I 
V I T 
the fineft profped in the world. This oval muft have 
more than one hundred and fifty leagues in circum- 
ference. 
From thefe hills of Beaune all the oppofite mountains 
are feen, and they are thofe of Switzerland, the 
Franche Comte, and Mount Jura, of which Casfar 
fpeaks, at this time called Mount St. Claude, thofe 
of Savoy •, beyond thefe is a frightful void, and of an 
immenfe length, and Mount St. Bernard rifes into the 
clouds, always covered with fnow in the moft violent 
heats of the dog days and although it be fixty-five 
leagues off from Beaune, it is feen diftindly without 
the help of any glafs. 
This perfect oval forms a plain of the fame figure, to 
which thefe mountains that environ it, feem to ferve 
for walls and ramparts •, this vaft plain is watered by 
the Saone, which he calls Alduafdubis in his Com- 
mentaries, which has its fource at the foot of Mount 
Jura, paffes by Befancon, and by Dole, and cafts 
itfelf into the Saone at Verdun •, there are alfo a 
thoufand pretty rivers and dreams, which, after ma- 
ny turnings and windings, lofe themfelves in the 
Saone. 
This great plain, which is at the center of the con- 
tinent, is fo even, that the Saone which runs through 
it, by its gentle courfe deceives the eyes of thofe who 
look upon it, it being difficult to difcpver which way 
its dream glides. Csfar himfelf was furprized at it, 
as he declares in lib. i. of his Commentaries. 
The Saone is a river that feparates the Eduani and 
Sequani, i. e. Bourgogne from the Franche Comte, 
and flows into the Rhone with an incredible gentlenefs, 
that one cannot didinguilh by the eye which way its 
waters run. 
This is a vad plain, fo fertile and even, that all the 
kings of France are wont to aflemble their armies 
there, when they have a mind to fhew the encamp- 
ment of all their troops to the queens, and the ladies 
of the court. 
Behind the fird row of hills that produce fo good 
wines, there is nothing to be found but hills and 
valleys the hills that are the lead didant are all 
planted with vineyards, and thefe fituations are called 
backward hills. In the hotted years, when the rains 
are lefs frequent, the Grapes there make a very good 
wine, but it never has the perfume of the wines pro- 
duced by the forward hills. 
The plain of this oval is in part covered with wines, 
fertile in all forts of grain, embellifhed with vad mea- 
dows, where a thoufand dreams play in their different 
windings, adorned with fine forefts inhabited with 
dags, wild boars, and above all, with roe bucks, which 
flre° there very delicious, and agreeably furnifh the 
gentry with the divertifements of hunting. 
A great part of thefe lands are planted with trees in 
form of orchards, which produce without culture 
excellent fruit, which, when they have been once 
grafted, it is enough, the fun and the earth do the 
red. The Peach-trees, which throughout Sympathize 
with the Vine, there make upon the banks a fair 
fored, and the branches of thefe trees grow thinly, 
and the leaves being narrow, they do not hinder the 
fun from darting his rays on the Grapes to ripen 
them ; the Peaches which they produce are of a fi- 
gure and a colour that would not anticipate one in 
their favour, nevertheless, when one has taded of 
them, it feems to the palate to be a fruit made of 
wine and Sugar. 
It ought not to be forgotten, that when the fun is 
rifen above the mountains of Savoy, there is a prof- 
pect of the hills of Burgundy, where it dunes during 
the whole day, and in fetting behind the hills of 
Beaune, parts its rays upon the mountains of the 
Franche Comte, which lie oppofite to it, and there in 
going down, ripens very excellent wines, as thofe of 
Arbois, which are fo well known throughout Europe 
for their excellent qualities. 
Before I begin to fpeak of the quality of the wines of 
Beaune, it will be proper to give an account of the 
manner in which they there cultivate their vineyards. 
and make their wines, for although Burgundy, by the 
goodnefs of its foil, and its expofure to the' riling fun, 
does naturally produce delicious Grapes, yet the man- 
ner of cultivating their Vines, and of making their 
wine, contributes much to its goodnefs. 
During the winter the vignerons employ themfelves 
in examining the earth of their vineyards, and by 
fome loads of earth conveniently laid, which they car- 
ry thither, they fatten the places which appear tfe be 
worn out, and feem to require affiftance to produce 
the better Grapes, which happens however but very 
feldom. But then they take notice of thofe places 
which are void of Vines, whether they are declining 
by age, or do not appear to promife Grapes, and they 
make large trenches from a foot and a half to two 
feet and a half long, and a foot deep. If the earth 
is too lean, they put in half a foot of good earth, and 
fometimes a little old well rotted dung, but generally 
fpeaking, they put in nothing at all, and taking one 
or two branches of a neighbouring Vine, they bend 
them down into each trench, and cover them after- 
wards entirely with the proper earth of the vineyard, 
in fuch manner, that you may fee the two ends of 
the Vine branch bent come out of the earth ; to wit, 
that by which it holds by the Vine, and that of the 
other end, which comes out of the trench, where they 
have bent it, about three or four fingers in length. 
They make a great many of thefe trenches in a vine- 
yard, that they may be always fupplied with young 
Vines that will produce a good plenty of Grapes, for 
it ought to be obferved that this Vine branch bent 
down in a femicircle in this trench, which is a flioot 
of the preceding year, having its pores open, takes 
in two forts of nourilhment, the one from the Vine to 
which it is united, and the other from the trench in 
which it has been bent, in which it takes root. Thefe 
are what they call provins or layers. 
They produce abundance of Grapes, which are com- 
monly firft ripe, well nourifhed, large, and well re- 
liflied, but their juice is not fo good as that of the 
Grapes of the old Vine. The phyfical reafon is, that 
the nourifhing juice has not been fo well filtred in 
paffing through thofe layers, whofe pores are very 
open, and in paffing thro’ the pores of the old Vine, 
whofe pores are more clofe, and lefs fpongy. 
They dig with a fpade the vineyard ordinarily three 
times a year, that is about the end of February, or 
the beginning of March, when they give it the firft 
time, and it is in the month of March, or about the 
end of February, that they prune their vineyards. 
And in this conlifts the addrefs and fkill of the viorne- 
ron, for he ought to make a right choice of thofe fine 
branches that hq is to prune,'- and of the joint where 
he is cut the flioot, as well as that which he is to 
cut entirely off. 
Obferve what I have feen pradifed by the vignerons. 
Of four or five branches, the fhoots of a year, belong- 
ing to the fame ftock or Vine, they leave but one or 
two of the beft made, which they cut off to the third 
or fourth joint at moft. 
The fame they pradife on the Vines of the hills, which 
produce the fineft wines, for as to the Vines on the 
backfide, or of the plain, they cut them to the fe- 
cond or to the firft knot, for thefe Vines put forth too 
many fhoots ; but, as this is an art of which it will 
be difficult to give the precepts, becaufe the manner 
of cutting the Vines is different, according to the 
ground, the nature of the Vine, its quality, expo- 
fltion, and nearnefs to the fun, I will go on with my 
diflertation. 
When the Vine is cut, they place ftakes or Vine 
props, to which, at the height of half a foot above 
the earth, they bind the branches of the Vines in a 
horizontal manner, and afterwards, when the buds or 
eyes are opened, and have put forth fhoots in length 
about a foot and a half, they bind them to the props 
which' fuftain the branches and produce the fruit, 
Thefe props are of the height of three or four feet, 
and the thicknefs of two inches ; they are ftuck into 
the ground without any arrangement or order, at the 
diftance 
