Chap. IV. through France. 7^9 
After a little Walk without the Town, we faw the off, being like the Stan^tcls of our Ofier Garden! A£ 
Ruins of the Temple of Diana, which is under the Side Montpellier, the beft Verdet or Verdegreafe, Viridi (zris-^ 
of a Rock, and clofe by is Fons Diana, which firft makes is made; They told us that fo good could not be 
a deep Pond, and fends Water enough to furnifh all the made elfewhere, though they ufed the fame Method and 
Gardens of the City •, in Winter, or any rainy Seafon the fame Materials 5 whether it be to be attributed td 
it overflows very much. La Forre Grande, on the Top the juft Temper of Heatj or the Nature of the Wine 
of a Hill, is a ruin’d Tower of the old Roman Wall ; they ufe, or fome other unknown Quality, The Man« 
in other Places are feen the Ruins of the old Wall, ner thus 5 Firft, they take Grape Stalks well cleanfed 
The Circuit of this City was but 2000 Paces lefs than from the Raifins, and from all Filth, and putting in 
Rome, and was built formerly upon feven Hills. The the Bottom of a Pot, a Quantity of the beft fed Wine^ 
Front of the Cathedral is adorn’d with ancient Carving, they fet Sticks crofs, a little above the Wme,^ and upon 
A large Plain or Level round the Town, except on one them lay a Quantity of Grape Stalks, firft alfo drenched 
Side, where feveral Hills run along in a Hill. The in Wine, and let them alone about fifteen Days, more or 
Splanade is an open Walk without Port de la Couronne, lefs, according to the Seafon, till they come to make 
fometimes frequented by a great deal of Company. In (as they call it) a Rpfe, that is, the Outfides become td 
the Maifon de la Ville are kept two or three Crocodiles, Appearance dry, and the Middle only wet. 
(dead) which are the Arms of Nifmes, and fignify their Thefe Grape Stalks being thus prepared, they put 
Founders came out of Egypt. i^ Bottom of a large earthen Pot of the beft red 
In a Court of this Maifon de la Ville, is eredled on Wine, that begins to be four, but is not yet come to 
two Pillars againft the Wall the Monument of Dandalo be Vinegar, to the Quantity of about two or three 
the General of the Proteftants. The Proteftants of this Inches Depth i fomewhat above the Wine they fet Sticks 
City are three Parts out of four, and they had tv/o 
Temples, but one is lately pulled down : Every Morn^ 
ing they have a Sermon, and in the Afternoon Prayers : 
On Sunday they have four Sermons; they have three 
Bury ing- places without the Walls, and they had a College 
and Profeffors, but now the Jefuits are Mailers: The 
Proteftants have a Bell to ring them to Church. 
Thus far we have followed Mr. Skippon^^ Journey, 
who, as we obferved in the Introdudlion, fuftered nothing 
to efcape him. Whatever he faw remarkable, he commit- 
ted to Writing immediately, and the Defcription of it to 
his Journal; whatever was particularly curious, he exa- 
mined more clofely, and the Refult of his Examination 
was alfo committed to Writing. In like Manner he re- 
corded whatever was communicated to him that de- 
ferved Notice. All this however was done in a hafty 
and unpolifhed Manner, for the Affiftance of his own 
Memory, and not at all with a View, or even with a 
Sufpicion that it fhould one Day appear in Print. 
It was otherwife with Mr. Ray, who, though he kept 
fuch a Journal as Mr. Skippon, yet revis’d and improv’d 
what he fet down in it, and where he had an Opportu- 
nity, compared it with the Notes of his Friend Mr. 
Willoughby. He begins his Defcription of France, with 
an Account of the City of Montpelier, to which this 
Introdudlion was requifite ; but now we are arrived at a 
more copious and.polifhed Account of Things, we fhall 
make Ufe of Mr. Ray"s Travels fo far as they go, and 
fhall then take up with Mr. 6’^ippo«’s Journal again, in 
Order tofupply the Deficiencies that would otherwife ap- 
pear in the Courfe of thefe Travels, and which has hi- 
therto rendred Mr. Rafs liable to the Cenfure of being 
fomewhat abrupt and unconnedled. Thus he writes: 
9. Montpellier is a round Town {landing upon a Hill, 
in the Midftof a ftony Country, fomewhat bigger than 
Geneva, but not fo populous, the Number of Inhabitants 
at prefent being about 25000, of which two thirds are 
Papifts, and one Proteftants. The Proteftants have two 
Churches (Temples they call them) in Town. The 
Streets of this City are very narrow, ihort and crooked, 
without any Uniformity or Beauty at all, fo intricate, 
chat its half a Year’s Work to underftand them all, and 
learn the Way from Place to Place. The Houfes are 
many of them, weft built of free Stone, which were 
they fet well together in order, would make three or 
four handfome Streets. No larger Piazza or Market- 
place in Town. The Number of Apothecaries in this 
little City is fcarce credible, there being thirty Shops, 
and yet all find fomething to do ; their Cyprefs Powder, 
fweet Bags, Caffolets, Treacle, Confedlion al Kermes, 
and Hyacintha, having a Name all France over. The 
Queen of Hungary's Water (as they call it) made here, 
is likewife much bought up. It is nothing but common 
Spirit of Wine, in which Rofemary Flowers have 
been macerated and diftilled from the faid Flowers. 
The Wines hereabout are very ftrong, and bear Wa- 
ter well. 
1 heir Vineyards are of dwarf Vines, without any 
Support, the Standards, when the Brarxhes are pruned 
crofs the Pot, and having ready many little Plates of 
Copper, they lay upon the Crofs-fticks, firft a Layer of 
the prepared Grape-ftalks, then a Layer of Copper 
Plates, and fo alternately, S. S. S. i. e. Stratum fuper 
firatum, till the Pot be full. In the Middle of the Pot 
they ufually leave a Hole all along, for the Vapour of 
the Wine to afcend, neither are the Copper Plates laid 
near together for the fame Reafon ; when they have fil- 
led up the Pot, they cover it, and fee it in a Cellar, 
and after fome five or fix Days turn the Copper-plates, 
letting the Pot remain in the Cellar three or four Days 
more. In eight or ten Days, according to the Seafon, 
the Verdet will be come. 
Then they take out the Plates, and laying them fix 
or feven on a Heap, put them m a Trough, and fprin- 
kle the Edges of them with the fam.e Wine, for three 
or four Days ; next they prefs them with heavy Weights 
for four or five Days, and laft of all, ferape off the 
Verdet with Knives, and moulding it with a little Wine^ 
dry it and fell it. The fame Places are again put into 
Pots, and ufed as before. So then the Verdet is nothing 
but the Ruft or Scurf of the Copper, calcin’d by the 
Vapour of the Wine. 
Here alfo we faw the Manner and Procefs of Blanching 
of Bees- Wax. Firft, they melt the Wax in a great Cop- 
per Cauldron, then they have ready a Mould or Form of 
Wood, of the Figure of a Sugar-Loaf, or the Block 
of a Steeple crown’d Hat, which having befmeared 
over with Slime of Snails, they dip into the Wax thus 
melted. This takes up a Skin or Film of Wax, as 
Candles upon Dipping do. 
This they fmooth with their Hands, and dip in Watef^ 
and when it is cold rake it off the Form, from which, 
by Reafon of the anointing the Form with the foremen- 
tioned Mucilage, it will readily flip in the Form of a 
Cone or long crucible. Thefe Cones (fo let me call 
them) are fet in a Garden in Ranks, fingly one by one, 
fuppported with Canes or Reeds, croffing one another 
on this Fafhion. , 
1 1 1 
1 
1 1 1 
1 
1 1 1 1 
1 
Round about they fet Pots with Water, wherewith 
they fprinkle the Wax often, to keep it from melting. 
In Summer Time, when the Sun Ires hot upon it, fome 
fix or feven Times a Day, otherwife but three or four 
Times. In fourteen or fifteen Days, the upper End of 
thefe Cones will grow white, and then they turn them 
to whiten the other End. In a Month’s Time, more or 
lefs, according to the Weather, they will become White 
all over. 
Then they melt the Wax again in earthen Pans like 
Meta or Shuttles, and run it fo melted, through the 
Neb of a Tin Pot, into Water, and as it runs down 
into the Water, a Man either breaks it with his Hand 
into. Grains or works it into round Figures like 
fpiral 
