688 W I 
so highly valued, that when the Emperor of Austria wished 
to make a present of some to the ex-king of Holland, the 
stock in the imperial cellars was not thought sufficiently 
aged; and 2000 bottles were obtained from Cracow at seven 
ducats the bottle. 
Of the wines of Greece and Italy, those of Tuscany, where 
agriculture generally is well conducted, are better than the 
rest, particularly the Montepulciano ; and the Aleatico and 
other muscadines perhaps deserve a similar commendation. 
But these, as well as the famous Lacrima Christi, which is 
made in small quantities and chiefly reserved tor the royal 
cellars at Naples, are better known beyond the Alps by name 
than in reality. Sicily shares the reproach of the neighbour¬ 
ing continent. What might be made of its produce may be 
learnt from the specimens of Marsala and Mazzara which are 
met with in this country. But the Sicilian wines which we 
import, are generally disguised and poisoned with the exe¬ 
crable brandy of the island; and this attempt to give strength 
to weak wines must always utterly extinguish their flavour. 
As long as the practice prevails, it is useless to hope for im¬ 
provement ; even though the hills at the foot of mount 2Etna 
be, as described, one vast vineyard producing great varieties 
of wine. 
The wild vine is found almost everywhere in the forests of 
the United States, and even of Canada, and it flourishes lux¬ 
uriantly on the banks of the Mississippi and as far north as 
the shores of Lake Erie. The plant of the Mtdoc territory 
has been introduced into culture at Philadelphia, and is said 
to yield a wine there which sufficiently resembles the inferior 
growth of the Bordelais to encourage perseverance in the ex¬ 
periment. Some of the French settlers in the southern back 
states have also succeeded in making tolerable wine from the 
wild grape. But in New Mexico the culture of the vine has 
been eminently successful, and the sweet growths of Passo 
del Norte in particular, are already celebrated in the new 
world. In California also, where the missionaries in the last 
century introduced the European plant, a great quantity of 
good wine is raised of the Madeira kind. In various regions 
of Spanish South America, notwithstanding the obstacles 
which the policy of the mother country constantly opposed 
to the culture of the vine in her colonies, wine has long been 
made in great abundance. Lima is the seat of a considerable 
commerce in the native growths of Peru, of which those of 
Lucomba and Pisco are in greatest request. Those also of 
the valley of Suamba, in the province of Arequipa, are in 
great estimation. In Chile the vine grows exuberantly, and 
the country contains numerous vineyards, of which those of 
Cuyo rank first in their extent and the quality of the produce. 
These wines, principally of the red strong class, are carried 
across the Andes to Buenos Ayres, a distance of a thousand 
miles, and they afford the principal supply to all Paraguay. 
We shall now dose our remarks with a point of some inter¬ 
est for the English reader :—we mean the ancient culture of 
the vine in this island. We shall not care to inquire, whe¬ 
ther the vine was planted in Britain while yet a Roman colony. 
We incline to the opinion that it was; but the question of 
the precise date of its introduction is unimportant. It is 
certain, however, on the testimony of Bede, that, as early 
as the beginning of the eighth century, at least, the country 
exhibited vineyards on a tew spots. They are mentioned in 
the laws of Alfred and other early documents; and Edgar 
makes a gift of a vineyard, at Wycet, with the vine-dres¬ 
sers. Alter the Norman conquest, many new plantations 
seem to have been made ; and among other places, at Cbe- 
netone in Middlesex, at Ware in Hertfordshire,—and in the 
village of Westminster. Even Ilolburne had its vineyard, 
which afterwards came into the possession of the Bishops of 
Ely; and, when the buildings of the city extended in that 
direction, gave the name to a street which still exists. To 
all the greater abbeys, in the south of England at least, vine¬ 
yards appear to have been at later epochs attached. As these 
monastic edifices were generally placed in fertile and well 
sheltered vallies, the choicest exposure for the vine might be 
lound in their vicinity; and many of the monks, being 
N E. 
foreigners, would naturally be familiar with the best modes 
of culture and the means of overcoming the disadvantages of 
the climate. But the account of William of Malmsbury is 
incontestable that, in the twelfth century, vineyards were 
general in England. He praises the fertile vale of Glouces¬ 
tershire in particular, as yielding abundance of excellent 
wines, scarcely inferior in sweetness to the wines of France. 
It is well known that it has been contended, that we should 
translate vina cider, and vineae orchards; but in a subsequent 
passage the same chronicler distinguishes apple trees and 
vines as the different growths of the same domain, and de¬ 
scribes the vines as either trailed along the ground or trained 
on high and supported on poles. One would have thought 
it impossible to mistake all this, yet it has been mistaken. 
But a thousand other proofs of the manufacture of wine in 
England, in the middle ages, might be adduced if necessary. 
Domesday book gives frequent evidence of the distinction 
between pomaria and vinece. There was a vineyard in the 
king's little paik at ‘ Windlesore,’ where wine was made 
plentifully so late as the reign of Richard II., and paid in 
tithe to the abbot of Waltham, then parson of the parish. 
(Stowe, Chron. p. 143.) But the most decisive evidence of 
all is furnished by the archives of the church of Ely, wherein 
we have an account of the produce of a vineyard for two or 
three years : even the number of bushels of grapes sold is re¬ 
corded, as also the value of the wine ; and it is noted that in 
one unfavourable year, no wine but only verjuice was made. 
It was probably this uncertainty of climate, which checked 
the culture of the vine, as we have seen ; and when foreign 
wines were imported in great abundance, the home manu¬ 
facture, of inferior quality raised at greater cost and with 
much uncertainty, naturally declined, and soon ceased alto¬ 
gether as a branch of public industry. 
But, in our own times, wine has been and is still raised in 
England as a matter of amusement and experiment. About 
thirty or forty years ago, Sir Richard Worsley procured 
some of the hardier species of vines, planted them at St. 
Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, on a rocky soil, with a 
south-eastern exposure, and engaged a vine-dresser from 
France to superintend their culture. The result was, that in 
one or two favourable years, a tolerable crop of grapes was 
obtained ; but eventually, the cold springs and early autumns 
weakened the plants and blighted the produce, and the 
scheme was soon entirely abandoned. The spot, however, 
selected by Sir Richard, was not well adapted for the expe¬ 
riment; for notwithstanding the general mildness of the cli¬ 
mate of the Isle of Wight, it was severely exposed to the cold 
winds which prevail in the Channel just when the vine be¬ 
gins to bud. The endeavours of Mr. Hamilton, at Painshill, 
were more fortunate ; and the account of them is very inter¬ 
esting. By good management, that gentleman procured a 
wine fully equal to the second rates of sparkling and cream¬ 
ing Champagne, which by keeping gained strength, lost its- 
effervescence and sweet flavour, and acquired the dryness of 
old Rhine wine. Some that Mr. Hamilton kept sixteen 
years became so like old Hock, that he declares it might 
have passed for such to any one who was not a perfect con¬ 
noisseur. This wine, in its Champagne state, was pro¬ 
nounced to be excellent by very good judges, upon whom it 
passed for the foreign growth. It was then sold to wine 
merchants at fifty guineas the hogshead, and retailed by them 
for French wine at from four to six guineas a dozen. 
That by diligent attention and skilful management, some 
very respectable imitations of the secondary growths of fo¬ 
reign wines might be raised in this country, will not, there¬ 
fore, admit of a doubt; though it can never be done success¬ 
fully from grapes ripened on trellises and walls, as is some¬ 
times attempted. Dr, M‘Culloch (Art of making Wine, p. 
228.) has shown how good wine can be made from the unripe, 
fruit, tendrils, and even from the young leaves of the vine; 
fermented with a proper addition of sugar and cream of tar¬ 
tar ; and he appears to consider this domestic manufacture as 
worthy of regard in an agricultural point of view, for he 
speaks of the certainty of raising leaves and green fruit in all 
years. 
