanks of the Society for the very excellent samples 

 and bringing the matter before the Society. 



Mr. Pettigkew, in reply to a question, said that the vineyard 

 did not prove successful every year, but the produce of 1893 was 

 sufficient to defray the whole of the expenses since the vineyard 

 was started in 1875. Lord Bute had obtained a licence for the 

 sale of the wine, and it was sold in his lordship's name. Mr. 

 Pettigrew also added that in 1893 about 23 hogsheads of wine 

 were made, and not a particle of sugar was used. 



Mr. Owen Thomas, of the Royal Gardens, Windsor, read the 

 following :— As bearing on the antiquity of the practice of 

 growing Grapes in the open air in England, and making wine of 

 the same, I came across a reference to the subject a few days 

 ago in Tighe and Davis's " Annals of Windsor," where also 

 appears a small sketch of a vineyard which existed on the south 

 side of the Castle as long ago as the year 1155. Again reference 

 is made to the same vineyard in the year 1377, two hundred and 

 twenty- two years afterwards. By the same authority mention 

 is again made of a vineyard as late as 1820, situated in the same 

 locality as those previously mentioned ; but whether vines were 

 cultivated continuously in the open air at Windsor from 1155 to 

 1820, a period extending over more than six hundred years, no 

 one can tell. However, I will read you the short reference 

 referred to, where it says that among the appendages to the 

 Castle at this period was the vineyard. The pay of the vintiger 

 and the expense of gathering the Grapes are among the regular 

 annual charges relating to Windsor on the Pipe Rolls from the 

 commencement of the series in 1155. Lambarde says that in the 

 Records it moreover appeareth that tithe has been paid of wine 

 pressed out of grapes that grew in the little park there to the 

 Abbott of Waltham, who was parson both of the old and new 

 Windsor, and that account has been made of the charges of 

 planting the vines that grew in the said park, and also of making 

 the wine, whereof some parts were used in the household and 

 some sold for the king's profit. 



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