proofreading team. the cyder-maker's instructor, sweet-maker's assistant, and victualler's and housekeeper's director. in three parts. * * * * * part i. directs the grower to make his cyder in the manner foreign wines are made; to preserve its body and flavour; to lay on a colour, and to cure all its disorders, whether bad flavour'd, prick'd, oily, or ropy. part ii. instructs the trader or housekeeper to make raisin-wines, at a small expence, little (if any thing) inferior to foreign wines in strength or flavour; to cure their disorders; to lay on them new bodies, colour, &c. part iii. directs the brewer to fine his beer and ale in a short time, and to cure them if prick'd or ropy. to which is added, a method to make yest to ferment beer, as well as common yest, when that is not to be had. all actually deduced from the author's experience. by thomas chapman, _wine-cooper_. london, printed: boston, re-printed and sold by green & russell, in queen-street, mdcclxii. [price one shilling.] the preface. it may be thought necessary, in compliance with custom, that i should say something by way of preface. if the reader would be informed what my reasons were for appearing in print, i shall candidly acknowledge, that the great prospect of a considerable advantage to myself was indeed the strongest persuasive; but i can with equal truth affirm, that it affords me no small pleasure to think i am doing my country at the same time a very great piece of service; and doubt not but that, as many will soon experience it, my labour will be thankfully received and acknowledged. discoveries and improvements ought not to be concealed; the public good calls loudly for them; but then, in return for the great advantage the public receives from them, the author of any such discovery may with the greatest justice claim an adequate reward. preface the following receipts and directions are not collected from books, nor interspersed with old women's nostrums; but they are, in very truth, the result of my own long experience in trade, founded on chemical principles, which are principles of never-erring nature. perhaps i had never thought of this method of communicating my little knowledge, had it not been for many gentlemen in the counties of _gloucester, hereford, worcester_, &c. for whom i have done a great deal of business, in the cyder-way particularly; and who have often express'd their desire of seeing my directions for the management of cyders, &c. made public. and no doubt such a thing was wanting; for it's hardly credible how much liquors of almost every kind is spoiled by mismanagement. few people know the nature of fermentation, without which no vinous spirit can be produced; nor any liquor be rendered fine and potible. fermentation separates the particles of bodies, and from liquids throws off the gross parts from the finer, which, without it, could not be effected. there is what is called a _fret_, which is only a partial fermentation, that nature is strong enough in some liquors to bring on, without the assistance of art; but this _fret_, or partial fermentation, is never strong enough to discharge the liquor of its foul parts; and if they should ever happen to subside, the least alteration in weather, as well as a hundred other accidents, will occasion their commixing, and render the liquor almost, or altogether as foul as ever; to prevent which we call in the assistance of art, and which our method will effectually prevent. in brewing beer, yest is apply'd to it, in order to ferment it, without which it would never be beer. this opens the body of the liquor, and renders it spirity and fine. the reason that cyder is not often fine, is owing to its not being fermented. after it is got into the hogshead, the generality of people think they have acquitted themselves very well, and done all the necessary business, except racking it. but i can assure them, the more any liquor is rack'd, the more it is weaken'd. by often racking, it loseth its body, and so becomes acid for want of strength to support it. another gross error many people are guilty of, in keeping the bungs out of the casks. nothing is more pernicious to fermented liquors, than their being exposed to the open air, whereby they lose their strength and flavour. take a bottle of wine, draw the cork, and let it stand exposed to the open air for twenty-four hours only, and you will then find it dead, flat, and insipid; for the spirit is volatile, and has been carried off by the air, and what remains is the gross, elementary part chiefly. a cyder-cask should never be kept open more than fourteen or fifteen days, that is, 'till the ferment is stopt; but so contrary is the practice, that i have known them very commonly kept open three or four months. it hath been objected to me by cyder and sweet-makers, that stopping up the cask so soon will endanger the head being blown out or bursted; but their fears are groundless, provided the ferment is stopt. the bottoms are quite confined, and it is impossible they should rise, unless a forcing be added to raise them. the best time for bottling your cyder, is in the winter, or cool weather, when it is _down_, otherwise you will hazard breaking most of the bottles. the best method of keeping it, is to put it up in dry saw-dust, which will keep it in a due temperature of heat, without the colour's subsiding, unless you have laid a high colour on it, which, by long keeping, will subside in the same manner port-wine doth in bottles. for 'tis impossible to set a colour on cyder so strong, as to have it stand the bottle more than twelve or eighteen months, at farthest. the natural colour will change but little in a much longer time. what i have said of the sweet-making-business, (which i have been constantly concerned in for more than twenty years) is principally relating to fermentation; for it is in all kinds of made-wines the chief thing to be observed. i shall just take notice here of one or two things, by way of caution. if your fruit be candied, the best way to clean them is by bagging, and then you may easily take the stems from them. it is very seldom that the fruit is all of the same goodness, i would therefore recommend, that the best fruit be made separate from the ordinary, it being easy, and much more prudent, to mix the liquors to your palate, than to run the hazard of making the good fruit with the bad, a small quantity of which will sometimes spoil the flavour of the liquor, and turn it acid. as to the method of brewing malt-liquors, i shall only here observe, that the practice of boiling the wort so long as is often done, is very injudicious. five minutes is long enough: a longer time serves only to evaporate the spirit, without having any good effect. under the head of malt-liquor, i have confined myself to giving proper instructions for curing their disorders, such as fining 'em, _&c._ which must be of great use to victuallers as well as private families, who, by reason of the badness of malt, mismanagement, bad weather, or other accidents, have frequently quantities by them, which for want of knowing how to cure, lie useless, and are sometimes thrown away. in the course of these receipts, i have endeavoured to lay down every thing as plain as possible, preferring, in these cases, plainness to elegance, even tho' i were capable of it, which indeed i have no pretensions to. before i take leave of my reader, i must admonish him, that if my directions are not observed punctually, i will not be answerable for his success; for he may be assured, in matters of this kind, a great deal depends upon what many people think trifling, and of no consequence whether done or not. but on the other hand, if he will take care to observe them exactly, i am sure they will fully answer his expectations. so shall he not repent laying out his money on this _little_, but not the least _valuable_, book; nor will my reputation suffer in having penn'd it for his use; which is the earnest wish of his humble servant, t.c. the _cyder-maker's_ instructor. let your fruit be as near the same ripeness as possible, otherwise the juice will not agree in fermenting. when they are properly sweated, grind and press them; and as soon as you have filled a cask, if a hogshead, which is one hundred and ten gallons, ferment it as follows; and if less, proportion the ingredients to your quantity. a ferment for cyder. to one hogshead of cyder, take three pints of solid yest, the mildest you can get; if rough, wash it in warm water, and let it stand 'till it is cold. pour the water from it, and put it in a pail or can; put to it as much jalap as will lay on a six-pence, beat them well together with a whisk, then apply some of the cyder to it by degrees 'till your can is full. put it all to the cyder, and stir it well together. when the ferment comes on, you must clean the bung-holes every morning with your finger, and keep filling the vessel up. the ferment for the first five or six days will be black and stiff; let it stand till it ferments white and kind, which it will do in fourteen or fifteen days; at that time stop the ferment, otherwise it will impair its strength. to stop the ferment. in stopping this ferment, which is a very strong one, you must first rack it into a clean cask, and when pretty near full, put to it three pounds of course, red, scowering sand, and stir it well together with a strong stick, and fill it within a gallon of being full; let it stand five or six hours, then pour on it as softly as you can a gallon of english spirit, and bung it up close; but leave out the vent-peg a day or two. at that time just put it in the hole and close it by degrees till you have got it close. let it lay in that state at least a year, and if very strong cyder, such as stire, the longer you keep it the better it will be in the body; and when you pierce it, if not bright, force it in the following manner. a forcing for cyder. take a gallon of perry or stale beer, put to it one ounce of isinglass, beat well and cut or pull'd to small pieces; put it to the perry or beer, and let it steep three or four days. keep whisking it together, or else the glass will stick to the bottom, and have no effect on the liquor. when it comes to a stiff jelly, beat it well in your can with a whisk, and mix some of the cyder with it, 'till you have made the gallon four; then put two pounds of brick rubbings to it, and stir it together with two gallons of cyder more added to it, and apply to the hogshead; stir it well with your paddle, and shive it up close. the next day give it vent, and you will find it fine and bright. if you force perry, cut your isinglass with cyder or stale beer, for no liquor will force its own body. to cure acid cyder. it is always to be observ'd, that even weak _alkali_'s cure the strongest acid, such, for instance, as calcin'd chalk, calcin'd oyster or scallop-shells, calcin'd egg-shells, alabaster, &c. but if a hogshead can soon be drank, use a stronger _alkali_, such as salt of tartar, salt of wormwood; but in using them, you must always preserve their colour with _lac_, or else the _alkali_ will turn the liquor black, and keep it foul. to one hogshead, take two gallons of _lac_, and put to it one ounce and a half of isinglass beat well and pulled small; boil them together for five or six minutes; drain it, and when a stiff jelly, break it with a whisk, and mix about a gallon of the cyder with it; then put three pounds of calcin'd chalk, and two pounds of calcined oyster-shells to it, whisk it well together with four gallons more of the cyder, and apply it to the hogshead. stir it well, and it will immediately discharge the acid part out at the bung. let it stand one hour, then bung it close for five or six days; rack it from the bottom into a clean hogshead, and apply one quart of forcing to it. if you use a strong _alkali_, put to the _lac_ four ounces of salt of tartar, or salt of wormwood; but the former is best, as it hath not the bitter taste in it which the wormwood has. _note_, lac _is milk, but the cream must be skimm'd off it for use_. to cure oily cyder. the reason that cyder is sometimes oily, is owing to the fruit not being sorted alike; for the juice of fruit that is not ripe will seldom mix with ripe juice in fermentation. the acid part of one will predominate over the other, and throw the oily particles from it, which separation gives the liquor a disagreeable, foul taste; to remedy which you must treat it in the following manner, which will cause the oily parts to swim at top, and then you may rack the liquor from its bottom and oil. to a hogshead, take an ounce of salt of tartar, and two ounces of half sweet spirit of nitre, mix them in a gallon of _lac_, and whisk them well together; apply it to the hogshead, bung it up, and let it stand ten or fifteen days; then put a cock within two inches of the bottom of the hogshead, and rack it. observe when it runs low, to look to the cock, lest any of the oily part should come, which will be all on the top, and will not run out till after the good liquor is drawn off. put to the clean a quart of forcing, to raise it, and bung it close. _note_, when you take out the oil and bottom, your cask must be well fired, otherwise it will spoil all the liquor that shall be afterwards put into it. for ropy cyder. the following remedy for ropy cyder must be proportion'd with judgment to the degree of the disorder in the liquor. if the rope be stiff and stringy, you must use a larger quantity of the ingredients. if a hogshead be quite stiff and stringy, work it at least an hour with your paddle, then put to it six pounds of common allum, ground to a fine powder; work it for half an hour after, and bung it up close. this in a week will cut the rope and bring it to a fine, thin, fluid state. then rack it into a clean hogshead, and put to it one quart of forcing; stir them well in the hogshead and bung it close up. if but a thin rope, use a less quantity of the allum, and work it the same way. cyders bad flavour'd. some cyders in keeping are apt to get reasty, thro' the ill quality of the fruit; and sometimes thro' the badness of the cask will get musty, or fusty. to remedy these evils, you must throw it in ferment, if its body is strong, with yest and jalap, and let it ferment three or four days; which will throw off the greatest part of the taste; then stop the ferment. if a hogshead, put to it one pound of sweet spirit of nitre, and bung it up close. this will cure the bad flavour if any left, and likewise keep it from growing flat. to colour cyder. in many places, particularly where the soil is light, and the orchard lays rising, the juice of the fruit is nearly white, and tho' the cyder may be strong, it doth not appear to be so, by reason of its colour, which always prejudices the buyer against it. many people spoil a great deal of good cyder by boiling and mixing melasses with it, to give it a colour; which not only gives it a bad red colour, but makes it muddy, as well as bad tasted. others, again, will boil a large quantity of brown sugar and mix with it, which gives it a colour indeed, tho' a light one; when two pounds of good sugar, properly used, is sufficient to colour ten hogsheads, as follows: take two pounds of powder sugar, the whiter the sugar the farther it will go, and the better the colour will be. put it in an iron pot or ladle; set it over the fire, and let it burn 'till it is black and bitter; then put two quarts of boiling hot water to it; keep stirring it about, and boil it a quarter of an hour after you have put the water to it. take it off the fire, and let it stand 'till it is cold; then bottle it for use. half a pint of this will colour a hogshead. put to each half pint, when you use it, a quarter of an ounce of allum ground, to set the colour. part ii. the _sweet-maker's_ assistant. of raisin wines. these wines are made of various kinds of fruit; of _malaga's, belvederes, smyrna's, raisins of the sun_, &c. but the fruit that produces the best wines is black _smyrna's_, their juice being the strongest, and the fruit clearest from stalks: for the stalks in _malaga's_ and _belvideres_ are apt to give the wine a bad flavour, and will always throw an acid on it; for the stalks of all fruits are acid; but the stalks of _smyrna's_ are so trifling, that after rubbing the fruit between your hands, they will easily sift out. wine made from this fruit is the colour of madeira, and has very much the flavour of it. malaga is the colour and flavour of foreign malaga, but nothing near so strong. wine made from belvideres is strong and very sweet; and after keeping it four or five years is very little inferior to old mountain. in order to succeed in making these wines, you ought never to set your steeps in hot weather, because the heat will put the fruit in a fret which will injure its fermenting kindly. the best time for making is in january or february. set your steeps in the coldest part of the cellar, still remembering to keep them from the frost. to every gallon of water put five pounds of fruit, if good; if but indifferent, put six pounds, into the steep. keep stirring them three or four times a day, and let them continue in the steep till the fruit begins to burst, and the stones swim on the top; which will be in about fourteen or fifteen days. then strain the liquor from the fruit, and press the fruit very dry, mixing the pressings with the rest of the liquor, and put all together into a cask, and ferment it in the following manner. to every pipe of wine take two quarts of solid ale yest and one ounce of jalap, put them into a can, and into them pour a gallon of the new wine first made hot, whisk them well together, and apply to the pipe, stirring all together very well. if your cask be less than a pipe, proportion your yest and jalap accordingly. when the ferment comes on, you must keep the bung-hole clean, and let the vessel be filled up three or four times a day. let it ferment ten or twelve days, or till it works clean and white. then take it off its bottom, which will be very considerable, and put it into a clean cask. you may filter the bottom thro' a linen rag and put to the wine. lay some heavy weight over the bung, and let it stand a day. then lay on the top of the wine five gallons of melasses-spirit, and bung it up close. leave out the vent peg a day or two; then drop it in the hole, and close it by degrees 'till you have made it quite close. let it lay in this state for six months, at that time rack it from its bottom into a clean pipe, and you'll find it tolerably fine. then put to it one quart of _forcing_, and bung it up. let it lay 'till within a month of your wanting it; for the longer it lays the better it will be in body. then rack it for the last time (always observing you touch no bottoms) and put three pints of _forcing_ to it. stir it well with your paddle, and bung it up. the bottoms you may run thro' a linen rag as before, and mix with that in the pipe. you may pierce the wine in six or seven days, and you will find it quite fine and bright. to force raisin wines. for one pipe, take two quarts of good cyder; put half an ounce of ground allum to it, and one ounce of isinglass pulled to small pieces. beat them well in your can three or four times a day, and let the mixture stand till it becomes a stiff jelly; then break it with your whisk, and add to it two pounds of white sand or stone dust. then break it up gradually with some of the wine, 'till you have made the two quarts two gallons, stir it well together, and apply to the pipe, and bung up close. the sand will carry down with it all the small particles with the isinglass misses, and likewise confine the bottom so as to prevent it from rising. but if you make your wine stronger by allowing a larger quantity of fruit to the gallon, this _forcing_ will not do; for all _forcings_ must be stronger than the body forc'd, or else the foul parts will not fall; therefore such wines must be forced with _english stum_, a quart of which is sufficient for a pipe, one pound of alabaster being beat in with it and apply'd as above. english stum. take a five gallon cask that has been well soaked in water, set it to drain; then take a pound of roll brimstone and melt in a ladle; put as many rags to it as will suck up the melted brimstone. burn half those rags in the cask, covering the bung-hole so much as that it may have just air enough to keep it burning. when burnt out put three gallons of very strong cyder, and one ounce of common allum (pounded and mixt with the cyder) into the cask. keep rolling the cask about five or six times a day for two days. then take out the bung, and hang the remainder of the rags on a wire in the cask, as near the cyder as possible, and set them on fire as before. when burnt out, bung the cask close and roll it well about three or four times a day for two days; then let it stand seven or eight days, and this liquor will be so strong as to affect your eyes by looking at it. when you force a pipe, take one quart of this liquid, put half an ounce of isinglass to it beat and pulled to small pieces. whisk it together, and it will dissolve in four or five hours. break the jelly with your whisk, and put one pound of alabaster to it, then dilute it with some of the wine, put it in the pipe, bung it close, and in a day it will be fine and bright. to cure acid raisin wines. the following ingredients must be proportioned to the degree of acidity; if but small, you must use the less, if a stronger acid a larger quantity. it must likewise be proportioned to the quantity of wine as well as to the degree of acidity. observe that your cask be nearly full before you apply the ingredients; which will have this good effect, the acid part of the wine will rise to the top immediately, and issue out at the bung-hole. but if the cask be not full, the part that should fly off will still continue in the cask, and weaken the body of the wine. if your cask be full, it will be fit to have a body laid on it, in three or four days time. i shall here proportion the ingredients for a pipe, supposing it quite acid, so as but just recoverable. take two gallons of lac, and two ounces of isinglass, boil them a quarter of an hour; strain the liquor, and let it stand 'till it is cold; then break it well with your whisk, and put four pounds of alabaster and three pounds of whiting to it. stir them well together, and add one ounce of salt of tartar to the whole. mix by degrees some of the wine with it, so as to dilute it to a thin liquor. apply this to the cask, and stir it well with your paddle. this will immediately discharge the acid part from it, as was said before. when it is off and quite down, bung it up for three days, then rack it, and you'll find part of its body gone off by the strong fermentation. to remedy this, you must lay a fresh body on it in proportion to the degree to which it hath been lower'd by the above process; always having special care not to alter flavour. and this must be done with clarified sugar; for no fluid body will agree with it but what will make it thinner, or confer its own taste; therefore the following is the best manner. to lay a fresh body on the wines. take three quarters of a hundred of brown sugar, and put into your copper, then put a gallon of lime water to it, to keep it from burning. keep stirring it about 'till it boils; then take three eggs and mash all together with the shells, which put to the sugar. stir it about, and as the scum or filth arise take it off. when quite clean put it into your can, and let it stand 'till it is cold before you use it. then break it with the whisk by degrees, with about ten gallons of the wine, and apply it to the pipe. work it with your paddle for half an hour; then put one quart of _stum forcing_ to it, which will unite their bodies, and likewise make it fine and bright. you must keep it bung'd very close. to cure raisin wines that are cloudy. these wines, if they take a chill, are affected in the same manner with port-wines. like them they will be cloudy, and will have a floating lee in them, which by shaking in a glass will rise in clouds. if any thing be apply'd to it cold, it will strike a greater chill upon it, and change its true colour to a pale or deep blue one; to prevent which, and take off the chill, you must, _for a pipe_, take one gallon of lac and one ounce of isinglass broke in small pieces, three pounds of alabaster, two ounces of sweet spirit of nitre; boil them together for five or six minutes; stir them and apply to the pipe as hot as possible. stir it well in the pipe with your paddle, and in about two hours after, bung it close up. let it lay five or six days, and you'll find it quite fine and bright. this will make it a little flat, to remedy which you must rack it clean from it's bottoms, and throw a quart of _stum forcing_ to it. to colour raisin wines. wine made of raisins of the sun is always of the colour of rhenish, which is almost white. very often that which is made of malaga's (especially if the fruit be but indifferent) will not hold its colour, but must have a colour laid on it. the right colour of raisin wine is the colour of mountain. you must take care that your wine has not a great bottom in it; for if it has, 'twill be longer before it falls fine. in order to lay a mountain colour on your wine, you must take three or four pounds of brown sugar, according to the quantity of wine you want to colour. put it in an iron pan or iron ladle, set it over the fire, and keep stirring it about. let it burn in this manner 'till it is quite black and bitter, which will be in about half an hour. if you burn one pound of sugar, put a quart of boiling hot water to it; stir it about, and let it boil a quarter of an hour longer, then take it off and let it cool. a pint of this mixture is sufficient to colour a pipe of wine; but note, that with every pint you must mix a quarter of an ounce of common allum pounded to a fine powder; which will set the colour so that it will not subside, other wise it will fall to the bottom, and have no good effect on the liquor. if you would have your wine of the colour of port, you must take eight ounces of logwood raspings, four ounces of alkanet root, one ounce of cochineal. infuse them over a slow fire for three hours; strain the liquor from the wood, and keep it boiling. then burn three pounds of brown sugar as before, and put the colour'd liquor to it; boil all together a quarter of an hour longer; then take it off, and when cold, bottle it for use. a pint of this liquor will make a pipe the colour of port wine. you must always remember to set the colour with a quarter of an ounce of common allum, ground or beaten to a fine powder. part iii the _housekeepers_ director. forcing for beer. there are two sorts of forcings for beer; for what will agree with one kind of beer will not serve for another. some beer when kept twelve or fourteen months will taste as new and sweet as if not brew'd more than six or seven, nay a much shorter time, which must have a different forcing from that which is proper for beer that is ripe or less sweet. beers that are full and sweet must be forc'd in the following manner, viz. for a hogshead, take a gallon of stale cyder, likewise one ounce of isinglass beat and pulled to small pieces, with an ounce of common allum ground to a fine powder, put them to the cyder; whisk it well together and let it stand 'till it's a jelly. then break it in your can, and put one ounce of cream of tartar, and two pounds of stone-dust to it; whisk it well together, and dilute it with some of the beer till you have made the gallon five. apply it to the hogshead, and stir it well about; and when the ferment is gone off (which will be in two or three hours) bung it up close. leave out the vent-peg; and in a day or two you'll find it fine and bright. beers that are not sweet are forced with _stum_, the same that is made for raisin wine, with this difference only, that you must take for one hogshead, three pints, and two pounds of alabaster; stir them well together, and dilute with beer as above. this will carry down all the foul particles, and make the beer fine in three or four hours. * * * * * forcing for ale. ale that is brew'd in the winter to be drank in about two months is apt to get foul, occasion'd by the brewer's neglecting it when cooling. sometimes it is left out in the frost, which will chill it, and make it curdy as it were, and and foul; to remedy this you must take two gallons of cyder, and put two ounces of insinglass to it. when it is a jelly, add to them two pounds of brick-rubbings; whisk them well together, and dilute with some of the ale. put the whole in the hogshead, and stir all about very well. when the ferment is a little off, bung it close; the next day give it vent, and you'll find it fine. ale or beer acid. if your beer or ale be a little prick'd, you must take for each hogshead a gallon of lac, boil it with an ounce of isinglass, drain it, and when cold, put to it two pounds of alabaster, two pounds of calcined chalk, and one ounce of salt of tartar. stir them well together, and apply to the hogshead. mind that the cask be full, and this will immediately discharge the acid part from it, (as in page .) bung it up for three or four days 'till it is settled; then rack it into a clean hogshead, and put two quarts of _ale forcing_ to it, and bung it close. beer or ale ropy, to cure. if beer or ale should at any time get ropy, as in other disorders, you must proportion the strength of your remedy to the degree of the disorder. but beer or ale is seldom known to be so ropy as cyder. take, for one hogshead, two pounds of common allum in one lump, if possible; put it into a clear fire, and burn it an hour, then pound it, and apply to the hogshead. stir it well for half an hour. this will cut the rope in a day or two; then rack it and force it with the same _stum forcing_ at is directed for beer that is not sweet, as in page . if the rope be but thin, one pound of allum will be sufficient. hyssop will cut a thin rope in ale, but this always gives it a bad taste. to make yest, to ferment new beer. many people that live at a distance from any town, are at a great loss, especially in the winter time, for yest to brew with; i shall therefore here give them directions to make an artificial yest that will answer the purpose altogether as well as the natural. take two quarts of small beer and one ounce of isinglass; boil them together five or six minutes; put it into a can or pail, and whisk it till it comes to the consistence of yest; let it stand an hour after, then put it to your wort in the same manner you were used to do the natural yest; this will be sufficient to ferment a hogshead. the end. produced from images produced by core historical literature in agriculture (chla), cornell university) the cultivation of the native grape, and manufacture of american wines. by george husmann, of hermann, missouri. geo. e. woodward, publisher and importer, art, architectural and rural books, chambers street, new york. orange judd co., broadway. entered according to act of congress, in the year , by geo. e. & f. w. woodward, in the clerk's office of the district court of the united states, for the southern district of new york. to the grape growers of "our country, one and indivisible," this volume is dedicated by their friend and fellow-laborer, the author. index. page. introduction grape culture. remarks on its history in america, especially at the west; its progress and its future, propagation of the vine. i.--from seed ii.--by single eyes the propagating house mode of operating iii.--by cuttings in open air iv.--by layering v.--by grafting the vineyard. location and soil preparing the soil what shall we plant? choice of varieties the concord norton's virginia herbemont delaware hartford prolific clinton planting. planting. treatment of the vine the first summer treatment of the vine the second summer treatment of the vine the third summer treatment of the vine the fourth summer training the vines on arbors and walls other methods of training the vine diseases of the vine insects injurious to the grape birds frosts girdling the vine to hasten maturity manuring the vine thinning of the fruit renewing old vines pruning saws preserving the fruit gathering the fruit to make wine varieties of grapes. class i.--varieties most generally used. concord (description) concord (plate) norton's virginia (description) norton's virginia (plate) herbemont (plate) herbemont (description) hartford prolific (description) hartford prolific (plate) clinton delaware (description) delaware (plate) class ii.--healthy varieties promising well. cynthiana arkansas taylor martha maxatawney (description) maxatawney (plate) rogers' hybrid, no. creveling (description) creveling (plate) north carolina seedling cunningham rulander louisiana alvey cassady blood's black union village (description) union village (plate) perkins clara (description) clara (plate) ive's seedling class iii.--healthy varieties--but inferior in quality. minor seedling mary ann northern muscadine logan brown hyde's eliza marion port poeschel's mammoth cape dracut amber elsinburgh garber's albino franklin lenoir north america class iv.--varieties of good quality, but subject to disease. catawba diana isabella garrigues tokalon anna allen's hybrid cuyahoga devereux kingsessing rogers' hybrid, no. class v.--varieties unworthy of cultivation. oporto massachusetts white wine making. gathering the grapes the wine cellar apparatus for wine making.--the grape mill and press fermenting vats the wine casks making the wine after treatment of the wine diseases of the wine and their remedies treatment of flat and turbid wine use of the husks and lees dr. gall's and petoil's method of wine making the must scale or saccharometer the acidimeter and its use the change of the must, by fermentation, into wine normal must the must of american grapes wine making made easy statistics. cost of establishing a vineyard cost of an acre of concord cost of an acre of herbemont cost of an acre of norton's virginia cost of an acre of delaware cost of an acre of catawba product produce fifth year yield of mr. michael poeschel's vineyard new vineyard of mr. m. poeschel, planted in ; first partial crop, ; second crop, ; third crop, , , yield of vineyard of mr. william poeschel, , , , yield of vineyard of mr. william poeschel , , , yield of vineyard of mr. william poeschel yield of delaware vineyard of john e. mottier introduction it is with a great deal of hesitation i undertake to write a book about grapes, a subject which has been, and still is, elucidated every day; and about which we have already several works, which no doubt are more learned, more elaborate, than anything i may produce. but the subject is of such vast importance, and the area suitable for grape culture so large, the diversity of soil and climate so great, that i may be pardoned if i still think that i could be of some use to the beginner; it is for them, and not for my brethren of the craft more learned than i am, that i write. if they can learn anything from the plain talk of a practical worker, to help them along in the good work, i am well repaid. another object i have in view is to make grape growing as easy as possible; and i may be pardoned if i say that, in my opinion, it is a defect in all books we have on grape culture, that the manner of preparing the soil, training, etc., are on too costly a plan to be followed by men of little means. if we are first to trench and prepare the soil, at a cost of about $ per acre, and then pay $ more for trellis, labor, etc., the poor man, he who must work for a living, can not afford to raise grapes. and yet it is from the ranks of these sturdy sons of toil that i would gain my recruits for that peaceful army whose sword is the pruning-hook; it is from their honest, hard-working hands i expect the grandest results. he who has already wealth enough at command can of course afford to raise grapes with bone-dust, ashes, and all the fertilizers. he can walk around and give his orders, making grape culture an elegant pastime for his leisure hours, as well as a source of profit. but, being one of the first class myself, i had to fight my way up through untold difficulties from the lowest round of the ladder; had to gain what knowledge i possess from dear experience, and can therefore sympathize with those who must commence without means. it is my earnest desire to save _them_ some of the losses which _i_ had to suffer, to lighten their toil by a little plain advice. if i can succeed in this, my object is accomplished. in nearly all our books on grape culture i notice another defect, especially in those published in the east; it is, that they contain a great deal of good advice about grape culture, but very little about wine-making, and the treatment of wine in the cellar. for us here at the west this is an all-important point, and even our eastern friends, if they continue to plant grapes at the rate they have done for the last few years, will soon glut the market, and will be forced to make them into wine. i shall therefore try to give such simple instructions about wine-making and its management as will enable every one to make a good saleable and drinkable wine, better than nine-tenths of the foreign wines, which are now sold at two to three dollars per bottle. i firmly believe that this continent is destined to be the greatest wine-producing country in the world; and that the time is not far distant when wine, the most wholesome and purest of all stimulating drinks, will be within the reach of the common laborer, and take the place of the noxious and poisonous liquors which are now the curse of so many of our laboring men, and have blighted the happiness of so many homes. pure light wine i consider the best temperance agent; but as long as bad whisky and brandy continue to be the common drink of its citizens we can not hope to accomplish a thorough reform; for human nature seems to crave and need a stimulant. let us then try to supply the most innocent and healthy one, the exhilarating juice of the grape. i have also endeavored throughout to give plain facts, to substantiate with plain figures all i assert; and in no case have i allowed fancy to roam in idle speculations which cannot be demonstrated in practice. i do not pretend that my effort is "the most comprehensive and practical essay on the grape," as some of our friends call their productions, but i can claim for it strict adherence to truth and actual results. i have not thought it necessary to give the botanical description of the grape-vine, and the process of hybridizing, etc.; this has already been so well and thoroughly done by my friend fuller, that i can do no better than refer the scientific reader to his book. i am writing more for the practical farmer, and would rather fill what i think a vacancy, than repeat what has been so well said by others. with these few remarks, which i thought due to the public and myself, i leave it to you, brother-winegrowers, to say whether or not i have accomplished my task. to all and every one who plants a single vine i would extend the hand of good fellowship, for he is a laborer in the great work to cover this glorious land of the free with smiling vineyards, and to make its barren spots flow with noble grape juice, one of the best gifts of an all-bountiful creator. all hail to you, i greet you from _free_ missouri. grape culture remarks on its history in america, especially at the west--its progress and its future. in an old chronicle, entitled, "the discovery of america in the tenth century," by charles c. prasta, published at stralsund, we find the following legend: "leif, son of eric the red, bought byarnes' vessel, and manned it with thirty-five men, among whom was also a german, tyrker by name, who had lived a long time with leif's father, who had become very much attached to him in youth. and they left port at iceland, in the year of our lord . but, when they had been at sea several days, a tremendous storm arose, whose wild fury made the waves swell mountain high, and threatened to destroy the frail vessel. and the storm continued for several days, and increased in fury, so that even the stoutest heart quaked with fear; they believed that their hour had come, and drifted along at the mercy of wind and waves. only leif, who had lately been converted to christ our lord, stood calmly at the helm and did not fear; but called on him who had walked the water and quieted the billows, with firm faith, that he also had power to deliver them, if they but trusted in him. and, behold! while he still spoke to them of the wonderful deeds of the lord, the clouds cleared away, the storm lulled; and after a few hours the sea, calmed down, and rocked the tired and exhausted men into a deep and calm sleep. and when they awoke, the next morning, they could hardly trust their eyes. a beautiful country lay before them, green hills, covered with beautiful forests--a majestic stream rolled its billows into the ocean; and they cast the anchor, and thanked the lord, who had delivered them from death. a delightful country it seemed, full of game, and birds of beautiful plumage; and when they went ashore, they could not resist the temptation to explore it. when they returned, after several hours, tyrker alone was missing. after waiting some time for his return, leif, with twelve of his men, went in search of him. but they had not gone far, when they met him, laden down with grapes. upon their enquiry, where he had stayed so long, he answered: "i did not go far, when i found the trees all covered with grapes; and as i was born in a country, whose hills are covered with vineyards, it seemed so much like home to me, that i stayed a while and gathered them." they had now a twofold occupation, to cut timber, and gather grapes; with the latter, they loaded the boat. and leif gave a name to the country, and called it vinland, or wineland." so far the tradition. it is said that coming events cast their shadows before them. if this is so, may we not recognize one of those shadows in the old norman legend of events which transpired more than eight hundred years ago? is it not the foreshadowing of the destiny of this great continent, to become, in truth and verity, a _wineland_. truly, the results of to-day would certainly justify us in the assertion, that there is as much, nay more, truth than fiction in it. let us take a glance at the first commencement of grape culture, and see what has been the progress in this comparatively new branch of horticulture. from the very first settlement of america, the vine seems to have attracted the attention of the colonists, and it is said that as early as , wine was made from the native grape in florida. the earliest attempt to establish a vineyard in the british north american colonies was by the london company in virginia, about the year ; and by , the prospect seems to have been encouraging enough to warrant the importation of several french vine-dressers, who, it is said, ruined the vines by bad treatment. wine was also made in virginia in , and in premiums were offered for its production. beverly even mentions, that prior to , there were vineyards in that colony, producing seven hundred and fifty gallons per year. in , colonel richard nicoll, governor of new york, granted to paul richards, a privilege of making and selling wine free of all duty, he having been the first to enter upon the cultivation of the vine on a large scale. beauchamp plantagenet, in his description of the province of new albion, published in london, in , states "that the english settlers in uvedale, now delaware, had vines running on mulberry and sassafras trees; and enumerates four kinds of grapes, namely: thoulouse muscat, sweet scented, great fox, and thick grape; the first two, after five months, being boiled and salted and well fined, make a strong red xeres; the third, a light claret; the fourth, a white grape which creeps on the land, makes a pure, gold colored wine. tennis pale, a frenchman, out of these four, made eight sorts of excellent wine; and says of the muscat, after it had been long boiled, that the second draught will intoxicate after four months old; and that here may be gathered and made two hundred tuns in the vintage months, and that the vines with good cultivation will mend." in , william penn attempted to establish a vineyard near philadelphia, but without success. after some years, however, mr. tasker, of maryland, and mr. antil, of shrewsbury, n.j., seem to have succeeded to a certain extent. it seems, however, from an article which mr. antil wrote of the culture of the grape, and the manufacture of wine, that he cultivated only foreign varieties. in , the french settlers in illinois made one hundred and ten hogsheads of strong wine from native grapes. at harmony, near pittsburgh, a vineyard of ten acres was planted by frederic rapp, and his associates from germany; and they continued to cultivate grapes and silk, after their removal to another harmony in indiana. in , a swiss colony was founded, and a fund of ten thousand dollars raised in jessamine county, kentucky, for the purpose of establishing a vineyard, but failed, as they attempted to plant the foreign vine. in , they removed to a spot, which they called vevay, in switzerland county, indiana, on the ohio, forty-five miles below cincinnati. here they planted native vines, especially the cape, or schuylkill muscadel, and met with better success. but, after about forty years' experience, they seem to have become discouraged, and their vineyards have now almost disappeared. these were the first crude experiments in american grape culture; and from some cause or another, they seem not to have been encouraging enough to warrant their continuation. but a new impetus was given to this branch of industry, by the introduction of the catawba, by major adlum, of georgetown, d.c., who thought, that by so doing, he conferred a greater benefit upon the nation than he would have done, had he paid the national debt. it seems to have been planted first on an extensive scale by nicholas longworth, near cincinnati, whom we may justly call one of the founders of american grape culture. he adopted the system of leasing parcels of unimproved land to poor germans, to plant with vines; for a share, i believe, of one-half of the proceeds. it was his ambition to make the ohio the rhine of america, and he has certainly done a good deal to effect it. in , the whole number of acres planted in grapes around cincinnati, was estimated, by a committee appointed for that purpose, at twelve hundred acres, of which mr. longworth owned one hundred and twenty-two and a half acres, under charge of twenty-seven tenants. the annual produce was estimated by the committee at no less than two hundred and forty thousand gallons, worth about as many dollars then. we may safely estimate the number of acres in cultivation there now, at two thousand. among the principal grape growers there, i will mention messrs. robert buchanan, author of an excellent work on grape culture, mottier, bogen, werk, rehfuss, dr. mosher, etc. well do i remember, when i was a boy, some fourteen years old, how often my father would enter into conversation with vintners from the old country, about the feasibility of grape culture in missouri. he always contended that grapes should succeed well here, as the woods were full of wild grapes, some of very fair quality, and that this would indicate a soil and climate favorable to the vine. they would ridicule the idea, and assert that labor was too high here, even if the vines would succeed, to make it pay; but they could not shake his faith in the ultimate success of grape culture. alas! he lived only long enough to see the first dawnings of that glorious future which he had so often anticipated, and none entered with more genuine zeal upon the occupation than he, when an untimely death took him from the labor he loved so well, and did not even allow him to taste the first fruits of the vines he had planted and fostered. had he been spared until now, his most sanguine hopes would be verified. i also well remember the first cultivated grape vine which produced fruit in hermann. it was an isabella, planted by a mr. fugger, on the corner of main and schiller streets, and trained over an arbor. it produced the first crop in , twenty years ago, and so plentifully did it bear, that several persons were encouraged by this apparent success, to plant vines. in , the first wine was made here, and agreeably surprised all who tried it, by its good quality. the catawba had during that time, been imported from cincinnati, and the first partial crop from it, in , was so plentiful, that every body, almost, commenced planting vines, and often in very unfavorable localities. this, of course, had a bad influence on so capricious a variety as the catawba; rot and mildew appeared, and many became discouraged, because they did not realize what they had anticipated. a number of unfavorable seasons brought grape growing almost to a stand still here. some of our most enterprising grape growers still persevered, and succeeded by careful treatment, in making even the catawba pay very handsome returns. it was about this time, that the attention of some of our grape-growers was drawn towards a small, insignificant looking grape, which had been obtained by a mr. wiedersprecker from mr. heinrichs, who had brought it from cincinnati, and, almost at the same time, by dr. kehr, who had brought it with him from virginia. the vine seemed a rough customer, and its fruit very insignificant when compared with the large bunch and berry of the catawba, but we soon observed that it kept its foliage bright and green when that of the catawba became sickly and dropped; and also, that no rot or mildew damaged the fruit, when that of the catawba was nearly destroyed by it. a few tried to propagate it by cuttings, but generally failed to make it grow. they then resorted to grafting and layering, with much better success. after a few years a few bottles of wine were made from it, and found to be very good. but at this time it almost received its death-blow, by a very unfavorable letter from mr. longworth, who had been asked his opinion of it, and pronounced it worthless. of course, with the majority, the fiat of mr. longworth, the father of american grape-culture, was conclusive evidence, and they abandoned it. not all, however; a few persevered, among them messrs. jacob rommel, poeschel, langendoerfer, grein, and myself. we thought mr. longworth was human, and might be mistaken; and trusted as much to the evidence of our senses as to his verdict, therefore increased it as fast as we could, and the sequel proved that we were right. after a few years more wine was made from it in larger quantities, found to be much better than the first imperfect samples; and now that despised and condemned grape is _the_ great variety for red wine, equal, if not superior to, the best burgundy and port; a wine of which good judges, heavy importers of the best european wines too, will tell you that it has not its equal among all the foreign red wines; which has already saved the lives of thousands of suffering children, men, and women, and therefore one of the greatest blessings an all-merciful god has ever bestowed upon suffering humanity. this despised grape is now the rage, and , of the plants could have been sold from this place alone the last fall, if they could have been obtained. need i name it? it is the norton's virginia. truly, "great oaks from little acorns grow!" and i boldly prophecy to-day that the time is not far distant when thousands upon thousands of our hillsides will be covered with its luxuriant foliage, and its purple juice become one of the exports to europe; provided, always, that we do not grow so fond of it as to drink it all. i think that this is pre-eminently a missouri grape. here it seems to have found the soil in which it flourishes best. i have seen it in ohio, but it does not look there as if it was the same grape. and why should it? they drove it from them and discarded it in its youth; we fostered it, and do you not think, dear reader, there sometimes is gratitude in plants as well as in men? other states may plant it and succeed with it, too, to a certain extent, but it will cling with the truest devotion to those localities where it was cared for in its youth. have we not also found, during the late war, that the germans, the adopted citizens of this great country, clung with a heartier devotion to our noble flag, and shed their blood more freely for it, than thousands upon thousands of native-born americans? and why? because here they found protection, equal rights for all, and that freedom which had been the idol of their hearts, and haunted their dreams by night; because they had been oppressed so long they more fully appreciated the blessings of a free government than those who had enjoyed it from their birth. but you may call me fantastical for comparing plants to human beings, and will say, plants have no appreciation of such things. brother skeptic, have you, or has any body, divined _all_ the secrets of nature's workshop? truly we may say that we have not, and we meet with facts every day which are stranger than fiction. the concord had as small a beginning with us. in the winter of a few eyes of its wood were sent me by mr. jas. g. soulard, of galena, ill. i grafted them upon old catawba vines, and one of them grew. the next year i distributed some of the scions to our vine-growers, who grafted them also. when my vine commenced to bear i was astonished, after what i had heard of the poor quality of the fruit from the east, to find it so fine, and so luxurious and healthy; and we propagated it as fast as possible. now, scarcely nine years from the time when i received the first scions, hundreds of acres are being planted with it here, and one-third of an acre of it, planted five years ago, has produced for me, in fruit, wine, layers, cuttings, and plants, the round sum of ten thousand dollars during that time. its wine, if pressed as soon as the grapes are mashed, is eminently one of those which "maketh glad the heart of man," and is evidently destined to become one of the common drinks of our laboring classes. it is light, agreeable to the palate, has a very enlivening and invigorating effect, and can be grown as cheap as good cider. i am satisfied that an acre will, with good cultivation, produce from , to , gallons per year. my vines produced this season at the rate of , gallons to the acre, but this may be called an extra-large crop. i have cited the history of these two varieties in our neighborhood merely as examples of progress. it would lead too far here, to follow the history of all our leading varieties, though many a goodly story might be told of them. our friends in the east claim as much for the delaware and others, with which we have not been able to succeed. and here let me say that the sooner we divest ourselves of the idea that one grape should be _the_ grape for this immense country of ours; the sooner we try to adapt the variety to the locality--not the locality to the variety--the sooner we will succeed. the idea is absurd, and unworthy of a thinking people, that one variety should succeed equally well or ill in such a diversity of soil and climate as we have in this broad land of ours. it is in direct conflict with the laws of vegetable physiology, as well as with common sense and experience. in planting our vineyards we should first go to one already established, which we think has the same soil and location, or nearly so, as the one we are going to plant. of those varieties which succeed there we should plant the largest number, and plant a limited number also of all those varieties which come recommended by good authority. a few seasons will show which variety suits our soil, and what we ought to plant in preference to all others. thus the herbemont, the cynthiana, delaware, taylor, cunningham, rulander, martha, and even the iona, may all find their proper location, where each will richly reward their cultivator; and certainly they are all too good not to be tried. now, let us see what progress the country at large has made in grape-growing during, say, the last ten years. _then_, i think i may safely assert, that the vineyards throughout the whole country did not comprise more than three to four thousand acres. _now_ i think i may safely call them over two millions of acres. _then_, our whole list embraced about ten varieties, all told, of which only the catawba and isabella were considered worthy of general cultivation; _now_ we count our native varieties by the hundreds, and the catawba and isabella will soon number among the things which have been. public taste has become educated, and they are laid aside in disgust, when such varieties as the herbemont, delaware, clara, allen's hybrid, iona, adirondac, and others can be had. _then_, grape-growing was confined to only a few small settlements; _now_ there is not a state in the union, from maine to california, but has its vineyards; and especially our western states have entered upon a race which shall excel the other in the good work. our brethren in illinois bid fair to outdo us, and vineyards spring up as if by magic, even on the prairies. nay, grape-culture bids fair to extend into minnesota, a country which was considered too cold for almost anything except oats, pines, wolves, bears, and specimens of daring humanity encased in triple wool. we begin to find out that we have varieties which will stand almost anything if they are only somewhat protected in winter. it was formerly believed that only certain favored locations and soils in each state would produce good grapes--for instance, sunny hillsides along large streams; now we begin to see that we can grow some varieties of grape on almost any soil. one of the most flourishing vineyards i have ever seen is on one of the islands in the missouri river, where all the varieties planted there--some six or seven--seemed perfectly at home in the rich, sandy mould, where it needs no trenching to loosen the soil. _then_, grape-growing, with the varieties then in cultivation, was a problem to be solved; _now_, with the varieties we have proved, it is a certainty that it is one of the most profitable branches of horticulture, paying thousands of dollars to the acre every year. _then_, wine went begging at a dollar a gallon; _now_ it sells as fast as made at from two dollars to six dollars a gallon. instead of the only wine then considered fit to drink, we number our wine-producing varieties by the dozen, all better than the catawba; among the most prominent of which i will name--of varieties producing white wine, the herbemont, delaware, cassidy, taylor, rulander, cunningham, and louisiana; of light-red wines, the concord; of dark-red wines, the norton's virginia, cynthiana, arkansas and clinton; so that every palate can be suited. and california bids fair to outdo us all; for there, i am told, several kinds of wine are made from the same grape, in the same vineyard, and in fabulous quantities. to cite an example of the increase in planting: in the whole number of vines grown and sold in hermann did not exceed two thousand. this season two millions of plants have been grown and sold, and not half enough to meet the demand. it is said that the tone of the press is a fair indication of public sentiment. if this is true what does it prove? take one of our horticultural periodicals, and nine-tenths of the advertisements will be "grape-vines for sale," in any quantity and at any price, from five dollars to one hundred dollars per , raised north, east, south, and west. turn to the reading matter, and you can hardly turn over a leaf but the subject of grapes stares you in the face, with a quiet impunity, which plainly says, "the nation is affected with grape fever; and while our readers have grape on the brain there is no fear of overdosing." why, the best proof i can give my readers that grape fever does exist to an alarming degree, is this very book itself. were not i and they affected with the disease, i should never have presumed to try their patience. but, fortunately, the remedy is within easy reach. plant grapes, every one of you who is thus afflicted, until our hillsides are covered with them, and we have made our barren spots blossom as the rose. truly, the results we have already obtained, are cheering enough. and yet all this has been principally achieved in the last few years, while the nation was involved in one of the most stupendous struggles the world ever saw, while its very existence was endangered, and thousands upon thousands of her patriotic sons poured out their blood like water, and the husbandman left his home; the vintner his vineyard, to fight the battles of his country. what then shall we become now, when peace has smiled once more upon our beloved country; and the thousands of brave arms, who brandished the sword, sabre, or musket, have come home once more; and their weapons have been turned into ploughshares, and their swords into pruning hooks? when all the strong and willing hands will clear our hillsides, and god's sun shines upon _one_ great and united people; greater and more glorious than ever; because now they are _truly free_. truly the future lies before us, rich in glorious promise; and ere long the words and the prophecy contained in the old legend will become sober truth, and america will be, from the atlantic to the pacific _one_ smiling and happy _wineland_; where each laborer shall sit under his own vine, and none will be too poor to enjoy the purest and most wholesome of all stimulants, good, cheap, native _wine_. then drunkenness, now the curse of the nation, will disappear, and peace and good will towards all will rule our actions. and we, brother grape growers? ours is this great and glorious task; let us work unceasingly, with hand, heart, and mind; truly the object is worthy of our best endeavors. let those who begin to-day, remember how easy their task with the achievements and experiments of others before them, compared with the labors of those who were the pioneers in the cultivation of the vine. propagation of the vine. i.--from seed. this would seem to be the most natural mode, were not the grape even more liable to sport than almost any other fruit. it is, however, the only method upon which we can depend for obtaining new and more valuable varieties than we already possess, and to which we are already indebted for all the progress made in varieties, a progress which is, indeed, very encouraging; for who would deny that we are to-day immeasurably in advance of what we were ten years ago. among the innumerable varieties which spring up every day, and which find ready purchasers, just because they _are new_, there are certainly some of decided merit. but those who grow seedlings, should bear in mind, that the list of our varieties is already too large; that it would be better if three-fourths of them were stricken off, and that no new variety should be brought before the public, unless it has some decided superiority over any of the varieties we already have, in quality, productiveness and exemption from disease. it is poor encouragement to the grape growing public, to pay from two to five dollars a vine for a new variety, with some high-sounding name, if, after several years of superior cultivation and faithful trial, they find their costly pet inferior to some variety they already possessed, and of which the plants could be obtained at a cost of from ten to fifty cents each. the grapes from which the seed is to be used, should be fully ripe, and none but well developed, large berries, should be taken. keep these during the winter, either in the pulp, or in cool, moist sand, so that their vitality may remain unimpaired. the soil upon which your seed-bed is made, should be light, deep and rich, and if it is not so naturally, should be made so with well decomposed leaf-mould. as soon as the weather in spring will permit, dig up the soil to the depth of at least eighteen inches, pulverising it well; then sow the seed in drills, about a foot apart, and about one inch apart in the rows, covering them about three-quarters of an inch deep. it will often be found necessary to shade the young plants when they come up, to prevent the sun from scalding them, but this should not be continued too long, as the plants will become too tender, if protected too long. when the young plants have grown about six inches, they may be supplied with small sticks, to which they will cling readily; the ground should be kept clean and mellow, and a light mulch should be applied, which will keep the soil loose and moist. the young plants should be closely watched, and if any of them show signs of disease, they should at once be pulled up; also those which show a very feeble and delicate growth; for we should only try to grow varieties with good, healthy constitutions. in the fall, the young plants should be either taken up, and carefully heeled in, or they should be protected by earth, straw, or litter thrown over them. in the spring, they may be transplanted to their permanent locations; the tops shortened in to six inches, and the roots shortened in to about six inches from the stem. the soil for their reception should be moderately light and rich, and loosened up to the depth of at least eighteen inches. make a hole about eight inches deep, then throw in soil so as to raise a small mound in the centre of the hole, about two inches high; on this place the young vine, and carefully spread the roots in all directions; then fill up with well pulverized soil, so that the upper eye or bud is even with the surface of the ground; then press the soil down lightly; place a good stake, of about four feet high, with the plant, and allow but one shoot to grow, which should be neatly tied to the stake as it grows. the vines may be planted in rows six feet apart, and three feet apart in the rows, as many of them will prove worthless, and have to be taken out. allow all the laterals to grow on the young cane, as this will make it short-jointed and stocky. cultivate the ground well, stirring it freely with plough, cultivator, hoe, and rake, which generally is the best mulch that can be applied. with the proper care and attention, our seedlings will generally grow from three to four feet, and make stout, short-jointed wood this second season. should any of them look particularly promising, fruit may be obtained a year sooner by taking the wood of it, and grafting strong old vines with it. these grafts will generally bear fruit the next season. the method to be followed will be given in another place. at the end of the second season the vines should be pruned to about three eyes or buds, and the soil hilled up around them so as to cover them up completely. the next spring take off the covering, and when the young shoots appear allow only two to grow. after they have grown about eighteen inches, pinch off the top of the weakest, so as to throw the growth into the strongest shoot, which keep neatly tied to the stake, treating it as the summer before, allowing all the laterals to grow. cultivate the soil well. at the end of this season's growth the vines should be strong enough to bear the following summer. if they have made from eight to ten feet of stocky growth, the leading cane may be pruned to ten or twelve eyes, and the smaller one to a spur of two eyes. if they will fruit at all, they will show it next summer, when only those promising well should be kept, and the barren and worthless ones discarded. ii.--by single eyes. as this method is mostly followed only by those who propagate the vine for sale in large quantities, and but to a limited extent by the practical vineyardist, i will give only an outline of the most simple manner, and on the cheapest plan. those wishing further information will do well to consult "the grape culturist," by mr. a. s. fuller, in which excellent work they will find full instructions. the principal advantages of this mode of propagation are the following: st. the facility with which new and rare kinds can be multiplied, as every well ripened bud almost can be transformed into a plant. d. as the plants are started under glass, by bottom heat, it lengthens the season of their growth from one to two months. d. every variety of grape can be propagated by this method with the greatest ease, even those which only grow with the greatest difficulty, or not at all, from cuttings in open ground. as to the merits or demerits of plants grown under glass from single eyes, to those grown from cuttings or layers in open ground, opinions differ very much, and both have their advocates. for my part, i do not see why a plant grown carefully from a single eye should not be as good as one propagated by any other method; a poor plant is not worth having, whether propagated by this or any other method, and, unfortunately, we have too many of them. the propagating house. i will only give a description of a lean-to of the cheapest kind, for which any common hot-bed sash, six feet long, can be used. choose for a location the south side of a hill, as, by making the house almost entirely underground, a great deal of building material can be saved. excavate the ground as for a cellar--say five feet deep on the upper side, seven feet wide, and of any length to suit convenience, and the number of plants you wish to grow. inside of the excavation set posts or scantlings, the upper row to be seven feet long above the ground, and two feet below the ground; the lower row four and one-half feet above the ground, so that the roof will have about two and one-half feet pitch. upon these nail the rafters, of two-inch planks. then take boards, say common inch-plank, and set them up behind the posts, one above the other, to prevent the earth from falling in. this will make all the wall that is needed on both sides. on the ends, boards can be nailed to both sides of the posts, and the intervening space tilled with spent tan or saw-dust. upon the rafters place the sash on the lower side; the upper side may be covered with boards or shingles, where also the ventilating holes can be left, to be closed with trap-doors. the house is to be divided into two compartments--the furnace-room on one end, about eight feet long, and the propagating house, the furnace is below the ground, say four feet long, the flue to be made of brick, and to extend under the whole length of the bench. to make the flue, lay a row of bricks flat and crosswise; on the ends of these place two others on their edges, and across the top lay a row flat, in the same way as the bottom ones were placed. this gives the flue four inches by eight in the clear. the flue should rise rather abruptly from the furnace, say about a foot; it can then be carried fifty feet with, say six to nine inches rise, and still have sufficient draft. inside of the propagating room we have again two compartments--the propagating bench, nearest to the furnace, and a shelf for the reception of the young plants, after their first transplanting from the cutting-pots or boxes. make a shelf or table along the whole length of the house; at the lower end it should be about eighteen inches from the glass, and five feet wide. to a house of, say fifty feet, the propagating bench may be, say twelve feet long, and the room below it and around the flue should be inclosed with boards, as it will keep the heat better. mode of operating. the wood should be cut from the vines in the fall, as soon as the leaves have dropped. for propagating, use only firm, well-ripened wood of the last season's growth, and about medium thickness. these are to be preferred to either very large or very small ones. the time to commence operating will vary according to climate; here it should be the early part of february. the wood to be used for propagating can be kept in a cool cellar, in sand, or buried in the ground out doors. take out the cuttings, and cut them up into pieces as represented in figure . [illustration: fig. .] throw these into water as they are cut; it will prevent them from becoming dry. it will be found of benefit with hard-wooded varieties to pack them in damp moss for a week or so before they are put into the propagating pots or boxes; it will soften the alburnous matter, and make them strike root more readily. they should then be put into, say six-inch pots, filled to about an inch of the top with pure coarse sand, firmly packed. place the cuttings, the buds up, about an inch apart, all over the surface of the pot; press down firmly with thumb and forefinger until the bud is even with the surface; sift on sand enough to cover the upper point of the bud about a quarter of an inch deep; press down evenly, using the bottom of another pot for the purpose, and apply water enough to moisten the whole contents of the pot. instead of the pots, shallow boxes of about six inches deep, can also be used, with a few holes bored in the bottom for drainage. after the pots have been filled with cuttings they are placed in a temperature of from ° to °, where they remain from two to three weeks, water being applied only enough to keep them moist, not wet. as roots are formed at a much lower degree of temperature than leaves, they should not be forced too much at the beginning, or the leaves will appear before we have any roots to support them. but when the cutting has formed its roots first, the foliage, when it does appear, will grow much more rapidly, and without any check. then remove them to another position, plunging the pots into sand to the depth of, say three inches, and raise the temperature at first to ° for the first few days, then gradually raise it to °. when the buds begin to push, raise the temperature to ° or °, and keep the air moist by frequent waterings, say once a day. the best for this purpose is pure rain-water, but it should be of nearly the same temperature as the air in the house, for, if applied cold, it would surely check the growth of the plants. the young growth should be examined every day, to see if there is any sign of rotting; should this be the case, give a little more air, but admit no sudden cold currents, as they are often fatal. the glass should be whitewashed, to avoid the direct rays of the sun. when the young vines have made a growth of two or three inches shift them into three-inch pots. so far we have used only pure sand, which did not contain much plant food, because the growth was produced from the food stored up in the bud and wood, and what little they obtained from the sand, water, and air. now, however, our young vines want more substantial food. they should therefore be potted into soil, mixed from rotten sod, leaf-mould, and well-decomposed old barnyard manure. this should be mixed together six months before using; add, before using, one-quarter sand, then mix thoroughly, and sift all through a coarse sieve. in operating, put a quantity of soil on the potting bench, provide a quantity of broken bricks or potsherds for drainage, loosen the plants from the pots by laying them on their side, giving them a sudden jar with the hand, to loosen the sand around them; draw out the plant carefully, holding it with one hand, while with the other you place a piece of the drainage material into the pot; cover it with soil about an inch; then put in the plant, holding it so that the roots spread out naturally; fill in soil around them until the pot is full; press the soil down firmly, but not hard enough to break the roots. when the plants are potted give them water to settle the earth around the roots, and keep the air somewhat confined for a few days, until they have become established, when more air may be given them. keep the temperature at ° to ° during the day, and ° to ° during the night. when the plants have made about six inches of growth they can either be placed in another house, or in hot-bed frames, if they are to be kept under glass. the usual manner of keeping them in pots during summer, shifting them into larger and larger sizes, i consider injurious to the free development of the plants, as the roots are distorted and cramped against the sides of the pots, and cannot spread naturally. i prefer shifting them into cold frames, in which beds have been prepared of light, rich soil, into which the young plants can be planted, and kept under whitewashed hot-bed sashes for a while, which, after several weeks, may be removed, and only a light shading substituted in their place, which, after several weeks more, can also be removed. thus the young plants are gradually hardened, their roots have a chance to spread evenly and naturally, without any cramping; and such plants, although they may not make as tall a growth as those kept under glass all the season, will really stand transplanting into the vineyard much better than those hot-house pets, which may look well enough, but really are, like spoiled and pampered children, but poorly fitted to stand the rough vicissitudes of every-day life. the young plants should be lightly tied to small sticks provided for the purpose, as it will allow free circulation of air, and admit the sun more freely to the roots. in the fall, after their leaves have dropped, they should be carefully taken up, shortened to about a foot of their growth, and they are then ready either to sell, if they are to be disposed of in that way, or for planting into the vineyard. they should, however, be carefully assorted, making three classes of them--the strongest, medium, and the smallest--each to be put separate. the latter generally are not fit to transplant into the vineyard, but they may be heeled in, and grown in beds another year, when they will often make very good plants. heeling in may be done as shown in figure , laying the vines as close in the rows as they can conveniently be laid, and then fill the trench with well-pulverized soil. they can thus be safely kept during the winter. [illustration: fig. .] i have only given an outline of the most simple and cheapest mode of growing plants from single eyes, such as even the vineyardist may follow. for descriptions of more extensive and costly buildings, if they desire them, they had better apply to an architect. i have also not given the mode of propagating from green wood, as i do not think, plants thus propagated are desirable. they are apt to be feeble and diseased, and i think, the country at large would be much better off, had not a single plant ever been produced by that method. plants from single eyes may also be grown in a common hot-bed; but as in this the heat can not be as well regulated at will, i think it, upon the whole, not desirable, as the expense of a propagating house on the cheap plan i have indicated, is but very little more, and will certainly in the long run, pay much better. of course, close attention and careful watching is the first requisite in all the operations. iii.--by cuttings in open air. this is certainly the easiest and most simple method for the vineyardist; can be followed successfully with the majority of varieties, which have moderately soft wood, and even a part of the hard wood varieties will generally grow, if managed carefully. mode of operating. there are several methods, which are followed with more or less success. i will first describe that which i have found most successful, namely, short cuttings, of two or three eyes each, which are made of any sound, well ripened wood, of last season's growth. prune the vines in the fall or early winter, and make the cuttings as soon as convenient; for if the wood is not kept perfectly fresh and green, the cuttings will fail to grow. now, cut up all the sound, well-ripened wood into lengths of from two to four eyes each, making them of a uniform length of say eight inches, and prepare them as shown in figure . [illustration: fig. .] these should be tied into convenient bundles, from to in each, taking care to even the lower ends, and then buried in the ground, making a hole somewhat deeper than the cuttings are long, into which the bundles are set on their lower ends, and soil thrown in between and over them. in spring, as soon as the ground is dry enough, the cutting-bed should be prepared. choose for this a light, rich soil, which should be well pulverized, to the depth of at least a foot, and if not light enough, it should be made so by adding some leaf mould. now draw a line along the whole length of the bed; then take a spade and put it down perpendicular along the line or nearly so, moving it a little backwards and forwards, so as to open the cut. now take the cutting and press it down into the cut thus made, until the upper bud is even with the surface of the soil. the cuttings may be put close in the rows, say an inch apart, and the rows made two feet apart. press the ground firmly down with your foot along the line of cuttings, so as to pack it closely around the cutting. after the bed is finished, mulch them with straw, or litter, spent tan or saw-dust, say about an inch thick, and if none of these can be had, leaves from the forest may be used for the purpose. this will serve to protect the young leaves from the sun, and will also keep an even moisture during the heat of summer, at the same time keeping the soil loose and porous. if weeds appear, they should be pulled up, and the cuttings, kept clean through the summer. they will generally make a firm, hardy growth of from one to four feet, have become used to all the hardships and changes of the weather; and as they have formed their roots just where they ought to be, about eight inches below the ground, will not suffer so much from transplanting, as either a single eye or a layer, whose roots have to be put much deeper in transplanting, than they were before, and thus, as it were, become acclimated to the lower regions. for these reasons, i think, that a good plant grown from a cutting is preferable to that propagated by any other method. in the fall, the vines are carefully taken up, assorted and heeled in, in the same manner as described, with single eyes, and cut back to about three inches of their growth. they are then ready for transplanting into the vineyard. iv.--by layering. this is a very convenient method of increasing such varieties as will not grow readily from cuttings; and vines thus propagated will, if treated right, make very good plants. to layer a vine, shorten in its last season's growth to about one-half; then prepare the ground thoroughly, pulverizing it well; then, early in spring make a small furrow, about an inch deep, then bend the cane down and fasten it firmly in the bottom of the trench, by wooden hooks or pegs, made for the purpose. they may thus be left, until the young shoots have grown, say six inches; then fill up with finely pulverized soil or leaf-mould. the vines will thus strike root generally at every joint. the young shoots may be tied to small sticks, provided for the purpose, and when they have grown about a foot, their tips should be pinched off to make them grow more stocky. in the fall they are taken up carefully, commencing to dig at the end furthest removed from the vine, and separate each plant between the joints, so that every shoot has a system of roots by itself. they are then either planted immediately, or heeled in as described before. v.--by grafting. the principal advantages to be gained by this method are: st. the facility by which new and rare kinds may be increased, by grafting them on strong stocks of healthy varieties, when they will often grow from ten to twenty feet the first season, producing an abundance of wood to propagate. d. the short time in which fruit can be obtained from new and untried varieties, as their grafts will generally bear the next season. d. in every vineyard there are, in these days of many varieties, vines which have proved inferior, yet by grafting into them some superior variety, they may be made very valuable. th. the facility by which vines can be forced under glass, by grafting on small pieces of roots, and the certainty with which every bud can thus be made to grow. [illustration: fig. .] the vine, however, does not unite with the same facility as the pear and apple, and, to ensure success, must be grafted under ground, which makes the operation a difficult and disagreeable one. it will therefore hardly become a general practice; but, for the purposes above named, is of sufficient importance, to make it desirable that every vineyardist should be able to perform it. i have generally had the best success in grafting here about the middle of march, in the following manner: dig away the ground around the vine you wish to graft, until you come to a smooth place to insert your scion; then cut off the vine with a sharp knife, and insert one or two scions, as in common cleft-grafting, taking care to cut the wedge on the scion very thin, with shoulders on both sides, as shown in figure , cutting your scion to two eyes, to better insure success. great care must be taken to insert the scion properly, as the inner bark or liber of the vine is very thin, and the success of the operation depends upon a perfect junction of the stock and scion. if the vine is strong enough to hold the scion firmly, no further bandage is necessary; if not, it should be wound firmly and evenly with bass bark. then press the soil firmly on the cut, and fill up the hole with well pulverized earth, to the top of the scion. examine the stock from time to time, and remove all wild shoots and suckers, which it may throw up, as they will rob the graft of nourishment and enfeeble it. others prefer to graft in may, when the leaves have expanded, and the most rapid flow of sap has ceased, keeping the scions in a cool place, to prevent the buds from starting. the operation is performed in precisely the same manner, and will be just as successful, i think, but the grafts that have been put in early, have the advantage of several weeks over the others, and the latter will seldom make as strong a growth, or ripen their wood as well as those put in early. mr. a. s. fuller performs the operation in the fall, preventing the graft from freezing by inverting a flower-pot over it, and then covering with straw or litter. he claims for this method-- st. that it can be performed at a time when the ground is more dry, and in better condition, and business not so pressing as in spring.-- d. that the scion and stock have more time to unite, and will form their junction completely during the winter, and will therefore start sooner, and make a more rapid growth than in spring. it certainly looks feasible enough, and is well worth trying, as, when the operation succeeds, it must evidently have advantages over any of the other modes. vines i had grafted in march have sometimes made twenty to thirty feet of growth, and produced a full crop the next season. this will show one the advantage to be derived from it in propagating new and scarce varieties, and in hastening the fruiting of them. should a seedling, for instance, look very promising in foliage and general appearance, fruit may be obtained from it from one to two seasons sooner by grafting some of the wood on strong stocks, than from the original plant. hence the vast importance of grafting, even to the practical vineyardist. the vineyard. location and soil. as the selection of a proper location is of vast importance, and one of the main conditions of success, great care and judgment should be exercised in the choice. some varieties of grapes may be grown on almost any soil, it is true; but even they will show a vast difference in the quality of the fruit, even if the quantity were satisfactory; on indifferent soil, and in an inferior location. everybody should grow grapes enough for his own use, who owns an acre of ground, but every one cannot grow them and make the most delicious wine. the best locations are generally on the hillsides, along our larger rivers, water-courses, and lakes, sloping to the east, south, and southwest, as they are generally more exempt from late spring frosts and early frosts in fall. the location should be sheltered from the cold winds from the north and northwest, but fully exposed to the prevailing winds in summer from the south and southwest. if a hill is chosen at any distance from a large body of water, it should be high and airy, with as gentle a slope as can be obtained. the locations along creeks and smaller water-courses should be particularly avoided, as they are subject to late spring frosts, and are generally damp and moist. the soil should be a dry, calcareous loam, sufficiently deep, say three feet; if possible, draining itself readily. should this not be the case naturally, it should be done with tiles. i was much struck by the force of a remark made by medical friend last summer, when, in consequence of the continual rains, the ague was very prevalent. it was this: wherever you will find the ague an habitual guest with the inhabitants you need not look for healthy grapevines. wherever we find stagnant water let us avoid the neighboring hillsides, for they would not be congenial to our grape-vines. but on the bluffs overhanging the banks of our large streams, especially on the northern and western sides, where the vines are sheltered from the north and west winds, and fully exposed to the warm southern winds of our summer days, and where the fogs arising from the water yet give sufficient humidity to the atmosphere, even in the hottest summer days, to refresh the leaf during the night and morning hours; where the soil on the southern and eastern slopes is a mixture of decomposed stone and leaf-mould, and feels like velvet to the feet--there is the paradise for the grape; and the soil is already better prepared for it than the hand of man can ever do. such locations should be cheap to the grape-grower at _any_ price. we find them very frequently along the northern banks of the missouri and mississippi rivers, and they will no doubt become the favored grape regions of the country. the grape grows there with a luxuriance and health which is almost incredible to those living in less favored locations. but the question may be asked here, what shall be done by those who do not live in these favored regions, and yet would like to grow grapes? i answer, let them choose the best location they have, the most free and airy, and let them choose only those sturdy varieties that withstand everything. they cannot grow the most delicate varieties--the herbemont, the delaware, the clara, are not for them; but they can grow the concord, hartford prolific, and norton's virginia, and they at least are "very good," although they may not be the "best." there is no excuse for any one in this country why he should not grow his own grapes, for the use of his family at least, if he has any ground to grow them on. preparing the soil. in this, the foundation of all grape-growing, the vineyardist must also look to the condition in which he finds the soil. should it be free of stones, stumps, and other obstructions, the plough and sub-soil plough will be all-sufficient. should your soil be new, perhaps a piece of wild forest land, have it carefully grubbed, and every tree and stump taken out by the roots. after the ground is cleared take a large breaking-plough, with three yoke of sturdy oxen, and plough as deep as you can, say twelve to fourteen inches. now follow in the same furrow with an implement we call here a sub-soil stirrer, and which is simply a plough-share of wedge shape, running in the bottom of the furrow, and a strong coulter, running up from it through the beam of the plough, sharp in front, to cut the roots; the depth of the furrow is regulated by a movable wheel running in front, which can be set by a screw. with two yoke of oxen this will loosen the soil to the depth of, say twenty inches, which is sufficient, unless the sub-soil is very tenacious. in land already cultivated, where there are no roots to obstruct, two yoke of oxen or four horses attached to the plough, and one yoke of oxen or a pair of horses or mules to the sub-soil plough, will be sufficient. in stony soil the pick and shovel must take the place of the plough, as it would be impossible to work it thoroughly with the latter; but i think there is no advantage in the common method of trenching or inverting the soil, as is now practiced to a very great extent. if we examine the growth of our native vines we will generally find their roots extending along the surface of the soil. it is unnatural to suppose that the grape, the most sun-loving of all our plants, should be buried with its roots several feet below the surface of the soil, far beyond the reach of sun and air. therefore, if you can afford it, work your soil deep and thoroughly; it will be labor well invested; is the best preventive against drouth, and also the best drainage in wet weather; but have it in its natural position--not invert it; and do not plant too deep. should the soil be very poor it may be enriched by manure, ashes, bone-dust, etc.; but it will seldom be found necessary, as most of our soil is rich enough; and it is not advisable to stimulate the growth too much, as it will be rank and unhealthy, and injurious to the quality and flavor of the fruit. wet spots may be drained by gutters filled with loose stones, or tiles, and then covered with earth. surface-draining can be done by running a small ditch or furrow every sixth or eighth row, parallel with the hillside, and leading into a main ditch at the end or the middle of the vineyard. steep hillsides should be terraced or benched; but, as this is very expensive, they should be avoided. what shall we plant? choice of varieties. it is a very difficult matter, in a vast country like ours, where the soil and climate differ so much, to recommend any thing; and i think it a mistake, into which many of our prominent grape-growers have fallen, to recommend _any_ variety, simply because it succeeded well _with them_, for _general_ cultivation. grape-growing is, perhaps, more than any other branch of horticulture or pomology, dependent upon soil, location and climate, and it will not do to dictate to the inhabitants of a country, in which the "extremes meet," that they should _all_ plant one variety. yet this has been done by some who _pretend_ to be authorities, and it shows, more than any thing else, that they have more arrogance than knowledge. i, for my part, have seen such widely different results, from the same varieties, under the same treatment, and in vineyards only a few miles apart, but with a different soil and different aspect, that i am reluctant to recommend to my next neighbor, what he shall plant. but, while the task is a difficult one, yet we may lay down certain rules, which can govern us in selection of varieties to a certain extent. we should choose-- st. the variety which has given the most general satisfaction in the state or county in which we live, or the nearest locality to us. d--visit the nearest accessible vineyard in the month of august and september, observe closely which variety has the healthiest foliage and fruit; ripens the most uniformly and perfectly; and either sells best in market, or makes the best wine, and which, at the same time, is of good quality, and productive enough. your observations, thus taken, will be a better guide than the opinion of the most skillful grape grower a thousand miles off. i will now name a few of the most prominent varieties which should at least be tried by every grape grower. the concord. this grape seems to have given the most general satisfaction all over the country, and seems to be _the_ "grape for the million." wherever heard from, it seems to be uniformly healthy and productive. our eastern friends complain of its inferior quality; this may be owing partly to their short seasons, and partly to the too early gathering of the fruit. it is one of those varieties which color early, but should hang a long time after coloring, to attain its full perfection. here it is at least _very_ good; makes an excellent wine, and, if we take into consideration its enormous productiveness, its vigor and adaptability to all soils and climates, we must acknowledge that as yet it stands without a rival, and will be a safe investment almost anywhere. our long summers bring it to a perfection of which our eastern friends have no idea, until they try it here. it will do well in almost any soil. norton's virginia. this, so far, is the leading grape for red wine, and its reputation here and in the entire west is now so fully established, that it would be difficult indeed to persuade our people into the belief, that any other grape could make a better red wine. it is healthy and uniformly productive, and will be safe to plant, i think, in nearly all the western states. i rather doubt that our eastern friends will succeed in making a first class wine from it, as i think their summers are too short, to develop all its good qualities. will succeed in almost any soil, but attains its greatest perfection in southern slopes with somewhat strong soil. herbemont. this is a truly delicious grape, but somewhat tender, and wants a long season to fully ripen its fruit and bring out all its good qualities. will hardly do much further north than we are here, in missouri, but is, i think, destined to be one of the leading grapes for the southern states. if you have a warm, southern exposure, somewhat stony, with limestone foundation, plant the herbemont, and you will not be disappointed. it is healthy and very productive; more refreshing than the delaware, and makes an excellent wine. delaware. is much recommended by eastern authorities, and where it succeeds, is certainly a fine grape and makes a delicious wine. here at the west, it has proved a failure in most locations, being subject to leaf-blight, and a feeble grower. there are some locations, however, where it will flourish; and whoever is the fortunate possessor of such a one should not forget to plant it. it seems to flourish best in light, warm, somewhat sandy soil. hartford prolific. this is immensely productive; of very fair quality here; hardy and healthy; and if planted for early marketing, will give general satisfaction. it hangs well to the bunch, and even makes a very fair wine. will flourish in almost every soil. clinton. hardy, healthy and productive; will make a fair wine, but is here not equal even to the concord, and far behind the norton's virginia in quality. may be desirable further north. planting. the distance at which the vines may be planted will of course vary somewhat with the growth of the different varieties. the rows may all be six feet apart, as this is the most convenient distance for cultivating, and gives ample space for a horse and man to pass through with plough or cultivator. slow-growing varieties, such as the delaware and catawba, may be planted six feet apart in the rows, making the distance six feet each way; but the concord, norton's virginia, herbemont, hartford prolific, cunningham, and all the strong growers, will need more room, say ten feet in the rows, so as to give the vines ample room to spread, and allow free circulation of air--one of the first conditions of health in the vines, and quality of the fruit. the next question to be considered is: shall we plant cuttings or rooted plants? my preference is decidedly for the latter, for the following reasons: cuttings are uncertain, even of those varieties which grow the most readily; and we cannot expect to have anything like an even growth, such as we can have if the plants are carefully assorted. some of the cuttings will always fail, and there will be gaps and vacancies which are hard to fill, even if the strongest plants are taken for replanting. therefore, let us choose plants. but we should not only choose rooted plants, but the best we can get; and these are good one year old, whether grown from cuttings, layers or single eyes. a good plant should have plenty of strong, well-ripened roots; not covered with excrescences and warts, which is always a sign of ill health; but smooth and firm; with well-ripened, short-jointed wood. they should be of uniform size, as they will then make an even stand in the vineyard, when not forced by the propagator into an unnaturally rank growth by artificial manures. this latter consideration, i think, is very important, as we can hardly expect such plants, which have been petted and pampered, and fed on rich diet, to thrive on the every-day fare they will find in the vineyard. do not take second or third rate plants, if you can help it; they may live and grow, but they will never make the growth which a plant of better quality would make. we may hear of good results sometimes, obtained by planting second-rate plants, but certainly the results would be better if better plants had been chosen. especially important is the selection of good plants with those varieties which do not propagate and transplant readily, such as the norton's virginia, delaware, and other hard-wood varieties. better pay double the price you would have to give for inferior plants; the best are the cheapest in the end, as they will make the healthiest vines, and bear sooner. but i would also caution my readers against those who will sell you "extra large layers, for _immediate_ bearing," and whose "plants are better than those whom anybody else may grow," as their advertisements will term it. it is time that this humbug should cease; time that the public in general should know, that they cannot, in nature and reason, expect any fruit from a plant transplanted the same season; and that those who pretend it can be done, without vital injury to the plant, are only seeking to fill their pockets at the cost of their customers. they know well enough themselves that it cannot be done without killing or fatally injuring the plant, yet they will impose upon the credulity of their confiding customers; make them pay from $ to $ a piece for a plant, which these good souls will buy, with a vision of a fine crop of grapes before their eyes, plant them, with long tops, on which they may obtain a few sickly bunches of fruit the first season; but if they do the vines will make a feeble growth, not ripen their fruit, and perhaps be winter-killed the next season. it is like laying the burden of a full grown man on the shoulders of a child; what was perhaps no burden at all to the one, will kill the other. then, again, these "plants, superior to those of every one else." it is the duty of every propagator and nursery-man to raise good plants; he can do it if he tries; it is for his interest as much as for the interest of his customers to raise plants of the best quality; and we have no reason to suppose that we are infinitely superior to our neighbors. while the first is a downright swindle, the latter is the height of arrogance. if we had a good deal less of bombast and self laudation, and more of honesty and fair dealing in the profession, the public would have more confidence in professional men, and would be more likely to practice what we preach. therefore, if you look around for plants, do not go to those who advertise, "layers for immediate bearing," or "plants of superior quality to all others grown;" but go to men who have honesty and modesty enough to send you a sample of their best plants, if required, and who are not averse to let you see how they grow them. choose their good, strong healthy, one year old plants, with strong, firm, healthy roots, and let those who wish to be humbugged buy the layers for _immediate_ bearing. you must be content to wait until the third year for the first crop; but, then, if you have treated your plants as you ought to do, you can look for a crop that will make your heart glad to see and gather it. you cannot, in reason and nature expect it sooner. if your ground has been prepared in the fall, so much the better, and if thrown into ridges, so as to elevate the ground somewhat, where the row is to be, they may be planted in the fall. the advantages of fall planting are as follows: the ground will generally work better, as we have better weather in the fall; and generally more time to spare; the ground can settle among the roots; the roots will have healed and callused over, and the young plant be ready to start with full vigor in spring. [illustration: fig. .] mark your ground, laying it off with a line, and put down a small stick or peg, eighteen inches long, wherever a plant is to stand. dig a hole, about eight to ten inches deep, as shown in figure , in a slanting direction, raising a small mound in the bottom, of well-pulverized, mellow earth; then, having pruned your plant as shown in figure , with its roots and tops shortened in, as shown by the dotted lines, lay it in, resting the lower end on the mound of earth, spread out its roots evenly to all sides, and then fill in among the roots with rich, well-pulverized earth, the upper bud being left above the ground. when planted in the fall, raise a small mound around your vine, so that the water will drain off, and throw a handful of straw or any other mulch on top, to protect it. of course, the operation should be performed when the ground is dry enough to be light and mellow, and will readily work in among the roots. [illustration: fig. .] treatment of the vine the first summer. the first summer after planting nothing is necessary but to keep the ground free from weeds, and mellow, stirring freely with hoe, rake, plough, and cultivator, whenever necessary. should the vines grow strong they may be tied to the stakes provided in planting, to elevate them somewhat above the ground. allow all the laterals to grow, as it will make the wood stronger and more stocky. they may even be summer-layered in july, laying down the young cane, and covering the main stem about an inch deep with mellow soil, leaving the ends of the laterals out of the ground. with free-growing kinds, such as the concord and hartford prolific, these will generally root readily, and make very good plants, the laterals making the stems of the layers. with varieties that do not root so readily, as the delaware and norton's virginia, it will seldom be successful, and should not be practiced. the vineyard may thus be made to pay expenses, and furnish the vines for further plantations the first year. they are taken up and divided in the fall, as directed in the chapter for layers. in the fall, prune the vine to three buds, if strong enough, to one or two if it has only made a weak growth. a fair growth is from four to five feet the first summer. during the winter, trellis should be provided for the vines, as we may expect them to grow from twelve to fifteen feet the coming summer. the cheapest and most economical are those of strong upright posts, say four inches in diameter, made of red cedar if it can be had, if not, of any good, durable timber--mulberry, locust, or white oak--and seven feet long, along which no. wire is stretched horizontally. make the holes for the posts with a post-hole auger, two feet deep; set in the posts, charred on one end, to make them durable. if wire is to be used, one post every sixteen feet will be enough, with a smaller stake between, to serve as a support for the wires. now stretch your wire, the lowest one about two feet from the ground, the second one eighteen inches above it, and the third eighteen inches above the second. the wires may be fastened to the posts by nails, around which they can be twisted, or by loops of wire driven into the post. where timber is plenty, laths made of black oak may be made to serve the same purpose; but the posts must then be set much closer, and the wire will be the cheapest and neatest in the end. a good many grape-growers train their vines to stakes, believing it to be cheaper, but i have found it more expensive than trellis made in the above manner, and it is certainly a very slovenly method, compared with the latter. trellis is much more convenient for tying the vines, the canes can be distributed much more evenly, and the fruit and young wood, not being huddled and crowded together as on stakes, will ripen much more evenly, and be of better quality, as the air and sun have free access to it. treatment of the vine the second summer. we find the young vine at the commencement of this season pruned to three buds of the last season's growth. from these we may expect from two to three strong shoots or canes. our first work will be to cultivate the whole ground, say from four to six inches deep, ploughing between the rows, and hoeing around the vines with a two-pronged german hoe, or _karst_. figure shows one of these implements, of the best form for that purpose. the ground should be completely inverted, but never do it in wet weather, as this will make the ground hard and cloggy. [illustration: fig. .] of the young shoots, if there are three, leave only the two strongest, tying the best of them neatly to the trellis with bass, or pawpaw bark, or rye straw. if a catawba or delaware, you may let them grow unchecked, tying them along the uppermost wire, when they have grown above it. the concord, herbemont, norton's virginia, and other strong-growing varieties, i treat in the following manner: when the young shoot has reached the second wire i pinch off its leader. this has the tendency to force the laterals into stronger growth, each forming a medium-sized cane. on these we intend to grow our fruit the coming season, as the buds on these laterals will generally produce more and finer fruit than the buds on the strong canes. figure will show the manner of training the second summer, with one cane layered, for the purpose of raising plants. this is done as described before; only, as the vine will make a much stronger growth this season than the first, the layering maybe done in june, as soon as the young shoots are strong enough. figure shows the vine pruned and tied, at the end of the second season. figure illustrates the manner of training and tying the catawba or delaware. [illustration: fig. . fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the above is a combination of the single cane and bow system, and the horizontal arm training, which i first tried on the concord from sheer necessity; when the results pleased me so much that i have adopted it with all strong-growing varieties. the circumstances which led me to the trial of this method were as follows: in the summer of , when my concord vines were making their second season's growth, we had, in the beginning of june, the most destructive hail storm i have ever seen here. every leaf was cut from the vines, and the young succulent shoots were all cut off to about three to three and a half feet above the ground. the vines, being young and vigorous, pushed out the laterals vigorously, each of them making a fair-sized cane. in the fall, when i came to prune them, the main cane was not long enough, and i merely shortened in the laterals to from four to six buds each. on these i had as fine a crop of grapes as i ever saw, fine, large, well-developed bunches and berries, and a great many of them, as each had produced its fruit-bearing shoot. since that time i have followed this method altogether, and obtained the most satisfactory results. the ground should be kept even and mellow during the summer, and the vines neatly tied to the trellis with bast or straw. there are many other methods of training; for instance, the old bow and stake training, which is followed to a great extent around cincinnati, and was followed to some extent here. but it crowds the whole mass of fruit and leaves together so closely that mildew and rot will follow almost as a natural consequence, and those who follow it are almost ready to give up grape-culture in despair. nor is this surprising. with their tenacious adherence to so fickle a variety as the catawba, and to practices and methods of which experience ought to have taught them the utter impracticability long ago, we need not be surprised that grape-culture is with them a failure. we have a class of grape-growers who never learn, nor ever forget, anything; these we cannot expect should prosper. the grape-grower, of all others, should be a close observer of nature in her various moods, a thinking and a reasoning being; he should be trying and experimenting all the time, and be ready always to throw aside his old methods, should he find that another will more fully meet the wants of his plants. only thus can he expect to prosper. there is also the arm system, of which we hear so much now-a-days, and which certainly looks very pretty _on paper_. but paper is patient, and while it cannot be denied that it has its advantages, if every spur and shoot could be made to grow just as represented in drawings, with three fine bunches to each shoot; yet, upon applying it practically, we find that vines are stubborn, and some shoots will outgrow others; and before we hardly know how, the whole beautiful system is out of order. it may do to follow in gardens, on arbors and walls, with a few vines, but i do not think that it will ever be successfully followed in vineyard culture for a number of years, as it involves too much labor in tying up, pruning, etc. i think the method described above will more fully meet the wants of the vinyardist than any i have yet seen tried; it is so simple that every intelligent person can soon become familiar with it, and it gives us new, healthy wood for bearing every season. pruning may be done in the fall, as soon as the leaves have dropped. treatment of the vine the third season. at the commencement of the third season, we find our vine pruned to two spurs of two eyes each, and four lateral canes, of from four to six eyes each. these are tied firmly to the trellis as shown in figure , for which purpose small twigs of willows (especially the golden willow, of which every grape-grower should plant a supply) are the most convenient. the ground is ploughed and hoed deeply, as described before, taking care, however, not to plough so deep as to cut or tear the roots of the vine. our vines being tied, ploughed, and hoed, we come to one of the most important and delicate operations to be performed; one of as great--nay, greater--importance than pruning. i mean summer-pruning, or pinching, _i.e._ thumb or finger pruning. fall-pruning, or cutting back, is but the beginning of the discipline under which we intend to keep our vines; summer-pruning is the continuation, and one is useless, and cannot be followed systematically without the other. let us look at our vine well, before we begin, and commence near the ground. the time to perform the first summer-pruning is when the young shoots are about six to eight inches long, and when you can see plainly all the small bunches or buttons--the embryo fruit. we commence on the lower two spurs, having two buds each. from these two shoots have started. one of them we intend for a bearing cane next summer; therefore allow it to grow unchecked for the present, tying it, if long enough, to the lowest wire. the other, which we intend for a spur again next fall, we pinch with thumb and finger to just beyond the last bunch or button, taking out the leader between the last bunch and the next leaf, as shown in figure , the cross line indicating where the leader is to be pinched off. we now come to the next spur, on the opposite side, where we also leave one cane to grow unchecked, and pinch off the other. we now go over all the shoots coming from the arms or laterals tied to the trellis, and also pinch them beyond the last bunch. should any of the buds have pushed out two shoots, we rub off the weakest; we also take off all barren or weak shoots. if any of them are not sufficiently developed we pass them over, and go over the vines again, in a few days after the first pinching. [illustration: fig. .] this early pinching of the shoot has a tendency to throw all the vigor into the development of the young bunch, and the leaves remaining on the shoot, which now grow with astonishing rapidity. it is a gentle checking, and leading the sap into other channels; not the violent process which is often followed long after the bloom, when the wood has become so hardened that it must be cut with a knife, and by which the plant is robbed of a large quantity of its leaves, to the injury of both fruit and vine. let any of my readers, who wish to satisfy themselves, summer-prune a vine, according to the method described here, and leave the next vine until after the bloom, and he will plainly perceive the difference. the merit of first having practised this method here, which i consider one of vast importance in grape-culture, belongs to mr. william poeschel, of this place, who was led to do so, by observing the rapid development of the young bunches on a shoot which had accidentally been broken beyond the last bunch. now, there is hardly an intelligent grape-grower here, who does not follow it; and i think it has added more than one-third to the quantity and quality of my crop. it also gives a chance to destroy the small, white worm, a species of leaf-folder, which is very troublesome just at this time, eating the young fruit and leaves, and which makes its web among the tender leaves at the end of the shoot. the bearing branches having all been pinched back, we can leave our vines alone until after the bloom, only tying up the young canes from the spurs, should it become necessary. but do not tie them over the bearing canes, but lead them to the empty space on both sides of the vine; as our object must be to give the fruit all the air and light we can. by the time the grapes have bloomed, the laterals will have pushed from the axils of the leaves on the bearing shoots. now go over these again, and pinch each lateral back to one leaf, as shown in figure . this will make the leaf which remains grow and expand rapidly, serving at the same time as a conductor of sap to the young bunch opposite, and shading it when it becomes fully developed. the canes from the spurs, which we left unchecked, and which we design to bear fruit the next season, may now also be stopped or pinched, when they are about three feet long, to start their laterals into stronger growth. pinch off all the tendrils; this is a very busy time for the vine-dresser, and upon his close attendance and diligence now, depends, in a great measure, the value of his crop. besides, "a stitch in time saves nine," and he can save an incredible amount of labor by doing everything at the proper time. [illustration: fig. .] in a short time, the laterals on the fruit-bearing branches which have been pinched will throw out suckers again. these are stopped again, leaving one leaf of the young growth. leave the laterals on the canes intended for next years' fruiting to grow unchecked, tying them neatly with bass, or pawpaw bark, or with rye straw. this is about all that is necessary for this summer, except an occasional tying up of a fruiting branch, should its burden become more than it can bear. but the majority of the branches will be able to sustain their fruit without tying, and the young growth which may yet start from the laterals may be left unchecked, as it will serve to shade the fruit when ripening. of course, the soil must be kept clean and mellow, as in the former summer. this short pruning is also a partial preventative against mildew and rot, and the last extremely wet season has again shown the importance of letting in light and air to all parts of the vine; as those vineyards, where a strict system of early summer pruning had been followed, did not suffer half as much from rot and mildew as those where the old slovenly method still prevailed. my readers will perceive, that fall-pruning, or shortening-in the ripened wood of the vine, and summer-pruning, shortening in and thinning out the young growth, have one and all the same object in view, namely, to keep the vine within proper bounds, and concentrate all its energies for a two-fold object, namely, the production and ripening of the most perfect fruit, and the production of strong, healthy wood for the coming season's crop. both operations are, in fact, only different parts of one and the same system, of which summer-pruning is the preparatory, and fall pruning the finishing part. if we think that a vine is setting more fruit than it is able to bear and ripen perfectly, we have it in our power to thin it, by taking away all imperfect bunches, and feeble shoots. we should allow no more wood to grow than we need for next season's bearing; if we allow three canes to grow where only two are needed, we waste the energies of the vine, which should all be concentrated upon ripening its fruit in the most perfect condition, and producing the necessary wood for next season's bearing, and that of the best and most vigorous quality, but no more. if we prune the vine too long, we over-tax its energies; making it bear more fruit than it can perfect, and the result will be poor, badly-ripened fruit, and small and imperfect wood. if, on the contrary, we prune the vine too short, we will have a rank, excessive growth of wood and leaves, and encourage rot and mildew. only practice and experience will teach us the exact medium, and the observing vintner will soon find out where he has been wrong, better than he can be taught by a hundred pages of elaborate advice. different varieties will require different treatment, and it would be foolishness to suppose that two varieties so entirely different, as for instance, the concord and the delaware, could be pruned, trained and pinched in the same manner. the first, being a rank and vigorous grower, with long joints, will require much longer pruning than the latter, which is a slow-growing, short-jointed vine. some varieties, the taylor for instance, also the norton, will fruit better if pruned to spurs on old wood, than on the young canes; it will therefore be the best policy for the vintner in pruning these, to retain the old arms or canes, pruning all the healthy, strong shoots they have to two buds, as long as the old arms remain healthy; always, however, growing a young cane to fall back upon, should the old arm become diseased; whereas, the catawba and delaware, being only moderate growers, will flourish and bear best when pruned short, and to a cane of last season's growth. the concord and herbemont, again, will bear best on the laterals of last season's growth, and should be trained accordingly. therefore it is, because only a few of the common laborers will take the pains to think and observe closely, that we find among them but few good vine-dressers. at the end of this season, we find our concords or herbemonts, with the old fruit-bearing cane, and a spur on each side, from which have grown two canes; one of which was stopped, like all other fruit-bearing branches, and which we now prune to a spur of two eyes; and another, which was stopped at about three feet, and on which the laterals were allowed to grow unchecked. we therefore have one of these canes, with its laterals, on each side of the vine. these laterals are now pruned precisely as the last season, each being cut back to from four to six eyes, and the old cane, which has borne fruit, is cut away altogether. with norton's virginia, taylor, and some others, which will bear more readily on spurs from old wood, the old cane is retained, provided the shoots on it are sound and healthy, with well developed buds; the weak ones are cut away altogether, and the others cut back to two eyes each. one of the canes is pruned, as in the concord, to be tied to one side of the trellis, the next spring. this closes our summer and fall pruning for the third year. of the gathering of the fruit, as well for market as for wine, i shall speak in another chapter. treatment of the vine the fourth summer. we may now consider the vine as established, able to bear a full crop, and when tied to the trellis in spring, to present the appearance, as shown in fig. . the operations to be performed are precisely the same as in its third year. [illustration: fig. .] in addition, i will here remark, that in wet seasons the soil of the vineyard should be stirred as little as possible, as it will bake and clog, and in dry seasons it should be deeply worked and stirred, as this loose surface-soil will retain moisture much better than a hard surface. should the vines show a decrease in vigor, they may be manured with ashes or compost, or still better, with surface-soil from the woods. this will serve to replenish the soil which may have been washed off and is much more beneficial than stable manure. when the latter is applied, a small trench should be dug just above the vine, the manure laid in, and covered with soil. but an abundance of fresh soil, drawn up well around the vine, is certainly the best of all manures. where a vine has failed to grow the first season, replant with extra strong vines, as they will find it difficult to catch up with the others; or the vacancy can be filled up the next season, by a layer from a neighboring vine, made in the following manner: dig a trench from the vine to the empty place, about eight to ten inches deep, and bend into it one of the canes of the vine, left to grow unchecked for that purpose, and pruned to the proper length. let the end of it come out to the surface of the ground with one or two eyes above it, at the place where the vine is to be, and fill up with good, well pulverized earth. it will strike roots at almost every joint, and grow rapidly, but, as it takes a good deal of nourishment from the parent vine, that must be pruned much shorter the first year. when the layer has become well established, it is cut from the parent vine; generally the second season. pruning is best done in the fall, but it can be done on mild days all through the winter months, even as late as the middle of march. fall-pruning will prevent all flow of sap, and the cuttings are also better if made in the fall, and buried in the ground during winter. all the sound, well-ripened wood of last season's growth may be made into cuttings, which may be either planted, as directed in a former chapter, or sold; and are an accession to the product of the vineyard not to be despised, for they will generally defray all expenses of cultivation. training the vines on arbors and walls. this is altogether different from the treatment in vineyards; the first has for its object to grow the most perfect fruit, and to bring the vine, with all its parts, within the easy reach and control of the operator; in the latter, our object is to cover a large space with foliage, for ornament and shade, fruit being but a secondary consideration. however, if the vine is treated judiciously, it will also produce a large quantity of fruit, although not of as good quality as in the vineyard. [illustration: fig. . fig. .] our first object must be to grow very strong plants, to cover a very large space. prepare a border by digging a trench two feet deep and four feet wide. fill with rich soil, decomposed leaves, burnt bones, ashes, etc. into this plant the strongest plants you have, pruned as for vineyard planting. leave but one shoot to grow on them during the first summer, which, if properly treated, will get very strong. cut back to three buds the coming fall. these will each throw out a strong shoot, which should be tied to the arbor they are designed to cover, as shown in figure , and allowed to grow unchecked. in the fall following cut each shoot back to three buds, as our first object must be to get a good basis for our vines. these will give us nine canes the third summer; and as the vine is now thoroughly established and strong, we can begin to work in good earnest. it will be perceived that the vine has three different sections or principal branches, each with three canes. cut one of these back to two eyes, and the other two to six or eight buds each, according to the strength of the vine, as shown in figure . the next spring tie these neatly to the trellis, and when the young shoots appear thin out the weakest, and leave the others to grow unchecked. the next fall cut back as indicated by the black cross lines, the weakest to be cut back to one or two eyes, and the stronger ones to three or four, the spurs at the bottom to come in as a reserve, should any of the branches become diseased. figure shows the manner of pruning. [illustration: fig. .] in this manner a vine can be made, in course of time, to cover a large space, and get very old. the great vine at windsor palace was planted more than sixty years ago, and in it produced two thousand large bunches of magnificent grapes. the space covered by the branches was one hundred and thirty-eight feet long, and sixteen feet wide, and it had a stem two feet nine inches in circumference. this is one of the largest vines on record. they should, however, be strongly manured to come to full perfection. other authorities prefer the thomery system of training, but i think it much more complicated and difficult to follow. those wishing to follow it will find full directions in dr. grant's and fuller's books, which are very explicit on this method. other methods of training the vine. there are many other systems in vogue among vine-dressers in germany and france, but as our native grapes are so much stronger in growth, and are in this climate so much more subject to mildew and rot, i think these methods, upon the whole, but poorly adapted to the wants of our native grapes, however judicious they may be there. i will only mention a few of them here; one because it is to a great extent followed in mexico and california, and seems to suit that dry climate and arid soil very well; and the other, because it will often serve as a pretty border to beds in gardens. the first is the so-called buck or stool method of training. the vine is made to form its head--_i.e._, the part from which the branches start--about a foot above the ground, and all the young shoots are allowed to grow, but summer-pruned or checked just beyond the last bunch of grapes. the next spring all of the young shoots are cut back to two eyes, and this system of "spurring in" is kept up, and the vine will in time present the appearance of a bush or miniature tree, producing all its fruit within a foot from the head, and without further support than its own stem. very old vines trained in this manner often have twenty to twenty-five spurs, and present, with their fruit all hanging in masses around the main trunk, a pleasing but rather odd aspect. this method could not be applied here with any chance of success only to those varieties which are slow growers, and at the same time very hardy. the delaware would perhaps be the most suitable of all varieties i know for a trial of this method; such strong growers as the concord and norton's virginia could never be kept within the proper bounds, and it would be useless to try it on them. it might be of advantage on poor soil, where there is at the same time a scarcity of timber. figure shows an old vine pruned after this method. [illustration: fig. .] the other method of dwarfing the grape is practiced to make a pretty border along walks in gardens, and is as follows: plant your vines about eight feet apart; treat them the first season as in common vineyard planting, but at the end of the first season cut back to two eyes. now provide posts, three to three and a half feet long; drive them into the ground about eighteen inches to two feet, which can be easily done if they are pointed at one end, and nail a lath on top of them. this is your trellis for the vines, and should be about eighteen inches above the ground when ready. now allow both shoots which will start from the two buds to grow unchecked; and when they have grown above the trellis, tie one down to the right, the other to the left, allowing them to ramble at will along it. the next fall they are each cut back to the proper length, to meet the next vine, and in spring tied firmly to the lath, as shown in figure . when the young shoots appear, all below the trellis are rubbed off, but all those above the trellis are summer-pruned or pinched immediately beyond the last bunch of grapes, as in vineyard culture, and the trellis, with its garland of fruit, will present a very pretty appearance throughout the summer. in the fall all of these shoots are pruned to one bud, from which will grow the fruit-bearing shoot for the next season, as shown in figure ; and the same treatment is repeated during the summer and fall. [illustration: fig. . fig. .] diseases of the vine. i cannot agree with mr. fuller that the diseases of the vine are not formidable in this country. they are so formidable that they threaten to destroy some varieties altogether; and the catawba, once the glory and pride of the ohio vineyards, has for the last fifteen years suffered so much from them, that many of the grape-growers who are too narrow-minded to try anything else are about giving up grape-growing in despair. it is very fortunate, therefore, that we have varieties which do not suffer from these diseases, or only in a very slight degree; and my advice to the beginner in grape-culture would be, "not to plant largely of any variety which is subject to disease." men may talk about sulphuring, and dusting their vines with sulphur through bellows; but i would rather have vines which will bear a good crop without these windy appliances. we can certainly find some varieties for _every_ locality which do not need them, and these we should plant. the mildew is our most formidable disease, and will very often sweep away two-thirds of a crop of catawbas in a few days. it generally appears here from the first to the fifteenth of june, after abundant rains, and damp, warm weather. it seems to be a parasitic fungus, and sulphur applied by means of a bellows, or dusted over the fruit and vine is said to be a partial remedy. close and early summer-pruning will do much to prevent it, throwing, as it does, all the strength of the vine into the young fruit, developing it rapidly, and also allowing free circulation of air. in some varieties--for instance, the delaware--it will only affect the leaves, causing them to blight and drop off, after which the fruit, although it may attain full size, will not ripen nor become sweet, but wither and drop off prematurely. in seasons when the weather is dry and the air pure, it will not appear. it is most prevalent in locations which have a tenacious subsoil, and under-draining will very likely prove a partial preventive, as excess of moisture about the roots is no doubt one of its causes. the gray rot, or so-called grape cholera, generally follows the mildew, and i think that the latter is the principal cause of it, as i have generally found it on berries whose stems have been injured by the mildew. the berry first shows a sort of gray marbling; in a day or two it turns to a grayish-blue color, and finally withers and drops from the bunch. it will continue to affect berries until they begin to color, but only attack a few varieties--the catawba, to kalon, kingsessing, and sometimes the diana. the spotted, or brown rot, will also attack many of our varieties; it is very destructive to the isabella and catawba, and even the concord is not quite free from it. but it is, after all, not very destructive, and not half as dangerous as the mildew or gray rot. early and close summer-pruning is a partial preventative against all these diseases, as it will hasten the development of the fruit, allow free circulation of air, and the young leaves which appear on the laterals after pinching seem to be better able to withstand the effects of the mildew, often remaining fresh and green, and shading the fruit, when the first growth of leaves have already dropped. but "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure," and our best preventive is to plant none but healthy varieties. a grape, however good it may be in quality, is not fit for general cultivation if seriously affected with any of these diseases. nothing can be more discouraging to the grape-grower than to see his vines one day rich in the promise of an abundant crop, and a few days afterwards see two-thirds or three-fourths swept away by disease. it is because i have so often felt this bitter disappointment, that i would warn my readers against planting varieties subject to them. i would save _them_ from the discouragement and bitter losses which i have experienced, when it was out of my power to prevent it. they _can_ prevent it, for the grape-growing of to-day is no longer the same uncertain occupation it was ten years ago. we of to-day have our choice of varieties not subject to disease; let us make it judiciously, and we may be sure of a paying crop every year. insects injurious to the grape. the grape has many enemies of this kind, but if they are closely watched from the beginning their ravages are easily kept within proper bounds. the common gray cut-worm will often eat the young tender shoots of the vine, and draw them into the ground below. wherever this is perceived the rascal can easily be found by digging for him under some of the loose clods of ground below the vine, and should be destroyed without mercy. [illustration: fig. . delaware.--_berries / diameter_.] small worms, belonging to the family of leaf-folders, some of them whitish gray, some bluish green, will in spring make their webs among the young, downy leaves at the end of the shoots, eating the young bunches or buttons, and the leaves. these can be destroyed when summer pruning for the first time. look close for them, as they are very small; yet very destructive if let alone. a small, gray beetle, of about the size and color of a hemp-seed, will often eat a hole into the bud, when it is just swelling, and thus destroy it. he is very shy, and will drop from the vine as soon as you come near him. it is a good plan to spread a newspaper under the vine, and then shake it, when he will drop on the paper and can be caught. another bug, of about the size of a fly, gray, with round black specks, will sometimes pay us a visit. they will come in swarms, and eat the upper side of the leaves, leaving only the skeletons. they are very destructive, devouring every leaf, as far as they go; they can also be shaken off on a paper or sheet spread under the vine. the thrip, a small, rather three-cornered, whitish-green insect, has of late been very troublesome, as they eat the under side of the leaves of some varieties, especially the delaware and norton's virginia, when the leaf will show rusty specks on the surface, and finally drop off. it has been recommended to go through the vineyard at night, one man carrying a lighted torch, and the other beating the vines, when they will fly into the flame, and be burnt. they are a great annoyance, and have defoliated whole vineyards here last fall. another leaf-folder makes his appearance about mid-summer, making its web on the leaf, drawing it together, and then devouring his own house. it is a small, greenish, and very active worm, who, if he "smells a rat," will drop out of his web, and descend to the ground in double-quick time. i know of no other plan, than to catch him and crush his web between the finger and thumb. the aphis, or plant louse, often covers the young shoots of the vine, sucking its juices. when a shoot is attacked by them, it will be best to take it off and crush them under your feet, as the shoot is apt to be sickly afterwards, any way. the grape vine sphynx will be found occasionally. it is a large, green worm, with black dots, and very voracious. fortunately, it is not numerous, and can easily be found and destroyed. there are also several caterpillars--the yellow bear, the hog caterpillar, and the blue caterpillar, which will feed upon the leaves. the only remedy i know against them is hand picking, but they have not as yet been very numerous, nor very destructive. wasps are sometimes very troublesome when the fruit ripens, stinging the berries and sucking the juice. a great many can be caught by hanging up bottles, with a little molasses, which they will enter, and get stuck in the molasses. birds. these are sometimes very troublesome at the time of ripening, and especially the oriole is a "hard customer," as he will generally dip his bill into every berry; often ruining a fine bunch, or a number of them, in a short time. i have therefore been compelled to wage a war upon some of the feathered tribe, although they are my especial favorites, and i cannot see a bird's nest robbed. however, there are some who do not visit the vineyard, except for the purpose of destroying our grapes, and these can not complain if we "won't stand it any longer," but take the gun, and retaliate on them. the oriole, the red bird, thrush, and cat bird are among the number, and although i would like to spare the latter three, in thankful remembrance of many a gratuitous concert, the first must take his chance of powder and lead, for the little rascal is too aggravating. a few dry bushes, raised above the trellis will serve as their resting place before they commence their work of destruction, where they can be easily killed. frosts. although our winters are seldom severe enough to destroy the hardy varieties, yet they will often fatally injure such half hardy varieties as the herbemont and cunningham, and the severe winter of ,-' , killed even the catawba, down to the snow line, and severely injured the norton's virginia, and even the concord. fortunately, such winters occur but rarely, and even in localities where the vines are often destroyed by the severe cold in winter, this should deter no one from growing grapes, as, with very little extra labor he can protect them, and bring them safely through the winter. i always cover my tender varieties, in fact, all that i feel not quite safe to leave out, even in severe winters, in the following manner: the vines are properly pruned in the fall; then select a somewhat rainy day, when the canes will bend more easily. one man goes through the rows, and bends the canes to the ground along the trellis, while another follows with the spade, and throws earth enough on them to hold them in their places. afterwards, i run a plough through the rows, and cover them up completely. in the spring when all danger from frost is over, i take a so-called spading fork, and lift the vines. the entire cost of covering an acre of grape vines and taking them up again in spring, will not exceed $ ; surely a trifling expense, if we can thereby ensure a full crop. we have thus a protection against the cold in winter, but i know none against early frosts, in fall, and late spring frosts; and the grape grower should therefore avoid all localities where they are prevalent. the immediate neighborhood of large streams, or lakes, will generally save the grape grower from their disastrous influence; and our summers, here, along the banks of the missouri river, are in reality full two months longer than they are in the low, small valleys, only four to six miles off. let the grape grower, in choosing a locality, look well to this, and avoid the hills along these narrow valleys. either choose a location sufficiently elevated, to be beyond their influence, or, what is better still, choose it on the bluffs above our large streams; where the atmosphere, even in the heat of summer, will never become too dry for the health of the vine. it is a sad spectacle to see the hopes of a whole summer frustrated by one cold night; to see the vines which promised an abundant crop but the day before, browned and wilted beyond all hopes of recovery, and the cheerless prospect before you, that it may occur every spring; or to see the finest crop of grapes, when just ripening, scorched and wilted by just one night's frost, fit for nothing but vinegar. therefore, look well to this, when you choose the site of your vineyard, and rather pay five times the price for a location free from frost, than for the richest farm along the so-called creek bottoms, or worse still, sloughs of stagnant water. girdling the vine to hasten maturity. the practice of girdling to induce early ripening is supposed to have been invented by col. buchatt, of metz, in . he claimed for it that it would also greatly improve the quality of the fruit, as well as hasten maturity. that it accomplishes the latter, cannot be denied; it also seems to increase the size of the berries, but i hardly think the fruit can compare in flavor with a well developed bunch, ripened in the natural way. as it may be of practical value to those who grow grapes for the market, enabling them to supply their customers a week earlier at least, and also make the fruit look better, and be of interest to the amateur cultivator, i will describe the operation for their benefit. [illustration: fig. norton's virginia--_berries / diameter._] it can be performed either on wood of the same season's growth, or on that of last year, but in any case only upon such as can be pruned away the next fall. if you desire to affect the fruit of a whole arm or cane, cut away a ring of bark by passing your knife all around it, and making another incision from a quarter to half an inch above the first, taking out the intermediate piece of bark clean, down to the wood. it should be performed immediately after the fruit is set. the bunches of fruit above the incision will become larger, and the fruit ripen and color finely, from a week to ten days before the fruit on the other canes. of course, the cane thus girdled, cannot be used for the next season, and must be cut away entirely. the result seems to be the consequence of an obstruction to the downward flow of the sap, which then develops the fruit much faster. ripening can also be hastened by planting against the south side of a wall or board fence, when the reflection of the rays of the sun will create a greater degree of warmth. but nothing can be so absurd and unnatural than the practice of some, who will take away the leaves from the fruit, to hasten its ripening. the leaves are the lungs of the plants; the conductors and elevators of sap; and nothing can be more injurious than to take them away from the fruit at the very time when they are most needed. the consequence of such an unwise course will be the wilting and withering of the bunches, and, should they ripen at all, they will be deficient in flavor. good fruit must ripen _in the shade_, only thus will it attain its full perfection. another practice very injurious to the vines is still in practice in some vineyards, and cannot be too strongly condemned. it is the so-called "cutting in" of the young growth in august. those who practice it, seem to labor under the misapprehension that the young canes, after they have reached the top of the trellis, and are of the proper length and strength for their next year's crop, do not need that part of the young growth beyond these limits any more, and that all the surplus growth is "of evil." under the influence of this idea they arm themselves with a villainous looking thing called a bill-hook, and cut and slash away at the young growth unmercifully, taking away one-half of the leaves and young wood at one fell swoop. the consequence is a stagnation of sap: the wood they have left, cannot, and ought not to ripen perfectly, and if anything like a cold winter follows, the vines will either be killed entirely, or very much injured at least. the intelligent vine dresser will tie his young canes, away from the bearing wood as much as he can, to give the fruit the fullest ventilation; but when they have reached the top of the trellis, tie them along it and let them ramble as they please. they will thus form a natural roof over the fruit, keep off all injurious dews, and shade the grapes from above. there is nothing more pleasing to the eye than a vineyard in september, with its wealth of dark green foliage above, and its purple clusters of fruit beneath, coyly peeping from under their leafy covering. such grapes will have an exquisite bloom, and color, as well as thin skin and rich flavor, which those hanging in the scorching rays of the sun can never attain. manuring the vine. as remarked before, this will seldom be necessary, if the vintner is careful enough to guard against washing of the top-soil, and to turn under all leaves, etc., with the plow in the fall. the best manure is undoubtedly fresh surface soil from the woods. should the vines, however, show a material decrease in vigor, it may become necessary to use a top-dressing of decomposed leaves, ashes, bone-dust, charcoal, etc. fresh stable-yard manure i would consider the last, and only to be used when nothing better can be obtained. turn under with the plow, as soon as the manure is spread. nothing, i think, is more injurious than the continual drenching with slops, dish-water, etc., which some good souls of housewives are fond of bestowing on their pet grape vines in the garden. it creates a rank, unwholesome growth, and will cause mildew and rot, if anything can. thinning of the fruit. this will sometimes be necessary, to more fully develop the bunches. the best thinning is the reduction of the number of bunches at the time of the first summer pruning. if a vine shows more fruit, than the vine dresser thinks it can well ripen, take away all weak and imperfect shoots, and also all the small and imperfect bunches. if the number of bunches on the fruit bearing branches is reduced to two on each, it will be no injury, but make the remaining number of bunches so much more perfect. thinning out the berries on the bunches, although it will serve to make the remaining berries more perfect and larger, is still a very laborious process, and will hardly be followed to any extent in vineyards, although it can well be practised on the few pet vines of the amateur, and will certainly heighten the beauty of the bunches and berries. renewing old vines. should a vine become old and feeble, it can be renewed by layering. the vine is prepared in the following manner: prune all the old wood away, leaving but one of the most vigorous of your canes; then dig a trench from the vine along the trellis, say three feet long, eight inches deep; into this bend down the old vine, stump, head and all, fastening it down with a strong hook, if necessary, letting the end of the young cane come out about three eyes above the ground, and fill up with rich, well pulverized soil. the vine will make new roots at every joint, and become vigorous, and, so to say, young, again. some recommend this process for young vines, the first year after planting; but if good plants have been chosen and planted, it will not be necessary. feeble and poor plants may need this process, but if plants have good strong roots when planted, (and _only_ such should be planted when they can be obtained), they will not be benefited by it. a few necessary improvements. _pruning shears._ these are very handy, and with them the work can be done quicker, and with less labor, as but a slight pressure of the hand will cut a strong vine. fig. will show the shape of one for heavy pruning. they are made by j. t. henry, hampden, connecticut, and can be had in almost all hardware stores. the springs should be of brass, as steel springs are very apt to break. a much lighter and smaller kind, with but one spring, is very convenient for gathering grapes, as it will cut the stem easily and smoothly, and not shake the vine, as cutting with the knife will do. they are also handy to clip out unripe and rotten berries, and should be generally used instead of knives. [illustration: fig. ] _pruning saws._ it will sometimes be necessary to use these, to cut out old stumps, etc., although, if a vine is well managed, it will seldom be necessary. fig. will show a kind which is very convenient for the purpose, and will also serve for orchard pruning; the blade is narrow, connected with the handle, and can be turned in any direction. [illustration: fig. .] gathering the fruit for market. in this, the vineyardist, of course, only aims at profit, and for that purpose the grapes are often gathered when they are hardly colored--long before they are really ripe--because the public will generally buy them at a high price. let us hope, however, that better taste will in time prevail, and that even a majority of the public will learn to appreciate the difference between ripe and unripe fruit. i would advise my readers at least to wait until the fruit is fully and evenly colored; for it is our duty to do all we can to correct this vicious leaning towards swallowing unripe fruit, which is so prevalent in this nation, and the producer will not lose anything either, because his fruit will look much better, it will therefore bring the same price which half ripened fruit would have brought, even a week sooner, and will weigh heavier. every grape will generally color full two weeks before it is fully ripe; and as they are one of the fruits that will not ripen _after_ they are gathered, they will shrivel and look indifferent if gathered before. to ship them to market any distance, they should be packed in low, shallow boxes, say six inches high, so that they will hold about two layers of grapes. cut the branches carefully, with as long a stem as possible, for more convenient handling, taking care to preserve all the bloom, and clipping out all the unripe berries. they are generally weighed in the basket before packing. now put a layer of vine leaves on the bottom of the box; then make a layer of grapes, laying them as close as possible; then put a layer of leaves over them; on them put another layer of grapes, filling up evenly; then spread leaves rather thickly over them, and nail on the cover. the box should be perforated with holes, to admit some air. the grapes must be perfectly dry when gathered, and the box should be well filled to prevent shaking and bruising. preserving the fruit. for this purpose, the fruit must be thoroughly ripe. when fully ripe, the stem will turn brown, and shrivel somewhat. the fruit is then carefully gathered, and laid upon a dry floor, or shelves, for a day or two, so that some of the moisture will evaporate. they can then be packed in boxes, in about the same manner as described before, but paper will be better than leaves for this purpose. they are then put away on shelves, in an airy room, which must, however, be free from frost, in an even temperature of from ° to °. they should be examined from time to time, and the decayed berries taken out. they may thus be kept for several months. gathering the fruit to make wine. for this purpose, the grapes should hang as long as it is safe to allow them; for it will make a very material difference in the quality of the wine, as the water will evaporate, and only the sugar remain; and the flavor or the bouquet will only be fully developed in fully ripened fruit. for gathering, use clean tin or wooden pails; cut the stems as short as possible, and clip or pinch out all unripe or rotten berries, leaving none but fully ripe berries on the bunch. the further process will be described under "wine making." varieties of grapes. i would here, again remark, that i consider the question of "what to plant" as chiefly a local one, for which i do not presume to lay down fixed rules; but which every one must, to a certain extent, determine for himself, by visiting vineyards as nearly similar in soil and location to the one he intends to plant, and then closely observing the habits of the varieties after planting. only thus can we obtain certain results; not by following blindly in the footsteps of so-called authorities, who may live a hundred, or a thousand miles from us, and whose success with certain varieties, on soil entirely different from ours, under different atmospheric influences, can by no means be taken by us as evidence of our success under other circumstances. class .--_varieties most generally used._ concord. originated with mr. e. bull, of concord, mass. this variety seems to be the choice of the majority throughout the country, and however much opinions may differ about its quality, nobody seems to question its hardiness, productiveness, health and value as a market fruit. here it is of very good quality--and our eastern brethren have no idea what a really well ripened missouri grown concord grape is. it seems to become better the further it is grown west and south; an observation which i think applies with equal force to the hartford prolific, norton's virginia, herbemont and others. bunch large, heavy shouldered--somewhat compact; berries large, round, black, with blue bloom; buttery, sweet and rich _here_, when well ripened; with very thin skin and tender pulp. a strong and vigorous grower; with healthy, hardy foliage; free from mildew, and but slightly subject to rot; succeeds well in almost any soil; and is, so far, the most profitable grape we grow. a fine market fruit, and also makes a fine, light red wine, which is generally preferred to the catawba. can be easily grown from cuttings. norton's virginia, (norton's seedling, virginia seedling). originated by dr. n. norton, of richmond, virginia. this grape has opened a new era in american grape culture, and every successive year but adds to its reputation. while the wine of the catawba is often compared to hock, in the wine of norton's virginia, we have one of an entirely different character; and it is a conceded fact that the best red wines of europe are surpassed by the norton as an astringent, dark red wine, of great body, fine flavor, and superior medical quality. vine vigorous and hardy, productive; starting a week later in the spring than the catawba, yet coloring a week sooner; and will succeed in almost any soil, although producing the richest wine in warm, southern aspects. bunches medium, compact; berries small, black, sweet and rich; with dark bluish red juice; only moderately juicy. healthy in all locations, as far as i know, but i doubt its utility in the east, as i do not think the summers warm and long enough. seems to attain its greatest perfection in missouri, but is universally esteemed in the west. very difficult to propagate, as it will hardly grow from cuttings in open air. [illustration: fig. . herbemont.--_berries / diameter._] herbemont (herbemont madeira, warren). origin uncertain. wherever this noble grape will succeed and fully ripen, it is hard to find a better, for table, as well as for wine. its home seems to be the south; and i think it will become one of the leading varieties, as soon as the new order of things has been fully established, and free, intelligent labor has taken the place of the drudging, dull toil of the slave. it is particularly fond of warm, southern exposures, with light limestone soil, and it would be useless to plant it on soil retentive of moisture. bunch long, large shouldered and compact; berry medium, black, with blue bloom--"bags of wine," as downing fitly calls them; skin thin, sweet flesh, without pulp, juicy and high flavored, never clogs the palate; fine for the table, and makes an excellent wine, which should be pressed immediately after mashing the grapes, when it will be white, and of an exquisite flavor; generally ripens about same time as catawba. a very vigorous and healthy grower, but tender in rich soils, and should be protected in winter. extremely productive. hartford prolific. raised by mr. steel, of hartford, conn.: hardy, vigorous and productive; bunch large, shouldered, rather compact; berry full medium, globular, with a perceptible foxy flavor; skin thick, black, covered with blue bloom; flesh sweet, juicy; much better here than at the east; of very fair quality for its time of ripening; hangs well to the bunch here, although said to drop at the east. for market, this is perhaps as profitable as any variety known, as it ripens very early and uniformly, producing immense crops. i have made wine from it, which, although not of very high character, yet ranks as fair. clinton. origin uncertain; from western new york; vigorous, hardy and productive; free from disease; bunch medium, long and narrow, generally shouldered, compact; berry medium, roundish oblong, black, covered with bloom; juicy; somewhat acid; colors early, but should hang late to become thoroughly ripe; brisk vinous flavor, but somewhat of the aroma of the frost grape; makes a dark red wine, of good body, and much resembling claret, but not equal to norton's virginia, or even the concord, in my estimation. although safe and reliable, i think it has lately been over praised as a wine grape, and as it is a very long, straggling grower, it is one of the hardest vines to keep under control. propagates with the greatest ease. delaware. first disseminated and made known to the public by mr. a. thompson, of delaware, ohio. this is claimed by many to be the best american grape; and although i am inclined to doubt this, and prefer, for my taste, a well ripened herbemont, it is certainly a very fine fruit. unfortunately, it is very particular in its choice of soil and location, and it seems as if there are very few locations at the west where it will succeed. whoever has a location, however, where it will grow vigorously and hold its leaves, will do well to plant it almost exclusively, as it makes a wine of very high character, and is very productive. a light, warm soil seems to be the first requisite, and the bluffs on the north side of the missouri river seem to be peculiarly adapted to it, while it will not flourish on those on the south side. bunch small, compact, and generally shouldered; berry below medium, round; skin thin, of a beautiful flesh-color, covered with a lilac bloom; very translucent; pulp sweet and tender, vinous and delicious; wood very firm; short-jointed; somewhat difficult to propagate, though not so much so as norton's virginia. subject in many locations, to leaf-blight, and is _there_ a very slow grower. fine for the table, and makes an excellent white wine, equal to, if not superior, to the best rhenish wines, which sells readily at from five to six dollars per gallon. although i cannot recommend it for general cultivation, it should be tried every where, and planted extensively where it will succeed. ripens about five days later than hartford prolific. class .--_healthy varieties promising well_. cynthiana (red river). origin unknown--said to come from arkansas. this grape promises fair to become a dangerous rival to norton's virginia, which variety it resembles so closely in wood and foliage, that it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish it from that variety. the bunch and berry are of the same color as norton's virginia, but somewhat larger, and more juicy; sweeter, with not quite as much astringency, and perhaps a few days earlier. makes an excellent dark red wine, with not as much astringency, but even more delicate aroma, and was pronounced the "best red wine on exhibition," at the last meeting of the state horticultural society, where it was in competition with eight samples of the norton's virginia. a strong grower, and productive; as difficult to propagate as the norton. mr. fuller evidently has not the true variety, when he calls it worthless, and identical with the chippewa and missouri, from both of which it is entirely distinct. arkansas. closely resembles the foregoing, and will also make an excellent wine of a similar character. i consider both of these varieties as great acquisitions, as they are perfectly healthy, very productive, and will make a wine unsurpassed in merit by any of their class. taylor (bullitt.) this grape, under proper treatment, has proved very productive with me, and will make a wine of very high quality. the bunches and berries are small, it is true; but not much more so than the delaware; it also sets its fruit well, and as it is hardy, healthy, and a strong grower, it promises to be one of our leading wine grapes. bunches small, but compact, shouldered; berry small; white at the east; pale flesh-color here; round, sweet, and without pulp; skin very thin. requires long pruning on spurs, to bring out its fruitfulness. [illustration: fig. . hartford prolific.--_berries / diameter._] martha. this new grape, grown from the seed of the concord, by that enthusiastic and warm-hearted horticulturist, samuel miller, of lebanon, pa., promises to be one of the greatest acquisitions to our list of really hardy and good grapes, which have lately come before the public. it has fruited with me the last extremely unfavorable season, and has stood the hardest test any grape could be put to, without flinching. bunch medium, but compact and heavy, shouldered; berry pale yellow, covered with a white bloom; perhaps a trifle smaller than the concord; round; pulpy, but sweet as honey, with only enough of the foxy aroma to give it character; juicy--very good. i esteem it more highly than any other white grape i have, as it has the healthy habit and vigorous growth of its parent, and promises to make an excellent white wine. hangs to the bunch well, and will ripen some days before the concord. maxatawney. another very promising white grape--a strong grower, and healthy; may be somewhat too late in the east, but will, i think, be valuable at the west and south. bunch medium to large---not shouldered; berry above medium; oval; pale yellow, with a slight amber tint on one side; pulp tender, sweet and sprightly; few seeds; fine aroma; quality, best. ripens about same time as catawba; seems to be productive. rogers' hybrid, no. . this variety, which is also too late in ripening for the east, to be much esteemed there, fruited with me last season, and more than fulfilled all the expectations i entertained of it. it is the best of mr. rogers' hybrids, which i have yet tasted; and its productiveness, healthy habit, large berry, and good quality, makes it one of the most desirable of all the grapes we raise here, for the table and market. bunch medium, loose, shouldered; berry very large, oblong, pale flesh-color; skin thin; pulp tender; few seeds, separating freely from the pulp; sweet, vinous and juicy; quality very good. ripens about same time as catawba. it is to be regretted that mr. rogers has not named some of the best of his hybrids, as the numbers give rise to many mistakes, and a great deal of confusion. it would be in the interest of grape-growing if this was avoided, by naming at least the best of them. creveling, (catawissa) (bloom). this grape, although not quite perhaps so early as has been claimed for it--ripening about five days after hartford prolific--is yet of much better quality; and if it only should prove productive enough, will no doubt make an excellent wine. bunch long, loose, shouldered; berry full medium, black, round, with little bloom; pulp tender; dark juice, sweet and very good--seems to be hardy and healthy. north carolina seedling. bunch large, shouldered, compact; berry large, oblong, black, with blue bloom; pulpy, but sweet and good; ripens only a few days after hartford prolific--very productive, hardy and healthy; strong grower. one of the most showy market grapes we have--not much smaller than union village--and as it ripens evenly, and is of very fair quality, is quite a favorite in the market. makes also a wine of very fair quality. cunningham. for the west, and very likely further south, this is a very desirable grape for wine, of the herbemont class. bunch compact and heavy, sometimes shouldered; berry rather small, black, without pulp, juicy sweet and good; productive, but somewhat tender; strong grower; should be covered in winter; makes a very delicious wine, of the madeira class, which very often remains sweet for a whole year. ripens late, about a week after the catawba. rulander. mr. fuller evidently does not know this grape, as he says it is the same as logan. the rulander we have here, is claimed to be a true foreign variety. i am inclined to think, however, that it is either a seedling from foreign seed, raised in the country, or one of the southern grapes of the herbemont class. be this as it may however, it certainly bears no resemblance to the logan, which is a true fox, of the labrusca family. vine a strong, vigorous, short-jointed grower, with heart-shaped, light green, smooth leaves; very healthy, and more hardy than either the herbemont or cunningham. bunch rather small, very compact, shouldered; berry small, black, without pulp, juicy sweet and delicious; not subject to rot or mildew: makes a delicious, high flavored wine, but not a great deal of it. the wine of this variety is certainly one of the most delicate and valuable ones we have yet made here and on the soil around hermann, it will, i think, take preference over the delaware. ripens a few days later than concord. louisiana (burgunder). introduced here by mr. f. muench, who received it from mr. theard, of louisiana, where it has been cultivated for some time. some claim that it is the grape which makes the famous white burgundy wine of europe. i am inclined to think it is also a native, grown from foreign seed, like the foregoing, which it closely resembles in foliage and wood; but will, i think, make a wine of still higher quality, perhaps the most delicate white wine we yet have. it can hardly be distinguished from the rulander in appearance, but has a more sprightly flavor. ripens at the same time. alvey (hagar). this nice little grape will certainly make one of the most delicious red wines we have, if it can only be raised in sufficient quantity. it is healthy and moderately productive, but a slow grower. bunch loose, small, shouldered; berry small, black, without pulp, juicy, sweet and delicious; quality best. ripens about the same time as the concord. cassady. bunch medium, very compact, shouldered; berry medium, round, greenish-white, covered with white bloom; thick skin, pulpy, but very sweet, and of fine flavor; makes an excellent white wine; very productive, but somewhat subject to leaf-blight in wet seasons; does not rot or mildew. [illustration: fig. . concord.--_berries / diameter._] blood's black. has often been confounded with mary ann, as both varieties were disseminated here, by different persons, under the same name. the true blood's black is a few days later than hartford prolific; bunch heavy and compact, shouldered; berry round, black, full medium, of very fair quality, and an excellent early market grape. the vine is healthy, hardy, and enormously productive. union village. perhaps the largest native grape, of fair quality; bunch large, heavy and compact, shouldered; berry very large, oval, black, with blue bloom, pulpy, but juicy, sweet and good. of better quality here than isabella; tolerably free from disease, and a splendid market and table fruit. ripens rather late. perkins. for those who do not object to a good deal of foxy flavor, this will be a valuable market grape, on account of its earliness, beautiful color, and great productiveness. mr. fuller has evidently not the true variety, as he describes it as a "black grape, sour and worthless." bunch medium, compact, shouldered; berry full medium, oval, flesh-color, with a beautiful lilac bloom; very sweet, pulpy and foxy. ripens at same time with hartford prolific. vine a strong grower, healthy and hardy. clara. for family use, there is at present no grape here at the west, which is superior to this in quality; and although it will not pay to plant largely, either for market or wine, yet no one who can appreciate a really good grape, should be without a few vines of it at least. bunch long, rather loose, shouldered; berry medium, pale yellow, translucent, without pulp, sweet, juicy, and of excellent flavor; vine moderately productive and healthy. ripens with catawba. ives' seedling, (ives' madeira). this variety is recommended so much lately, as a superior grape for red wine, that i will mention it here, although i have not yet fruited it. it was first introduced by col. waring, of hamilton county, ohio, and is said to be free from rot, healthy and vigorous, and to make an excellent red wine, the must having sold from the press at $ to $ per gallon. the following description is from bunches sent me from ohio last fall: bunch medium, compact, shouldered; berry rather below medium, black, oblong, juicy, sweet and well flavored; ripens about the time of the concord. vine vigorous and healthy; said to propagate with the greatest ease; evidently belonging to the labrusca species. we have a seedling here of the norton's virginia, raised by mr. f. langendorfer, of this neighborhood, which promises to be a valuable wine grape for this location. it has not yet been named, and the owner says will never receive a name, unless it proves, in some respect, superior to anything we have yet. he has fruited it twice, and made wine from it the last season, which is of a very high character, resembling madeira, of a brownish-yellow color; splendid flavor, and of great body. the vine is a strong grower, healthy and very productive; bunch long, seldom shouldered, very compact; berry small, black, with blue bloom; only moderately juicy, and ripens a week later than its parent. i am inclined to think that it will be of great value here and further south as a wine grape, although it would ripen too late to suit the climate further north. it may be expected here that i should speak of the iona, israella, and adirondac, as many, and good authorities too, think they will be very valuable. the iona and israella have fruited but once with me, last summer, and my experience, therefore, has not been long enough to warrant a decided opinion. as far as it goes, however, it has been decidedly unfavorable. my iona vine set about twenty five bunches, but mildewed and rotted so badly, that i hardly saved as many berries. it may improve in time, but i hardly think it will do for our soil; whatever it may do for others--and i cannot put it down as "promising well." it is a grape of fine quality, _where it will succeed_. the israella stood the climate and bad weather bravely, but ripened at least five days later than the hartford prolific close by, and was not as good in quality as that grape; in fact, the most insipid and tasteless grape i ever tried. they may both improve, however, upon closer acquaintance, or be better in other locations. here, i do not feel warranted in praising them, and a description will hardly be needed, as their originator has taken good care to so fully bring their merits, real or imaginary, before the grape-growing community, that it would be superfluous for me to describe them. the adirondac i saw and much admired at the east, in ; and if its originator, mr. bailey, had only been liberal enough to furnish me with a scion of two eyes, for which i offered to pay him at the rate of a dollar per eye, i would, perhaps, be able to report about it. instead of the scion, he sent me a dried up vine, which had no life in it when i received it, and in consequence of these disadvantages, i have not been able to fruit it yet. it seems to be healthy and vigorous, however; and should the quality of the fruit be the same as at the east, may be a valuable acquisition. on this list i have only mentioned those which have fruited here from four to five years, with very few exceptions, and which have generally, during that time, proved successful. to fully warrant the recommendation of a grape for general cultivation i think, we should have fruited it at least five or six years; and although there are many on this list which i should not hesitate to plant largely, yet i have preferred to be rather a little over cautious than too sanguine. class .--_healthy varieties, but inferior in quality._ minor seedling, (venango). this grape has attracted some attention lately--some persons claiming for it superior qualities as a _wine_ grape, even classing it with the delaware, a statement which i cannot believe. it is a rank fox, and i can therefore hardly think it will make a wine to suit a fastidious palate. bunch medium, very compact, sometimes shouldered; berry full medium, pale red, round, sweet, but very pulpy and foxy. ripens later than catawba; is very productive, vigorous and healthy--not subject to rot. [illustration: fig. . creveling.--_berries / diameter._] mary ann. the earliest grape we have--healthy, hardy and productive--but in point of quality, a rather poor isabella, which it much resembles. bunch full medium, moderately compact, shouldered; berry medium, oval, black, pulpy, with a good deal of acidity, and strong flavor. ripens about four to five days before the hartford prolific, but is much inferior to that variety in quality. northern muscadine. very productive and healthy, but too foxy, and liable to drop from the bunch when ripe. bunch medium, compact, sometimes shouldered; berry round, brown, sweet, very foxy--pulpy. ripens about five days later than hartford prolific. logan. ripens about same time with hartford prolific--but rather inferior in quality. bunch long, loose, shouldered; berry medium, oval; resembling isabella. brown. resembling isabella, but more free from disease; good grower and productive; will suit those who like the isabella. hyde's eliza, (canby's august). bunch medium, compact; berry medium, round, black, juicy; rather pleasant, but unproductive, and of little value, where better varieties can be had. marion port. resembles the foregoing; may, perhaps, make a better wine, but cannot be recommended. poeschel's mammoth. grown here, from seed of the mammoth catawba, by mr. michael poeschel. bunch medium, compact, sometimes shouldered; berry very large, round, pale red, pulpy; rather deficient in flavor, but very large; free from disease. ripens a week later than catawba. cape (alexander, schuylkill muscadell). bunch rather small, compact; berry medium, black, round, pulpy, rather sweet, dark juice. said to make a good red wine, but my experience has not been favorable. ripens late--a week after the catawba. dracut amber. a fox grape, pale red, pulpy, inferior in quality and color to perkins, which it closely resembles; ripens about same time. elsinburgh, (missouri bird's eye). this old variety was largely disseminated under the latter name, by nicholas longworth, of cincinnati. it is a nice little grape; but too unproductive to be of any value here, although it makes a very superior wine. bunch long and loose, shouldered; berry small, round, black, moderately juicy, with little pulp, sweet and good. ripens a week before the catawba. garber's albino. a grape of very fair quality, and rather early, but a shy bearer. bunch small, rather loose; berry medium, pale yellow, sweet and good. franklin. a strong grower; said to be very productive; resembling clinton in foliage and general habit. bunch small, compact; berry below medium, black, juicy, with a marked frost grape flavor, and hardly worthy of cultivation. lenoir. of the herbemont class, but about a week earlier; of good quality, but too unproductive to be recommended. bunch medium, compact, shouldered; berry small, round, black, sweet and good. north america. early and hardy, but too unproductive, and bunch too small. bunch small, shouldered; berry round; of very good quality for its season; black, juicy. ripens as early as hartford prolific. class .--_varieties of good quality, but subject to disease._ catawba. this well known grape was brought into notice by major adlum, of georgetown, d.c., who thought he had, by its introduction, conferred a greater boon upon the american people, than if he had paid the national debt. for the last ten years, it has been so much subject to disease, that it cannot be recommended any longer, except for some peculiar locations. it is said to be healthy in northern illinois and iowa, where it will not stand the winter, however, without protection. bunch large, moderately compact, shouldered; berry medium, red, covered with lilac bloom; juicy, pulpy, sweet, somewhat astringent, of good flavor. a fair grape for the table, and makes a good wine, resembling hock, but subject to mildew, rot and leaf-blight. diana. a seedling of the foregoing, raised by mrs. diana crehore. perhaps one of the most variable of all the grapes, being very fine one season, and very indifferent the next. bunch large and long, compact, shouldered; berry pale red, round, somewhat pulpy; thick skin; juicy and sweet, with a peculiar flavor, which dr. warder very aptly calls "feline;" others call it "delicate." very productive, but subject to leaf-blight, mildew and rot; although perhaps not so much as the catawba. ripens about a week earlier. isabella. unworthy of cultivation here, but said to be better at the north. bunch long, loose, shouldered; berry medium, oval, black; tough pulp, with a good deal of acidity, juicy, and a peculiar flavor. ripens irregularly. subject to rot and leaf-blight. garrigues. closely resembling the isabella, but ripens more evenly, and is of somewhat better quality. tokalon. bunch large, loose, shouldered; berry black, large, sweet and buttery; of very good quality, but very much subject to disease. ripens somewhat later than catawba. anna. bunch large and loose; berry pale amber, covered with white bloom; sweet, tolerable flavor, but poor bearer, and subject to mildew. ripens about same time as catawba. allen's hybrid, (allen's white hybrid). bunch large and loose, shouldered; berry medium, nearly round; white, without pulp, juicy and delicious; quality very good, but variable; sometimes best. said to be a hybrid of vitis labrusca and a foreign grape, raised by j. f. allen, salem, massachusetts, and is really a fine grape, although too tender and variable for extensive vineyard culture. ripens about two weeks before catawba. cuyahoga (coleman's white). much recommended in ohio, where it originated, but unworthy of culture here, being a poor grower, a shy bearer and very much subject to leaf-blight. bunch medium, compact; berry dirty greenish-white; thick skin; pulpy, and insipid. devereaux. this is, in dry seasons, a really fine grape, but subject to leaf-blight and mildew in hot seasons. bunch often a foot long, loose, shouldered; berry below medium, round, black, juicy; without pulp, sweet and vinous. belonging to the herbemont family; is a strong grower; very productive, and rather tender. may be valuable in well drained soils, and southern climate, as it undoubtedly will make a fine wine. kingsessing. bunch long and loose, large, shouldered; berry medium, round, pale red, with fine lilac bloom; pulpy; of fair quality, but subject to leaf-blight, and mildew. rogers' hybrid, no. . bunch large, loose, shouldered; berry above medium, red with blue bloom, roundish-oblong, pulpy, with peculiar flavor, sweet and juicy. a showy grape, but not very good in quality, and much subject to mildew and rot. ripens at the same time with catawba. class .--_varieties unworthy of cultivation._ oporto. of all the humbugs ever perpetrated upon the grape-growing public, this is one of the most glaring. the vine, although a rank and healthy grower, is unproductive; seldom setting more than half a dozen berries on a bunch, and these are so sour, have such a hard pulp, with such a decided frost-grape taste and flavor, and are so deficient in juice, that no sensible man should think of making them into wine, much less call it, as its disseminator did, "the true port wine grape." massachusetts white. this was sent me some eight years ago, by b. m. watson, as "the best and hardiest white grape in cultivation," and he charged me the moderate sum of $ each, for small pot plants, with hardly two eyes of ripened wood. after careful nursing of three years, i had the pleasure of seeing my labors rewarded by a moderate crop of the vilest _red_ fox grapes it has ever been my ill luck to try. the foregoing have all been tried by me, and have been characterized and classified as i have found them _here_. the following are varieties i have not fruited yet, although i have them on trial. varieties highly recommended by good authorities: telegraph, black hawk, rogers' hybrids, nos. , , , , , , , , , hettie, lydia, charlotte, mottled, pauline, wilmington, cotaction and miles. there are innumerable other varieties, for which their originators all claim peculiar merits, and some of whom may prove valuable. but all who bring new varieties before the public, should consider that we have already names enough, nay, more than are good for us, and that it is useless to swell the list still more, unless we can do so with a variety, superior in some respects to our best varieties. a new grape, to claim favor at the hands of the public, should be healthy, hardy, a good grower, and productive; and of superior quality, either for the table or for wine. there are some varieties circulated throughout the country as natives, which are really nothing but foreign varieties, or, perhaps, raised from foreign seed. they will not succeed in open air, although now and then they will ripen a bunch. the brinkle, canadian chief, child's superb, and el paso belong to this class. a really good _table_ grape should have a large amount of sugar, but tempered and made more agreeable by a due proportion of acid, as, if the acid is wanting, it will taste insipid; a tender pulp, agreeable flavor, a large amount of juice, a good sized bunch, large berry, small seeds, thin skin, and hang well to the bunch. a good _wine_ grape should have a large amount of sugar, with the acid in due proportion, a distinctive flavor or aroma; though not so strong as to become disagreeable, and for red wines a certain amount of astringency. it is an old vintner's rule, that the varieties with small berries will generally make the best wine, as they are generally richer in sugar, and have more character than varieties with larger berries. [illustration: fig. . clara.--_berries / diameter._] wine-making. gathering the grapes. although i have described the process already, i will here again reiterate that the grapes should be thoroughly _ripe_. this does not simply mean that they are well colored. the concord generally begins to color here the th of august, and we could gather the majority of our grapes, of that variety, for market, by the th or th of that month; but for wine-making we allow them to hang until the th or th of september, and sometimes into october. thus only do we get the full amount of sugar and delicacy of aroma which that grape is capable of developing, as the water evaporates, and the sugar remains; it also loses nearly all the acidity from its pulp; and the latter, which is so tough and hard immediately after coloring, nearly all dissolves and becomes tender. the best evidences of a grape being thoroughly ripe are: st. the stem turns brown, and begins to shrivel; nd, the berry begins to shrivel around the stem; d, thin and transparent skin; th, the juice becomes very sweet, and sticks to the finger like honey or molasses, after handling the grapes for some time. it is often the case that some bunches ripen much later on the vines. in such a case, the ripest should be gathered first, and those that are not fully ripe remain on the vines until mature. they will ripen much quicker if the ripest bunches have been removed first. the first implements needed for the gathering are clean wooden and tin pails and sharp knives, or better still, the small shears spoken of in a former part of this work. each gatherer is provided with a pail, or two may go together, having a pail each, so that one can empty and the other keep filling during the time. if there are a good many unripe berries on the bunches, they may be put into a separate pail, and all that are soft will give an inferior wine. the bunch is cut with as short a stem as possible, as the stem contains a great deal of acid and astringency; every unripe or decayed berry is picked out, so that nothing but perfectly sound, ripe berries remain. [illustration: fig. .] the next implement that we need is a wooden tub or vat, to carry the grapes to the mill; or the wagon, if the vineyard is any distance from the cellar. this is made of thin boards, half-inch pine lumber generally; feet high inside, inches wide at the bottom, inches wide at the top, being flat on one side, where it is carried on the back, and bound with thin iron hoops. it is carried by two leather-straps running over the shoulders, as shown in fig. , and should contain about eight to ten pails, or a little over two bushels of grapes. the carrier can pass easily through the rows with it to any part of the vineyard, and lean it against a post until full. if the vineyard is close to the cellar or press-house, the grapes can be carried to it directly; if too far, we must provide a long tub or vat, to place on the wagon, into which the grapes are emptied. i will here again repeat that the utmost cleanliness should be observed in _all_ the apparatus; and no tub or vat should be used that is in the least degree mouldy. everything should be perfectly sweet and clean, and a strict supervision kept up, that the laborers do not drop any crumbs of bread, &c., among the grapes, as this will immediately cause acetous fermentation. the weather should be dry and fair, and the grapes dry when gathered. the wine-cellar. as the wine-cellar and press-house are generally built together, i will also describe them together. a good cellar should keep about an even temperature in cold and warm weather, and should, therefore, be built sufficiently deep, arched over with stone, well ventilated, and kept dry. where the ground is hilly, a northern or northwestern slope should be chosen, as it is a great convenience, if the entrance can be made even with the ground. its size depends, of course, upon the quantity of wine to be stored. i will here give the dimensions of one i am constructing at present, and which is calculated to store from , to , gallons of wine. the principal cellar will be feet long, by - / feet wide inside, and feet high under the middle of the arch. this will be divided into two compartments; the back one, at the farthest end of the cellar, to be feet, which is destined to keep old wine of former vintages; as it is the deepest below the ground, it will keep the coolest temperature. it is divided from the front compartment by a wall and doors, so that it can be shut off should it become necessary to heat the other, while the must is fermenting. the other compartment will be feet long, and is intended for the new wine, as the temperature will be somewhat higher, and, therefore, better adapted to the fermentation of the must. this will be provided with a stove, so that the air can be warmed, if necessary, during fermentation. this will also be closed by folding doors, - / feet wide. there will be about six ventilators, or air-flues, on each side of these two cellars, built in the wall, constructed somewhat like chimneys, commencing at the bottom, whose upper terminus is about two feet above the arch, and closed with a grate and trap-doors, so that they can be closed and opened at will, to admit air and light. before this principal cellar is an arched entrance, twenty feet long inside, also closed by folding doors, and as wide as the principal cellar. this will be very convenient to store empty casks, and can also be used as a fermenting room in fall, should it be needed. the arch of the principal cellar will be covered with about six feet of earth; the walls of the cellar to be two feet thick. the press-house will be built above the cellar, over its entire length, and will also be divided into two rooms. the part farthest from the entrance of the cellar, to be feet by , will be the press-house proper, with folding doors on both sides, about the middle of the building, and even with the surface ground, so that a wagon can pass in on one side and out on the other. this will contain the grape-mill, wine-presses, apparatus for stemming, and fermenting vats for white or light-colored wine. the other part, feet long, will contain an apparatus for distilling, the casks and vats to store the husks for distilling, and the vats to ferment very dark colored wines on the husks, should it be necessary. it will also be used as a shop, contain a stove, and be floored, so that it will be convenient, in wet and cold weather, to cut cuttings, &c. a large cistern, to be built on one side of the building, so that the necessary water for cleaning casks, &c., will be handy; with a force-pump, will complete the arrangement. i need hardly add here, that the whole cellar should be paved with flags or brick, and well drained, so that it will be perfectly dry. this cellar is destined to hold two rows of casks, five feet long, on each side. for this purpose layers of strong beams are provided, upon which the casks are laid in such a manner that they are about two feet from the ground, fronting to the middle, and at least a foot or eighteen inches of space allowed between them and the wall, so that a man can conveniently pass and examine them. this will leave five and a-half to six feet of space between the two rows, to draw off the wine, move casks, _&c_. this cellar will, at the present rates of work, cost about $ , . of course, the cellar, as before remarked, can be built according to the wants of the grape-grower. for merely keeping wine during the first winter, a common house cellar will do; but during the hot days of summer wine will not keep well in it. apparatus for wine-making.--the grape mill and press. this mill can be made very simple, of two wooden rollers, fastened in a square frame, running against each other, and turned with a crank and cog-wheel. the rollers should be about nine inches in diameter, and set far enough apart to mash the berries, but not the seeds and stems. a very convenient apparatus, mill and press, is manufactured by geiss & brosius, belleville, ill., and where the quantity to be made does not exceed , gallons, it will answer every purpose. the mill has stone rollers, which can be set by screws to the proper distance, with a cutting apparatus on top, for apples in making cider, which can be taken off at will. the press is by itself, and consists of an iron screw, coming up through the platform, with a zinc tube around it to prevent the must from coming in contact with it. the platform has a double bottom, the lower one with grooves; the upper consists simply of boards, with grooves through it to allow the must to run through. these boards are held in their places by wooden pegs, and can be taken off at will. a circular hopper, about a foot in diameter, and made of laths screwed to iron rings, with about a quarter of an inch space between them, encloses the zinc tube. the outer frame is constructed in the same way, is about - / feet in diameter, and bound with strong wooden and iron hoops. the mashed grapes are poured into the frame, a close-fitting cover is put on, which is held down by a strong block, and the power is applied by an iron nut just on the top of the screw, with holes in each end to apply strong wooden levers. the apparatus is strong, simple, and convenient, and presses remarkably fast and clean, as the must can run off below, on the outside and also on the inside. the cost of mill and press is about $ , but each can be had separately for $ . if a large amount of grapes are to be pressed, the press should be of much larger dimensions, but may be constructed on the same principle--a strong, large platform, with a strong screw coming through the middle, and a frame made of laths, screwed to a strong wooden frame, through which the must can run off freely, with another frame around the outside of the platform. the must runs off through grooves to the lower side, where it is let off by a spout. it may be large enough to contain a hundred bushels of grapes at a single pressing, for a great deal depends upon the ability of the vintner to press a large amount just at the proper time, when the must has fermented on the husks just as long as he desires it to do. fermenting vats. these should correspond somewhat with the size of the casks we intend to fill; but they are somewhat unhandy if they hold more than, say four hundred gallons. they are made of oak or white pine boards, - / inch thick, bound securely by iron hoops, about three feet high, and, say, five feet wide. the bottom and inside must be worked clean and smooth, to facilitate washing. when the must is to ferment a longer time on the husks, as is often the case in red wines, a false bottom should be provided, for the purpose of holding the husks down below the surface of the must. it is made to fit the size of the vat, and perforated with holes, and held in its place by sticks of two inches square, let into the bottom of the vat, and which go through the false bottom. a hole is bored through them, and the bottom held down by means of a peg passed through this hole. the vat is closed by a tight-fitting cover, through which a hole is bored, large enough to admit a tin tube of about an inch in diameter, to let off the gas. the vats are set high enough above the ground to admit drawing off the must through a faucet near the bottom of the vat. for those grapes which are to be pressed immediately we need no false bottoms or covers for the vats. as fermentation generally progresses very rapidly here, and it is not desirable with most of our wines to ferment them on the husks very long, as they generally have astringency enough, operations here are much more simple than in europe. the must is generally allowed to run into a large funnel, filled with oat straw, and passes through a hose into the casks in the cellar. a hole can be left through the arch for that purpose, as it is much more convenient than to carry the must in buckets from the press into the casks. it is sometimes desirable to stem the grapes, although it is seldom practiced in this country. this can be easily done by passing the bunches rapidly over a grooved board, made somewhat in the form of a common washboard, only the grooves should be round at the bottom and the edges on top. it is seldom desirable here. the wine casks. these should be made of well-seasoned white oak staves, and can, of course, be of various sizes to meet the wants of the vintner. the best and most convenient size for cellar use i have found to be about gallons. these are sufficiently large to develop the wine fully, and yet can be filled quick enough to not interrupt fermentation. of course, the vintner must have some of all sizes, even down to the five-gallon keg; but for keeping wine, a cask of gallons takes less room comparatively, and the wine will attain a higher degree of perfection than in smaller casks. the staves to make such a cask should be about feet long, and - / to inches thick, and be the very best wood to be had. the cask will, when ready, be about as high as it is long, should be carefully worked and planed inside, to facilitate washing and have a so-called door on one end, inches wide and inches high, which is fastened by means of an iron bolt and screw, and a strong bar of wood. this is to facilitate cleaning; when a cask is empty, the door is taken out, and a man slips into the cask with a broom and brush, and carefully washes off all remnants of lees, etc., which, as the lees of the wine are very slimy and tenacious, cannot be removed by merely pouring in water and shaking it about. it is also much more convenient to let these large casks remain in their places, than to move them about. the casks are bound with strong iron hoops. to prepare the new casks, and also the vats, etc., for the reception of the must, they should be either filled with pure water, and allowed to soak for several days, to draw out the tannin; then emptied, scalded with hot water, and afterwards steamed with, say two or three gallons of boiling wine; or they can be made "wine-green," by putting in about half a bushel of unslaked lime, and pouring in about the same quantity of hot water. after the lime has fallen apart, add about two quarts of water to each pound of lime, put in the bung, and turn the cask about; leaving it lie sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, so that the lime will come in contact with every part of the cask. then pour out the lime-water; wash once or twice with warm water, and rinse with a decoction of vine leaves, or with warm wine. then rinse once more with cold water, and it will be fully prepared to receive the must. this is also to be observed with old casks, which have become, by neglect or otherwise, mouldy, or have a peculiar tang. making the wine. as we have our apparatus all prepared now, we can commence the operation itself. this can be done in different ways, according to the class of wine we are about to make. to make white, or light-colored wine, the grapes which were gathered and mashed during the day, can be pressed and put into the cask the following night. to mash them, we place the mill above one of the fermenting vats, mashing them as quick as they are carried or hauled to the press-house. the vat is simply covered with a cloth during the day. if the season has been good, the must will make good wine without the addition of anything else. in poor seasons it will be necessary to add water and sugar, to improve its quality, but i will speak of this method in a separate chapter. in the evening, the must which will run off, is first drawn from the vat, and by some kept separate; but i think, it makes, upon the whole, a better wine, if the pressing is added to it. the husks, or mashed grapes, are then poured upon the press, and pressed until fully dry. to accomplish this the press is opened several times, and the edges of the cake, or "cheese," as some call it, are cut off with an axe or cleaver and put on top, after which they are pressed down again. the casks are then filled with the must; either completely, if it is intended that the must should ferment _above_, as it is called, or _under_, when the cask is not completely filled, so that the husks, which the must will throw up, will remain in the cask. both methods have their advantages, but i prefer the former, with a very simple contrivance, to exclude the air, and also prevent waste. this is a siphon or tin tube, bent in the form of a double elbow, of which one end fits tightly in the bung hole, and the other empties into a dish of water, to be set on one end of the cask, through which the gas escapes, as shown in fig. . we should, however in pressing, be guided somewhat by the weather. in warm weather fermentation will commence much sooner, and be more violent, than when the weather is cold. consequently we should press much sooner in warm weather, than when the air is cool. late in the fall, it is sometimes advisable to leave the must a day longer on the husks, than indicated below. the cellar should be kept at an even temperature of about ° during the first few weeks, and if it does not naturally attain this temperature, then it should be warmed by a stove, as much of the quality of the wine depends upon a thorough fermentation during the first ten days. [illustration: fig. .] when violent fermentation has ceased, say after about ten or twelve days, and the must has become quiet, the cask should be closed with a tight bung, and the wine is left until it is clear. in about two to three months it ought to be perfectly clear and fine--is then racked, _i.e._, drawn from the lees, by means of a faucet, and put into clean, sweet casks. it is very important that the casks are "wine-seasoned," that is, have no other tang than of wine. for must, fresh brandy or whiskey casks may be used, but after the wine has fermented, it will not do to use such, as the wine will acquire the smell and taste of the liquor. when a cask has been emptied, it should be carefully cleaned, as before described, by entering at the door, or with smaller casks, by taking out the head. after it is thoroughly cleansed, it may be fumigated slightly, by burning a small piece of sulphured paper, or a nutmeg in it, and then filled. to keep empty casks in good condition they should, after cleaning, be allowed to become thoroughly dry, when they are sulphured, closed tightly, and laid away in the cellar. the operation of sulphuring should be repeated every six weeks. if wanted for use, they are simply rinsed with cold water. [illustration: fig. .] for racking the wine, we should have: st a large brass faucet. d. pails of a peculiar shape, wider at the top, to prevent wastage. d. a wooden funnel, as shown in fig. , to hold about six gallons. in racking--first carefully lift the bung of the cask, as the exclusion of air from above would cause a gurgling motion in the cask, if tapped below, which would stir up the lees in the bottom. then, after having loosened with a hammer the wooden peg, closing the tap hole, let your assistant hold the pail opposite the hole, hold the faucet in your right hand, and with the left, withdraw the plug, inserting the faucet quickly. drive it in firmly with a hammer, and you are ready for the work. do not fully open the faucet at first, because the first pailful is generally not quite clear, and should run slowly. you can keep this by itself; and this, and the last from the lees, is generally put into a cask together and allowed to settle again. it will make a good, clear wine after a few weeks. as soon as the wine runs quite clear and limpid, it can be put into the cask destined to receive it, and you can let it run as fast as it can be emptied. when the wine has run off down to the tap hole, the cask may be carefully raised on the other end, one inserting a brick or piece of board under it, while the other lifts gently and slowly. this may be repeated several times, as long as the wine runs clear; and even the somewhat cloudy wine may be put with the first pailful into a separate cask. as soon as it comes thick or muddy, it is time to stop. the lees are emptied out, and will, if distilled, make a fine flavored and very strong brandy. this treatment can be applied to all white and light-colored wines, when it is not desirable to have a certain astringency in the wine. the catawba, concord, herbemont, delaware, rulander, cassady, taylor, louisiana, hartford prolific, and cunningham should all be treated in a similar manner. the concord, although it will, under this treatment, make only a light red wine, of which the color can be changed to dark red by fermenting on the husks, is not desirable if treated in the latter manner; as the peculiar foxy aroma of the grape will be imparted to the must to such a degree, as to make the flavor disagreeable, i shall recur to the subject of flavor in wines in another chapter. to make red wine, the must should be fermented on the husks, as generally the darkest color is desired, and also, a certain astringency, which the wine will acquire principally from the seeds, skins, and stems of the grapes, which contain the tannin. the grapes are mashed, and put into the fermenting vat, of the kind described before, with false bottoms. after the vat is filled about three-fourths the false bottom is put on, the husks are pressed down by it, until they are covered about six inches by the must, and the cover put on. it is seldom desirable here to ferment longer than three days on the husks, if the weather is warm--in a temperature of °--two days will often be enough, as the wine will become too rough and astringent by an excessively long fermentation. only experience will be the proper guide here, and also the individual taste. it will be generally time to press, when the must has changed its sweet taste, and acquired a somewhat rough and bitter one. where it is desired to make a very dark colored wine, without too much astringency, the grapes should be stemmed, as most of the rough and bitter taste is in the stems; and it can then be fermented on the husks for six or eight days. in this manner the celebrated burgundy wines are made; also most of the red wines of france and germany. many of them are even allowed to go through the whole process of fermentation, and the husks are filled into the cask with the must, through a door, made in the upper side of the cask; and it there remains, until the clear wine is drawn off. this is seldom desirable here, however, as our red wine grapes have sufficient astringency and color without this process. the treatment during fermentation, racking, etc., is precisely the same as with white wine, with only this difference, that the red wine is generally allowed to stay longer on the lees; for our object in making this class of wine is different than in making white, or so-called schiller or light red wine. in white and light colored wines we desire smoothness and delicacy of bouquet and taste; in dark red wines, we desire astringency and body, as they are to be the so-called stomach or medical wines. it is therefore generally racked but once, in the latter part of february or march, and the white and light colored wines are racked in december or january, as soon as they have become clear--and again in march. we also use no sulphur in fumigating the casks, as it takes away the color to a certain extent. we generally do not use anything, but simply clean the casks well, in racking red wine. i will say a few words in regard to _under_ fermentation. if this method is to be followed, the casks are not filled, but enough space left to allow the wine to ferment, without throwing out lees and husks at the bung. the bung is then covered, by laying a sack filled with sand over it, and when fermentation is over--as well by this as by the other method--the casks are filled with must or wine, kept in a separate cask for the purpose. the casks should always be kept well filled, and must be looked over and filled every two or three weeks, as the wine will continually lose in quantity, by evaporation through the wood of the casks. the casks should be varnished or brushed over with linseed oil, as this will prevent evaporation to some extent. in wine making, and giving the wine its character, we can only be guided by practice and individual taste, as well as the prevailing taste of the consuming public. if the prevailing taste is for light colored, smooth and delicate wines, we can make them so, by pressing immediately, and racking soon, and frequently. if a dark colored, astringent wine is desired, we can ferment on the husks, and leave it on the lees a longer period. there is a medium course, in this as in everything else; and the intelligent vintner will soon find the rules which should guide him, by practice with different varieties. among the wines to be treated as dark red, i will name norton's virginia, cynthiana, arkansas, and clinton, and, i suppose, ives' seedling. it would be insulting to these noble wines to class with them the oporto, which may make a very dark colored liquid, but no _wine_ worth the name, unless an immense quantity of sugar is added, and enough of water to dilute the peculiar vile aroma of that grape. after treatment of the wine. even if the wine was perfectly fine and clear, when drawn off, it will go through a second fermentation as soon as warm weather sets it--say in may or june. if the wine is clear and fine, however, the fermentation will be less violent, than if it is not so clear, as the lees, which the wine has never entirely deposited; act as they ferment. it is not safe or judicious, therefore, to bottle the wine _before_ this second fermentation is over. as soon as the wine has become perfectly clear and fine again--generally in august or september--it can be bottled. for bottling wine we need: st. clean bottles. d. good corks, which must first be scalded with hot water, to soften them, and draw out all impurities, and then soaked in cold water. d. a small funnel. th. a small faucet. th. a cork-press, of iron or wood. th. a light wooden mallet to drive in the corks. after the faucet has been inserted in the cask, fill your bottles so that there will be about an inch of room between the cork and the wine. let them stand about five minutes before you drive in the cork, which should always be of rather full size, and made to fit by compressing it with the press at one end. then drive in the cork with the mallet, and lay the bottles, either in sand on the cellar floor, or on a rack made for that purpose. they should be laid so that the wine covers the cork, to exclude all air. the greater bulk of the wine, however, if yet on hand; can be kept in casks. all the wine to be kept thus, should be racked once in about six months, and the casks kept well filled. most of our native wines, however, are generally sold after the second racking in march, and a great many even as soon as clear--in january. diseases of the wine and their remedies. these will seldom occur, if the wine has been properly treated. cases may arise, however, when it will become necessary to rack the wine, or fine it by artificial means. treatment of flat and turbid wine. the cause of this is generally a want of tannin. if the wine has a peculiar, flat, soft taste, and looks cloudy, this is generally the case. draw the wine into another cask, which has been well sulphured, and add some pulverized tannin, which can be had in every drug store. the tannin may be dissolved in water--about an ounce to every two hundred gallons of wine--and the wine well stirred, by inserting a stick at the bung. should it not have become clear after about three weeks, it should be fined. this can be done, by adding about an ounce of powdered gum-arabic to each forty gallons, and stirring the wine well when it has been poured in. or, take some wine out of the casks--add to each forty gallons which it contains the whites of ten eggs, whipped to foam with the wine taken out--pour in the mixture again--stir up well, and bung up tight. after a week the wine will generally be clear, and should then be drawn off. use of the husks and lees. these should be distilled, and will make a very strong, fine flavored brandy. the husks are put into empty barrels or vats--stamped down close, and a cover of clay made over them, to exclude the air. they will thus undergo a fermentation, and be ready for distillation in about a month. they should be taken fresh from the press, however; for if they come into contact with the air, they will soon become sour and mouldy. the lees can be distilled immediately. good fresh lees, from rather astringent wines are also an excellent remedy when the wine becomes flat, as before described. dr. gall's and petiol's method of wine making. the process of wine making before described, however, can only be applied in such seasons, and with such varieties of grapes, that contain all the necessary elements for a good wine in due proportion. for unfavorable seasons, with such varieties of grapes as are deficient in some of the principal ingredients, we must take a different course--follow a different method. to see our way clearly before us in this, let us first examine which are the constituent parts of must or grape juice. a chemical analysis of must, shows the following result: grape juice contains sugar, water, free acids, tannin, gummy and mucous substances, coloring matter, fragrant or flavoring substances, (aroma bouquet). a good wine should contain all these ingredients in due proportion. if there is an excess of one, and a want of the other, the wine will lose in quality. must, which contains all of these, in due proportion, we call _normal_ must, and only by determining the amount of sugar and acids in this so-called normal must, can we gain the knowledge how to improve such must, which does not contain the necessary proportion of each. the frequent occurrence of unfavorable seasons in europe, when the grapes did not ripen fully, and were sadly deficient in sugar, set intelligent men to thinking how this defect could be remedied; and a grape crop, which was almost worthless, from its want of sugar, and its excess of acids, could be made to yield at least a fair article, instead of the sour and unsaleable article generally produced in such seasons. among the foremost who experimented with this object in view i will here name chaptal, petiol; but especially dr. ludwig gall, who has at last reduced the whole science of wine-making to such a mathematical certainty, that we stand amazed only, that so simple a process should not have been discovered long ago. it is the old story of the egg of columbus; but the poor vintners of germany, and france, and we here, are none the less deeply indebted to those intelligent and persevering men for the incalculable benefits they have conferred upon us. the production of good wine is thus reduced to a mathematical certainty; although we cannot in a bad season, produce as high flavored and delicate wines, as in the best years, we can now always make a fair article, by following the simple rules laid down by dr. gall. when this method was first introduced, it was calumniated and despised--called adulteration of wine, and even prohibited by the governments of europe; but, dr. gall fearlessly challenged his opponents to have his wines analyzed by the most eminent chemists; which was repeatedly done, and the results showed that they contained nothing but such ingredients which pure wine should contain; and since men like von babo, dobereiner and others have openly endorsed and recommended gallizing, prejudice is giving way before the light of scientific knowledge. [illustration: fig. .] but to determine the amount of sugar and acids contained in the must we need a few necessary implements. these are: the must scale or saccharometer. the most suitable one now in use is the _oechsle's_ must scale, constructed on the principle that the instrument sinks the deeper into any fluid, the thinner it is, or the less sugar it contains. fig. shows this instrument, "which is generally made of silver, or german silver, although they are also made of glass. a, represents a hollow cylinder--best made of glass, filled with must to the brim, into which place the must scale b. it is composed of the hollow float _a_, which keeps it suspended in the fluid; of the weight _c_, for holding in a perpendicular position; and of the scale _e_ divided by small lines into from fifty to one hundred degrees. before the gauge is placed in the must, draw it several times through the mouth, to moisten it--but allow no saliva to adhere to it. when the guage ceases to descend, note the degree to which it has sunk; after which press it down with the finger a few degrees further, and on its standing still again, the line to which the must reaches, indicates its so-called weight, expressed by degrees." the must should be weighed in an entirely fresh state, before it shows any sign of fermentation, and should be free from husks, and pure. this instrument, which is indispensable to every one who intends to make wine, can be obtained in nearly every large town, from the prominent opticians. jacob blattner, at st. louis keeps them for sale. the saccharometer will indicate the amount of sugar in the must, and its use is so simple, that every one can soon become familiar with it. the next step in the improvement of wines was to determine the amount of acids the must contained, and this problem has also been successfully solved by the invention of the acidimeter: the acidimeter and its use. "the first instrument of this kind which came into general use, was one invented by dr. otto, and consists of a glass tube, from ten to twelve inches in length, half an inch in width, and closed at the lower end. fig. shows otto's acidimeter. "the tube is filled to the partition line _a_, with tincture of litmus. the must to be examined, before it has begun to ferment is then poured into the tube, until it reaches the line . the blue tincture of litmus, which would still be blue, if water had been added, is turned into rose-color by the action of the acids contained in the must. "if a solution of , per cent, of caustic ammonia is added to this red fluid, and the tube is turned around to effect the necessary mixture, keeping its mouth closed with the thumb, after the addition of more or less of the ammonical fluid, it will change into violet. this tinge indicates the saturation of the acids, and the height of the fluid in the tube now shows the quantity of acid in the must, by whole, half and fourth parts per cent. the lines marked , , , , indicate whole per cents.; the short intermediate lines, one-fourth per cents." [illustration: fig. .] when dr. gall, shortly before the vintage of , first publicly recommended the dilution of the acids, he was obliged to refer to this instrument, as already known, and everywhere at hand, which was at the same time cheap, and simple in its use. "it is true, however, that if must is examined by this instrument, the quantity of acids contained in it, is really somewhat larger than indicated by the instrument; because the acids contained in the must require for their saturation a weaker solution of ammonia than acetic acid." as however, otto's acidimeter shows about one eighth of the acids less than the must actually contains, and about as much acids combined with earths is removed during fermentation, dr. gall recommends that the quantity of acids be reduced to - / , or at most thousandths of otto's acidimeter, and the results have shown that this was about the right proportion; as the wines in which the acids were thus diluted were in favor with all consumers. "the acidimeter referred to was afterwards improved, by making the tube longer and more narrow, and dividing it into tenths of per cents, instead of fourths; thus dividing the whole above into thousandths. but although by this improved acidimeter the quantity of acids could be ascertained with more nicety, there remained one defect, that in often turning the glass tube for mixing the fluids, some of the contents adhered to the thumb in closing its mouth. this defect was remedied in a new acidimeter, invented by mr. geisler, who also invented the new vaporimeter for the determination of the quantity of alcohol contained in wine. it is based on the same principle as otto's, but differs altogether in its construction. it is composed of three parts, all made of glass; the mixing bottle, fig. ; the pipette, fig. ; and the burette, fig . besides, there should be ready three small glasses--one filled with tincture of litmus, the second with a solution of , per ammonia, and the third with the must or wine to be tested; also, a taller glass, or vessel, having its bottom covered with cotton, in which glass the burette, after it has been filled with the solution of ammonia, is to be placed in an upright position until wanted. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] "to use this instrument the must and the tincture of litmus, having first received the normal temperature of ° reaumer, are brought into the mixing bottle by means of the pipette, which is a hollow tube of glass, open on both ends. to fill it, place its lower end into the tincture or must, apply the mouth to the upper end, and by means of suction fill it with the tincture of litmus to above the line indicated at a. the opening of the top is then quickly closed with the thumb; by alternately raising the thumb, and pressing it down again, so much of the tincture is then allowed to flow back into the glass so as to lower the fluid to the line indicated at a. the remainder is then brought into the bottle, and the last drops forced out by blowing into the pipette. "in filling it with must, raise the fluid in the same way, until it comes up to the line indicated at b, and then empty into the mixing bottle. "the burette consists of two hollow tubes of glass. in filling it, hold the smaller tube with the right hand into the glass containing the solution of ammonia, apply the mouth to the larger one, and by drawing in the fluid the tube is filled exactly to the line indicated at of the tube. "holding the mixing bottle by the neck between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, place the smaller tube of the burette into the mouth of the mixing bottle, which must be constantly shaken; let enough of the solution of ammonia be brought drop by drop, into the mixture in the bottle, till the red has been changed into the deep reddish blue of the purple onion. this is the sign of the proper saturation of the acids. to distinguish still better, turn the mixing bottle upside down, by closing its mouth with the thumb, and examine the color of the fluid in the tube-shaped neck of the bottle, and afterwards, should it be required, add another drop of the ammonia. repeat this until the proper tone of color has been reached, neither red nor blue. after thus fixing the precise point of the saturation of the acids, the burette is held upright, and the quantity of the solution of ammonia consumed is accurately determined,--that is, to what line on the scale the burette has been emptied. the quantity of the solution so used corresponds with the quantity of acids contained in the must--the larger division lines opposite the numbers indicating the thousandths part, and the smaller lines or dots the ten thousandths part. "until the eye has learned by practice to recognize the points of saturation by the tone of color, it can be proven by means of litmus paper. when the mixture in the bottle begins to turn blue, put in the end of a slip of litmus paper about half an inch deep, and then draw this end through your fingers, moistened with water. so long as the ends of the blue litmus paper become more or less reddened, the acids have not been completely saturated. only when it remains blue, has the point of saturation been reached. "in examining _red_ must, the method should be modified as follows:--instead of first filling the pipette with tincture of litmus, fill it with water to the line a, and transfer it into the bottle. after the quantity of must has been added, drop six-thousandths of the solution of ammonia into the mixture, constantly shaking it while dropping, then test it, and so on, until, after every further addition required with litmus paper, it is no longer reddened after having been wiped off." dr. gall further gives the following directions, as a guide, to distinguish and determine the proportion of acids which a must should contain, to be still agreeable to the palate, and good: "chemists distinguish the acid contained in the grape as the vinous, malic, grape, citric, tannic, gelatinous and para-citric acids. whether all these are contained in the must, or which of them, is of small moment for us to know. for the practical wine-maker, it is sufficient to know, with full certainty, that, as the grape ripens, while the proportion of sugar increases, the quantity of acids continually diminishes; and hence, by leaving the grapes on the vines as long as possible, we have a double means of improving their products--the must or wine. "all wines, without exception, to be of good and of agreeable taste, must contain from - / to thousandths parts of free acids, and each must containing more than seven thousandths parts of free acids may be considered as having too little water and sugar in proportion to its quantity of acids. "in all wine-growing countries of germany, for a number of years past, experience has proved that a corresponding addition of sugar and water is the means of converting the sourest must, not only into a good drinkable wine, but also into as good a wine as can be produced in favorable years, _except_ in that peculiar and delicate aroma found only in the must of well-ripened grapes, and which must and will always distinguish the wines made in the best seasons from those made in poor seasons. "the saccharometer and acidimeter, properly used, will give us the exact knowledge of what the must contains, and what it lacks; and we have the means at hand, by adding water, to reduce the acids to their proper proportion; and by adding sugar, to increase the amount of sugar the must should contain; in other words, we can change the poor must of indifferent seasons into the normal must of the best seasons in _everything_, _except_ its bouquet or aroma, thereby converting an unwholesome and disagreeable drink into an agreeable and healthy one." the change of the must, by fermentation, into wine. let us glance for a few moments at this wonderful, simple, and yet so complicated process, to give a clearer insight into the functions which man has to perform to assist nature, and have her work for him, to attain the desired end. i cannot put the matter in a better light for my readers than to quote again from dr. gall. he says:--"to form a correct opinion of what may and can be done in the manufacture of wine, we must be thoroughly convinced that nature, in her operations, has other objects in view than merely to serve man as his careful cook and butler. had the highest object of the creator, in the creation of the grape, been simply to combine in the juice of the fruit nothing but what is indispensable to the formation of that delicious beverage for the accommodation of man, it might have been still easier done for him by at once filling the berries with wine already made. but in the production of fruits, the first object of all is to provide for the propagation and preservation of the species. each fruit contains the germ of a new plant, and a quantity of nutritious matter surrounding and developing that germ. the general belief is, that this nutritious matter, and even the peculiar combination in which it is found in the fruit, has been made directly for the immediate use of man. this, however, is a mistake. the nutritious matter of the grape, as in the apple, pear, or any similar product, is designed by nature only to serve as the first nourishment of the future plant, the germ of which lies in it. there are thousands of fruits of no use whatever, and are even noxious to man, and there are thousands more which, before they can be used, must be divested of certain parts, necessary, indeed, to the nutrition of the future plant, but unfit, in its present state, for the use or nourishment of man. for instance, barley contains starch, mucilaginous sugar, gum, adhesive matter, vegetable albumen, phosphate of lime, oil, fibre and water. all these are necessary to the formation of roots, stalks, leaves, flowers and the new grain; but for the manufacture of beer, the brewer needs only the first three substances. the same rule applies to the grape. "in this use of the grape, all depends upon the judgment of man to select such of its parts as he wishes, and by his skill he adapts and applies them in the best manner for his purposes. in eating the grapes, he throws away the skins and seeds; for raisins, he evaporates the water, retaining only the solid parts, from which, when he uses them, he rejects their seeds. if he manufactures must, he lets the skins remain. in making wine, he sets free the carbonic acid contained in the must, and removes the lees, gum, tartar, and, in short, everything deposited during, and immediately after fermentation, as well as when it is put into casks and bottles. he not only removes from the wine its sediments, but watches the fermentation, and checks it as soon as its vinous fermentation is over, and the formation of vinegar about to begin. he refines his wine by an addition of foreign substances if necessary; he sulphurizes it; and, by one means or another, remedies its distempers. "the manufacture of wine is thus a many-sided art; and he who does not understand it, or knows not how to guide and direct the powers of nature to his own purposes, may as well give up all hopes of success in it." so far dr. gall; and to the intelligent and unbiased mind, the truth and force of these remarks will be apparent, without further extending or explaining them. how absurd, then, the blind ravings of those who talk about "natural" wines, and would condemn every addition of sugar and water to the must by man, when nature has not fully done her part, as adulteration and fraud. why, there is no such thing as a "natural wine;" for wine--good wine--is the product of art, and a manufacture from beginning to end. would we not think that parent extremely cruel, as well as foolish, who would have her child without clothing, simply because nature had allowed it to be born without it? would not the child suffer and die, because its mother failed to aid nature in her work, by clothing and feeding it when it is yet unable to feed and clothe itself? and yet, would not that wine-maker act equally foolish who has it within his power to remedy the deficiencies of nature with such means as she herself supplies in good season, and which ought and would be in the must but for unfavorable circumstances, over which we have no control? wine thus improved is just as pure as if the sugar and water had naturally been in the grapes in right proportions; just as beneficial to health; and only the fanatical "know-nothing" can call it adulterated. but the prejudices will disappear before the light of science and truth, however much ignorance may clamor against it. galileo, when forced to abjure publicly his great discovery of the motion of the earth around the sun as a heresy and lie, murmured between his teeth the celebrated words, "and yet it moves." it _did_ move; and the theory is now an acknowledged truth, with which every schoolboy is familiar. thus will it be with improved wine-making. it will yet be followed, generally and universally, as sure as the public will learn to distinguish between good and poor wine. let us now observe for a moment the change which fermentation makes in converting the must into wine. the nitrogeneous compounds--vegetable albumen, gluten--which are contained in the grape, and which are dissolved in the must as completely as the sugar, under certain circumstances turn into the fermenting principle, and so change the must into wine. this change is brought about by the fermenting substance coming into contact with the air, and receiving oxygen from it, in consequence of which it coagulates, and shows itself in the turbid state of must, or young wine. the coagulation of the lees takes place but gradually, and just in the degree the exhausted lees settle. the sugar gradually turns into alcohol. the acids partly remain as tartaric acid, are partly turned into ether, or settle with the lees, chrystallize, and adhere to the bottom of the casks. the etheric oil, or aroma, remains, and develops into bouquet; also the tannin, to a certain degree. the albumen and gluten principally settle, although a small portion of them remains in the wine. the coloring matter and extractive principle remain, but change somewhat by fermentation. thus it is the must containing a large amount of sugar needs a longer time to become clear than that containing but a small portion of it; therefore, many southern wines retain a certain amount of sugar undecomposed, and they are called _sweet_, or liqueur wines; whereas, wines in which the whole of the sugar has been decomposed are called _sour_ or _dry_ wines. i have thought it necessary to be thus explicit to give my readers an insight into the general principles which should govern us in wine-making. i have quoted freely from the excellent work of dr. gall. we will now see whether and how we can reduce it to practice. i will try and illustrate this by an example. normal must. "experiments continued for a number of years have proved that, in favorable seasons, grape juice contains, on the average, in , lbs.: sugar, lbs. acids, " water, " ----- , " this proportion would constitute what i call a normal must. but now we have an inferior season, and the must contains, instead of the above proportions, as follows: sugar, lbs. acids, " water, " ----- , " what must we do to bring such must to the condition of a normal must? this is the question thus arising. to solve it, we calculate thus: if, in six pounds of acids in a normal wine, pounds of sugar appear, how much sugar is wanted for nine pounds of acids? answer, pounds. our next question is: if, in six pounds of acids in a normal must, pounds of water appear, how much water is required for nine pounds of acids? answer, , pounds. as, therefore, the must which we intend to improve by neutralizing its acids, should contain pounds of sugar, nine pounds of acids, and , pounds of water, but contains already pounds of sugar, pounds of acids, and pounds of water, there remain to be added, pounds of sugar, no acids, and pounds of water. by ameliorating a quantity of , pounds must by pounds sugar, and pounds water, we obtain , pounds of must, consisting of the same properties as the normal must, which makes a first-class wine." this is wine-making, according to gall's method, in europe. now, let us see what we can do with it on american soil, and with american grapes. the must of american grapes. if we examine the must of most of our american wine grapes closely, we find that they not only contain an excess of acids in inferior seasons, but also a superabundance of flavor or aroma, and of tannin and coloring matter. especially of flavor, there is such an abundance that, were the quantity doubled by addition of sugar and water, there would still be an abundance; and with some varieties, such as the concord, if fermented on the husks, it is so strong as to be disagreeable. we must, therefore, not only ameliorate the acid, but also the flavor and the astringency, of which the tannin is the principal cause. therefore it is, that to us the knowledge of how to properly gallize our wines is still more important than to the european vintner, and the results which we can realize are yet more important. by a proper management, we can change must, which would otherwise make a disagreeable wine, into one in which everything is in its proper proportion, and which will delight the consumer, to whose fastidious taste if would otherwise have been repugnant. true, we have here a more congenial climate, and the grapes will generally ripen better, so that we can in most seasons produce a drinkable wine. but if we can increase the quantity, and at the same time improve the quality, there is certainly an inducement, which the practical business sense of our people will not fail to appreciate and make use of. there is, however, one difficulty in the way. i do not believe that the acidimeter can yet be obtained in the country, and we must import them direct from the manufacturers, dr. l. c. marquart, of bonn, on the rhine; or j. diehn, frankfort-on-the-main. however, this difficulty will soon be overcome; and, indeed, although it is impossible to practice gallizing without a saccharometer, we may get at the surplus of acids with tolerable certainty by the results shown by the saccharometer. to illustrate this, i will give an example: last year was one of the most unfavorable seasons for the ripening of grapes we have ever had here, and especially the catawba lost almost nine-tenths of its crop by mildew and rot; it also lost its leaves, and the result was, that the grapes did not ripen well. when gathering my grapes, upon weighing the must, i found that it ranged from ° to °; whereas, in good seasons, catawba must weighs from ° to °. i now calculated thus: if normal must of catawba should weigh at least °, and the must i have to deal with this season will weigh on an average only °, i must add to this must about / lb. of sugar to bring it up to °. but now i had the surplus acid to neutralize yet. to do this, i calculated thus: if, even in a normal catawba must, or a must of the best seasons, there is yet an excess of acid, i can safely count on there being at least one-third too much acid in a must that weighs but °. i, therefore, added to every gallons of must gallons of soft water, in which i had first dissolved lbs. of crushed sugar, which brought the water, when weighed after dissolving the sugar in it, up to °. now, i had yet to add lbs., or half a pound to each gallon of the original must, to bring _this_ up to °. i thus pressed, instead of gallons, gallons, from the same quantity of grapes; and the result was a wine, which every one who has tasted it has declared to be excellent catawba. it has a brilliant pale yellow color, was perfectly clear st of january, and sold by me to the first one to whom i offered it, at a price which i have seldom realized for catawba wine made in the best seasons, without addition of sugar or water. true, it has not as strong an aroma as the catawba of our best seasons, nor has it as much astringency; but this latter i consider an advantage, and it still has abundant aroma to give it character. another experiment i made with the concord satisfied me, without question, that the must of this grape will always gain by an addition of water and sugar. i pressed several casks of the pure juice, which, as the concord had held its leaves and ripened its fruit very well, contained sugar enough to make a fair wine, namely, °. this i generally pressed the day after gathering, and put into separate casks. i then took some must of the same weight, but to which i had added, to every gallons, gallons of water, in which i had diluted sugar until the water weighed °, or not quite two pounds of sugar to the gallon of water, pressed also after the expiration of the same time, and otherwise treated in the same manner. both were treated exactly alike, racked at the same time; and the result is, that every one who tries the two wines, without knowing how they have been treated, prefers the gallized wine to the other--the pure juice of the grape. it is more delicate in flavor, has less acidity, and a more brilliant color than the first, the ungallized must. they are both excellent, but there is a difference in favor of the gallized wine. dr. gall recommends grape sugar as the best to be used for the purpose. this is made from potato starch; but it is hard to obtain here, and i have found crushed loaf sugar answer every purpose. i think this sugar has the advantage over grape sugar, that it dissolves more readily, and can even be dissolved in cold water, thus simplifying the process very much. it will take about two pounds to the gallon of water to bring this up to °, which will make a wine of sufficient body. the average price of sugar was about cents per pound, and the cost of thus producing an additional gallon of wine, counting in labor, interest on capital, etc., will be about cents. when the wine can be sold at from $ to $ per gallon, the reader will easily perceive of what immense advantage this method is to the grape-grower, if he can thereby not only improve the quality, but also increase the quantity of the yield. the efforts made by the commissioner of patents, and the contributors to the annual reports from the patent office, to diffuse a general knowledge of this process, can therefore not be commended too highly. it will help much to bring into general use, among all classes, good, pure, native wines; and as soon as ever the poorer classes can obtain cheap agreeable wines, the use of bad whiskey and brandy will be abandoned more and more, and this nation will become a more temperate people. but this is only the first step. there is a way to still further increase the quantity. dr. gall and others found, by analyzing the husks of the grape after the juice had been extracted by powerful presses, that they not only still contained a considerable amount of juice, but also a great amount of extracts, or wine-making principles, in many instances sufficient for three times the bulk of the juice already expressed. this fact suggested the question: as there are so many of these valuable properties left, and only sugar and water exhausted, why cannot these be substituted until the others are completely exhausted? it was found that the husks still contained sufficient of acids, tannin, aroma, coloring matter, and gluten. all that remained to be added was water and sugar. it was found that this could be easily done; and the results showed that wine made in this manner was equal, if not superior, to some of that made from the original juice, and was often, by the best judges, preferred to that made from the original must. i have also practiced this method extensively the last season; and the result is, that i have fully doubled the amount of wine of the norton's virginia and concord. i have thus made , gallons of concord, where i had but , gallons of original must; and , gallons of norton's virginia, where i had but , gallons of must. the wines thus made were kept strictly separate from those made from the original juice, and the result is, that many of them are better, and none inferior, to the original must; and although i have kept a careful diary of wine-making, in which i have noted the process how each cask was made, period of fermentation on the husks, quantity of sugar used, etc., and have not hesitated to show this to every purchaser after he had tasted of the wine, they generally, and with very few exceptions, chose those which had either been gallized in part, or entirely. [illustration: fig. . union village.--_berries / diameter._] my method in making such wines was very simple. i generally took the same quantity of water, the husks had given original must, or in other words, when i had pressed gallons of juice, i took about gallons of water. to make concord wine, i added - / lbs. of sugar to the gallon, as i calculated upon some sugar remaining in the husks, which were not pressed entirely dry. this increased the quantity, with the juice yet contained in the husks to gallons, and brought the water to ; calculating that from ° to ° still remained in the husks, it would give us a must of about °. the grapes, as before remarked, had been gathered during the foregoing day, and were generally pressed in the morning. as soon as possible the husks were turned into the fermenting vat again, all pulled apart and broken, and the water added to them. as the fermentation had been very strong before, it immediately commenced again. i generally allowed them to ferment for twenty-four hours, and then pressed again, but pressed as dry as possible this time. the whole treatment of this must was precisely similar to that of the original. in making norton's virginia, i would take, instead of - / lbs., lbs. of sugar to the gallon--as it is naturally a wine of greater body than the concord--and i aimed to come as near to the natural must as possible. i generally fermented this somewhat longer, as a darker color was desired. the time of fermentation must vary, of course, with the state of the atmosphere; in cooler weather, both pressings should remain longer on the husks. the results, in both varieties were wines of excellent flavor, good body, a brilliant color, with enough of tannin or astringency, and sufficient acid--therefore, in every way satisfactory. the experiments, however, were not confined to these alone, but extended over a number of varieties, with good results in every case. of all varieties tried, however, i found that the concord would bear the most of gallizing, without losing its own peculiar flavor; and i satisfied myself, that the quantity in this grape can safely be increased _here_, from gallons of must to gallons of wine, and the quality yet be better, than if the must had been left in its normal condition. and it is here again where only experience can teach us _how far_ we can go with a certain variety. it must be clear and apparent to any one who is ever so slightly acquainted with wine-making, how widely different the varieties are in their characteristics and ingredients. we may lay it down as a general rule, however, that our native grapes, with their strong and peculiar flavors, and their superabundance of tannin and coloring matter, will admit of much more gallizing, than the more delicately flavored european kinds. i have thus tried only to give an outline of the necessary operations, as well as the principles lying at the foundation of them. i have also spoken only of facts as i have found them, as i am well aware that this is a field in which i have much to learn yet, and where it but poorly becomes me to act the part of teacher. those desiring more detailed information, i would refer to the patent office reports of - , where they will find valuable extracts from the works of dr. gall; and also to the original works. if we look at the probable effect these methods of improving wines are likely to have upon grape-culture, it is but natural that we should ask the question: is there anything reprehensible in the practice--any reason why it should not become general? the answer to this is very simple. they contain nothing which the fermented grape juice, in its purest and most perfect state does not also contain. therefore, they are as pure as any grape juice can be, with the consideration in their favor, that everything is in the right proportion. therefore, if wine made from pure grape juice can be recommended for general use, surely, the gallized wines can also be recommended. dr. gall has repeatedly offered to pay a fine for the benefit of the poor, if the most critical chemical analysis could detect anything in them, which was injurious to health, or which pure wines ought not to contain, and his opponents have always failed to show anything of the kind. i know that some of my wine-making friends will blame me for thus "letting the cat out of the bag." they seem to think that it would be better to keep the knowledge we have gained, to ourselves, carefully even hiding the fact that any of our wines have been gallized. but it has always been a deep-seated conviction with me, that knowledge and truth, like god's sun should be the common property of all his children--and that it is the duty of every one not to "hide his light under a bushel," but seek to impart it to all, who could, perhaps, be benefitted by it. and why, in reality, should we seek to keep as a secret a practice which is perfectly right and justifiable? if there is a prejudice against it, (and we know there is), this is not the way to combat it. only by meeting it openly, and showing the fallacy of it, can we hope to convince the public, that there is nothing wrong about it. truth and justice need never fear the light--they can only gain additional force from it. i do not even attempt to sell a cask of gallized wine, before the purchaser is made fully acquainted with the fact, that it has been gallized. it is a matter of course, that many, who go to work carelessly and slovenly, will fail to make good wine, in this or any other way. to make a good article, the nature of each variety and its peculiarities must be closely studied--we must have as ripe grapes as we can get, carefully gathered; and we need not think that water and sugar will accomplish _everything_. there is a limit to everything, and to gallizing as well as to anything else. as soon as we pass beyond that limit, an inferior product will be the result. but let us glance a moment at the probable influence this discovery will have on american grape culture. it cannot be otherwise than in the highest degree beneficial; for when we simply look at grape-culture as it was ten years ago, with the simple product of the catawba as its basis; a variety which would only yield an average of, say gallons to the acre--often very inferior wine--and look at it to-day, with such varieties as the concord, yielding an average of from , to , gallons to the acre, which we can yet easily double by gallizing, thus in reality yielding an average of , gallons to the acre of uniformly good wine; can we be surprised if everybody talks and thinks of raising grapes? truly, the time is not far distant--of which we hardly dared to dream ten years ago--and which we _then_ thought we would never live to see; when _every_ american citizen can indulge in a daily glass of that glorious gift of god to man, pure, light wine; and the american nation shall become a really _temperate_ people. and there is room for all. let every one further the cause of grape-culture. the laborer by producing the grapes and wine; the mechanic by inventions; the law-giver by making laws furthering its culture, and the consumption of it; and _all_ by drinking wine, in wise moderation of course. wine making made easy. some of my readers may think i did not look much to this, which i told them was one of the objects of this little work. to vindicate it and myself i will here state, that our object should always be to attain the highest perfection in everything. but, while i am aware that i have generally given the outline of operations on a large scale, i have never for a moment lost sight of the interests of those, who, like myself, are compelled, by bitter necessity, to commence at the lowest round of the ladder. and how could i forget the bitter experience of my first years, when hindered by want of means; but also the feelings of sincere joy, of glad triumph, when i had surmounted one more obstacle, and saw the path open wider before me at every step; and i can, therefore, fully sympathize with the poor laborer, who has nothing but his industrious hands and honest will to commence with. while, therefore, it is most advantageous to follow grape-growing and wine-making with all the conveniences of well prepared soil, substantial trellis, a commodious wine cellar and all its appurtenances; yet, it is also possible to do without most of these conveniencies in the beginning, and yet succeed. if the grape-grower has not capital to spare to buy wire, he can, if he has timber on his land, split laths and nail them to the posts instead of wire. he can layer his plants even the first summer, and thus raise a stock for further planting; or dispose of them, as already mentioned in the beginning of this work. or he can lease a piece of land from some one who wishes to have a vineyard planted on it, and who will furnish the plants to him, besides the necessary capital for the first year or so. i have contracted with several men without means in this manner, furnished them a small house, the necessary plants, and paid them $ the first two years, they giving me half the returns of the vineyards, in plants and grapes; and they have become wealthy by such means. one of my tenants has realized over $ , for his share the last season, and will very likely realize the same amount next season. and if he cannot afford to build a large cellar in the beginning, he can also do with a small one, even the most common house cellar will do through the winter, if it is only kept free from frost. one of our most successful wine-growers here, commenced his operations with a simple hole in the ground, dug under his house, and his first wine press was merely a large beam, let into a tree, which acted as a lever upon the grapes, with a press-bed, also of his own making. a few weeks ago the same man sold his last year's crop of wine for over $ , in cash, and has raised some $ , worth more in vines, cuttings, etc. of course, it is not advisable to keep the wine over summer in an indifferent cellar, but during fermentation and the greater part of winter, it will answer very well, and he can easily dispose of his wine, if good, as soon as clear. or he can dispose of his grapes at a fair price, to one of his neighbors, or take them to market. but there is another consideration, which i cannot urge too strongly upon my readers, and which will do much to make grape-growing and wine-making easy. it is the forming of grape colonies, of grape-growers' villages. the advantages of such a colony will be easily seen. if each one has a small piece of suitable land, (and he does not need a large one to follow grape-growing), the neighbors can easily assist each other in ploughing and sub-soiling; they will be able to do with fewer work animals, as they can hitch together, and first prepare the soil for one and then for the other; the ravages of birds and insects will hardly be felt; they can join together, and build a large cellar in common, where each one can deliver and store his wine, and of which one perhaps better acquainted with the management of wine than the others, and whom all are willing to trust, can have the management. if there should be no such man among them, an experienced cooper can be hired by all, who can also manufacture the necessary casks. an association of that kind has also, generally, the preference in the market over a single individual, and they are able to obtain a higher price for their products, if they are of good quality. there are thousands upon thousands of acres of the best grape lands yet to be had in the west, especially in missouri, at a merely nominal price, which would be well adapted for settlements of that kind; where the virgin soil yet waits only the bidding of intelligent labor--of enterprising and industrious men--to bring forth the richest fruits. there is room for all--may it soon be filled with willing hearts to undertake the task. and how much easier for you to-day, men with the active hand and intelligent brain, to commence--with the certainty of success before you--with varieties which will yield a large and sure return _every_ year; with the market open before you, and the experience of those who have commenced, to guide you; with the reputation of american wines established; with double the price per gallon--and ten times the yield--compared with the beginner of only ten years ago, with nothing but uncertainty; uncertainty of yield, uncertainty of quality, of price, and of effecting a sale. it took a brave heart _then_, and an iron will; the determination to succeed,--succeed against _all_ obstacles. and yet, hundreds have commenced thus, and have succeeded. can _you_ hesitate, when the future is all bright before you, and the thousand and one obstacles have been overcome? if you do, you are not fit to be a grape-grower. go toil and drudge for so many cents per day, in some factory, and end life as you have begun it. god's free air, the cultivation of one of his noblest gifts, destined to "make glad the heart in this rugged world of ours," is not for you. i may pity you, but i cannot sympathize with nor assist you, except by raising a cheap glass of wine to gladden even _your_ cheerless lot. [illustration: fig. . maxatawny.--_berries / diameter._] statistics. cost of establishing a vineyard. in this, of course, allowances must be made for soil, locality, cost of plants, cost of timber, etc., which will vary with the locality. the estimation given here is about what it would cost _here_, with the leading varieties. cost of an acre of concord. preparing ground by ploughing, laying off, etc., $ first-class yearling plants, to be planted Ã� , $ per hundred, posts, feet apart, cents each, intermediate stakes, " lbs. no. wire, cents per lb., cost of erecting trellis, attendance, labor, etc., during first year, interest on capital, ------ $ the following year the vineyard can be made to pay all expenses, by layering, etc. cost of an acre of herbemont. preparing ground, first class plants, Ã� , $ per hundred, posts, cents each, stakes, " lbs. wire, cents per lb., cost of erecting trellis, attendance, labor, during first two years, interest on capital during first two years, ------ $ cost of an acre of norton's virginia. preparation of soil, etc., plants, first class, to be planted Ã� , $ per hundred, posts, cents each, stakes, " lbs. no. wire, cents per lb., cost of erecting trellis, attendance, labor, etc., during first two years, interest on capital during first two years, at per cent. per annum, ------ $ cost of an acre of delaware. cost of preparing ground, , first-class plants, planted Ã� , posts, cents each, stakes, " lbs. no. wire, cents per lb. cost of erecting trellis, cost of cultivation two first years, interest on capital two years, ------ $ cost of an acre of catawba. preparing ground, cost of , plants, Ã� , posts, cents each, stakes, " lbs. wire, cents per lb., cost of erecting trellis, attendance during two years, interest on capital two years, ------ $ product. the following has been the produce of a vineyard of catawba, now under my management, since : bearing vines gallons of yield per season. bearing. wine. price. acre. , st year, , $ . $ , d " , . , d " , . , th " , . . th " , . , th " , . , th " , . th " , . th " , , . , th " , . , th " , , . , th " , , . , th " , . , th " , . , th " , . , th " , . , th " , . which will show the average yield per acre, to have been somewhat over deduct from this cost of labor per year, per acre, interest on capital, - would leave a clear profit, per acre, of the poor returns were nearly all occasioned by mildew and rot, with the exception of , when a very destructive hail-storm swept away almost the entire crop; and in , when the vines were all killed down to the snow line by frost the preceding winter. the following is the cost of a vineyard planted by me in may, , containing about , vines, on - / acres of ground. the ground could not be made ready until late in the season, consequently many of the vines failed to grow, and had to be replanted the second season: norton's virginia, $ . per hundred, concord (small), " delaware, " herbemont, " cunningham, " other varieties assorted, cost of clearing, ploughing, and planting, $ per acre, putting up trellis, $ per acre, interest on capital, -------- $ , product. for layers and cuttings made st year, " " d " " " d " concord grapes sold, , lbs., net cents, plants and cuttings fourth year, , lbs. of grapes (concord), marketed at cents per lb., net -------- $ , produce fifth year. , gallons concord at $ . $ , , " norton's virginia . , " herbemont . " cunningham . " delaware . " clinton . " other varieties . " hartford prolific grapes cts. per lb. , plants from cuttings and layers, average price $ per thousand , --------- $ , leaving the product of the first five years $ , from which deduct expenses for plants, trellis, etc., , interest on capital at per cent. cost of labor st. year, d. " d. " th. " th. " ----- total cost $ , --------- leaves clear profit for first five years of $ , the fourth year, nearly all the fruit buds of the vines had been killed above the snow line, but i made, besides the grapes sold, about $ , worth of wine, which was emptied by the rebels in their raid that fall, and consequently lost. the vines were not all in bearing this last season, for reasons already given; and the whole amount of vines bearing, was not more than , --hardly two acres. if my readers will contrast this with the yield of the catawba vineyard, they will see the difference in yield between varieties suited to the climate and soil, and those unused to it. the last season--although unfavorable to the catawba--produced an enormous yield of concord and norton's virginia, and cannot be taken as an average crop. i think about gallons of norton's virginia, and , gallons of concord would be a fair average estimate per year--which the vines can easily produce, and remain healthy and vigorous. yield of mr. michael poeschel's vineyard.--catawba. year after planting. acres in vines. yield. price. , d - gallons . , d - , " . , th " . , th " . , th - / " . , th - / " . , th - / " . , th - / " . , th - / " . , th - / , " . , th , " . , th , " . , th , " . , th , " . , th " . , th " . , th , " . new vineyard of mr. michael poeschel, planted in , --first partial crop. gallons norton's virginia-- acres, at $ per gallon $ , grapes sold from / acre of concords plants from cuttings and layers sold , -------- $ , .--second crop.--vines badly frosted in winter. acres of norton's virginia produced gallons, at $ $ , - / acres of catawba, produced gallons, at $ grapes sold from / acre of concord plants sold , -------- $ , --third crop. - / acres of norton's virginia, produced , gallons at $ , - / acres catawba, produced gallons at $ - / acres concord, produced , gallons, at $ , / acre herbemont produced gallons, at $ per gallon, , / acre rulander produced gallons, at $ plants sold, , --------- $ , this vineyard was trenched at an average cost of $ dollars to the acre, and most of the vines are planted Ã� , evidently too close. they are trained to wire trellis, as described in a former part of this work, and receive close attention, and the very best cultivation. yield of vineyard of mr. william poeschel-- . - / acres of catawba produced , gallons of wine; sold at , . - / acres of catawba produced gallons; sold at $ . per gallon, . - / acres catawba produced gallons; sold at $ . per gallon, . acres of catawba produced , lbs. of grapes; sold at c. per lb., gallons of wine, at $ . per gallon, " . " plants sold, -------- $ , . acres of catawba produced gallons, at $ . per gallon, plants sold, ------ $ . acres catawba produced , lbs. of grapes; sold at cents per lb., gallons of wine, sold at $ . per gallon, " of norton's virginia, from about - th of an acre, at $ . per gallon, plants sold, -------- $ , -- - / acres in all. gallons of catawba, at $ . per gallon, , " concord, at $ . " " herbemont, at $ " " norton's virginia, $ " plants sold, -------- $ , -- - / acres in bearing; vines badly frosted. gallons catawba, $ . per gallon, " concord, . " " norton's virginia and delaware mixed, at $ . per gallon, " norton's virginia, second class, at $ plants sold, ------ $ -- acres in bearing. - / acre catawba produced galls., at $ . , , / " concord " " . , , " norton's vir. " " . , , / " delaware " " . , / " herbemont " " . , balance in other varieties, plants sold, -------- $ , this vineyard has one of the best locations for catawba and delaware in the neighborhood, and its proprietor one of the most intelligent and industrious cultivators and wine-manufacturers in the vicinity. the following are copied from the report of a special committee appointed by the cincinnati horticultural society, to inquire into the condition of vineyards, and report whether or not grape-growing was still profitable. i regret to say that our cincinnati friends have not, generally speaking, paid as much attention to the introduction and testing of better varieties--and there are but few vineyards in that neighborhood--where any other variety than the catawba has been planted to any extent. it is to be hoped that the signal failure of that variety last season will do much to open their eyes to the full importance of the subject, and to abandon the catawba, which evidently will not pay any longer. but, as we have already said, there are other varieties of grapes being successfully grown in this vicinity, and we have extended our researches to some of those vineyards, and give the results as follows:-- ives' seedling is a grape of much promise, not addicted to mildew and rot. col. wahring, of indian hill, in this county, has a small vineyard, only two acres in bearing, which made, the past season, gallons of wine. the season previous, only one acre in bearing, yielded gallons. the colonel makes his account for the past season's business stand as follows:-- gallons of wine, sold at $ . per gallon, $ , sale of cuttings, , -------- $ , deduct cost of taking care of vineyard, -------- leaving net product of vineyard, $ , or over $ , per acre. norton's virginia is another promising grape that is being grown considerably hereabouts. the messrs. bogen have given us their figures for the product of this grape, as follows: --from - / acres, first year in bearing, they made gallons, sold at $ per gallon, $ , sale of cuttings, sale of roots from layers, -------- $ , deduct from this, for cost of culture, -------- leaves net, $ , or $ , per acre. --yield of same in wine and cuttings, , or about $ , per acre. delaware is another grape of very great promise and profit, now being extensively grown throughout the country. the messrs. bogen, from one-third of an acre, first bearing year, give us the following figures for the past season: gallons of wine, sold at $ per gallon, sold cuttings, sold roots from layers, , -------- $ , deduct cost of culture, -------- $ , or $ , per acre. mr. j. e. mottier gives us, as the result of his delaware vineyard for the past two years, as follows: --from - / acres. gallons of wine, sold at $ per gallon, $ sale of cuttings, , -------- , deduct expenses, -------- leaving net, $ , or $ , per acre. --from same vineyard. gallons of wine, at $ per gallon, $ , sold roots from layers, , sales of cuttings, , --------- , deduct expenses, -------- leaves net, $ , or $ , per acre mr. mottier says he might have obtained a larger yield of wine, but his vineyard being young, he would not allow it to overbear. your committee, therefore, take pleasure in submitting the foregoing facts, in refutation, in part, of the loose and reckless statements of mr. yeatman, and take this method of entering their protest against the same. (signed), e. a. thompson. john e. mottier. the foregoing contains some valuable facts, but it would seem to me that our cincinnati friends have hardly estimated labor and expenses high enough. we cannot begin to cultivate our vineyards at as low an estimate. the following is a rough estimate of the last season's crop around hermann. it may be rather inaccurate, but it is about as near as i could come to the result. there are now, i suppose, something like , acres planted in grapes, of which about may be in bearing. unfortunately, nearly all the old vineyards are planted with the catawba, which was almost an entire failure this season, the average crop being only about gallons to the acre. most of the later planting has been done with the concord and norton's virginia, but these vineyards are not bearing yet. of the norton's virginia, the average crop the last season may have been about gallons to the acre; of the concord, , gallons per acre. the herbemont may have yielded about gallons to the acre. grapes marketed, mostly concord, , lbs. average price, c. per lb., $ , catawba wine made, about , gallons; average value, $ . per gallon, , norton's virginia wine made, about , gallons; average value, $ per gallon, , concord wine made, about , gallons; average value, $ . per gallon, , herbemont wine made, about , gallons; average value, $ per gallon, , other varieties made, about , gallons; average value, $ per gallons, , grape roots, cuttings, etc., grown and sold, , ---------- $ , i think the above is rather below the real amount; and the value of the crop may come up even as high as $ , . although grape culture is followed to a larger extent around hermann than anywhere in the state, yet there are also a great many grapes grown and wine made around boonville, in cooper county; and augusta, st. charles county; also, hannibal, on the mississippi river; and st. joseph, on the missouri; and there is hardly a county in the state now but has some flourishing vineyards. the above facts may serve to give my readers a clearer insight into the cost and profits of grape-growing, and also the comparative varieties. in every case, the figures given can be relied on as actual facts. in our neighboring states, illinois and iowa, grape-growing is progressing rapidly. there are already a number of vineyards established in the neighborhood of alton, belleville, mascoutah, warsaw, and nauvoo, in illinois; and in the neighborhood of burlington and davenport, in iowa. i am told that in the neighborhood of makanda alone, in jackson county, illinois, at least , vines of the concord will be planted the coming spring. our sister state, kansas, is also progressing bravely in the good work; and i do not think that, although our propagators throughout the country have done their best, there will be half the number of vines for sale that are wanted to meet the demand. but, while i am fully aware of the importance of grape-culture _everywhere_, i cannot help but believe that the southwest will take the preference in grape-growing over the eastern and northern states. we have the advantages of longer seasons and a warmer climate, generally of richer soil, of cheaper lands; we can cultivate varieties which cannot be grown by our eastern brethren, and therefore all the chances are on our side. the mountainous regions of tennessee, georgia, arkansas, texas, and alabama may, perhaps, rival and even surpass us in the future, but their inhabitants at present are not of the clay from which grape-growers are formed. they still cling to the demon of slavery, and their hatred of northern industrious _freemen_ seems to be stronger than their love of prosperity. let us hope that a better spirit may prevail, that they will in time begin to see their own interest, and welcome with open arms every one who can assist them in developing the natural advantages of their lands. the grape can only flourish on _free_ soil, and by _free_ intelligent labor. transcriber's note: #################### this e-text is based on the edition. the original spelling, as well as the use of punctuation and quotation marks, have been retained. the following errors have been corrected: # p. xi: 'sauturnes' --> 'sauternes' # p. : 'which ne declares' --> 'which he declares' # p. : 'its owes' --> 'it owes' # p. : 'bonaporte' --> 'bonaparte' # p. : 'histriographer' --> 'historiographer' # p. : 'reputatiou' --> 'reputation' # p. : 'saint-poray' --> 'saint-péray' # footnote : 'tho gas' --> 'the gas' the caret symbol (^) characterises subsequent superscript text; [oe] is the symbol for the oe-ligature. [asterism] depicts a corresponding typographical symbol. the following text variations have been marked by special characters: italic: underscores (_italic_) bold: equals signs (=bold=) small caps: forward slashes (/small caps/) underlined: tildes (~underlined~) [illustration: a supper under the regency.] a history of champagne with notes on the other sparkling wines of france. by henry vizetelly, chevalier of the order of franz-josef, author of 'the wines of the world characterised and classed,' 'facts about port and madeira,' 'facts about champagne and other sparkling wines,' 'facts about sherry,' etc. [illustration] illustrated with engravings. london: _vizetelly & co., catherine street, strand. scribner & welford, new york._ . london: robson and sons, printers, pancras road, n.w. preface. the present is the first instance in which the history of any wine has been traced with the same degree of minuteness as the history of the still and sparkling wines of the champagne has been traced in the following pages. and not only have the author's investigations extended over a very wide range, as will be seen by the references contained in the footnotes to this volume, but during the past ten years he has paid frequent visits to the champagne--to its vineyards and vendangeoirs, and to the establishments of the chief manufacturers of sparkling wine, the preparation of which he has witnessed in all its phases. visits have, moreover, been made to various other localities where sparkling wines are produced, and more or less interesting information gathered regarding the latter. in the pursuit of his researches, the author's position as wine juror at the vienna and paris exhibitions opened up to him many sources of information inaccessible to others less favourably circumstanced, and these his general knowledge of wine, acquired during many years' careful study, enabled him to turn to advantageous account. the numerous illustrations scattered throughout the present volume have been derived from every available source that suggested itself. ancient /mss./, early-printed books, pictures and pieces of sculpture, engravings and caricatures, all of greater or less rarity, have been laid under contribution; and in addition, nearly two hundred original sketches have been made under the author's immediate superintendence, with the object of illustrating the principal localities and their more picturesque features, and depicting all matters of interest connected with the growth and manipulation of the various sparkling wines which are here described. in the preparation of this work, and more particularly the historical portions of it, the author has been largely assisted by his nephew, mr. montague vizetelly, to whom he tenders his warmest acknowledgments for the valuable services rendered by him. it should be stated that portions of the volume, relating to the vintaging and manufacture of sparkling wines generally, have been previously published under the title of _facts about champagne and other sparkling wines_, but they have been subjected to considerable extension and revision before being permitted to reappear in their present form. st. leonards-on-sea, february . contents. /part i./ i. /early renown of the champagne wines./ page the vine in gaul--domitian's edict to uproot it--plantation of vineyards under probus--early vineyards of the champagne--ravages by the northern tribes repulsed for a time by the consul jovinus--st. remi and the baptism of clovis--st. remi's vineyards--simultaneous progress of christianity and the cultivation of the vine--the vine a favourite subject of ornament in the churches of the champagne--the culture of the vine interrupted, only to be renewed with increased ardour--early distinction between 'vins de la rivière' and 'vins de la montagne'--a prelate's counsel respecting the proper wine to drink--the champagne desolated by war--pope urban ii., a former canon of reims cathedral--his partiality for the wine of ay--bequests of vineyards to religious establishments--critical ecclesiastical topers--the wine of the champagne causes poets to sing and rejoice--'la bataille des vins'--wines of auviller and espernai le bacheler ii. /the wines of the champagne from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century./ coronations at reims and their attendant banquets--wine flows profusely at these entertainments--the wine-trade of reims--presents of wine from the reims municipality--cultivation of the vineyards abandoned after the battle of poitiers--octroi levied on wine at reims--coronation of charles v.--extension of the champagne vineyards--abundance of wine--visit to reims of the royal sot wenceslaus of bohemia--the etape aux vins at reims--increased consumption of beer during the english occupation of the city--the maid of orleans at reims--the vineyards and wine-trade alike suffer--louis xi. is crowned at reims--fresh taxes upon wine followed by the mique-maque revolt--the rémois the victims of pillaging foes and extortionate defenders--the champagne vineyards attacked by noxious insects--coronation of louis xii.--françois premier, the emperor charles v., bluff king hal, and leo the magnificent all partial to the wine of ay--mary queen of scots at reims--state kept by the opulent and libertine cardinal of lorraine--brusquet, the court fool--decrease in the production of wine around reims--gifts of wine to newly-crowned monarchs--new restrictions on vine cultivation--the wine of the champagne crowned at the same time as louis xiii.--regulation price for wine established at reims--imposts levied on the vineyards by the frondeurs--the country ravaged around reims--sufferings of the peasantry--presents of wine to marshal turenne and charles ii. of england--perfection of the champagne wines during the reign of louis xiv.--st. evremond's high opinion of them--other contemporary testimony in their favour--the archbishop of reims's niggardly gift to james ii. of england--a poet killed by champagne--offerings by the rémois to louis xiv. on his visit to their city iii. /invention and development of sparkling champagne./ the ancients acquainted with sparkling wines--tendency of champagne wines to effervesce noted at an early period--obscurity enveloping the discovery of what we now know as sparkling champagne--the royal abbey of hautvillers--legend of its foundation by st. nivard and st. berchier--its territorial possessions and vineyards--the monks the great viticulturists of the middle ages--dom perignon--he marries wines differing in character--his discovery of sparkling white wine--he is the first to use corks to bottles--his secret for clearing the wine revealed only to his successors frère philippe and dom grossart--result of dom perignon's discoveries--the wine of hautvillers sold at livres the queue--dom perignon's memorial in the abbey-church--wine flavoured with peaches--the effervescence ascribed to drugs, to the period of the moon, and to the action of the sap in the vine--the fame of sparkling wine rapidly spreads--the vin de perignon makes its appearance at the court of the grand monarque--is welcomed by the young courtiers--it figures at the suppers of anet and chantilly, and at the orgies of the temple and the palais royal--the rapturous strophes of chaulieu and rousseau--frederick william i. and the berlin academicians--augustus the strong and the page who pilfered his champagne--horror of the old-fashioned _gourmets_ at the innovation--bertin du rocheret and the marshal d'artagnan--system of wine-making in the champagne early in the eighteenth century--bottling of the wine in flasks--icing champagne with the corks loosened iv. /the battle of the wines./ temporary check to the popularity of sparkling champagne--doctors disagree--the champions of champagne and burgundy--péna and his patient--a young burgundian student attacks the wine of reims--the faculty of reims in arms--a local old parr cited as an example in favour of the wines of the champagne--salins of beaune and le pescheur of reims engage warmly in the dispute--a pelting with pamphlets--burgundy sounds a war-note--the sapphics of benigné grenan--an asp beneath the flowers--the gauntlet picked up--carols from a coffin--champagne extolled as superior to all other wines--it inspires the heart and stirs the brain--the apotheosis of champagne foam--burgundy, an invalid, seeks a prescription--impartially appreciative drinkers of both wines--bold burgundian and stout rémois, each a jolly tippling fellow--canon maucroix's parallel between burgundy and demosthenes and champagne and cicero--champagne a panacea for gout and stone--final decision in favour of champagne by the medical faculty of paris--pluche's opinion on the controversy--champagne a lively wit and burgundy a solid understanding--champagne commands double the price of the best burgundy--zealots reconciled at table v. /progress and popularity of sparkling champagne./ sparkling champagne intoxicates the regent d'orléans and the _roués_ of the palais royal--it is drunk by peter the great at reims--a horse trained on champagne and biscuits--decree of louis xv. regarding the transport of champagne--wine for the _petits cabinets du roi_--the _petits soupers_ and champagne orgies of the royal household--a bibulous royal mistress--the well-beloved at reims--frederick the great, george ii., stanislas leczinski, and marshal saxe all drink champagne--voltaire sings the praises of the effervescing wine of ay--the commander descartes and lebatteux extol the charms of sparkling champagne--bertin du rocheret and his balsamic molecules--the bacchanalian poet panard chants the inspiring effects of the vintages of the marne--marmontel is jointly inspired by mademoiselle de navarre and the wine of avenay--the abbé de l'attaignant and his fair hostesses--breakages of bottles in the manufacturers' cellars--attempts to obviate them--the early sparkling wines merely _crémant_--_saute bouchon_ and _demi-mousseux_--prices of champagne in the eighteenth century--preference given to light acid wines for sparkling champagne--lingering relics of prejudice against _vin mousseux_--the secret addition of sugar--originally the wine not cleared in bottle--its transfer to other bottles necessary--adoption of the present method of ridding the wine of its deposit--the vine-cultivators the last to profit by the popularity of sparkling champagne--marie antoinette welcomed to reims--reception and coronation of louis xvi. at reims--'the crown, it hurts me!'--oppressive dues and tithes of the _ancien régime_--the fermiers généraux and their hôtel at reims--champagne under the revolution--napoleon at epernay--champagne included in the equipment of his satraps--the allies in the champagne--drunkenness and pillaging--appreciation of champagne by the invading troops--the beneficial results which followed--universal popularity of champagne--the wine a favourite with kings and potentates--its traces to be met with everywhere vi. /champagne in england./ the strong and foaming wine of the champagne forbidden his troops by henry v.--the english carrying off wine when evacuating reims on the approach of jeanne darc--a legend of the siege of epernay--henry viii. and his vineyard at ay--louis xiv.'s present of champagne to charles ii.--the courtiers of the merry monarch retain the taste for french wine acquired in exile--st. evremond makes the champagne flute the glass of fashion--still champagne quaffed by the beaux of the mall and the rakes of the mulberry gardens--it inspires the poets and dramatists of the restoration--is drank by james ii. and william iii.--the advent of sparkling champagne in england--farquhar's _love and a bottle_--mockmode the country squire and the witty liquor--champagne the source of wit--port-wine and war combine against it, but it helps marlborough's downfall--coffin's poetical invitation to the english on the return of peace--a fraternity of chemical operators who draw champagne from an apple--the influence of champagne in the augustan age of english literature--extolled by gay and prior--shenstone's verses at an inn--renders vanbrugh's comedies lighter than his edifices--swift preaches temperance in champagne to bolingbroke--champagne the most fashionable wine of the eighteenth century--bertin du rocheret sends it in cask and bottle to the king's wine-merchant--champagne at vauxhall in horace walpole's day--old q. gets champagne from m. de puissieux--lady mary's champagne and chicken--champagne plays its part at masquerades and bacchanalian suppers--becomes the beverage of the ultra-fashionables above and below stairs--figures in the comedies of foote, garrick, coleman, and holcroft--champagne and real pain--sir edward barry's learned remarks on champagne--pitt and dundas drunk on jenkinson's champagne--fox and the champagne from brooks's--champagne smuggled from jersey--grown in england--experiences of a traveller in the champagne trade in england at the close of the century--sillery the favourite wine--nelson and the 'fair emma' under the influence of champagne--the prince regent's partiality for champagne punch--brummell's champagne blacking--the duke of clarence overcome by champagne--curran and canning on the wine--henderson's praise of sillery--tom moore's summer fête inspired by pink champagne--scott's muse dips her wing in champagne--byron's sparkling metaphors--a joint-stock poem in praise of pink champagne--the wheels of social life in england oiled by champagne--it flows at public banquets and inaugurations--plays its part in the city, on the turf, and in the theatrical world--imparts a charm to the dinners of belgravia and the suppers of bohemia--champagne the ladies' wine _par excellence_--its influence as a matrimonial agent--'o the wildfire wine of france!' /part ii./ i. /the champagne vinelands--the vineyards of the river./ the vinelands in the neighbourhood of epernay--viticultural area of the champagne--a visit to the vineyards of 'golden plants'--the dizy vineyards--antiquity of the ay vineyards--st. tresain and the wine-growers of ay--the ay vintage of --the mareuil vineyards and their produce--avernay; its vineyards, wines, and ancient abbey--the vineyards of mutigny and cumières--damery and 'la belle hôtesse' of henri quatre--adrienne lecouvreur and the maréchal de saxe's matrimonial schemes--pilgrimage to hautvillers--remains of the royal abbey of st. peter--the ancient church--its quaint decorations and monuments--the view from the heights of hautvillers--the abbey vineyards and wine-cellars in the days of dom perignon--the vinelands of the côte d'epernay--pierry and its vineyard cellars--the moussy, vinay, and ablois st. martin vineyards--the côte d'avize--chavot, monthelon, grauves, and cuis--the vineyards of cramant and avize, and their light delicate white wines--the oger and le mesnil vineyards--vertus and its picturesque ancient remains--its vineyards planted with burgundy grapes from beaune--the red wine of vertus a favourite beverage of william iii. of england ii. /the champagne vinelands--the vineyards of the mountain./ the wine of sillery--origin of its renown--the maréchale d'estrées a successful marchande de vin--the marquis de sillery the greatest wine-farmer in the champagne--cossack appreciation of the sillery produce--the route from reims to sillery--henri quatre and the taissy wines--failure of the jacquesson system of vine cultivation--château of sillery--wine-making at m. fortel's--sillery sec--the vintage at verzenay and the vendangeoirs--renown of the verzenay wine--the verzy vineyards--edward iii. at the abbey of st. basle--excursion from reims to bouzy--the herring procession at st. remi--rilly, chigny, and ludes--the knights templars' 'pot' of wine--mailly and the view over the champagne plains--wine-making at mailly--the village in the wood--château and park of louvois, louis le grand's war minister--the vineyards of bouzy--its church-steeple, and the lottery of the great gold ingot--pressing grapes at the werlé vendangeoir--still red bouzy--ambonnay--a pattern peasant vine-proprietor--the ambonnay vintage--the vineyards of ville-dommange and sacy, hermonville and st. thierry--the still red wine of the latter iii. /the vines of the champagne and the system of cultivation./ a combination of circumstances essential to the production of good champagne--varieties of vines cultivated in the champagne vineyards--different classes of vine-proprietors--cost of cultivation--the soil of the vineyards--period and system of planting the vines--the operation of 'provenage'--the 'taille' or pruning, the 'bêchage' or digging--fixing the vine-stakes--great cost of the latter--manuring and shortening back the vines--the summer hoeing around the plants--removal of the stakes after the vintage--precautions adopted against spring frosts--the guyot system of roofing the vines with matting--forms a shelter from rain, hail, and frost, and aids the ripening of the grapes--various pests that prey upon the champagne vines--destruction caused by the eumolpe, the chabot, the bêche, the cochylus, and the pyrale--attempts made to check the ravages of the latter with the electric light iv. /the vintage in the champagne./ period of the champagne vintage--vintagers summoned by beat of drum--early morning the best time for plucking the grapes--excitement in the neighbouring villages at vintage-time--vintagers at work--mules employed to convey the gathered grapes down the steeper slopes--the fruit carefully examined before being taken to the wine-press--arrival of the grapes at the vendangeoir--they are subjected to three squeezes, and then to the 'rébêche'--the must is pumped into casks and left to ferment--only a few of the vine-proprietors in the champagne press their own grapes--the prices the grapes command--air of jollity throughout the district during the vintage--every one is interested in it, and profits by it--vintagers' fête on st. vincent's-day--endless philandering between the sturdy sons of toil and the sunburnt daughters of labour v. /the preparation of champagne./ the treatment of champagne after it comes from the wine-press--the racking and blending of the wine--the proportions of red and white vintages composing the 'cuvée'--deficiency and excess of effervescence--strength and form of champagne bottles--the 'tirage' or bottling of the wine--the process of gas-making commences--details of the origin and development of the effervescent properties of champagne--the inevitable breakage of bottles which ensues--this remedied by transferring the wine to a lower temperature--the wine stacked in piles--formation of sediment--bottles placed 'sur pointe' and daily shaken to detach the deposit--effect of this occupation on those incessantly engaged in it--the present system originated by a workman of madame clicquot's--'claws' and 'masks'--champagne cellars--their construction and aspect--raw recruits for the 'regiment de champagne'--transforming the 'vin brut' into champagne--disgorging and liqueuring the wine--the composition of the liqueur--variation in the quantity added to suit diverse national tastes--the corking, stringing, wiring, and amalgamating--the wine's agitated existence comes to an end--the bottles have their toilettes made--champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage round the world vi. /reims and its champagne establishments./ the city of reims--its historical associations--the cathedral--its western front one of the most splendid conceptions of the thirteenth century--the sovereigns crowned within its walls--present aspect of the ancient archiepiscopal city--the woollen manufactures and other industries of reims--the city undermined with the cellars of the great champagne firms--reims hotels--gothic house in the rue du bourg st. denis--renaissance house in the rue de vesle--church of st. jacques: its gateway and quaint weathercock--the rue des tapissiers and the chapter court--the long tapers used at religious processions--the place des marchés and its ancient houses--the hôtel de ville--statue of louis xiii.--the rues de la prison and du temple--messrs. werlé & co., successors to the veuve clicquot-ponsardin--their offices and cellars on the site of a former commanderie of the templars--origin of the celebrity of madame clicquot's wines--m. werlé and his son--remains of the commanderie--the forty-five cellars of the clicquot-werlé establishment--our tour of inspection through them--ingenious dosing machine--an explosion and its consequences--m. werlé's gallery of paintings--madame clicquot's renaissance house and its picturesque bas-reliefs--the werlé vineyards and vendangeoirs vii. /reims and its champagne establishments/ (_continued_). the house of louis roederer founded by a plodding german named schreider--the central and other establishments of the firm--ancient house in the rue des elus--the gloomy-looking rue des deux anges and prison-like aspect of its houses--inside their courts the scene changes--handsome renaissance house and garden, a former abode of the canons of the cathedral--the place royale--the hôtel des fermes and the statue of the 'wise, virtuous, and magnanimous louis xv.'--birthplace of colbert in the rue de cérès--quaint adam and eve gateway in the rue de l'arbalète--heidsieck & co.'s central establishment in the rue de sedan--their famous 'monopole' brand--the firm founded in the last century--their extensive cellars inside and outside reims--the matured wines shipped by them--the boulevard du temple--m. ernest irroy's cellars, vineyards, and vendangeoirs--recognition by the reims agricultural association of his plantations of vines--his wines and their popularity at the best london clubs--various champagne firms located in this quarter of reims--the rue du tambour and the famous house of the musicians--the counts de la marck assumed former occupants of the latter--the brotherhood of minstrels of reims--périnet & fils' establishment in the rue st. hilaire--their cellars of three stories in solid masonry--their soft, light, and delicate wines--a rare still verzenay--the firm's high-class extra sec viii. /reims and its champagne establishments/ (_continued_). la prison de bonne semaine--mary queen of scots at reims--messrs. pommery & greno's offices--a fine collection of faïence--the rue des anglais a former refuge of english catholics--remains of the old university of reims--ancient tower and grotto--the handsome castellated pommery establishment--the spacious cellier and huge carved cuvée tuns--the descent to the cellars--their great extent--these lofty subterranean chambers originally quarries, and subsequently places of refuge of the early christians and the protestants--madame pommery's splendid cuvées of and --messrs. de st. marceaux & co.'s new establishment in the avenue de sillery--its garden-court and circular shaft--animated scene in the large packing hall--lowering bottled wine to the cellars--great depth and extent of these cellars--messrs. de st. marceaux & co.'s various wines--the establishment of veuve morelle & co., successors to max sutaine--the latter's 'essai sur le vin de champagne'--the sutaine family formerly of some note at reims--morelle & co.'s cellars well adapted to the development of sparkling wines--the various brands of the house--the porte dieu-lumière ix. /epernay./ the connection of epernay with the production of wine of remote date--the town repeatedly burnt and plundered--hugh the great carries off all the wine of the neighbourhood--vineyards belonging to the abbey of st. martin in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries--abbot gilles orders the demolition of a wine-press which infringes the abbey's feudal rights--bequests of vineyards in the fifteenth century--francis i. bestows epernay on claude duke of guise in --the eschevins send a present of wine to their new seigneur--wine levied for the king's camp at rethel and the strongholds of the province by the duc de longueville--epernay sacked and fired on the approach of charles v.--the charles-fontaine vendangeoir at avenay--destruction of the immense pressoirs of the abbey of st. martin--the handsome renaissance entrance to the church of epernay--plantation of the 'terre de siége' with vines in --money and wine levied on epernay by condé and the duke of guise--henri quatre lays siege to epernay--death of maréchal biron--desperate battle amongst the vineyards--triple talent of the 'bon roy henri' for drinking, fighting, and love-making--verses addressed by him to his 'belle hôtesse' anne du puy--the epernay town council make gifts of wine to various functionaries to secure their good-will--presents of wine to turenne at the coronation of louis xiv.--petition to louvois to withdraw the epernay garrison that the vintage may be gathered in--the duke and duchess of orleans at epernay--louis xiv. partakes of the local vintage at the maison abbatiale on his way to the army of the rhine--increased reputation of the wine of epernay at the end of the seventeenth century--numerous offerings of it to the marquis de puisieux, governor of the town--the old pretender presented at epernay with twenty-four bottles of the best--sparkling wine sent to the marquis de puisieux at sillery, and also to his nephew--further gifts to the prince de turenne--the vintage destroyed by frost in --the epernay slopes at this epoch said to produce the most delicious wine in europe--vines planted where houses had formerly stood--the development of the trade in sparkling wine--a 'tirage' of fifty thousand bottles in --arthur young drinks champagne at epernay at forty sous the bottle--it is surmised that louis xvi., on his return from varennes, is inspired by champagne at epernay--napoleon and his family enjoy the hospitality of jean remi moët--king jerome of westphalia's true prophecy with regard to the russians and champagne--disgraceful conduct of the prussians and russians at epernay in --the mayor offers them the free run of his cellars--charles x., louis philippe, and napoleon iii. accept the 'vin d'honneur' at epernay--the town occupied by german troops during the war of - x. /the champagne establishments of epernay and pierry./ early records of the moët family at reims and epernay--jean remi moët, the founder of the commerce in champagne wines--extracts from old account-books of the moëts--jean remi moët receives the emperor napoleon, the empress josephine, and the king of westphalia--the firm of moët & chandon constituted--their establishment in the rue du commerce--the delivery and washing of new bottles--the numerous vineyards and vendangeoirs of the firm--their cuvée made in vats of , gallons--the bottling of the wine--a subterranean city, with miles of streets, cross-roads, open spaces, tramways, and stations--the ancient entrance to these vaults--tablet commemorative of the visit of napoleon i.--the original vaults known as siberia--scene in the packing-hall--messrs. moët & chandon's large and complete staff--the famous 'star' brand of the firm--perrier-jouët's château, offices, and cellars--classification of the wine of the house--the establishment of messrs. pol roger & co.--their large stock of the fine vintage--the preparations for the tirage--their vast fireproof cellier and its temperature--their lofty and capacious cellars--pierry becomes a wine-growing district consequent upon dom perignon's discovery--esteem in which the growths of the clos st. pierre were held--cazotte, author of _le diable amoureux_, and guillotined for planning the escape of louis xvi. from france, a resident at pierry--his contest with the abbot of hautvillers with reference to the abbey tithes of wine--the château of pierry--its owner demands to have it searched to prove that he is not a forestaller of corn--the vineyards and champagne establishment of gé-dufaut & co.--the reserves of old wines in the cellars of this firm--honours secured by them at vienna and paris xi. /some champagne establishments at ay and mareuil./ the _bourgade_ of ay and its eighteenth-century château--gambling propensities of a former owner, balthazar constance dangé-dorçay-- appreciation of the ay vintage by sigismund of bohemia, leo x., charles v., francis i., and henry viii.--bertin du rocheret celebrates this partiality in triolets--estimation of the ay wine in the reigns of charles ix. and henri iii.--is a favoured drink with the leaders of the league, and with henri iv., catherine de medicis, and the courtiers of that epoch--the 'vendangeoir d'henri quatre' at ay--the king's pride in his title of seigneur d'ay and gonesse--dominicus baudius punningly suggests that the 'vin d'ay' should be called 'vinum dei'--the merits of the wine sung by poets and extolled by wits--the ay wine in its palmy days evidently not sparkling--arthur young's visit to ay in --the establishment of deutz & geldermann--drawing off the cuvée there--mode of excavating cellars in the champagne--the firm's new cellars, vineyards, and vendangeoir--m. duminy's cellars and wines--the house founded in --the new model duminy establishment--picturesque old house at ay--messrs. pfungst frères & co.'s cellars--their finely-matured dry champagnes--the old church of ay and its numerous decorations of grapes and vine-leaves--the sculptured figure above the renaissance doorway--the montebello establishment at mareuil--the château formerly the property of the dukes of orleans--a titled champagne firm--the brilliant career of marshal lannes--a promenade through the montebello establishment--the press-house, the cuvée-vat, the packing-room, the offices, and the cellars--portraits and relics at the château--the establishment of bruch-foucher & co.--the handsome carved gigantic cuvée-tun--the cellars and their lofty shafts--the wines of the firm xii. /champagne establishments at avize and rilly./ avize the centre of the white grape district--its situation and aspect--the establishment of giesler & co.--the tirage and the cuvée--vin brut in racks and on tables--the packing-hall, the extensive cellars, and the disgorging cellier--bottle stores and bottle-washing machines--messrs. giesler's wine-presses at avize and vendangeoir at bouzy--their vineyards and their purchases of grapes--reputation of the giesler brand--the establishment of m. charles de cazanove--a tame young boar--boar-hunting in the champagne--m. de cazanove's commodious cellars and carefully-selected wines--vineyards owned by him and his family--reputation of his wines in paris and their growing popularity in england--interesting view of the avize and cramant vineyards from m. de cazanove's terraced garden--the vintaging of the white grapes in the champagne--roper frères' establishment at rilly-la-montagne--their cellars penetrated by roots of trees--some samples of fine old champagnes--the principal châlons establishments--poem on champagne by m. amaury de cazanove xiii. /sport in the champagne./ the champagne forests the resort of the wild-boar--departure of a hunting-party in the early morning to a boar-hunt--rousing the boar from his lair--commencement of the attack--chasing the boar--his course is checked by a bullet--the dogs rush on in full pursuit--the boar turns and stands at bay--a skilful marksman advances and gives him the _coup de grâce_--hunting the wild-boar on horseback in the champagne--an exciting day's sport with m. d'honnincton's boar-hounds--the 'sonnerie du sanglier' and the 'vue'--the horns sound in chorus 'the boar has taken soil'--the boar leaves the stream, and a spirited chase ensues--brought to bay, he seeks the water again--deathly struggle between the boar and a full pack of hounds--the fatal shot is at length fired, and the 'hallali' is sounded--as many as fifteen wild-boars sometimes killed at a single meet--the vagaries of some tame young boars--hounds of all kinds used for hunting the wild-boar in the champagne--damage done by boars to the vineyards and the crops--varieties of game common to the champagne /part iii./ i. /sparkling saumur and sparkling sauternes./ the sparkling wines of the loire often palmed off as champagne--the finer qualities improve with age--anjou the cradle of the plantagenet kings--saumur and its dominating feudal château and antique hôtel de ville--its sinister rue des payens and steep tortuous grande rue--the vineyards of the coteau of saumur--abandoned stone-quarries converted into dwellings--the vintage in progress--old-fashioned pressoirs--the making of the wine--touraine the favourite residence of the earlier french monarchs--after a night's carouse at the epoch of the renaissance--the vouvray vineyards--balzac's picture of la vallée coquette--the village of vouvray and the château of moncontour--vernou, with its reminiscences of sully and pépin-le-bref--the vineyards around saumur--remarkable ancient dolmens--ackerman-laurance's establishment at saint-florent--their extensive cellars, ancient and modern--treatment of the newly-vintaged wine--the cuvée--proportions of wine from black and white grapes--the bottling and disgorging of the wine and finishing operations--the château of varrains and the establishment of m. louis duvau aîné--his cellars a succession of gloomy galleries--the disgorging of the wine accomplished in a melodramatic-looking cave--m. duvau's vineyard--his sparkling saumur of various ages--marked superiority of the more matured samples--m. e. normandin's sparkling sauternes manufactory at châteauneuf--angoulême and its ancient fortifications--vin de colombar--m. normandin's sparkling sauternes cuvée--his cellars near châteauneuf--recognition accorded to the wine at the concours régional d'angoulême ii. /the sparkling wines of burgundy, the jura, and the south of france./ sparkling wines of the côte d'or at the paris exhibition of --chambertin, romanée, and vougeot--burgundy wines and vines formerly presents from princes--vintaging sparkling burgundies--their after-treatment in the cellars--excess of breakage--similarity of proceeding to that followed in the champagne--principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies--sparkling wines of tonnerre, the birthplace of the chevalier d'eon--the vin d'arbanne of bar-sur-aube--death there of the bastard de bourbon--madame de la motte's ostentatious display and arrest there--sparkling wines of the beaujolais--the mont-brouilly vineyards--ancient reputation of the wines of the jura--the vin jaune of arbois beloved of henri quatre--rhymes by him in its honour--lons-le-saulnier--vineyards yielding the sparkling jura wines--their vintaging and subsequent treatment--their high alcoholic strength and general drawbacks--sparkling wines of auvergne, guienne, dauphiné, and languedoc--sparkling saint-péray the champagne of the south--valence, with its reminiscences of pius vi. and napoleon i.--the 'horns of crussol' on the banks of the rhône--vintage scene at saint-péray--the vines and vineyards producing sparkling wine--manipulation of sparkling saint-péray--its abundance of natural sugar--the cellars of m. de saint-prix, and samples of his wines--sparkling côte-rotie, château-grillé, and hermitage--annual production and principal markets of sparkling saint-péray--clairette de die--the porte rouge of die cathedral--how the die wine is made--the sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of die--sparkling wines of vercheny and lagrasse--barnave and the royal flight to varennes--narbonne formerly a miniature rome, now noted merely for its wine and honey--fête of the black virgin at limoux--preference given to the new wine over the miraculous water--blanquette of limoux, and how it is made--characteristics of this overrated wine iii. /facts and notes respecting sparkling wines./ dry and sweet champagnes--their sparkling properties--form of champagne glasses--style of sparkling wines consumed in different countries--the colour and alcoholic strength of champagne--champagne approved of by the faculty--its use in nervous derangements--the icing of champagne--scarcity of grand vintages in the champagne--the quality of the wine has little influence on the price--prices realised by the ay and verzenay crus in grand years--suggestions for laying down champagnes of grand vintages--the improvement they develop after a few years--the wine of --the proper kind of cellar in which to lay down champagne--advantages of burrow's patent slider wine-bins--increase in the consumption of champagne--tabular statement of stocks, exports, and home consumption from - to - --when to serve champagne at a dinner-party--charles dickens's dictum that its proper place is at a ball--advantageous effect of champagne at an ordinary british dinner-party [illustration] [illustration: a history of champagne] with notes on other sparkling wines. part i. i. /early renown of the champagne wines./ the vine in gaul--domitian's edict to uproot it--plantation of vineyards under probus--early vineyards of the champagne--ravages by the northern tribes repulsed for a time by the consul jovinus--st. remi and the baptism of clovis--st. remi's vineyards--simultaneous progress of christianity and the cultivation of the vine--the vine a favourite subject of ornament in the churches of the champagne--the culture of the vine interrupted, only to be renewed with increased ardour--early distinction between 'vins de la rivière' and 'vins de la montagne'--a prelate's counsel respecting the proper wine to drink--the champagne desolated by war--pope urban ii., a former canon of reims cathedral--his partiality for the wine of ay--bequests of vineyards to religious establishments--critical ecclesiastical topers--the wine of the champagne causes poets to sing and rejoice--'la bataille des vins'--wines of auviller and espernai le bacheler. [illustration] although the date of the introduction of the vine into france is lost in the mists of antiquity, and though the wines of marseilles, narbonne, and vienne were celebrated by roman writers prior to the christian era, many centuries elapsed before a vintage was gathered within the limits of the ancient province of champagne. whilst the vine and olive throve in the sunny soil of the narbonnese gaul, the frigid climate of the as yet uncultivated north forbade the production of either wine or oil.[ ] the 'forest of the marne,' now renowned for the vintage it yields, was then indeed a dark and gloomy wood, the haunt of the wolf and wild boar, the stag and the auroch; and the tall barbarians of gallia comata, who manned the walls of reims on the approach of cæsar, were fain to quaff defiance to the roman power in mead and ale.[ ] though reims became under the roman dominion one of the capitals of belgic gaul, and acquired an importance to which numerous relics in the shape of temples, triumphal arches, baths, arenas, military roads, &c., amply testify; and though the gauls were especially distinguished by their quick adoption of roman customs, it appears certain that during the sway of the twelve cæsars the inhabitants of the present champagne district were forced to draw the wine, with which their amphoræ were filled and their pateræ replenished, from extraneous sources. the vintages of which pliny and columella have written were confined to gallia narboniensis, though the culture of the vine had doubtless made some progress in aquitaine and on the banks of the saône, when the stern edict of the fly-catching madman domitian, issued on the plea that the plant of bacchus usurped space which would be better filled by that of ceres, led (/a.d./ ) to its total uprooting throughout the gallic territory. [illustration] for nearly two hundred years this strange edict remained in force, during which period all the wine consumed in the gallo-roman dominions was imported from abroad. six generations of men, to whom the cheerful toil of the vine-dresser was but an hereditary tale, and the joys of the vintage a half-forgotten tradition, had passed away when, in , the emperor probus, a gardener's son, once more granted permission to cultivate the vine, and even exercised his legions in the laying-out and planting of vineyards in gaul.[ ] the culture was eagerly resumed, and, as with the advancement of agriculture and the clearance of forests the climate had gradually improved, the inhabitants of the more northern regions sought to emulate their southern neighbours in the production of wine. this concession of probus was hailed with rejoicing; and some antiquaries maintain that the triumphal arch at reims, known as the gate of mars, was erected during his reign as a token of gratitude for this permission to replant the vine.[ ] [illustration] [illustration: the gate of mars at reims.] by the fourth century the banks of the marne and the moselle were clothed with vineyards, which became objects of envy and desire to the yellow-haired tribes of germany,[ ] and led in no small degree to the predatory incursions into the territory of reims so severely repulsed by julian the apostate and the consul jovinus, who had aided julian to ascend the throne of the cæsars, and had combatted for him against the persians. julian assembled his forces at reims in , before advancing against the alemanni, who had established themselves in alsace and lorraine; and ten years later the consul jovinus, after surprising some of the same nation bathing their large limbs, combing their long and flaxen hair, and 'swallowing huge draughts of rich and delicious wine,'[ ] on the banks of the moselle, fought a desperate and successful battle, lasting an entire summer's day, on the catalaunian plains near châlons, with their comrades, whom the prospect of similar indulgence had tempted to enter the champagne. valerian came to reims in to congratulate jovinus; and the emperor and the consul (whose tomb is to-day preserved in reims cathedral) fought their battles o'er again over their cups in the palace reared by the latter on the spot occupied in later years by the church of st. nicaise. the check administered by jovinus was but temporary, while the attraction continued permanent. for nearly half a century, it is true, the vineyards of the champagne throve amidst an era of quiet and prosperity such as had seldom blessed the frontier provinces of gaul.[ ] but when, in , the vandals spread the flame of war from the banks of the rhine to the alps, the pyrenees, and the ocean, reims was sacked, its fields ravaged, its bishop cut down at the altar, and its inhabitants slain or made captive; and the same scene of desolation was repeated when the hostile myriads of attila swept across north-western france in . [illustration: tomb of the consul jovinus, preserved in reims cathedral.] happier times were, however, in store for reims and its bishops and its vineyards, the connection between the two last being far more intimate than might be supposed. when clovis and his frankish host passed through reims by the road still known as the grande barberie, on his way to attack syagrius in , there was no doubt a little pillaging, and the famous golden vase which one of the monarch's followers carried off from the episcopal residence was not left unfilled by its new owner. but after syagrius had been crushed at soissons, and the theft avenged by a blow from the king's battle-axe, clovis not only restored the stolen vase, and made a treaty with the bishop st. remi or remigius, son of emilius, count of laon, but eventually became a convert to christianity, and accepted baptism at his hands. secular history has celebrated the fight of tolbiac--the invocation addressed by the despairing frank to the god of the christians; the sudden rallying of his fainting troops, and the last desperate charge which swept away for ever the power of the alemanni as a nation. saintly legends have enlarged upon the piety of queen clotilda; the ability of st. remi; the pomp and ceremony which marked the baptism of clovis at reims in december ; the memorable injunction of the bishop to his royal convert to adore the cross he had burnt, and burn the idols he had hitherto adored; and the miracle of the sainte ampoule, a vial of holy oil said to have been brought direct from heaven by a snow-white dove in honour of the occasion. a pigeon, however, has always been a favourite item in the conjuror's paraphernalia from the days of apolonius of tyana and mahomet down to those of houdin and dr. lynn; and modern scepticism has suggested that the celestial regions were none other than the episcopal dovecot. whether or not the oil was holy, we may be certain that the wine which flowed freely in honour of the frankish monarch's conversion was ambrosial; that the fierce warriors who had conquered at soissons and tolbiac wetted their long moustaches in the choicest growths that had ripened on the surrounding hills; and that the counts and leudes, and, judging from national habits, the king himself, got royally drunk upon a _cuvée réservée_ from the vineyard which st. remi had planted with his own hands on his hereditary estate near laon, or the one which the slave melanius cultivated for him just without the walls of reims. [illustration] for the saint was not only a converter of kings, but, what is of more moment to us, a cultivator of vineyards and an appreciator of their produce. amongst the many miracles which monkish chroniclers have ascribed to him is one commemorated by a bas-relief on the north doorway of reims cathedral, representing him in the house of one of his relatives, named celia, making the sign of the cross over an empty cask, which, as a matter of course, immediately became filled with wine. that st. remi possessed such an ample stock of wine of his own as to have been under no necessity to repeat this miracle in the episcopal palace is evident from the will penned by him during his last illness in , as this shows his viticultural and other possessions to have been sufficiently extensive to have contented a bishop even of the most pluralistic proclivities.[ ] it is curious to note the connection between the spread of viticulture and that of christianity--a connection apparently incongruous, and yet evident enough, when it is remembered that wine is necessary for the celebration of the most solemn sacrament of the church. christianity became the established religion of the roman empire about the first decade of the fourth century, and paganism was prohibited by theodosius at its close; and it is during this period that we find the culture of the grape spreading throughout gaul, and st. martin of tours preaching the gospel and planting a vineyard coevally. chapters and religious houses especially applied themselves to the cultivation of the vine, and hence the origin of many famous vineyards, not only of the champagne but of france. the old monkish architects, too, showed their appreciation of the vine by continually introducing sculptured festoons of vine-leaves, intermingled with massy clusters of grapes, into the decorations of the churches built by them. the church of st. remi, for instance, commenced in the middle of the seventh century, and touched up by succeeding builders till it has been compared to a school of progressive architecture, furnishes an example of this in the mouldings of its principal doorway; and reims cathedral offers several instances of a similar character. [illustration] [illustration: from the north doorway of reims cathedral.] amidst the anarchy and confusion which marked the feeble sway of the long-haired merovingian kings, whom the warlike franks were wont to hoist upon their bucklers when investing them with the sovereign power, we find france relapsing into a state of barbarism; and though the salic law enacted severe penalties for pulling up a vine-stock, the prospect of being liable at any moment to a writ of ejectment, enforced by the aid of a battle-axe, must have gone far to damp spontaneous ardour as regards experimental viticulture. the tenants of the church, in which category the bulk of the vine-growers of reims and epernay were to be classed, were best off; but neither the threats of bishops nor the vengeance of saints could restrain acts of sacrilege and pillage. during the latter half of the sixth century reims, epernay, and the surrounding district were ravaged several times by the contending armies of austrasia and neustria; and chilperic of soissons, on capturing the latter town in , put such heavy taxes on the vines and the serfs that in three years the inhabitants had deserted the country. matters improved, however, during the more peaceful days of the ensuing century, which witnessed the foundation of numerous abbeys, including those of epernay, hautvillers, and avenay; and the planting of fresh vineyards in the ecclesiastical domains by bishop romulfe and his successor st. sonnace, the latter, who died in , bequeathing to the church of st. remi a vineyard at villers, and to the monastery of st. pierre les dames one situate at germaine, in the mountain of reims.[ ] the sculptured saint on the exterior of reims cathedral, with his feet resting upon a pedestal wreathed with vine-leaves and bunches of grapes, may possibly have been intended for one of these numerous wine-growing prelates. [illustration: from the north doorway of reims cathedral.] the mighty figure of charlemagne, overshadowing the whole of europe at the commencement of the ninth century, appears in connection with reims, where, begirt with paladins and peers, he entertained the ill-used pope leo iii. right royally during the 'festes de noel' of . the monarch who is said to have clothed the steep heights of rudesheim with vines was not indifferent to good wine; and the vintages of the champagne doubtless mantled in the magic goblet of huon de bordeaux, and brimmed the horns which roland, oliver, doolin de mayence, renaud of montauban, and ogier the dane, drained before girding on their swords and starting on their deeds of high emprise--the slaughter of saracens, the rescue of captive damsels, and the discomfiture of felon knights--told in the fables of turpin and the 'chansons de geste.' that the cultivation of the grape, and above all the making of wine, had been steadily progressing, is clear from the fact that the distinction between the 'vins de la rivière de marne' and the 'vins de la montagne de reims' dates from the ninth century.[ ] this era is, moreover, marked by the inauguration of that long series of coronations which helped to spread the popularity of the champagne wines throughout france by the agency of the nobles and prelates taking part in the ceremony. sumptuous festivities marked the coronation of charlemagne's son louis in ; and the officiating archbishop ebbon may have helped to furnish the feast with some of the produce from the vineyard he had planted at mont ebbon, generally identified with the existing montebon, near mardeuil. it is of this vineyard that pardulus, bishop of laon, speaks in a letter addressed by him to ebbon's successor, the virtuous hincmar, who assumed the crozier in , proffering him counsels as to the best method of sustaining his failing health. after telling him to avoid eating fish on the same day that it is caught, insisting that salted meat is more wholesome than fresh, and recommending bacon and beans cooked in fat as an excellent digestive, he proceeds: 'you must make use of a wine which is neither too strong nor too weak--prefer, to those produced on the summit of the mountain or the bottom of the valley, one that is grown on the slopes of the hills, as towards epernay, at mont ebbon; towards chaumuzy, at rouvesy; towards reims, at mersy and chaumery.' the champagne vineyards suffered grievously from the internal convulsions which marked the period when the sceptre of france was swayed by the feeble hands of the dregs of the carlovingian race. the normans, who threatened reims and sacked epernay in , swept over them like devouring locusts; and their annals during the following century are written in letters of blood and flame. times were indeed bad for the peaceful vine-dressers in the tenth century, when castles were springing up in every direction; when might made right, and the rule of the strong hand alone prevailed; and when the firm belief that the end of the world was to come in the year led men to live only for the present, and seek to get as much out of their fellow-creatures as they possibly could. such natural calamities as that of , when the wine-crop entirely failed in the neighbourhood of reims, were bad enough; but the continual incursions of the hungarians, whose arrows struck down the peasant at the plough and the priest at the altar, and the memory of whose pitiless deeds yet survives in the term 'ogre;' the desperate contest waged for ten years by heribert of vermandois to secure the bishopric of reims for his infant son, during which hardly a foot of the disputed territory remained unstained by blood; the repeated invasions of otho of germany; and the struggle between hugh capet and charles of lorraine for the titular crown of france,--left traces harder to be effaced. reims underwent four sieges in about sixty years; and epernay, that most hapless of towns, was sacked at least half a score of times, and twice burnt, one of the most conscientiously executed pillagings being that performed in by hugh the great, who, as it was vintage-time, completely ravaged the whole country, and carried off all the wine.[ ] under the rule of the capetian race matters improved as regarded foreign foes, though the archbishops had in the early part of the eleventh century to abandon epernay, vertus, fismes, and their dependencies to the family of robert of vermandois, who had assumed the title of counts of champagne, to be held by them as fiefs. the fame of the schools of reims, where future popes and embryo emperors met as class-mates; the festive gatherings which marked the coronation of henry i. and philip i.; the great ecclesiastical council held by leo ix., which procured for the city the nickname of 'little rome;' and the growing importance of the champagne fairs, the great meeting-places throughout the middle ages of the merchants of spain, italy, and the low countries,--favoured the prosperity of the district and the production of its wine. urban ii., a native of châtillon, who wore the triple crown from to the close of the century, was, prior to his elevation to the chair of st. peter, a canon of reims, under the name of eudes or odo, and, tippling there in company with his fellow-clerics, acquired a taste for the wine of ay, which he preferred to all others in the world.[ ] pilgrims to rome found penance light and pardon easily obtained when they bore with them across the alps, in addition to staff and scrip, a huge 'leathern bottel' of that beloved vintage which warmed the pontiff's heart and whetted his wit for the delivery of those soul-stirring orations at placentia and clermont, wherein he appealed to the chivalry of western europe to hasten to the rescue of the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidel. the result of these appeals was felt by the vine-cultivators of the champagne in more ways than one, and their case recalls that of the petard-hoisted engineer. the virtuous, the speculative, and the enthusiastic who followed peter the hermit and walter the penniless to the plains of asia minor suffered at the hands of the vicious, the prudent, and the practical, who remained at home and passed their time in pillaging the estates of their absent neighbours. the abbatial vineyards suffered like the others; and the monks of st. thierry, in making peace with gerard de la roche and alberic malet in , complained bitterly of wine violently extorted during two years from growers on the ecclesiastical estate and of a levy made upon their vineyard.[ ] the efforts of henry of france, a warlike prelate, who built fortresses and attacked those of the robber-nobles, and of louis vii., who avenged the wrongs of the church of reims on the counts of roucy, served to improve matters; and we may be sure that whenever the monks did get hold of a repentant or dying sinner, they made him pay pretty dearly for peace with them and heaven. colin musset, the early champenois poet, thought that the best use to which money could be put was to spend it in good wine.[ ] churchmen, however, managed to secure the desired commodity without any such outlay, for numerous charters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries show lords, sick or about starting for the crusades, making large gifts to abbeys and monasteries; and many a strip of fair and fertile vineland was thus added, thanks to a judicious pressure on the conscience, to the already extensive possessions of the two great monasteries of reims, st. remi and st. nicaise, and also to that of st. thierry. the templars, too, whose reputation as wine-bibbers was only inferior to that of the monks, if we may credit the adage which runs, 'boire en templier, c'est boire à plein gosier; boire en cordelier, c'est vuider le cellier,' and who, prior to the catastrophe of , had a commandery at reims, possessed either vineyards, or _droits de vinage_, at numerous spots, including epernay, hermonville, ludes, and verzy; while the separate community of these 'red monks' installed at orilly had estates at ay, damery, and mareuil. the hospital of st. mary at reims also reckoned amongst its possessions vineyards at moussy, bequeathed by canon pontius and tebaldus papelenticus. the wine, which in the treasurer of the chapter of reims cathedral obtained from that body an acknowledgment of his right to on the anniversaries of the deaths of bishops ebalus and radulf, and that to which the sub-treasurer and carpenter were severally entitled, was no doubt in part derived from the vineyard planted in by canon giles at the porte mars and bequeathed by him to the chapter, and the one which canon john de brie had purchased at mareuil and had similarly bequeathed.[ ] although papal bulls and archiepiscopal warrants had forbidden the levying of the _droit de vinage_ on wine vintaged by religious communities, in pope innocent iv. had to reprove the barons for interfering with the monastic vintages in the neighbourhood of reims, and to threaten them with excommunication if they repeated their offence.[ ] [illustration: vine-dressers--thirteenth century (from a window of chartres cathedral).] these ecclesiastical topers, as a rule, were sufficiently critical of the quality of the liquor meted out to them, and an agreement respecting the dietary of the abbey of st. remi, at reims, drawn up in between the abbot peter and a deputation of six monks representing the rest of the brethren, provides that the wine procured for the latter should be improved by two-thirds of the produce of the clos de marigny being set apart for their exclusive use. ten years later, to put a stop to further complaints on the part of these worthy rivals of rabelais' frère jean des entonnoirs, abbot peter was fain to agree that two hundred hogsheads of wine should be annually brought from marigny to the abbey to quench the thirst of his droughty flock, and that if the spot in question failed to yield the required amount the deficiency should be made up from his own private and particular vineyards at sacy, villers-aleran, chigny, and hermonville.[ ] we can readily picture these 'jolly fat friars sitting round the great roaring fires with their strong wines;' or the cellarer quietly chuckling to himself as he loosened the spiggot of the choicest casks-- 'between this cask and the abbot's lips many have been the sips and slips; many have been the draughts of wine, on their way to his, that have stopped at mine.' [illustration: gateway of the chapter court at reims.] the monks were in the habit of throwing open their monasteries to all comers, under pretext of letting them taste the wine they had for sale, until, in , an ecclesiastical council at beziers prohibited this practice on account of the scandal it created. petrarch has accused the popes of his day of persisting in staying at avignon when they could have returned to rome, simply on account of the goodness of the wines they found there. some similar reasons may have led to the selection of reims, during the twelfth century, as a place for holding great ecclesiastical councils presided over by the sovereign pontiff in person; and no doubt 'bibimus papaliter' was the motto of calixtus, innocent, and eugenius when the labours of the day were done, and they and their cardinals could chorus, _apropos_ of those of the morrow, 'bonum vinum acuit ingenium venite potemus.' [illustration] the kings of france may have preferred the wines of the orleanais and the isle of france, and the monarchs of england have been content to vary the vintages of their patrimony of guienne with an occasional draught of rhenish; but the wines of the river marne certainly found favour at troyes, where the counts of champagne, to whom epernay had been ceded as a fief, held a court little inferior in state to that of a sovereign prince. the native vintage mantled in the goblets and beakers that graced the board where they sat at meat amidst their knights and barons, whilst minstrels sang and jongleurs tumbled and glee-maidens danced at the lower end of the hall. it fired the fancy of the poet count thibault, to whom tradition has ascribed the introduction of the cyprus grape into france on his return from the crusades,[ ] and helped the flow of the amorous strains which he addressed to blanche of castille. nor was he the only versifier of the time who could exclaim, with his compatriot colin musset, that 'good wine caused him to sing and rejoice.'[ ] other local songsters, such as doete de troyes, eustache le noble, and guillaume de machault, sought inspiration at their native helicon, and were equally ready with colin musset to appreciate a gift of 'barrelled wine, cold, strong, and fine, to drink in hot weather,'[ ] in return for their rhymes. it was this wine that the gigantic john lord of joinville, seneschal of champagne under thibault, and chronicler of the seventh crusade, was in the habit of consuming warm and undiluted, by the advice of his physicians, on account, as he himself mentions, of his 'large head and cold stomach;' a practice which seems to have scandalised that pious and ascetic monarch st. louis, who was careful to temper his own potations with water. the king was most likely not unacquainted with the wine, as a roll of the expenses incurred at his coronation at reims, in , shows that livres were spent in wine on that occasion, when, in consequence of the vacancy of the archiepiscopal see, the crown was placed upon his head by jacques de bazoche, bishop of soissons. [illustration] henry of andelys, a compatriot of the engineer brunel, who flourished, if a poet can be said to flourish, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, has extolled the wines of epernay and hautvillers, and mentioned that of reims, in his poem entitled the 'bataille des vins.' he informs us at the outset that 'the great king philip augustus,' whom state records prove to have had a score of vineyards in different parts of france,[ ] was very fond of 'good white wine.' anxious to make a choice of the best, he issued invitations to all the most renowned _crûs_, french and foreign, and forty-six different vintages responded to this appeal; amongst them hautvillers and epernay, described as 'vin d'auviler' and 'vin d'espernai le bacheler.' the king's chaplain, an english priest, makes a preliminary examination, resulting in the summary rejection of many competitors, till at length, as argenteuil--'clear as oil'--and pierrefitte are disputing as to their respective merits, epernay and hautvillers simultaneously exclaim, 'argenteuil, thou wishest to degrade all the wines at this table. by god, thou playest too much the part of constable. we excel châlons and reims, remove gout from the loins, and support all kings.'[ ] but lo, up jumps the 'vin d'ausois,' the 'osey' of so many of our english mediæval poets, with the reproach, 'epernay, thou art too disloyal; thou hast not the right of speaking in court;'[ ] and enumerates the blessings which he and his demoiselle 'la mosele' confer upon the germans.[ ] la rochelle in turn reproves ausois, and extols the strength of his own wines, and those of angoulême, bordeaux, saintes, and poitou, and boasts of the welcome accorded to them in the northern states of europe, including england, to which the districts he mentions then belonged.[ ] [illustration: vintagers of the thirteenth century (from a /ms./ of the dialogues de st. grégoire).] the vintages of the then little kingdom of france put in a counter-claim for finesse and flavour as opposed to strength, and maintain that they do not harm those who drink them. the dispute becomes general, and the wines, heated with argument, exhale a perfume of 'balsam and amber,' till the hall where they are met resembles a terrestial paradise. the chaplain, after conscientiously tasting the whole of them, formally excommunicated with bell, book, and candle all the beer brewed in england and flanders, and then went incontinently to bed, and slept for three days and three nights without intermission. the king thereupon made an examination himself, and named the wine of cyprus pope, and that of aquilat[ ] cardinal, and created of the remainder three kings, five counts, and twelve peers, the names of which, unfortunately, have not been preserved. [illustration] ii. /the wines of the champagne from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century./ coronations at reims and their attendant banquets--wine flows profusely at these entertainments--the wine-trade of reims--presents of wine from the reims municipality--cultivation of the vineyards abandoned after the battle of poitiers--octroi levied on wine at reims--coronation of charles v.--extension of the champagne vineyards--abundance of wine--visit to reims of the royal sot wenceslaus of bohemia--the etape aux vins at reims--increased consumption of beer during the english occupation of the city--the maid of orleans at reims--the vineyards and wine-trade alike suffer--louis xi. is crowned at reims--fresh taxes upon wine followed by the mique-maque revolt--the rémois the victims of pillaging foes and extortionate defenders--the champagne vineyards attacked by noxious insects--coronation of louis xii.--françois premier, the emperor charles v., bluff king hal, and leo the magnificent all partial to the wine of ay--mary queen of scots at reims--state kept by the opulent and libertine cardinal of lorraine--brusquet, the court fool--decrease in the production of wine around reims--gifts of wine to newly-crowned monarchs--new restrictions on vine cultivation--the wine of the champagne crowned at the same time as louis xiii.--regulation price for wine established at reims--imposts levied on the vineyards by the frondeurs--the country ravaged around reims--sufferings of the peasantry--presents of wine to marshal turenne and charles ii. of england--perfection of the champagne wines during the reign of louis xiv.--st. evremond's high opinion of them--other contemporary testimony in their favour--the archbishop of reims's niggardly gift to james ii. of england--a poet killed by champagne--offerings by the rémois to louis xiv. on his visit to their city. [illustration] the coronations at reims served, as already remarked, to attract within the walls of the old episcopal city all that was great, magnificent, and noble in france. the newly-crowned king, with that extensive retinue which marked the monarch of the middle ages; the great vassals of the crown scarcely less profusely attended; the constable, the secular and ecclesiastical peers, and the host of knights and nobles who assisted on the occasion, were wont at the conclusion of the ceremony to hold high revelry in the spacious temporary banqueting-hall reared near the cathedral. it is to be regretted that the _menus_ of these banquets have not been handed down to us in their entirety; but a few fragmentary excerpts show that from a comparatively early period there was no lack of wine, at any rate. a remonstrance addressed to philip the fair, after his coronation in , by the archbishop and burghers, asks that they may be relieved of a certain proportion of the sum levied on them for the cost of the ceremony, on the ground that there still remained over for the king's use no less than seven score tuns of wine from the banquet. some idea may be formed of the quantity of wine brought regularly into the city from the circumstance of the king having reims surrounded by walls in , and levying a duty on the wine imported to pay for them, and by the value attached to the 'rouage'[ ] of the mairie st. martin, claimed by the chapter of reims cathedral in . [illustration: reims cathedral, west front.] at the coronation of charles iv., in , wine flowed in rivers. amongst the unconsumed provisions returned by the king's pantler, pelvau dou val, to the burghers, 'vin de biaune et de rivière'--that is, of beaune and of the marne--figures for a value of livres sols deniers.[ ] the arrangements of the coronation had been intrusted to the minister of finances, pierre remi, who certainly played the part of the unjust steward. in the first place, he made the cost of the ceremony amount to , livres, whereas none of his predecessors had spent more than , livres. his opening move had been to seize upon the greater part of the corn and all the ovens in reims 'for the king's use,' and to sell bread to the townsfolk and visitors at his own price for a fortnight prior to the coronation. after the ceremony he appropriated in like manner all the plate and napery, and all the cooking utensils and kitchen furniture, together with whatever had been left over, in the shape of wine, wax, fish, bullocks, pigs, and similar trifles. the wine thus taken was estimated at livres, part of which he sold to two bourgeois of reims, and kept the rest, together with forty-four out of the fifty muids, or hogsheads, of salt provided.[ ] retributive justice overtook him, for the chronicler of his ill-doings chuckles over the fact that he was hanged as high as haman on a gibbet he had himself erected at paris. things went off better at the coronation of king philip, in , when the total amount expended in the three hundred poinçons of the wine of beaune, st. pourçain, and the marne consumed was livres sols deniers.[ ] part of this flowed through the mouth of the great bronze stag before which criminals condemned by the archiepiscopal court used to be exposed, but which at coronation times was placed in the parvis notre dame, and spouted forth the 'claré dou cerf,' for the preparation of which the town records show that the grocer o. la lale received livres.[ ] [illustration] the importance of the wine-trade of reims at the commencement of the fourteenth century is evidenced by the fact of there being at this epoch _courtiers de vin_, or wine-brokers, the right of appointing whom rested with the eschevins--a right which, vainly assailed by the archbishop in , was confirmed to the municipal power by several royal decrees.[ ] the burghers of reims were fully cognisant of the merits of their wine, and certainly spared no trouble to make others acquainted with them. when the eschevins dined with the archbishop in august they contributed thirty-two pots of wine as their share of the repast, in addition to sundry partridges, capons, and rabbits. all visitors to the town on business, and all persons of distinction passing through it, were regaled with an offering of from two to four gallons from the cellars of jehan de la lobe, or petit jehannin, or raulin d'escry, or baudouin le boutellier, or remi cauchois, the principal tavern-keepers. the provost of laon, the bailli and the receveur of vermandois, the eschevins of châlons, the bishop of coustances, monseigneur thibaut de bar, monseigneur jacques la vache (the queen's physician), the archdeacon of reims, and the 'two lords of the parliament deputed by the king to examine the walls,' were a few of the recipients of this hospitality, which was also extended to such inferior personages as a varlet of verdun and the varlet of the eschevins of abbeville. [illustration: the battle of crÉcy (from a /ms./ of froissart's chronicles).] two 'flasks,' purchased for threepence-halfpenny from petit jehannin, served to warm the eloquence of maistre baudouin de loingnis when he pleaded for the town on the subject of the fortifications in ; and when, in , the archbishop of narbonne, the bishop of poitiers, and sundry other dignitaries passed through reims with heavy hearts on their way to st. omer, to negotiate a truce with edward of england after the fatal battle of sluys, the municipality expended five shillings and threepence in a poinçon of wine to cheer them on their way. there was probably plenty to spare, since on the outbreak of hostilities with england the town-crier had received one penny for making proclamation that no one should remove any wine from the town during the continuance of the contest. the advent of a messenger of monseigneur guillaume pinson, who brought 'closed letters' to the eschevins informing them of the invasion of king edward, does not seem to have spoilt the digestion of those worthy gentlemen, since they partook of their annual gift of wine and their presentation lamb at easter ; but there were sore hearts in the old city when one jenvier returned from amiens with the tidings that their best and bravest had fallen under the banner of john de vienne, their warlike prelate, on the field of crécy. perhaps to the state of depression that followed is due the fact that there are no records of festivities at the coronation of king john the good in , though we find the citizens seeking two years later to propitiate the evil genius of france, charles the bad of navarre, by the gift of a queue of wine costing five crowns. during the frightful anarchy prevailing after the battle of poitiers, when the victorious english and the disbanded forces of france made common cause against the hapless peasants, the fields and vineyards of reims remained uncultivated for three years,[ ] and the people of the archbishopric would have perished of hunger had they not been able to get food and wine from hainault. despite the prohibitions of the regent, the nobles pillaged the country around reims and ravaged the vineyards from june to august , and the havoc they wrought exceeded even that accomplished during the jacquerie. nor were matters improved by the advent of the english king, edward iii., when, on the wet st. andrew's-day of , he sat down before the town with his host, which starved and shivered throughout the bitter and tempestuous winter, despite the comfort derived from the 'three thousand vessels of wine' captured by eustace dabreticourt in 'the town of achery, on the river of esne.'[ ] but the rémois stood firm behind the fortifications reared by gaucher de châtillon till the following spring, when the victor of crécy drew off his baffled forces, consoling them with the promise of bringing them back during the ensuing vintage, and made a reluctant peace at bretigny.[ ] [illustration: ancient tower belonging to the fortifications of reims.] yet, though plague and famine in turn almost depopulated the city, the importance of its vineyards augmented from this time forward. in the citizens, who had already been in the habit of granting 'aides' to the king out of the dues levied on the wine sold in the town, obtained leave to impose an _octroi_ on wine, in order to maintain their fortifications. henceforward the connection between the wines and the walls of reims became permanent. the _octroi_ was from time to time renewed or modified in various ways by different monarchs; but their decrees always commenced with a preliminary flourish concerning the necessity of keeping the walls of so important a city in good order, and the admirable opportunity afforded of so doing by the ever-increasing prosperity of the trade in wine. conspicuous amongst the few existing fragments of the circuit of walls and towers with which reims was formerly begirt is the tower of which a view is here given.[ ] the rémois, although willing enough to tax themselves for the defence of their city, submitted the reverse of cheerfully to the preliminary levies of provisions, wines, meats, and other things necessary, made by the king's 'maistres d'hôtel' for the coronation of charles v., which took place on the th may , at a cost to the town of livres sols deniers parisis.[ ] the citizens had, however, something to gaze at for their money, if that were any consolation. the king and his queen (jeanne de bourbon) were accompanied by king peter of cyprus; wenceslaus, king of bohemia and duke of brabant; the dukes of burgundy and anjou; the counts of eu, dampmartin, tancarville, and vaudemont, and many other prelates and lords, who did full justice to the good cheer provided for the great feasts and solemnities taking place during the five days of the royal sojourn.[ ] the crown, borne by philip of burgundy, the king's youngest brother, having been placed upon charles's head by the archbishop jean de craon, that prelate proceeded to smear the royal breast and brow with what the irreverent republicans of the eighteenth century designated 'sacred pomatum,' from the sainte ampoule presented to him by the bishop of laon, amidst the enthusiastic applause of nobles and prelates.[ ] [illustration: coronation of charles v. at reims (from a /ms./ histoire de charles v.).] the great planting of vines in the champagne district plainly dates from the last quarter of the fourteenth century, at which epoch large exports of wine to the provinces of hainault and flanders, and especially to the ports of sluys, are noted. in a list of the revenues of the archbishopric of reims, drawn up by richard pique towards , are included patches of vineland and annual payments of wine from almost every village and hamlet within twenty miles of reims; though it is only fair to mention that many of the places enumerated produce to-day wines of very ordinary character, which, although they have a local habitation, have certainly failed to secure themselves a name.[ ] a general return of church property made to the bailli of vermandois, the king's representative in , at a time when charles vi. was busily engaged in confiscating whatever he could lay hands on, shows that the religious establishments of reims were equally well endowed with vineyards. these were mostly situate to the north-east and south-west of reims, or in the immediate vicinity of the city; and according to their owners, whose object was of course to offer as few temptations as possible to the monarch, they frequently cost more to dress than they brought in.[ ] in the return furnished by the archbishop in the following year, he complains that, owing to the great plantation of vines throughout the district, the right of licensing the brewing of ale and beer had failed to bring him in any revenue for the past three years. this prelate, by the way, seems to have loved his liquor like many of his predecessors, judging from the inventory made after his death, in , of the contents of his cellars.[ ] all this abundance of wine was not without its fruits; and we find the clerk of troyes asserting that liars swarm in picardy as drunkards do in champagne, where a man not worth a rap will drink wine every day;[ ] and a boast in the chanson of the comte de brie to the effect that the province abounded in wheat, wine, fodder, and litter.[ ] under these circumstances it is not at all surprising that that renowned vinous soaker, king wenceslaus (surnamed the drunkard) of bohemia, found ample opportunities for self-indulgence when he visited reims to confer with charles vi. on the subject of the schism of the popes of avignon, then desolating the church--certainly a very fit subject for a drunkard and a madman to put their heads together about. no sooner had the illustrious visitor alighted at the abbey of st. remi--to-day the hôtel dieu--where quarters had been assigned him, than he expressed a wish to taste the wine of the district, with the quality of which he had long been acquainted. the wine was brought, and tasted again and again in such conscientious style that when the dukes of bourbon and berri came to escort him to dinner with the king they found him dead-drunk and utterly unfit to treat of affairs of state, still less those of the church. the same kind of thing went on daily--the 'same old drunk,' as the nigger expressed it, lasting week after week; and the french monarch, who must have surely had a lucid interval, resolved to profit by his guest's weakness. accordingly he gave special orders to the cup-bearers, at a grand banquet at which matters were to be finally settled, to be particularly attentive in filling the bohemian king's goblet. this they did so frequently that the royal sot, overcome by wine, yielded during the discussion following the repast whatever was asked of him; whilst his host probably returned special thanks to st. archideclin, the supposed bridegroom of the marriage of cana, whom the piety of the middle ages had transformed into a saint and created the especial patron of all appertaining to the cellar. this triumph of wine over diplomacy occurred in .[ ] a charter of charles vi., dated july , which gave the municipal authorities of reims the sole right of appointing sworn wine-brokers, expressly mentions that the trade of the town was chiefly based upon the wine grown in the environs.[ ] the wine, the charter states, when stored in the cellars of the town, was customarily sold by brokers, who of their own authority were in the habit of levying a commission of twopence, and even more, per piece, selling it to the person who offered them most, and taking money from both buyer and seller. to remedy this state of things, from which it was asserted the trade had begun to suffer, it was decreed that every broker should take an oath, before the captain of reims and the eschevins, to act honestly and without favour, and not to receive more than one penny commission. in the case of his receiving more, both he and the seller of the wine were to forfeit two-pence-halfpenny to the town. [illustration: church of st. remi, reims.] the sales of wine mainly took place at the etape aux vins, where most of the wine-merchants were established, the busiest time being during the three great annual fairs, when no duties were levied. the old etape aux vins is now the rue de l'etape, jocularly styled the rue de rivoli of reims, on account of the arcades formed by the projecting upper floors of its fifteenth-and sixteenth-century houses, which rest upon wooden and stone pillars. to-day the casino and the principal restaurants of the city are installed here; still the locality retains much the same aspect as it presented in the days when remi cauchois and huet hurtaut stood here and chaffered with the peasants who had brought their casks of wine on creaking wains into the city; when s. de laval glided in search of a customer among the long-gowned fur-capped merchants of the low countries; when bargains were closed by a god's-penny and wetted with a stoup of petit jehannin's best; and when files of wine-laden wagons rolled forth from the northern gates of the city to gladden the thirsty souls of hainault and flanders. some of the wine had, however, a nobler destination. an order of payment addressed by the town council to the receiver, and dated march , , commands him to pay jacques le vigneron the sum of livres sols for six queues of 'vin blanc et clairet,' presented to the fierce duke of burgundy, jean sans peur, at the high price of about _s._ each.[ ] nor did his son philip, the self-styled 'prince of the best wines in christendom,' disdain to draw bridle in order to receive eleven poinçons of 'vin claret' when hastening, 'bloody with spurring, fiery red with speed,' through reims to avenge his father's murder at the bridge of montereau.[ ] the devastating results of the terrible struggle for supremacy waged between the armagnacs and burgundians, and of the invasion of henry v. of england, are evidenced in the facts that when, in fear and trembling, the reims council resolved to allow duke philip to enter the town in , at the head of four thousand horse, they could only offer him one queue of beaune, one queue of red, and one queue of white wine; and to the duchess the following year one queue of beaune and one of french wine; and that wine sent to l'isle adam, at the siege of nesle, cost as much as livres, or nearly _s._, the queue. [illustration: rue de l'etape, reims.] [illustration] reims had passed under the sway of england by the treaty of troyes in , the earl of salisbury becoming governor of the champagne. the scarcity of wine, and the liking of the new possessors for their national beverage, is shown by a prohibition issued by the town council in against using wheat for making beer; and a statement of gobin persin, that he had sold more treacle--a famous medicinal remedy in the middle ages--during the past half year than in the four years previous, owing to people complaining that they were swollen up from drinking malt liquor. the english, however, at their abrupt departure from the city on the arrival of charles and the maid of orleans, proved their partiality for the wine of reims by carrying off as many wagonloads of it as they could manage to lay their hands on. [illustration: jeanne darc's first interview with charles vii. (from a tapestry of the fifteenth century).] the gallant knights and patriot nobles who followed the maid of orleans to reims, and witnessed the coronation of charles vii. in , despised, of course, the drink of their island foes, and moistened throats grown hoarse with shouting 'vive le roi' with the choice vintage of the neighbouring slopes, freely drawn forth from the most secret recesses of the cellars of the town in honour of the glorious day. and no doubt dame alice, widow of raulin marieu, and hostess of the asne royé (the striped ass), put a pot of the very best before the father of 'jehane la pucelle,' and did not forget, either, to score it down in the little bill of twenty-four livres which she was paid out of the _deniers communs_ for the old fellow's entertainment.[ ] for the next ten years, however, the note of war resounded through the country, the hill-sides bristled with lances in lieu of vine-stakes, and instead of money spent for wine for presentation to guests of a pacific disposition, the archives of the town display a long list of sums expended in the purchase of arms, artillery, and ammunition, for the especial accommodation of less pleasant visitors, in repairing fortifications, and in payments to men charged with watching day and night for the coming of the foe. the excesses of the licentious followers of potton de xaintrailles and lahire were worse than those of the english and burgundians, spite of the four hundred and five livres which had been paid to men-at-arms and archers from the neighbouring garrisons, 'engaged by the city of reims to guard the surrounding country, in order that the wine might be vintaged and brought into the said city and the vineyards dressed,'[ ] and bitter were the complaints addressed in to the king on the falling off of the wine trade which had resulted therefrom. the ravages of the terrible 'escorcheurs' led, in , to fresh complaints and to an additional duty on each queue of 'wine of beaune, of the marne, and of other foreign districts' sold wholesale at reims, the receipts to be spent in warlike preparations and on the fortifications. some of this went to lahire as a recompense for defending the district from 'the great routs and companies' that sought to invade it, he having, presumably on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief, been made bailli of vermandois. in troublous times like these it was necessary to secure the good will of men in power and authority, and hence the town records comprise numerous offerings of money, fine linen cloths, and wine given to various nobles 'out of grace and courtesy' for their good will and 'good and agreeable services, pleasures, and love.' madame katherine de france (the widow of henry v.), the chancellor of france, the constable richemont, lahire (bailli of vermandois), the bastard dunois, the archbishop of narbonne, the count de vendôme, and many other nobles and dignitaries, were in turn recipients of such gifts; and the visit of king charles the victorious, in , was celebrated by their profuse distribution.[ ] [illustration: cultivation of the vine and vintaging in the fifteenth century (from a /ms./ of the propriétaire des choses).] despite the complete expulsion of the english from france, a depression in trade still continued; and in the lieutenant of the town was sent to court to complain that, owing to the exactions of the farmers of the revenue, merchants would no longer come to reims to buy wine. louis xi., who was crowned at reims on th august , entered the city in great pomp, accompanied by philip, duke of burgundy, and his son the count of charolais, afterwards charles the bold; the duke of bourbon, the duke of cleves, and his brother the lord of ravenstein, all three nephews of duke philip; the counts of st. pol, angoulême, eu, vendôme, nassau, and grandpré; messire philip of savoy, and many others,--'all so richly dressed that it was a noble sight to see,' remarks enguerrand de monstrelet. prior to being crowned, the king handed his sword to duke philip, and requested the latter to bestow upon him the honour of knighthood, which the duke did, and afterwards gave the accolade to several other persons of distinction. the coronation, with its accompaniment of 'many beautiful mysteries and ceremonies,' was performed by archbishop jean juvénal des ursins, assisted by the cardinal of constance, the patriarch of antioch, a papal legate, four archbishops, seventeen bishops, and six abbots. at its close the twelve peers of france[ ] dined at the king's table; and after the table was cleared the duke of burgundy knelt and did homage for burgundy, flanders, and artois, other lords following his example. [illustration: the peers of france present at the coronation of louis xi. at reims (from painted-glass windows in evreux cathedral).] louis xi., on his accession, found himself in presence of an exhausted treasury, and cast about for an expedient to fill it. the wine he drunk at his coronation at reims may have suggested the dues which, only a month afterwards, he decreed should be levied on this commodity, in conjunction with an impost on salt. the inhabitants of the archiepiscopal city found it impossible to believe in such a return for their wonted hospitality, and the vine-growers assailed the collectors furiously. the affair resulted in a general outbreak, known as the mique-maque, and in the final hanging, branding, mutilating, and banishing of a number of individuals, half of whom, it may fairly be presumed, were innocent. the wars between france and burgundy were also severely felt by the rémois, whose territory was ravaged by the followers of charles the bold after montlhery, and who suffered almost as much at the hands of their friends as at those of their foes. the garrison put into the town shared amongst themselves the country for a circuit of eight leagues, the meanest archer having a couple of villages, whence he exacted, at pleasure, corn, wood, provisions, and wine, the latter in such profusion that the surplus was sold in the streets, the smallest allowance for each lance being a queue, valued at ten livres, monthly. in and the following years large subsidies of wine were, moreover, despatched from time to time to the king's army in the field; a cartload being judiciously sent to general gaillard, 'as he is well disposed towards us, and it is necessary to cultivate such people.' complaints made in set forth that in consequence of the _octroi_ of the river aisne, which had been established six years previously, the merchants of liège, mezières, and rethel, instead of coming to reims to buy wine, were obtaining their supplies from orleans. the landing of henry vii. of england, in , spread new alarms throughout the champagne, and orders were given for all the vine-stakes within a radius of two leagues of reims to be pulled up, so that the enemy might be prevented from cooking provisions or filling up the moats of the fortifications with them. pillaging foes and extortionate defenders were bad enough, but the vine-growers had yet other enemies, to wit, certain noxious little insects, which were in the habit of feeding on the young buds, though there is no record that they were ever so troublesome at reims as they were in other parts of the champagne, notably at troyes, where on the friday after pentecost they were formally and solemnly enjoined by maître jean milon to depart within six days from the vineyards of villenauxe, under pain of anathema and malediction.[ ] a century and a half later these insects renewed their ravages, and were exorcised anew by the rural dean of sézanne, on the order of the bishop of troyes. [illustration: culture of the vine--sixteenth century (from a /ms./ calendar).] [illustration: treading grapes--sixteenth century (from a /ms./ calendar).] [illustration: butler of the sixteenth century (facsimile of a woodcut in the cosmographie universelle, ).] [illustration: coronation of louis xii. at reims (from a painting on wood of the fifteenth century).] the close of the fifteenth century witnessed another coronation, that of the so-styled 'father of his people,' louis xii., celebrated with all due splendour in may . the six ecclesiastical peers--principal among whom was the cardinal archbishop of reims, guillaume briconnet, in rochet and stole, mitre and crozier; and the six representatives of the secular peerages, burgundy, normandy, aquitaine, flanders, toulouse, and champagne--solemnly invested their sovereign with sword, spurs, ring, orb, sceptre, crown, and all the other outward symbols of royalty; whilst the vaulted roof rang with the acclamations of the people assembled in the nave, and the triumphant peals from the heralds' silver trumpets, on the banneroles of which was emblazoned the monarch's favourite badge, the hedgehog. trumpet-blowing and shouting being both provocative of thirst, peers and people did ample justice to the wine freely provided for all comers on this occasion. [illustration: doorway in the archiepiscopal palace at reims.] francis i. was crowned at reims in january ; and on the occasion of his visiting the city sixteen years afterwards, twenty poinçons of wine were offered to him and sixty to his suite, so that this bibulous monarch had a good opportunity of comparing various growths of the mountain and the river with the wine from his own vineyards at ay; and possibly the emperor charles v. did his best to institute similar comparisons on his self-invited incursion into the district in . for not only did these two great rivals, but also our own bluff king harry and the magnificent leo x., have each their special commissioner stationed at ay to secure for them the finest vintages of that favoured spot, the renown of which thenceforward has never paled. the wine despatched for their consumption was most likely sent direct from the vineyards in carefully-sealed casks; but the bulk of the river growths came to reims for sale, and helped to swell the importance of the town as an emporium of the wine-trade. when mary queen of scots came to reims, a mere child, in , four poinçons of good wine, with a dozen peacocks and as many turkeys, were presented to her. there are no records, however, of any further offerings to her when, as the widowed queen of francis ii., she visited reims at eastertide in , and again during the summer of the same year, shortly before her final departure from france. on these occasions she was the guest, by turns, of her aunt renée de lorraine, at the convent of st. pierre les dames,--to-day a woollen factory,--and of her uncle, the 'opulent and libertine' charles de lorraine, cardinal and archbishop of reims, at the handsome archiepiscopal palace, where this powerful prelate resided in unwonted state. as the rhyme goes-- 'bishop and abbot and prior were there, many a monk and many a friar, many a knight and many a squire, with a great many more of lesser degree who served the lord primate on bended knee. never, i ween, was a prouder seen, read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams, than the cardinal lord archbishop of reims.' brusquet, the court fool of henry ii., francis ii., and charles ix., was a great favourite with this princely prelate, and accompanied him several times on his embassies to foreign states. brusquet's wit was much appreciated by the cardinal, and has been highly extolled by brantome; but most of the specimens handed down to us will not bear repetition, much less translation, from their coarseness. when the cardinal was at brussels in , negotiating the peace of cateau cambresis with philip ii., brusquet one day at dessert jumped on to the table, and rolled along the whole length, wrapping himself up like a mummy in the cloth, with all the knives, forks, and spoons, as he went, and rolling over at the further end. the emperor, charles v., who was the host, was so delighted that he told him to keep the plate himself. brusquet had great dread of being drowned, and objected one day to go in a boat with the cardinal. 'do you think any harm can happen to you with me, the pope's best friend?' said the latter. 'i know that the pope has power over earth, heaven, and purgatory,' said brusquet; 'but i never heard that his dominion extended over water.' it is not unlikely that the effigy forming one of the corbels beneath the chapter court gateway, and representing a fool in the puffed and slashed shoes and bombasted hose of the renaissance, with his bauble in his hand, may be intended for brusquet; for in the middle ages the ecclesiastical councils had forbidden dignitaries of the church to have fools of their own.[ ] [illustration: chimneypiece in the banqueting hall of the archiepiscopal palace at reims.] it was in the grand hall of the archiepiscopal palace of reims--an apartment which is very little changed from the days when charles cardinal de lorraine entertained henry ii., francis ii., and charles ix. in succession--that the coronation banquets at this epoch used to take place. of the richness and beauty of the internal decorations of this interesting edifice some idea may be gained from the accompanying illustrations. [illustration: corbels, from the chapter court gateway, reims.] the stock of wine at reims at the period of mary's first visit must have been very low, owing to the continued requisitions of it for armies in the field, for 'german reiters at attigny,' and 'italian lansquenets at voulzy;' and no doubt its production subsequently decreased to some extent from the orders issued to the surrounding villagers to destroy all their ladders and vats lest they should fall into the hands of the enemy, at the epoch of the threatened approach of the german emperor in . at the coronation of francis ii. in , and at that of charles ix. (the future instigator of the massacre of st. bartholomew) two years later, the citizens of reims presented the newly-crowned monarchs with the customary gifts of burgundy and champagne wines.[ ] in the latter instance, however, the gift met with an unexpected return, inasmuch as the king, after the fashion of domitian, issued an edict in , ordering that vines should only occupy one-third of the area of a canton, and that the remaining two-thirds should be arable and pasture land. when the forehead of henry iii., the last of the treacherous race of valois, was touched with the holy oil by the cardinal de guise, the wine of reims for the first time was alone used to furnish forth the attendant banquet, and the appreciative king modified his brother's edict to a simple recommendation to the governors of provinces to see that the planting of vines did not lead to a neglect of other labours. during this reign the wine of ay reached the acme of renown, and came to be described as 'the ordinary drink of kings and princes.'[ ] [illustration: vigneron of the sixteenth century (facsimile of a woodcut of the period).] in the troubles which followed the death of henry iii., when the east of france was laid desolate in turn by huguenots and leaguers, germans and spaniards; when reims became a chief stronghold of the catholics, who formed a kind of republic there, and the remaining towns and villages of the district changed masters almost daily, the foragers of the party of henry of navarre and that of the league caused great tribulation amongst the vine-dressers and husbandmen of the montagne and of the marne. in very little wine could be vintaged around reims 'through the affluence of enemies,' dolefully remarks a local analist.[ ] after the battle of ivry, reims submitted to the king, but many of the surrounding districts, epernay among the number, still sided with his opponents. epernay fell, however, in , after a cruel siege; and in the autumn of the same year the leaders of the respective parties met at the church of st. tresain, at avenay, and agreed to a truce during the ensuing harvest, in order that the crops of corn and wine might be gathered in--a truce known as the trève des moissons. the yield turned out to be of very good quality, the new wine fetching from to livres the queue.[ ] the system of cultivation prevailing in the french vineyards at this epoch must have been peculiar, since the staple agricultural authority of the day states that, to have an abundant crop and good wine, all that was necessary was for the vine-dresser to wear a garland of ivy, and for crushed acorns and ground vetches to be put in the hole at the time of planting the vine-shoots; that, moreover, grapes without stones could be obtained by taking out the pith of the young plant, and wrapping the end in wet paper, or sticking it in an onion when planting; that to get grapes in spring a vine-shoot should be grafted on a cherry-tree; and that wine could be made purgative by watering the roots of the vine with a laxative, or inserting some in a cleft branch.[ ] [illustration: church of st. jacques. the cathedral. mont de la pompelle. church of st. remi. tower of st. victor. porte de vesle. porte de dieu lumière. porte de flèchambault. the city of reims in (from an engraving of the period).] in the seventeenth century the still wine of the province of champagne was destined, like the setting sun, to gleam with well-nigh unparalleled radiance up to the moment of its almost total eclipse. continual care and untiring industry had resulted in the production of a wine which seems to have been renowned beyond all others for a delicate yet well-developed flavour peculiarly its own, but of which the wonderful revolution effected by the invention of sparkling wine has left but few traces. in the yield was so abundant that the vintagers were at their wits' end for vessels to contain their wine; but three years later so poor a vintage took place as had not been known within the memory of man. during the winter the cold was so intense that wine froze not only in the cellars, but at table close to the fire, and by the ensuing spring it had grown so scarce that the veriest rubbish fetched livres the queue at reims.[ ] in , at the banquet following the coronation of louis xiii., the only wine served was that of reims, at livres, or about _l._, the queue; and the future _raffinés_ of the place royale who assisted at that ceremony were by no means the men to forget or neglect an approved vintage after once tasting it. champagne, it has been said, was crowned at the same time with the king, and of the two made a better monarch. five years later a complaint, addressed to the king on the subject of the _fermiers des aides_ trying to levy duties on goods sold at the fairs, asserted it was notorious that the chief commerce of reims consisted of wines. according to the police ordinances of , the price of these was fixed three times a year, namely, at martinmas, mid-lent, and midsummer; and tavern-keepers were bound to have a tablet inscribed with the regulation price fixed outside their houses, and were not allowed to sell at a higher rate, under a penalty of livres for the first, and livres for the second offence. moreover, to encourage the production of the locality, they were strictly forbidden to sell in their taverns any other wine than that of the 'cru du pays et de huit lieues es environs,' under pain of confiscation and a fine, the amount of which was arbitrary. the vine-dressers too, in the same ordinances, were enjoined to kill and burn all vine-slugs and other vermin, which during and the two succeeding years had caused much damage.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] this rule must have been perforce relaxed during the troubles of the fronde, when for two years the troops of the marshal du plessis praslin lived as in a conquered country, indulging in drinking carousals in the wine-shops of the towns, or marching in detachments from village to village throughout the district, in order to prevent all those who neglected to pay the contributions imposed from working in their vineyards; when their leader, on the refusal of the rémois to supply him with money, ravaged the vineyards of the plains of les moineaux and sacy; and when erlach's foreigners at verzy sacked the whole of the montagne from march until july . as a consequence, people in the following year were existing on herbs, roots, snails, blood, bread made of bran, cats, dogs, &c., or dying by hundreds through eating bread made of unripe wheat harvested in june; the ruin of the citizens being completed, according to an eyewitness, at the epoch of dressing the vines, owing to the lack of men to do the work.[ ] a contemporary writer, however, asserts that the vineyards still continued 'to cover the mountains and to encircle the town of reims like a crown of verdure;' and that their produce not only supplied all local wants, but, transported beyond the frontier, caused the gold of the indies to flow in return into the town, and spread its reputation afar.[ ] [illustration: a betrothal banquet in the seventeenth century.] such was the repute of the champagne wines when louis xiv. was crowned at reims in , that all the great lords present on the occasion were exceedingly anxious to partake of them, and no doubt regarded with envious eyes the huge basket containing a hundred bottles of the best which the deputies from epernay had brought with them as a present to the gallant turenne. he at least was no stranger to the merits of the wine, for the records of epernay show that many a caque had found its way to his tent during the two preceding years, when he was defending the champagne against condé and his spanish allies. in the same year ( ), the procureur de l'echevinage speaks of the chief trade of reims as consisting in the sale of wine, of which the inhabitants collect large quantities, both from the montagne de reims and the rivière de marne, through the merchants who make this their special trade--a trade sorely interrupted by the incursions of montal and his spaniards in and . guy patin too, writing in , mentions the fact of louis xiv. making a present to charles ii. of england of two hundred pièces of excellent wine--champagne, burgundy, and hermitage; and three years later is fain himself to exclaim, 'vive le pain de gonesse, vive le bon vin de paris, de bourgogne, de champagne!' whilst tavernier the traveller did his best to spread the fame of the champagne wine by presenting specimens to all the sovereigns whom he had the honour of saluting during his journeyings abroad.[ ] it was about the eighth decade of this century, when the renown of the grand monarque was yet at its apogee, and when for many years the soil of the province had not been profaned by the foot of an invader, that the still wine of the champagne attained its final point of perfection. the roi soleil himself, we are assured by st. simon, never drank any other wine in his life till about , when his physician, the austere fagon, condemned his debilitated stomach to well-watered burgundy, so old that it was almost tasteless, and the king consoled himself with laughing at the wry faces pulled by foreign nobles who sought and obtained the honour of tasting his especial tipple.[ ] an anonymous mémoire[ ] written early in the ensuing century ( ) states that, although their red wine had long before been made with greater care and cleanliness than any other wine in the kingdom, the champenois had only studied to produce a _gray_, and indeed almost white, wine, within the preceding fifty years. this would place about the first introduction of the new colourless wine, obtained by gathering grapes of the black variety with the utmost care at early dawn, and ceasing the vintage at nine or ten in the morning, unless the day were cloudy. despite these precautions a rosy tinge--compared to that lent by a dying sunset to the waters of a clear stream--was often communicated to the wine, and led to the term 'partridge's eye' being applied to it. st. evremond, the epicurean frenchman--who emigrated to the gay court of charles ii. at whitehall to escape the gloomy cell designed for him in the bastille--and the mentor of the count de grammont, writing from london about , to his brother 'profès dans l'ordre des coteaux,'[ ] the count d'olonne, then undergoing on his part a species of exile at orleans for having suffered his tongue to wag a little too freely at court, says: 'do not spare any expense to get champagne wines, even if you are at two hundred leagues from paris. those of burgundy have lost their credit amongst men of taste, and barely retain a remnant of their former reputation amongst dealers. there is no province which furnishes excellent wines for all seasons but champagne. it supplies us with the wines of ay, avenay, and hautvillers, up to the spring; taissy, sillery, verzenai, for the rest of the year.'[ ] 'the wines of the champagne,' elsewhere remarks this renowned _gourmet_, 'are the best. do not keep those of ay too long; do not begin those of reims too soon. cold weather preserves the spirit of the river wines, hot removes the _goût de terroir_ from those of the mountain.' writing also in , he alludes to the care with which the sillery wines were made forty years before. such a distinction of seasons would imply that wine, instead of being kept, was drunk within a few months of its manufacture; though this, except in the case of wine made as 'tocane,' which could not be kept, would appear to be a matter rather of taste than necessity. this custom of drinking it before fermentation was achieved, and also the natural tendency of the wine of this particular region to effervesce--a tendency since taken such signal advantage of by the manufacturers of sparkling champagne--are treated of in a work of the period,[ ] the author of which, after noting the excellence of certain growths of burgundy, goes on to say that, 'if the vintage in the champagne is a successful one, it is thither that the shrewd and dainty hasten. there is not,' continues he, 'in the world a drink more noble and more delicious; and it is now become so highly fashionable that, with the exception of those growths drawn from that fertile and agreeable district which we call in general parlance that of reims, and particularly from st. thierry, verzenay, ay, and different spots of the mountain, all others are looked upon by the dainty as little better than poor stuff and trash, which they will not even hear spoken of.' he extols the admirable _sève_ of the reims wine, its delicious flavour, and its perfume, which with ludicrous hyperbole he pronounces capable of bringing the dead to life. burgundy and champagne, he says, are both good, but the first rank belongs to the latter, 'when it has not that tartness which some debauchees esteem so highly, when it clears itself promptly, and only works as much as the natural strength of the wine allows; for it does not do to trust so much to that kind of wine which is always in a fury, and boils without intermission in its vessel.' such wine, he maintains, is quite done for by the time easter is over, and only retains of its former fire a crude tartness very unpleasant and very indigestible, which is apt to affect the chest of those who drink it. he recommends that champagne should be drunk at least six months after the end of the year, and that the grayest wines should always be chosen as going down more smoothly and clogging the stomach less, since, however good the red wine may be as regards body, from its longer _cuvaison_, it is never so delicate, nor does it digest so promptly, as the others. he concludes, therefore, that it is better to drink old wine, or at any rate what then passed as old wine, as long as one can, in order not to have to turn too soon to the new ones, 'which are veritable head-splitters, and from their potency capable of deranging the strongest constitutions.' above all, he urges abstinence from such 'artificial mummeries' as the use of ice, 'the most pernicious of all inventions' and the enemy of wine, though at that time, he admits, very fashionable, especially amongst certain 'obstreperous voluptuaries,' 'who maintain that the wine of reims is never more delicious than when it is drunk with ice, and that this admirable beverage derives especial charms from this fatal novelty.' ice, he holds, not only dispels the spirit and diminishes the flavour, _sève_, and colour of the wine, but is most pernicious and deadly to the drinker, causing 'colics, shiverings, horrible convulsions, and sudden weakness, so that frequently death has crowned the most magnificent debauches, and turned a place of joy and mirth into a sepulchre.' wherefore let all drinkers of champagne _frappé_ beware. here we have ample proof of the popularity of the wines of the champagne, a popularity erroneously said to be due in some measure to the fact that both the chancellor le tellier, father of louvois, and colbert, the energetic comptroller-general of the state finances, and son of a wool-merchant of reims, possessed large vineyards in the province.[ ] lafontaine, who was born in the neighbourhood, declared his preference for reims above all cities, on account of the sainte ampoule, its good wine, and the abundance of other charming objects;[ ] and boileau, writing in , depicts an ignorant churchman, whose library consisted of a score of well-filled hogsheads, as being fully aware of the particular vineyard at reims over which the community he belonged to held a mortgage.[ ] james ii. of england was particularly partial to the wine of the champagne. when the quinquennial assembly of the clergy was held in , at the château of st. germain-en-laye, where he was residing, charles maurice le tellier, brother to louvois and archbishop of reims, who presided, 'kept a grand table, and had some champagne wine that was highly praised. the king of england, who rarely drank any other, heard of it, and sent to ask some of the archbishop, who sent him six bottles. some time afterwards the king, who found the wine very good, sent to beg him to send some more. the archbishop, more avaricious of his wine than of his money, answered curtly that his wine was not mad, and therefore did not run about the streets, and did not send him any.'[ ] du chesne, who, when fagon became medical attendant to louis xiv., succeeded him as physician to the 'fils de france,' and who died at versailles in , aged ninety-one, in perfect health, ascribed his longevity to his habit of eating a salad every night at supper, and drinking only champagne, a _régime_ which he recommended to all.[ ] the wine was nevertheless the indirect cause of the death of the poet santeuil, who, although a canon of st. victor, was very much fonder of champagne and of sundry other good things than he ought to have been. a wit and a _bon vivant_, he was a great favourite of the duc de bourbon, son of the prince de condé, whom he accompanied in the summer of to dijon. 'one evening at supper the duke amused himself with plying santeuil with champagne, and going on from joke to joke, he thought it funny to empty his snuff-box into a goblet of wine, and make santeuil drink it, in order to see what would happen. he was pretty soon enlightened. vomiting and fever ensued, and within forty-eight hours the unhappy wretch died in the torments of the damned, but filled with the sentiments of great penitence, with which he received the sacraments and edified the company, who, though little given to be edified, disapproved of _such a cruel experiment_.'[ ] of course nothing was done, or even said, to the duke. 'sire,' said the president of a deputation bringing specimens of the various productions of reims to the grand monarque when he visited the city in , 'we offer you our wine, our pears, our gingerbread, our biscuits, and our hearts;' and louis, who was a noted lover of the good things of this life, answered, turning to his suite, 'there, gentlemen, that is just the kind of speech i like.' to this day reims manufactures by the myriad the crisp finger-shaped sponge-cakes called 'biscuits de reims,' which the french delight to dip in their wine; juvenile france still eagerly devours its _pain d'épice_, and the city sends forth far and wide the baked pears which have obtained so enviable a reputation. but the production of such wine as that offered to the king has long since almost ceased, while its fame has been eclipsed tenfold by wine of a far more delicious kind, the origin and rise of which has now to be recounted. this is the sparkling wine of champagne, which has been fitly compared to one of those younger sons of good family, who, after a brilliant and rapid career, achieve a position far eclipsing that of their elder brethren, whose fame becomes merged in theirs.[ ] [illustration] iii. /invention and development of sparkling champagne./ the ancients acquainted with sparkling wines--tendency of champagne wines to effervesce noted at an early period--obscurity enveloping the discovery of what we now know as sparkling champagne--the royal abbey of hautvillers--legend of its foundation by st. nivard and st. berchier--its territorial possessions and vineyards--the monks the great viticulturists of the middle ages--dom perignon--he marries wines differing in character--his discovery of sparkling white wine--he is the first to use corks to bottles--his secret for clearing the wine revealed only to his successors frère philippe and dom grossart--result of dom perignon's discoveries--the wine of hautvillers sold at livres the queue--dom perignon's memorial in the abbey-church--wine flavoured with peaches--the effervescence ascribed to drugs, to the period of the moon, and to the action of the sap in the vine--the fame of sparkling wine rapidly spreads--the vin de perignon makes its appearance at the court of the grand monarque--is welcomed by the young courtiers--it figures at the suppers of anet and chantilly, and at the orgies of the temple and the palais royal--the rapturous strophes of chaulieu and rousseau--frederick william i. and the berlin academicians--augustus the strong and the page who pilfered his champagne--horror of the old-fashioned _gourmets_ at the innovation--bertin du rocheret and the marshal d'artagnan--system of wine-making in the champagne early in the eighteenth century--bottling of the wine in flasks--icing champagne with the corks loosened. a sybarite of our day has remarked that the life of the ancient greeks would have approached the perfection of earthly existence had they only been acquainted with sparkling champagne. as, however, amongst the nations of antiquity the newly-made wine was sometimes allowed to continue its fermentation in close vessels, it may be conceived that when freshly drawn it occasionally possessed a certain degree of briskness from the retained carbonic acid gas.[ ] virgil's expression, 'ille impiger hausit spumantem pateram,'[ ] demonstrates that the romans--whose _patera_, by the way, closely resembled the modern champagne-glass--were familiar with frothy and sparkling wines, although they do not seem to have intentionally sought the means of preserving them in this condition.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] the early vintagers of the champagne can hardly have helped noting the natural tendency of their wine to effervesce, the difficulty of entirely overcoming which is exemplified in the precautions invariably taken for the production of sillery sec; indeed tradition claims for certain growths of the marne, from a period of remote antiquity, a disposition to froth and sparkle.[ ] local writers profess to recognise in the property ascribed by henry of andelys to the wine of chalons, of causing both the stomach and the heels to swell,[ ] a reference to this peculiarity.[ ] the learned baccius, physician to pope sixtus v., writing at the close of the sixteenth century of the wines of france, mentions those 'which bubble out of the glass, and which flatter the smell as much as the taste,'[ ] though he does not refer to any wine of the champagne by name. an anonymous author, some eighty years later,[ ] condemns the growing partiality for the 'great _vert_ which certain debauchees esteem so highly' in champagne wines, and denounces 'that kind of wine which is always in a fury, and which boils without ceasing in its vessel.' still he seems to refer to wine in casks, which lost these tumultuous properties after easter. necessity being the mother of invention, the inhabitants of the province had in the sixteenth century already devised and put in practice a method of allaying fermentation, and obtaining a settled wine within four-and-twenty hours, by filling a vessel with 'small chips of the wood called in french _sayette_,' and pouring the wine over them.[ ] with all this, a conscientious writer candidly acknowledges that, despite minute and painstaking researches, he cannot tell when what is now known as sparkling champagne first made its appearance. the most ancient references to it of a positive character that he could discover are contained in the poems of grenan and coffin, printed in and ; yet its invention certainly dates prior to that epoch,[ ] and earlier poets have also praised it. it seems most probable that the tendency to effervescence already noted became even more marked in the strong-bodied gray and 'partridge-eye' wines, first made from red grapes about , than in the yellowish wine previously produced, like that of ay, from white grapes,[ ] and recommended, from its deficiency in body, to be drunk off within the year.[ ] these new wines, when in a quasi-effervescent state prior to the month of march, offered a novel attraction to palates dulled by the potent vintages of burgundy and southern france;[ ] and their reputation quickly spread, though some old _gourmets_ might have complained, with st. evremond, of the taste introduced by _faux delicats_.[ ] they must have been merely _cremant_ wines--for glass-bottle making was in its infancy, and corks as yet unknown[ ]--and doubtless resembled the present wines of condrieu, which sparkle in the glass on being poured out, during their first and second years, but with age acquire the characteristics of a full-bodied still wine. the difficulty of regulating their effervescence in those pre-scientific days must have led to frequent and serious disappointments. the hour, however, came, and with it the man. [illustration: gateway of the abbey of hautvillers.] [illustration: the church of hautvillers, with the remains of the abbey.] in the year , among the sunny vineyard slopes rising from the poplar-fringed marne, there stood in all its pride the famous royal abbey of st. peter at hautvillers. its foundation, of remote antiquity, was hallowed by saintly legend. tradition said that about the middle of the seventh century st. nivard, bishop of reims, and his godson, st. berchier, were seeking a suitable spot for the erection of a monastery on the banks of the river. the way was long, the day was warm, and the saints but mortal. weary and faint, they sat down to rest at a spot identified by tradition with a vineyard at dizy, to-day belonging to messrs. bollinger, but at that time forming part of the forest of the marne. st. nivard fell asleep, with his head in st. berchier's lap, when the one in a dream, and the other with waking eyes, saw a snow-white dove--the same, firm believers in miracles suggested, which had brought down the holy oil for the anointment of clovis at his coronation at reims--flutter through the wood, and finally alight afar off on the stump of a tree. such an omen could no more be neglected by a seventh-century saint than a slate full of scribble by a nineteenth-century spiritualist, and accordingly the site thus miraculously indicated was forthwith decided upon. plans for the edifice were duly drawn out and approved of, and the abbey rose in stately majesty, the high altar at which st. berchier was solemnly invested with the symbols of abbatial dignity being erected upon the precise spot occupied by the tree on which the snow-white dove had alighted.[ ] as time rolled on and pious donations poured in, the abbey waxed in importance, although it was sacked by the normans when they ravaged the champagne, and was twice destroyed by fire--once in , and again in --when each time it rose ph[oe]nix-like from its ashes. [illustration] [illustration] in the abbey was, as we have said, in all its glory. true, it had been somewhat damaged a century previously by the huguenots, who had fired the church, driven out the monks, sacked the wine-cellars, burnt the archives, and committed sundry other depredations inherent to civil and religious warfare; but the liberal contributions of the faithful, including queen marie de medicis, had helped to efface all traces of their visit. the abbey boasted many precious relics rescued from the reformers' fury, the most important being the body of st. helena, the mother of constantine the great, which had been in its possession since , and attracted numerous pilgrims. the hierarchical status of the abbey was high; for no less than nine archbishops had passed forth through its stately portal to the see of reims, and twenty-two abbots, including the venerable peter of cluny, to various distinguished monasteries. its territorial possessions were extensive; for its abbot was lord of hautvillers, cumières, cormoyeux, bomery, and dizy la rivière, and had all manner of rights of _fourmage_, and _huchage_, _vinage_, and _pressoir banal_, and the like,[ ] to the benefit of the monks and the misfortune of their numerous dependents. its revenues were ample, and no small portion was derived from the tithes of fair and fertile vinelands extending for miles around, and from the vineyards which the monks themselves cultivated in the immediate neighbourhood of the abbey. [illustration] it should be remembered that for a lengthy period--not only in france, but in other countries--the choicest wines were those produced in vineyards belonging to the church, and that the _vinum theologium_ was justly held superior to all others. the rich chapters and monasteries were more studious of the quality than of the quantity of their vintages; their land was tilled with particular care, and the learning, of which in the middle ages they were almost the sole depositaries, combined with opportunities of observation enjoyed by the members of these fraternities by reason of their retired pursuits, made them acquainted at a very early period with the best methods of controlling the fermentation of the grape and ameliorating its produce.[ ] to the monks of bèze we owe chambertin, the favourite wine of the first napoleon; to the cistercians of citaulx the perfection of that clos vougeot which passing regiments saluted _tambour battant_; and the benedictines of hautvillers were equally regardful of the renown of their wines and vineyards. in they cultivated one hundred arpents themselves,[ ] their possessions including the vineyards now known as les quartiers and les prières at hautvillers, and les barillets, sainte hélène, and cotes-à-bras at cumières, the last named of which still retains a high reputation. [illustration] over these vineyards there presided in a worthy benedictine named dom perignon, who was destined to gain for the abbey a more world-wide fame than the devoutest of its monks or the proudest of its abbots. his position was an onerous one, for the reputation of the wine was considerable, and it was necessary to maintain it. henry of andelys had sung its praises as early as the thirteenth century; and st. evremond, though absent from france for nearly half a score years, wrote of it in terms proving that he had preserved a lively recollection of its merits. dom perignon was born at sainte ménehould in , and had been elected to the post of procureur of the abbey about , on account of the purity of his taste and the soundness of his head. he proved himself fully equal to the momentous task, devotion to which does not seem to have shortened his days, since he died at the ripe old age of seventy-seven. it was dom perignon's duty to superintend the abbey vineyards, supervise the making of the wine, and see after the tithes, paid either in wine or grapes[ ] by the neighbouring cultivators to their seignorial lord the abbot. the wine which thus came into his charge was naturally of various qualities; and having noted that one kind of soil imparted fragrance and another generosity, while the produce of others was deficient in both of these attributes, dom perignon, in the spirit of a true benedictine, hit upon the happy idea of 'marrying,' or blending, the produce of different vineyards together,[ ] a practice which is to-day very generally followed by the manufacturers of champagne. such was the perfection of dom perignon's skill and the delicacy of his palate, that in his later years, when blind from age, he used to have the grapes of the different districts brought to him, and, recognising each kind by its flavour, would say, 'you must marry the wine of this vineyard with that of such another.'[ ] [illustration] but the crowning glory of the benedictine's long and useful life remains to be told. he succeeded in obtaining for the first time in the champagne a perfectly white wine from black grapes, that hitherto made having been gray, or of a pale-straw colour.[ ] moreover, by some happy accident, or by a series of experimental researches--for the exact facts of the discovery are lost for ever--he hit upon a method of regulating the tendency of the wines of this region to effervesce, and by paying regard to the epoch of bottling, finally succeeded in producing a perfectly sparkling wine, that burst forth from the bottle and overflowed the glass, and was twice as dainty to the palate, and twice as exhilarating in its effects, as the ordinary wine of the champagne. a correlative result of his investigations was the present system of corking bottles, a wisp of tow dipped in oil being the sole stopper in use prior to his time.[ ] to him, too, we owe not only sparkling champagne itself, but the proper kind of glass to drink it out of. the tall, thin, tapering _flute_ was adopted, if not invented, by him, in order, as he said, that he might watch the dance of the sparkling atoms.[ ] the exact date of dom perignon's discovery of sparkling wine seems to be wrapped in much the same obscurity as are the various attendant circumstances. it was certainly prior to the close of the seventeenth century; as the author of an anonymous treatise, printed at reims in , remarked that for more than twenty years past the taste of the french had inclined towards sparkling wines, which they had 'frantically adored,' though during the last three years they had grown a little out of conceit with them.[ ] this would place it at , at the latest. [illustration] to dom perignon the abbey's well-stocked cellar was a far cheerfuller place than the cell. nothing delighted him more than 'to come down among this brotherhood dwelling for ever underground, silent, contemplative, round, and sound; each one old and brown with mould, but filled to the lips with the ardour of youth, with the latent power and love of truth, and with virtues fervent and manifold.' ever busy among his vats and presses, barrels and bottles, perignon found out a method of clearing wine, so as to preserve it perfectly limpid and free from all deposit, without being obliged, like all who sought to rival him in its production, to _dépoter_ the bottles--that is, to decant their contents into fresh ones.[ ] this secret, which helped to maintain the high reputation of the wine of hautvillers when the manufacture of sparkling champagne had extended throughout the district, he guarded even better than he was able to guard the apple of his eye. at his death, in , he revealed it only to his successor, frère philippe, who, after holding sway over vat and vineyard for fifty years, died in , imparting it with his latest breath to frère andré lemaire. revoked perforce from his functions by the french revolution, he in turn, before his death about , communicated it to dom grossart, who exults over the fact that whilst the greatest champagne merchants were obliged to _dépoter_, the monks of hautvillers had never done so.[ ] dom grossart, who had counted the moëts amongst his customers, died in his turn without making any sign, so that the secret of perignon perished with him. prior to that event, however, the present system of _dégorgeage_ was discovered, and eventually _dépotage_ was no longer practised.[ ] the material result of dom perignon's labours was such that one of the presses of the abbey bore this inscription: 'm. de fourville, abbot of this abbey, had me constructed in the year , and that same year sold his wine at a thousand livres the queue.'[ ] their moral effect was so complete that his name became identified with the wine of the abbey. people asked for the wine of perignon, till they forgot that he was a man and not a vineyard,[ ] and within a year of his death his name figures amongst a list of the wine-producing slopes of the champagne.[ ] his reputation has outlasted the walls within which he carried on his labours, and his merits are thus recorded, in conventual latin of the period, on a black-marble slab still to be seen within the altar-steps of the abbey-church of hautvillers.[ ] [illustration: d . o . m . hic jacet dom. petrus perignon hujus mÑrii per annos quadginta septem cellerarius qui re familliari summa cum laude administrata virtutibus plenus paterno que jmprimis in pauperis amore obiit Ætatis ^o. anno requiscat in pace amen] the anonymous _mémoire_ of gives, with an amount of preliminary flourish which would imply a doubt as to the accuracy of the statement made, the secret mode said to have been employed by dom perignon to improve his wine, and to have been confided by him a few days before his death to 'a person worthy enough of belief,' by whom it was in turn communicated to the writer. according to this, a pound of sugar-candy was dissolved in a _chopine_ of wine, to which was then added five or six stoned peaches, four sous' worth of powdered cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, and a _demi septier_ of burnt brandy; and the whole, after being well mixed, was strained through fine linen into a _pièce_ of wine immediately after fermentation had ceased, with the result of imparting to it a dainty and delicate flavour. dom grossart, however, in his letter to m. dherbès, distinctly declares that 'we never did put sugar into our wine.'[ ] this _collature_, in which peaches play a part, was probably made use of by some wine-growers; and the peach-like flavour extolled by st. evremond in the wine of ay may have been due to it, or to the practice then and long afterwards followed of putting peach-leaves in the hot water with which the barrels were washed out, under the idea that this improved the flavour of the wine.[ ] opinions were widely divided as to the cause of the effervescence in the wines of hautvillers, for the connection between sugar and fermentation was then undreamt of, although van helmont had recognised the existence of carbonic acid gas in fermenting wine as early as . some thought it due to the addition of drugs, and sought to obtain it by putting not only alum and spirits of wine, but positive nastinesses, into their wine.[ ] others ascribed it to the greenness of the wine, because most of that which effervesced was extremely raw; and others again believed that it was influenced by the age of the moon at the epoch of bottling. experience undoubtedly showed that wine bottled between the vintage and the month of may was certain to effervesce, and that no time was more favourable for this operation than the end of the second quarter of the moon of march. nevertheless, as the wines, especially those of the mountain of reims, were not usually matured at this epoch, it was recommended, in order to secure a ripe and exquisite sparkling wine, to defer the bottling until the ascent of the sap in the vine between the tenth and fourteenth day of the moon of august; whereas, to insure a _non mousseux_ wine, the bottling ought to take place in october or november.[ ] the fame of the new wine, known indifferently as _vin de perignon_, _flacon pétillant_, _flacon mousseux_, _vin sautant_, _vin mousseux_, _saute bouchon_, &c., and even anathematised as _vin du diable_--for the present term, _vin de champagne_, was confined as yet to the still or quasi-still growths--quickly spread. never, indeed, was a discovery more opportune. at the moment of its introduction the glory of france was on the wane; colbert, louvois, and luxembourg were dead; the treaty of ryswick had been signed; famine and deficit reared their threatening heads, and lo, providence offered this new consolation for all outward and inward ills. with the king it could only find scant favour. the once brilliant louis was now a bigoted and almost isolated invalid. his debilitated stomach, ruined by long indulgence, could scarcely even support the old burgundy--so old that it was almost tasteless--which fagon had prescribed as his sole beverage some years before;[ ] and the popping of sparkling champagne corks would have scandalised the quiet _tête-à-tête_ repasts which he was wont to partake of with the pious madame de maintenon.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] but the men who were to be the future _roués_ of the regency were in the flower of youthful manhood in , and the recommendation of comus had with them more weight than the warnings of Æsculapius. at the joyous suppers of anet, where the duc de vendôme laid aside the laurels of mars to wreathe his brows with the ivy of bacchus; at the temple, where his brother, the grand prior, nightly revived the most scandalous features of the orgies of ancient rome; at the palais royal, where the future regent was inaugurating that long series of _petits soupers_ which were ultimately to cost the lives of himself and his favourite daughter; and at chantilly, where the prince de conti sought successfully to reproduce a younger and brighter versailles, the pear-shaped flasks, 'ten inches high, including the four or five of the neck,'[ ] stamped with the arms of the noble hosts, and secured with spanish wax,[ ] were an indispensable adjunct to the festivities of the table. a story is told of the marquis de sillery, who had turned his sword into a pruning-knife, and applied himself to the cultivation of the paternal vineyards, having first introduced the sparkling wine bearing his name at one of the anet suppers, when, at a given signal, a dozen of blooming young damsels, scantily draped in the guise of bacchanals, entered the room, bearing apparently baskets of flowers in their hands, but which, on being placed before the guests, proved to be flower-enwreathed bottles of the new sparkling wine.[ ] if ever a beverage was intended for the pleasures of society, it was certainly this one, which it was said nature had made especially for the french,[ ] who found in its discovery a compensation for the victories of marlborough. chaulieu, the poetic abbé, and the favourite of both the vendômes, hailed this new product of his native province in rapturous strophes. in an invitation to supper addressed to his friend, the marquis de la fare, in , he describes how 'of fivescore clear glasses the number and brightness make up for of dishes the absence and lightness, and the foam, sparkling pure, of fresh delicate wine for fortune's frail lure blots out all regret in this memory of mine.'[ ] in a letter to st. evremond, he mentions sundry wonderful things that should happen 'if the muses were as fond of the wine of champagne as the poet who writes this to you;' and, in one to the marquis de dangeau, jestingly remarks that 'st. maur's harsher muse all flight will refuse, unless you sustain her wings with champagne.'[ ] replying to an invitation to sonning's house at neuilly on july , , he says that when he comes it will be wonderful to see how the champagne will be drained from the tall glasses known as _flutes_.[ ] that the champagne he extols was a sparkling wine is established in a poetical epistle to madame d., in answer to her complaint that the wine he had sent her did not froth as when they supped together, and in this he also speaks of its newness. his brother-rhymster, jean baptiste rousseau, who must not be confounded with the philosophic jean jacques, invited chaulieu to join him at neuilly, in mingling the water of hippocrene with the wine of hautvillers,[ ] and announced to the champagne-loving marquis d'ussé, _apropos_ of the latter's favourite source of inspiration, that even 'ph[oe]bus will no more go climbing for water up helicon's mount, but admit, as a source of good rhyming, champagne excels hippocrene's fount.'[ ] such general attention did the subject attract that frederick william ii. of prussia actually proposed to the academy of arts and sciences at berlin the question, 'why does champagne foam?' for solution. the academicians, with unexpected sharpness, petitioned the king for a supply of the beverage in question on which to experiment. but the parsimonious monarch was equal to the occasion, and a solitary dozen of the wine was all he would consent to furnish them with. his ally, augustus the strong of saxony, was the hero of a ludicrous adventure connected with sparkling champagne. at a banquet given to him at dresden, a page, who had surreptitiously appropriated a bottle of this costly beverage, and hidden it in the breast of his coat, had to approach the king. the heat and motion combined had imparted briskness to the wine, out popped the cork, and the embroidered garments and flowing periwig of mr. carlyle's 'man of sin' were drenched with the foaming liquid. the page fell on his knees and roared for mercy, and the king, as soon as he recovered from his bursts of laughter, freely forgave him his offence. the success of dom perignon's wine caused a revolution in the wine-production of the province, and gave rise to numerous imitations, despite the outcry raised against sparkling wine by many _gourmets_, and even by the wine-merchants themselves, who complained that they had to pander to what they regarded as a depraved taste. the elder bertin du rocheret, father of the _lieutenant criminel_ and a notable dealer in wine, was much opposed to it.[ ] marshal de montesquiou d'artagnan, the gallant assailant of denain, had ordered some wine of him, and he writes in reply, on november , : 'i have chosen three poinçons of the best wine of pierry at francs the queue, not to be drawn off as _mousseux_--that would be too great a pity. also a poinçon to be drawn off as _mousseux_ at francs the queue; or, if you will only go as far as francs, it will froth just as well, or better. also a poinçon of _tocane_ of ay to be drunk this winter--that is to say, it should be drunk by shrovetide--at francs the queue: this wine is very fine.'[ ] on the th december the marshal writes: 'with regard to my wine being made _mousseux_, many prefer that it should be so; and i should not be vexed, provided it does not in any way depreciate its quality.' on the th october of the following year the stern _laudator temporis acti_ describes how the bottling has been carried out, 'in order that your wines might be _mousseux_, without which i should not have done it, and perhaps you would have found it better, but it would not have had the merit of being _mousseux_, which in my opinion is the merit of a poor wine, and only proper to beer, chocolate, and whipped cream. good champagne should be clear and fine, should sparkle in the glass, and should flatter the palate, as it never does when it is _mousseux_, but has a smack of fermentation; hence it is only _mousseux_ because it is working.' the converted marshal replies on october th: 'i was in the wrong to ask you to bottle my wine so that it might be _mousseux_; it is a fashion that prevails everywhere, especially amongst young people. for my own part, i care very little about it; but i wish the wine to be clear and fine, and to have a strong champagne bouquet.' in the following december bertin, in answer to the marshal's request for three quartaux of wine, says: 'will you kindly let me know at what date you propose to drink this wine? if it is to be drunk as _mousseux_, i shall not agree with you.' the allusion to the time of year at which the wine was to be drunk throws a light upon a practice of the day, confirmed by other passages in this correspondence. much of the wine made was drunk as _vin bourru_ fined, but not racked off, at the beginning of the year, or as _tocane_, which was apt to go off if kept beyond shrovetide. this speedy consumption and the careful choice made of the grapes intended for _vin mousseux_ militated against the formation in the bottles of that deposit, which, up to the commencement of the present century, when the system of _dégorgeage_ was introduced, could only be remedied by _dépotage_,[ ] though, as we have seen, the abbey of hautvillers had a secret method, carefully guarded, of checking its formation.[ ] it is singular that the presence of a natural _liqueur_--the consequence of a complete but not excessive ripeness of the grape, and at present considered one of the highest qualities of the wine--was, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, regarded as a disease. the _mémoire_ of states that when the wine has any liqueur, however good it may otherwise be, it is not esteemed, and recommends the owner to get rid of this 'bad quality' forthwith by putting a pint of new milk warm from the cow into each _pièce_, stirring it well, letting it rest three days, and then racking the wine off. at this epoch the wine of the champagne seems to have been preferred perfectly dry.[ ] in june the marshal d'artagnan reproached bertin du rocheret for sending him hautvillers wine of the preceding vintage which had turned out _liquoreuse_. however, in august he felt forced to write that it had become excellent, and similar experiences seem to have soon removed all prejudices against this liqueur character. bertin, in , speaks of it as one of the qualities of wine, and charges for it in proportion; and six years later remarks that the english are as mad for liqueur and colour in their wines as the french.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] iv. /the battle of the wines./ temporary check to the popularity of sparkling champagne--doctors disagree--the champions of champagne and burgundy--péna and his patient--a young burgundian student attacks the wine of reims--the faculty of reims in arms--a local old parr cited as an example in favour of the wines of the champagne--salins of beaune and le pescheur of reims engage warmly in the dispute--a pelting with pamphlets--burgundy sounds a war-note--the sapphics of benigné grenan--an asp beneath the flowers--the gauntlet picked up--carols from a coffin--champagne extolled as superior to all other wines--it inspires the heart and stirs the brain--the apotheosis of champagne foam--burgundy, an invalid, seeks a prescription--impartially appreciative drinkers of both wines--bold burgundian and stout rémois, each a jolly tippling fellow--canon maucroix's parallel between burgundy and demosthenes and champagne and cicero--champagne a panacea for gout and stone--final decision in favour of champagne by the medical faculty of paris--pluche's opinion on the controversy--champagne a lively wit and burgundy a solid understanding--champagne commands double the price of the best burgundy--zealots reconciled at table. by a strange fatality the popularity of the sparkling wine of the champagne, which had helped to dissipate the gloom hanging over court and capital during the last twenty years of the reign of louis quatorze,[ ] began to wane the year preceding that monarch's death.[ ] dom perignon too, as though stricken to the heart by this, forthwith drooped and died. the inhabitants of the province once more turned their attention to their red wines, which continued to enjoy a high reputation during the first half of the century,[ ] despite the sweeping assertion that they were somewhat dry, rather flat, and possessed a strong flinty flavour,[ ] the _goût de terroir_ alluded to by st. evremond. [illustration] these red wines were not only sent to paris in large quantities by way of the marne,[ ] but commanded an important export trade, those of the mountain, which were better able to bear the journey than the growths of the river, gracing the best-appointed tables of london, amsterdam, copenhagen, and the north,[ ] and especially of flanders, where they were usually sold as burgundy.[ ] it must not be lost sight of that the yield of white sparkling wine from the _crûs d'élite_ was for a long time comparatively small, especially when contrasted with that of to-day.[ ] at a later period the manufacture of _vin mousseux_ increased, notably in the districts south of the marne,[ ] and drove out almost entirely the still red wine; the place of the latter being supplied, as regards holland, belgium, and northern france, by the growths of bordeaux, which were found to keep better in damp climates.[ ] [illustration] one cause of this falling off in the popularity of the sparkling wine arose from the great battle which raged for many years respecting the relative merits of champagne and burgundy. it was waged in the schools, and not in the field; for the combatants were neither dashing soldiers, brilliant courtiers, nor even gay young students, but potent, grave, and reverend physicians--the wigged, capped, and gowned pedants of the diaphorus type whom molière so piteously pilloried. the only blood shed was that of the grape, excepting when some enthusiastic sangrado was impelled by a too conscientious practical examination into the qualities of the vintage he championed to a more than ordinary reckless use of the lancet. the contending armies couched pens instead of lances, and marshalled arguments in array in place of squadrons. they hurled pamphlets and theses at each others' heads in lieu of bombshells, and kept up withal a running fire of versification, so that the rumble of hexameters replaced that of artillery. [illustration] national pride, and perhaps a smack of envy at the growing popularity of the still red wines of the champagne, had, as far back as , led a hot-headed young burgundian, one daniel arbinet, to select as the subject of a thesis, maintained by him before the schools of paris, the proposition that the wine of beaune was more delicious and more wholesome than any other wine,[ ] the remaining vintages of the universe being pretty roughly handled in the thesis in question. the champenois contented themselves for the time being with cultivating their vineyards and improving their wines, till in , when these latter had acquired yet more renown, m. de révélois of reims boldly rushed into print with the assertion that the wine of reims was the most wholesome of all.[ ] though the first to write in its favour, he was not the first doctor of eminence who had expressed an opinion favourable to the wine of champagne. péna, a leading parisian physician of the seventeenth century, was once consulted by a stranger. 'where do you come from?' he inquired. 'i am a native of saumur.' 'a native of saumur. what bread do you eat?' 'bread from the belle cave.' 'a native of saumur, and you eat bread from the belle cave. what meat do you get?' 'mutton fed at chardonnet.' 'a native of saumur, eating bread from the belle cave and mutton fed at chardonnet. what wine do you drink?' 'wine from the côteaux.'[ ] 'what! you are a native of saumur; you eat bread from the belle cave, and mutton fed at chardonnet, and drink the wine of the côteaux, and you come here to consult me! go along; there can be nothing the matter with you!'[ ] burgundy remained silent in turn for nearly twenty years, when, lo, in --probably just about the time when the popping of dom perignon's corks began to make some noise in the world--a yet more opinionated young champion of the côte d'or, mathieu fournier, a medical student, hard pressed for the subject of his inaugural thesis, and in the firm faith that 'none but a clever dialectician can hope to become a good physician, and that logic plays an important part in the mystery of the healing art,' propounded the theory that the wines of reims irritated the nerves, and caused a predisposition to catarrh, gout, and other disorders, owing to which fagon, the king's physician, had forbidden them to his royal master.[ ] [illustration: louis xiv. (from a portrait of the time).] shocked at these scandalous assertions, the entire faculty of medicine at the reims university rose in arms in defence of their native vintage. its periwigged professors put their learned heads together to discuss the all-important question, 'is the wine of reims more agreeable and more wholesome than the wine of burgundy?' and in giles culotteau embodied their combined opinions in a pamphlet published under that title.[ ] after extolling the liquid purity, the excellent brightness, the divine flavour, the paradisiacal perfume, and the great durability of the wines of ay, pierry, verzy, sillery, hautvillers, &c., as superior to those of any growth of burgundy, he instanced the case of a local old parr named pierre pieton, a _vigneron_ of hautvillers, who had married at the age of , and reached that of without infirmity, as a convincing proof of the material advantages reaped from their consumption. [illustration] [illustration: ancient tower of reims university.] salins, the _doyen_ of the faculty of medicine of beaune, was intrusted with the task of replying, and in bitterly assailed culotteau's thesis in a 'defence of the wine of burgundy against the wine of champagne,' which ran to five editions in four years. m. le pescheur, a doctor of reims, vigorously attacked each of these editions in succession, maintaining amongst other things that the wine of reims owed its renown to the many virtues discovered in it by the great lords who had accompanied louis xiv. to his coronation; and that if the king, on the advice of his doctors, had renounced its use, his courtiers had certainly not. he also asserted that england, germany, and the north of europe consumed far more champagne than they did burgundy, and that it would be transported without risk to the end of the world, tavernier having taken it to persia, and another traveller to siam and surinam. [illustration] [illustration] the partisanship quickly spread throughout the country, and the respective admirers of burgundy and champagne pitilessly pelted each other in prose and verse; for the two camps had their troubadours, who, like those of old, excited the courage and ardour of the combatants. the first to sound the warlike trumpet was benigné grenan, professor at the college of harcourt, who, with the rich vintage of his native province bubbling at fever-heat through his veins, sought in to crush champagne by means of latin sapphics, a sample of which has been thus translated: 'lift to the skies thy foaming wine, that cheers the heart, that charms the eye; exalt its fragrance, gift divine, champagne, from thee the wise must fly! a poison lurks those charms below, an asp beneath the flowers is hid; in vain thy sparkling fountains flow when wisdom has their lymph forbid. 'tis, but when cloyed with purer fair we can with such a traitress flirt; so following beaune with reverent air, let reims appear but at dessert.'[ ] the gauntlet thus contemptuously thrown down was promptly and indignantly picked up by the rector of the university of beauvais, the learned dr. charles coffin, a native of buzancy, near reims, who in the quiet retirement of the picardian _alma mater_ had evidently not forgotten to keep up his acquaintance with the vintage of his native province. the latin poem he produced in reply, under the title of _campania vindicata_,[ ] had nothing in common with his lugubriously sepulchral name, as may be seen by the following somewhat freely translated extracts from it. after invoking the aid of a bottle of the enlivening liquor whose praises he is about to sing, he exclaims: 'as the vine, although lowly in aspect, outshines the stateliest trees by the produce it bears, so midst all earth's list of rich generous wines, our reims the bright crown of preëminence wears. the massica, erst sang by horace of old, to sillery now must abandon the field; falernian, nor chian, could ne'er be so bold to rival the nectar ay's sunny slopes yield. as bright as the goblet it sparklingly fills with diamonds in fusion, it foaming exhales an odour ambrosial, the nostril that thrills, foretelling the flavour delicious it veils. at first with false fury the foam-bells arise, and creamily bubbling spread over the brim, till equally swiftly their petulance dies in a purity that makes e'en crystal seem dim.'[ ] [illustration] praising the flavour of this nectar, which he declares is in every way worthy of its appearance, he stoutly defends the wine from the charge of unwholesomeness adduced against it by grenan: 'despite the tongue of malice, no poison in thy chalice was ever found, champagne! simplicity most loyal was e'er thy boast right royal, and this thy wines retain. no harm lurks in the fire that helps thee to inspire the heart and spur the brain.'[ ] [illustration] so far from causing inconvenience, he claims for champagne the property of keeping off both gout and gravel, neither of which, he says, is known in reims and its neighbourhood, and continues: 'when on the fruit-piled board, thy cups, with nectar stored, commence their genial reign, the wisest, sternest faces of mirth display the traces, and to rejoice are fain. as laughter's silv'ry ripple greets every glass we tipple. away fly grief and pain.'[ ] the jovial old rector with the sepulchral appellation then proceeds, according to the most approved method of warfare, to carry the campaign into the enemy's territory. he admits the nutritive and strengthening properties of burgundy, but demands what it possesses beyond these, which are shared in common with it by many other vintages. he then prophesies, with the return of peace,[ ] the advent of the english to buy the wine of reims; and concludes by wishing that all who dispute the merits of champagne may find nothing to drink but the sour cider of normandy or the acrid vintage of ivri. the citizens of reims, thoroughly alive to the importance of the controversy, were enchanted with this production; they did not, however, crown the poet with laurel, but more wisely and appropriately despatched to him four dozen of their best red and gray wines, by the aid of which he continued to tipple and to sing. grenan, resuming the offensive in turn, at once addressed an epistle in latin verse, in favour of burgundy against champagne, to fagon, the king's physician.[ ] complaining that the latter wine lays claim unjustly to the first rank, he allows it certain qualities--brilliancy, purity, limpidity, a subtle savour that touches the most blunted palate, and an aroma so delicious that it is impossible to resist its attractions. but he objects to its pretensions. 'its vinous flood, with swelling pride in foaming wavelets welling up, pours forth its bright and sparkling tide, bubbling and glittering in the cup.'[ ] he goes on to accuse the champenois poet of being unduly inspired by this wine, the effects of which he finds apparent in his inflated style and his attempts to place champagne in the first rank, and make all other vintages its subjects; and he reiterates his allegations that, unlike burgundy, it affects both the head and the stomach, and is bound to produce gout and gravel in its systematic imbibers. he concludes by begging fagon to pronounce in his favour, as having proved the virtues of burgundy on the king himself, whose strength had been sustained by it. the retort was sharp and to the point, taking the form of a twofold epigram from an anonymous hand: 'to the doctor to go on behalf of your wine is, as far as i know, of its sickness a sign. your cause and your wine must be equally weak, since to check their decline a prescription you seek.'[ ] nor was the poet of the funereal cognomen backward in stepping into the field; for he published a metrical decree, supposed to be issued by the faculty of the island of cos in the fourth year of the ninety-first olympiad,[ ] in which, though a verdict is nominally given in favour of burgundy, grenan's pleas on behalf of this wine are treated with withering sarcasm. but whilst these enthusiastic partisans thus belaboured one another, there were not wanting impartial spirits who could recognise that there were merits on both sides. bellechaume, in an ode jointly addressed to the two combatants,[ ] adjures them to live at peace on parnassus, and, remembering that horace praised both falernian and massica, to jointly animate their muse with champagne and burgundy: 'to learn the difference between the wine of reims and that of beaune, the fairest plan would be, i ween, to drink them both, not one alone.'[ ] another equally judicious versifier called also on the burgundian champion[ ] to cease the futile contest, since 'bold burgundian ever glories with stout remois to get mellow; each well filled with vinous lore is each a jolly tippling fellow.'[ ] and the learned canon maucroix of reims exhibited a similar conciliatory spirit in the ingenious parallel which he drew between the two greatest orators of antiquity and the wines of the marne and the côte d'or. 'in the wine of burgundy,' he observes, 'there is more strength and vigour; it does not play with its man so much, it overthrows him more suddenly,--that is demosthenes. the wine of champagne is subtler and more delicate; it amuses more and for a longer time, but in the end it does not produce less effect,--that is cicero.'[ ] [illustration: remains of the gate of bacchus, near reims university.] the national disasters which marked the close of the reign of louis xiv. diverted public attention in some degree from the nugatory contest;[ ] and though fontenelle sought to prove that a glass of champagne was better than a bottle of burgundy,[ ] the impartially appreciative agreed with panard that 'old burgundy and young champagne at table boast an equal reign.'[ ] but the doctors continued to disagree, and new generations of them still went on wrangling over the vexed questions of supremacy and salubrity. in jean françois carried the war into the enemy's camp by maintaining at paris that burgundy caused gout; and a little later robert linguet declared the wine of reims to be as healthy as it was agreeable. in xavier, regent of the faculty of medicine at the reims university, affirmed that not only did the once vilified _vin mousseux_ share with the other wines of the champagne the absence of the tartarous particles which in many red wines are productive of gout and gravel, but that the gas it contained caused it to act as a dissolvent upon stone in the human body, and was also invaluable, from its antiseptic qualities, in treating putrid fevers.[ ] further, the appropriately named champagne dufresnay established, to his own satisfaction and that of his colleagues, that the wine was superior to any other growth, native or foreign.[ ] at length, in , when the bones of the original disputants were dust, and their lancets rust, on the occasion of a thesis being defended before the faculty of medicine of paris, a verdict was formally pronounced by this body in favour of the wine of the champagne.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] v. /progress and popularity of sparkling champagne./ sparkling champagne intoxicates the regent d'orléans and the _roués_ of the palais royal--it is drunk by peter the great at reims--a horse trained on champagne and biscuits--decree of louis xv. regarding the transport of champagne--wine for the _petits cabinets du roi_--the _petits soupers_ and champagne orgies of the royal household--a bibulous royal mistress--the well-beloved at reims--frederick the great, george ii., stanislas leczinski, and marshal saxe all drink champagne--voltaire sings the praises of the effervescing wine of ay--the commander descartes and lebatteux extol the charms of sparkling champagne--bertin du rocheret and his balsamic molecules--the bacchanalian poet panard chants the inspiring effects of the vintages of the marne--marmontel is jointly inspired by mademoiselle de navarre and the wine of avenay--the abbé de l'attaignant and his fair hostesses--breakages of bottles in the manufacturers' cellars--attempts to obviate them--the early sparkling wines merely _crémant_--_saute bouchon_ and _demi-mousseux_--prices of champagne in the eighteenth century--preference given to light acid wines for sparkling champagne--lingering relics of prejudice against _vin mousseux_--the secret addition of sugar--originally the wine not cleared in bottle--its transfer to other bottles necessary--adoption of the present method of ridding the wine of its deposit--the vine-cultivators the last to profit by the popularity of sparkling champagne--marie antoinette welcomed to reims--reception and coronation of louis xvi. at reims--'the crown, it hurts me!'--oppressive dues and tithes of the _ancien régime_--the fermiers généraux and their hôtel at reims--champagne under the revolution--napoleon at epernay--champagne included in the equipment of his satraps--the allies in the champagne--drunkenness and pillaging--appreciation of champagne by the invading troops--the beneficial results which followed--universal popularity of champagne--the wine a favourite with kings and potentates--its traces to be met with everywhere. [illustration] whilst doctors went on shaking their periwigged heads, and debating whether sparkling champagne did or did not injure the nerves and produce gout, the timid might hearken to their counsels, but there were plenty of spirits bold enough to let the corks pop gaily, regardless of all consequences. the wine continued in high favour with the _viveurs_ of the capital, and especially with the brilliant band of titled scoundrels who formed the court of philippe le débonnaire. 'when my son gets drunk,' wrote, on the th august , the princess charlotte elizabeth of bavaria, the regent's mother, 'it is not with strong drinks or spirituous liquors, but pure wine of champagne;'[ ] and as the pupil of the abbé dubois very seldom went to bed sober,[ ] he must have consumed a fair amount of the fluid in question in the course of his career. even his boon companion, the duke de richelieu, is forced to admit that there was a great deal more drunkenness about him than was becoming in a regent of france; and that, as he could not support wine so well as his guests, he often rose from the table drunk, or with his wits wool-gathering. 'two bottles of champagne,' remarks the duke in his _chronique_, 'had this effect upon him.' desirous, seemingly, that such enjoyments should not be confined to himself alone, he abolished in sundry dues on wine in general, whilst his famous, or rather infamous, suppers conduced to the vogue of that sparkling champagne which was an indispensable accompaniment of those _décolleté_ repasts. it unloosed the tongues and waistcoats of the _roués_ of the palais royal, the nocés, broglios, birons, brancas, and canillacs; it lent an additional sparkle to the bright eyes of mesdames de parabère and de sabran, and inspired the scathing remark from the lips of one of those fair frail ones, that 'god, after having made man, took up a little mud, and used it to form the souls of princes and lackeys.' it played its part, too, at the memorable repast at which the regent and his favourite daughter so scandalised their hostess, the duchess of burgundy, and at the fatal orgie shared by the same pair on the terrace of meudon. [illustration: the regent d'orlÉans (from the picture by santerre).] the example set in such high quarters could not fail to be followed. champagne fired the sallies of the wits and versifiers whom the duchess of maine gathered around her at sceaux, and stimulated the madness which seized upon the whole of paris at the bidding of the financier law. it frothed, too, in the goblets which bertin du rocheret had the honour of filling with his own hand for peter the great, on the passage of the northern colossus through reims in june ; and its consumption was increased by a decree of , which especially provided that people proceeding to their country seats might take with them for their own use a certain quantity of this wine free of duty. a curious purpose to which the wine was applied appeared from a wager laid by the count de saillans--one of the most famous horsemen of his day, and already distinguished by similar feats--to the effect that he would ride a single horse from the gate of versailles to the hôtel des invalides within an hour. his wife, fearing the dangerous descent from sèvres towards paris, prevailed on the king to prohibit him from riding in person; but a valet, whose neck was of course of no moment, was allowed to act as his deputy in essaying the feat. the horse selected was carefully fed for some days beforehand on biscuits and champagne. crowds assembled to witness the attempt, which was made on may , , and resulted in the valet's coming in two and a half minutes behind time. whether this was due to the badness of the roads, as was alleged, or to the singular _régime_ adopted for the animal selected, remains a moot question.[ ] champagne won equal favour in the eyes of louis xv., as in those of the curious compound of embodied vices who had watched over the welfare of the kingdom during his minority, though it is true that at a comparatively early age--in the year --he had, on representations that over-production of wine was lowering its value, prohibited the planting of fresh vineyards without his permission under a penalty of francs, and had renewed this prohibition the year following.[ ] [illustration: louis xv. when young (from a picture of the epoch).] [illustration: a french country inn of the eighteenth century (from the 'routes de france').] the royal repasts at la muette, marly, and choissy were, however, enlivened with wine from the champagne; for we find bertin du rocheret in despatching thirty pieces of the still wine to m. de castagnet for the _petits cabinets du roi_,[ ] and the eldest of the fair sisters la nesle, madame de mailly, the 'queen of choissy' and _maîtresse en titre_, in reforming the cellar management, and suppressing the _petits soupers_ and champagne orgies of the royal household.[ ] her conduct in this respect seems, however, not to have been dictated by motives of virtue, but rather by the conviction that the wine was too precious to be consumed by inferiors. we are assured that the countess loved wine, and above all that of champagne, and that she could hold her own against the stoutest toper. 'she has been reproached with having imparted this taste to the king, but it is probable that his majesty was naturally inclined that way.'[ ] [illustration: un petit souper of the eighteenth century (from the collection of the 'chansons de laborde').] when, in , the 'well-beloved' passed through reims, dom chatelain, after rejoicing over the year's vintage having been a very fine one, adds that it was drunk to a considerable extent and with the greatest joy in the world during the ten days that the king remained in the city. 'it was no longer a question,' he exclaims exultingly, 'of sending for burgundy or laon wine.' three years later, when traversing the champagne, on his way to metz, he again halted at reims; and after hearing mass, 'retired to the archevêché, where the corps de la ville presented his majesty with the wines of the town, which he ordered to be taken to his apartments.'[ ] wine was also presented to the prince de soubise, governor of the champagne; the duke de villeroy, m. d'argenson, and the count de joyeuse; whilst, for the benefit of the populace, four fountains of the same fluid flowed at the corners of the place de l'hôtel de ville.[ ] in like manner, at the inauguration of that 'brazen lie,' the statue of this same louis xv., in , wine flowed in rivers from the different fountains of the city.[ ] the satyr-like sovereign of france was by no means the only monarch of his time who appreciated sparkling champagne. frederick the great has praised its consoling powers in the doggerel which voltaire was engaged to turn into poetry; and george ii. of england at st. james's, and stanislas leczinski of poland at nancy, both quaffed of the same vintage of ay despatched in from the cellars of bertin du rocheret. marshal saxe, during his sojourn in at brussels, where he held a quasi-royal court, of which mademoiselle de navarre was the bright particular star, drew an ample supply of champagne from the cellars of that lady's father, claude hevin de navarre of avenay, who had established himself as a wine merchant in the belgian capital.[ ] despite, too, the continued outcry of some connoisseurs,[ ] the _vin mousseux_ became the universal source of inspiration for the cabaret-haunting poets of that graceless witty epoch.[ ] voltaire, all unmoved by the excellent still champagne with which he and the duke de richelieu had been regaled at epernay by bertin du rocheret in may , persisted in singing the praises of the effervescing wine of ay, in the sparkling foam of which he professed to find the type of the french nation:[ ] 'chloris and eglé, with their snowy hands, pour out a wine of ay, whose prisoned foam, tightly compressed within its crystal home, drives out the cork; 'midst laughter's joyous sound it flies, against the ceiling to rebound. the sparkling foam of this refreshing wine the brilliant image of us french does shine.' the commander descartes seems not to have been afraid to extol the charms of the sparkling wine to the younger bertin du rocheret, as stern a decrier of its merits as his father had previously been. in a letter dated december , asking for 'one or two dozen bottles of sparkling white wine, neither _vert_ nor _liquoreux_, "i should like," he says, "some of that delectable white wine which foams and sparkles in the glass, and seldom mortal lips does pass; but cheers, at festivals divine, the gods to whom it owes its birth, or else the great, our gods on earth."'[ ] amongst other versifiers of this epoch enamoured with the merits of the wine may be cited charles lebatteux, professor of rhetoric at reims university, who in composed an ode, 'in civitatem remensam,' containing the following invocation to bacchus: ''tis not on the icy-topped mountains of thrace, or those of rhodope, thy favours i trace-- not there to invoke thee i'd roam. no! reims sees thee reign sovereign lord o'er her hills; there i offer my vows, and the nectar that thrills to my soul i will seek close at home. whether venus-like rising midst foam sparkling white, or wrapped in a mantle of rose rich and bright, thou seekest my senses to fire, come aid me to sing, for my muse is full fain to owe on this day each melodious strain to the fervour 'tis thine to inspire.'[ ] bertin du rocheret, who by no means shared his friend voltaire's admiration for the sparkling vintage of ay, sang the praises of the still wine of the champagne after the following fashion in : 'no, such blockheads do not sip of that most delicious wine; soul of love and fellowship, sweet as truly 'tis benign. no, their palate, spoilt and worn, craves adult'rate juice to drain; poison raw which we should scorn, beverage fit for frantic brain. let us, therefore, hold as fools such as now feign to despise those _balsamic molecules_ horace used to sing and prize. no, such blockheads do not sip of that most delicious wine; soul of joy and fellowship, sweet as truly 'tis benign. of that wine, so purely white, which the sternest mood makes pass, and which sparkles yet more bright in your eyes than in my glass. drink, then, drink; i pledge you, dear, in the nectar old we prize; sparkling in our glasses clear, but more brightly in your eyes.'[ ] [illustration] marmontel, the author of _bélisaire_ and editor of the _mercure de france_, found inspiration in his youthful days in the sparkling wine of champagne. he describes, in somewhat fatuous style, the results of an invitation he received from mademoiselle de navarre to pass some months with her in at avenay, where her father owned several vineyards, and where, she added, 'it will be very unfortunate if with me and some excellent vin de champagne you do not produce good verses.' he tells how, in stormy weather, she insisted, on account of her fear of lightning, on dining in the cellars, where, 'in the midst of fifty thousand bottles of champagne, it was difficult not to lose one's head;' and how he was accustomed to read to her the verses thus jointly inspired when seated together on a wooded hillock, rising amidst the vineyards of avenay.[ ] the foregoing in some degree recalls the circumstances under which gluck, whose fame began to be established about this epoch, was accustomed to seek his musical inspirations. the celebrated composer of _orpheus_ and _iphegenia in aulis_ was wont, when desirous of a visit from the 'divine afflatus,' to seat himself in the midst of a flowery meadow with a couple of bottles of champagne by his side. by the time these were emptied, the air he was in search of was discovered and written down. the lively and good-humoured abbé de l'attaignant, whose occupations as a canon of reims cathedral seem to have allowed him an infinite quantity of spare time to devote to versifying, addressed some rather indifferent rhymes to madame de blagny on the cork of a bottle of champagne exploding in her hand;[ ] and in some lines to madame de boulogne, on her pouring out champagne for him at table, he maintains that the nectar poured out by ganymede to jupiter at his repasts must yield to this vintage.[ ] that boon convivialist panard--who flourished at the same epoch, and was one of the chief songsters of the original caveau, and a man of whom it was said that, 'when set running, the tide of song flowed on till the cask was empty'--has not neglected sparkling champagne in his bacchanalian compositions. the 'la fontaine of vaudeville,' as marmontel dubbed him, does not hesitate to admit that he preferred the popping of champagne corks to the martial strains of drum and trumpet.[ ] the wine, moreover, furnishes him with frequent illustrations for his code of careless philosophy. 'doctor for vintner vials fills most carefully, with lymph of wells. champagne, that grew on nanterre's hills, vintner in turn to doctor sells. so still we find, as on we jog throughout the world, 'tis dog bite dog.'[ ] elsewhere panard gives expression to the bacchanalian sentiment, which he seems to have made his rule of life, in the following terms: 'let's quit this vain world, with its pleasures that cloy, a destiny tranquil and sweet to enjoy: descend to my cellar, and there taste the charms of champagne and beaune; our pleasure will there be without the alarms of any joy queller; for the _ennui_ that often mounts up to the throne will never descend to the cellar.'[ ] the poet appears to have rivalled one of the characters in his piece, _les festes sincères_ (represented on the th october on the occasion of the king's convalescence), who, after describing how wine was freely proffered to all comers, said that he had contented himself with thirty glasses, 'half burgundy and half champagne.' in a piece of verse entitled 'la charme du vaudeville à table,' panard sketches in glowing colours the inspiriting effect of sparkling champagne upon such a joyous company of periwigged beaux and patched and powdered beauties as we may imagine to be assembled at the hospitable board of some rich financier of the epoch. ''tis then some joyous guest a flask, filled with the best of reims or ay, securely sealed, holds up; he deftly cuts the string, aloft the cork takes wing; the rest with eager eyes thrust glasses t'wards the prize, and watch the nectar foaming o'er the cup. they sip, they drink, they laugh, and then anew they quaff their bumpers, crowned above the brim with foam that gives to laughter birth, and makes fresh bursts of mirth. its spirit and its fire unto the brain aspire, and rouse the wit of which this is the home.'[ ] [illustration] to its praise he also devotes a poetic _tour de force_, the concluding verses of which may thus be rendered: 'thanks to the bowl that cheers my soul, no care can make me shrink. the foam divine of this gray wine,[ ] i think, when it i drain, gives to each vein a link. source of pure joy, without alloy, come, dear one, fain i'd drink! divine champagne, all grief and pain in thee i gladly sink. all ills agree away from thee to slink. sweet to the nose as new-blown rose or pink. with gifts that ease and charms that please, come, dear one, fain i'd drink!'[ ] despite the success achieved by the _vin mousseux_, merchants, owing to the excessive breakage of the bottles--of the cause of which and of the means of stopping it they were equally ignorant--often saw their hopes of fortune fly away with the splintered fragments of the shattered glass.[ ] the following passages from the /ms./ notes of the founder of one of the first houses of reims, written in , would imply some knowledge of the fact that a _liquoreux_ wine was likely to lead to a destructive _casse_, and also that the importance of the trade in sparkling champagne was far greater during the first half of the eighteenth century than is usually supposed.[ ] the /ms./ in question says: 'in i bottled bottles of a very _liquoreux_ wine; i had only bottles of it left. in there was less _liqueur_; the breakage amounted to one-third of the whole. in it was more vinous and less _liquoreux_; the breakage was only a sixth. in it was more _rond_, and the breakage was only a tenth. in the wine of jacquelet was very _rond_; the breakage was only a twentieth.'[ ] the writer then proceeds to recommend, as a means of preventing breakage, that the wine should not be bottled till the _liqueur_ had almost disappeared, and that, if necessary, fermentation should be checked by well beating the wine. but as at that epoch there was really no means of effectually testing this disappearance, and as the beating theory was an utterly fallacious one, the followers of his precepts remained with the sad alternative of producing in too many instances either _mousses folles_ and their inevitable accompaniment of disastrous breakage, or wine so mature as to be incapable of continuing its fermentation in bottle, and producing _mousse_ at all.[ ] it is therefore evident that much of the sparkling wine drunk at the commencement of the last century was what we should call _crémant_, or, as it was then styled, _sablant_,[ ] as otherwise the breakage would have been something frightful. bertin du rocheret plainly indicates after a difference between the fiercely frothing kinds, to which the term _saute bouchon_ or pop-cork was applied, and wine that was merely _mousseux_.[ ] the price of the former is the highest, ranging up to livres sols, whilst that of the _bon mousseux_ does not exceed sols, the difference in the two being no doubt based to a certain extent on the loss by breakage.[ ] hence, too, a partiality for weak sour growths for making _vin mousseux_, as, although science could give no reason, experience showed that with these the breakage would be less than with those of a saccharine nature.[ ] thus bertin writes in that the vineyards of avize, planted for the most part in , and almost entirely with white grapes, only produced a thin wine, with a tartness that caused it to be one of the least esteemed in the district; but that 'since the mania for the _saute bouchon_, that abominable beverage, which has become yet more loathsome from an insupportable acidity,' the avize wines had increased in value eightfold.[ ] to this acidity the abbé bignon refers in a poem of , in which, protesting against the partiality for violently effervescing wines, he says: 'your palate is a cripple worn out by fiery tipple, or else it would prefer juice of grapes to fizzing verjuice.'[ ] this serves to explain the preference so long accorded by _gourmets_ to the finer _non mousseux_ wines, full of aroma and flavour, and often sugary and _liquoreux_, but looked upon by the general public up to the close of the eighteenth century as inferior to those which were sharp, strong, and even sourish, but which effervesced well.[ ] lingering relics of prejudice against sparkling wine existed as late as , when that conscientious observer, legrand d'aussy, remarked that since it had been known that sparkling wines were green wines bottled in spring, when the universal revolution of nature causes them to enter into fermentation, they had not been so much esteemed, the _gourmets_ of that day preferring those which did not sparkle.[ ] it was not till the close of the eighteenth century that any attempt was openly made to improve sparkling champagne by the addition of sugar.[ ] science then came forward to prove that such an addition was not contrary to the nature of wine, and that fermentation converted the saccharine particles of the must into alcohol, and increased the vinosity.[ ] several growers began to profit by this discovery of chaptal, though, as a rule, those who followed his recommendations in secret were loudest in asserting that providence alone had rendered their wine better than that of their neighbours.[ ] m. nicolas perrier of epernay, an ex-monk of prémontré, pointed out, at the beginning of the present century, that up to that period sugar was only regarded as a means of rendering the wine more pleasant to drink, and had always been added after fermentation, and as late as possible. this practice was favoured by the tyrannical routine reigning among the peasants of not tasting the wine till december or january, when in a decisive experience confirmed the value of the new discoveries. numerous demands for wine during the vintage led to anticipations of a brisk and speedy sale, and sugar was thereupon added at the time of the first fermentation, merely with the view, however, of bringing the wine more forward for the buyer to taste. the result went beyond the expectations entertained; and at ay wines of the second class, commonly called _vins de vignerons_, rose to a price previously unheard of.[ ] the present system of clearing the wine in bottles was not practised formerly. people were then not so particular about its perfect limpidity; besides which the wine consumed at the beginning of the year[ ] had not time to deposit, and that bottled as _mousseux_, owing to its being originally made from carefully-selected grapes, formed very little sediment in the flask.[ ] the method of _collage_ employed at the abbey of hautvillers is said to have preserved the wines from this evil. whether this method transpired, or other people discovered it, is unknown; but certainly bertin du rocheret transmitted it, or something very similar, in july to his correspondent in london, who bottled champagne wines regularly every year.[ ] the necessity of ridding the wine of the deposit which deprived it of its limpidity was, however, recognised later on. at first no other method suggested itself, excepting to _dépoter_ it--that is, to decant it into another bottle; a plan fraught, in the case of sparkling wines, with several disadvantages. at the commencement of the present century, however, the system of _dégorgeage_ was substituted.[ ] as at first practised, each bottle was held neck downwards, and either shaken or tapped at the bottom to detach the sediment, the operation being constantly repeated until the deposit had settled in the neck, when it was driven out by the force of the explosion which followed upon the removal of the cork. somewhat later the plan now followed of placing the bottles in sloping racks and turning them every day was adopted, to the great saving of time and labour. its discovery has been popularly attributed to madame clicquot; but the fact is the suggestion emanated from a person in her employ named müller. the idea is said to have simultaneously occurred to a workman in marizet's house of the name of thommassin. although the advent of such a delectable beverage as sparkling champagne proved of much benefit to the world in general, and the wine-merchants of reims and epernay in particular, those most immediately concerned in its production had little or no reason to rejoice over its renown. the hapless peasants, from whose patches of vineyard it was to a great extent derived, were the last to profit by its popularity. bidet, writing in , foreshadows the misery which marked the last thirty years of the _ancien régime_.[ ] speaking of the important trade in wine carried on by the city of reims, he urges that this would in reality be benefited by the old decrees, prohibiting the planting of new vineyards in the champagne, being enforced to the letter. extensive plantations of vines in land suitable for the growth of corn had doubled and even tripled the value of arable land, and caused a rise in the price of wheat. manure, so necessary to bring these new plantations into bearing, and wood, owing to the demand for vine-stakes, barrel-staves, &c., had risen to thrice their former value. recent epidemics had cost the lives of a large number of vine-dressers, and public _corvées_ occupied the survivors a great part of the year, and hence a considerable increase in the cost of cultivation, landowners having to pay high wages to labourers from a distance. 'putting together all these excessive charges, with the crushing dues levied in addition upon vine-land as well as upon the sale and transport of wine, the result will infallibly be that the more profitable the wine-trade formerly was to reims and to the vineyards of the environs, the more it will languish in the end, till it becomes a burden to all the vineyard owners.' happily these gloomy forebodings have since been completely falsified. [illustration: the arms of reims on the porte de paris.] reims accorded an enthusiastic welcome to the youthful and ill-fated marie antoinette, on her passage through the city on may , , shortly after her arrival in france;[ ] and five years subsequently the rémois were regaled with the splendours of a coronation, when the young king, louis xvi., and his radiant queen passed beneath the elaborately wrought escutcheon surmounting the porte de paris, expressly forged by a blacksmith of reims in honour of the occasion,[ ] and received from the hands of the lieutenant des habitans the three silver keys of the city.[ ] the king was crowned on the th june by the cardinal archbishop of reims, charles antoine de la roche aymon, a prelate who had previously baptised, confirmed, and married him, when the six lay peers were represented by monsieur (the count of provence), the count d'artois, the dukes of orleans, chartres, and bourbon, and the prince de condé. the royal train was borne by the prince de lambesq; the marshal de clermont tonnerre officiated as constable; and the sceptre, crown, and hand of justice were carried respectively by the marshals de contades, de broglie, and de nicolai.[ ] how the ill-fated king exclaimed, as the crown of charlemagne was placed upon his brow, 'it hurts me,' even as henri iii. had cried, under the same circumstances, 'it pricks me,' and how his natural benevolence led him to slur over that portion of the coronation oath in which he ought to have bound himself to exterminate all heretics, are matters of history. an innovation to be noted is, that at the banquet at the archiepiscopal palace, after the ceremony, the youthful sovereign did _not_ sit alone in solitary state beneath a canopy of purple velvet, ornamented with golden fleurs de lis, with his table encumbered by the great gold _nef_, the crown and the sceptres, the constable, sword in hand, close by him, and the grand echanson and ecuyer tranchant tasting his wine and cutting his food,[ ] circumstances under which 'the roast must be without savour and the ai without bouquet.'[ ] the king on this occasion admitted his brothers to his board; and the ecclesiastical peers, the lay peers, the ambassadors, and the great officers of the crown formed, as usual, four groups at the remaining tables, whilst the queen and her ladies witnessed the gustatory exploits from a gallery. [illustration: louis xvi. taking the coronation oath at reims (from a painting by moreau).] the frightful oppression of _tailles_, _aides_, _corvées_, _gabelles_, and other dues that crushed the hapless peasant in the pre-revolutionary era, weighed with especial severity upon the _vigneron_. in virtue of the _droit de gros_, the officers could at any hour make an inventory of his wine, decree how much he might consume himself, and tax him for the remainder.[ ] the _fermiers généraux_, who farmed the taxes of the province, became his sleeping partners, and had their share in his crop.[ ] in a vineyard at epernay, upon four pieces of wine, the average produce of an arpent, and valued at francs, the _ferme_ levied first francs, and then when the pieces were sold francs more.[ ] the ecclesiastical tithe was also a heavy burden, at hautvillers the eleventh of the wine being taken as _dismes_, at dizy the twelfth, and at pierry the twentieth.[ ] the result was one continuous struggle of trickery on the part of the grower, and cunning on that of the officers.[ ] the visits of the latter were paid almost daily, and their registers recorded every drop of wine in the cellars of the inhabitants.[ ] [illustration] but the wine had by no means acquitted all its dues. the merchant buying it had to pay another francs to the _ferme_ before despatching it to the consumer. when he did despatch it, the _ferme_ strictly prescribed the route it was to take, any deviation from this being punished by confiscation; and it had to pay at almost every step. transport by water was excessively onerous from constantly recurring tolls, and by land whole days were lost in undergoing examinations and verifications and making payments.[ ] the commissionnaire charged with the conveyance of bertin du rocheret's wine to calais from epernay had from to francs per poinçon. despite all these drawbacks, the export trade must have been considerable, for we are told that prior to the revolution the profits on supplying two or three abbeys of flanders were sufficient to enable a wine-merchant of reims to live in good style.[ ] on arriving at the town where it was to be drunk, the wine was subject to a fresh series of charges--_octroi_, _droit de détail_, _le billot_, _le cinquième en sus l'impôt_, _jaugeage_, _courtage_, _gourmettage_, &c.--frequently ranging up to or francs.[ ] all this really affected the grower; for if the retail consumer, inhibited by high prices, could not buy, the former was unable to sell. at this epoch vine-grower and pauper were synonymous terms.[ ] in certain districts of the champagne the inhabitants actually threw their wine into the river to avoid paying the duties, and the provincial assembly declared that 'in the greater part of the province the slightest increase in duty would cause all the husbandmen to abandon the soil.'[ ] it is scarcely to be wondered at that under such a system of excessive taxation the _fermiers généraux_, who all made good bargains with the state, should have amassed immense fortunes, whilst denying themselves no kind of luxury and enjoyment. they built themselves princely hotels, rivalled the nobility and even the court in the splendour of their entertainments, grasped at money for the sensual gratification it would purchase, and loved pleasure for its own sake, and women for their beauty and _complaisance_. the _fermiers généraux_ of the province of champagne had their bureaux, known as the hôtel des fermes, at reims, and, after the town-hall, this was the handsomest civil edifice in the city. erected in from designs by legendre, it occupies to-day the principal side of the place royale. on the pediment of the façade is a bas-relief of mercury, the god of commerce, in company with penelope and the youthful pan, surrounding whom are children engaged with the vintage and with bales of wool, typical of the staple trades of the capital of the champagne. [illustration: bas-relief on the ancient hÔtel des fermes at reims.] [illustration: l'accord fraternel (from a print published at the commencement of the revolution).] the revolutionary epoch presents a wide gap in the written history of sparkling champagne which no one seems to have taken the trouble of filling, though this hiatus can be to some extent bridged over by a glance at the caricatures of the period. it is evident from these that champagne continued to be the fashionable wine _par excellence_. we can comprehend it was _de rigueur_ to 'fouetter le champagne'[ ] at the epicurean repasts held at the _petits maisons_ of the rich _fermiers généraux_, and that the _talons rouges_ of the court of louis seize were not averse to the payment of livres sols for a bottle of this delightful beverage[ ] when regaling some fair _émule_ of sophie arnould or mademoiselle guimard in the _coulisses_. one evening mademoiselle laguerre appeared on the stage as iphigenia unmistakably intoxicated. 'ah,' interjected the lively sophie, 'this is not iphigenia in tauris, but iphigenia in champagne.' a proof of the aristocratic status of the wine is furnished by a print entitled _l'accord fraternel_, published at the very outset of the revolutionary movement, when it was fondly hoped that the three orders of the states general would unite in bringing about a harmonious solution to the evils by which france was sorely beset. in this the burly well-fed representative of the clergy holds out a bumper of burgundy; the peasant--not one of the lean scraggy labourers, with neither shirt nor sabots,[ ] prowling about half naked and hunger-stricken in quest of roots and nettle-tops, but a regular stage peasant in white stockings and pumps--grips a tumbler well filled with _vin du pays_; while the nobleman, elaborately arrayed in full military costume, with sword, cockade, and tie-wig all complete, delicately poises between his finger and thumb a tall _flute_ charged with sparkling champagne. moreover, we can plainly trace the exhilarating influence of the wine upon the 'feather-headed young ensigns' at the memorable banquet given to the officers of the régiment de flandre by the gardes du corps at versailles, on the d oct. .[ ] [illustration: mirabeau tonneau (from a sketch by camille desmoulins).] conspicuous amongst the titled topers of this period was the viscount de mirabeau--the younger brother of the celebrated orator and a fervent royalist--nicknamed mirabeau tonneau, or barrel mirabeau, 'on account of his rotundity, and the quantity of strong liquor he contains.'[ ] in a caricature dated 'an ^{er} de la liberté,' and ascribed to camille desmoulins,[ ] with whom the viscount long waged a paper war, his physical and bibacious attributes are very happily hit off. his body is a barrel; his arms, pitchers; his thighs, rundlets; and his legs inverted champagne flasks; whilst in his left hand he holds a foam-crowned _flute_, and in his right another of those flasks, two of which he was credited with emptying at each repast.[ ] [illustration: le nouveau pressoir du clergÉ, (from a caricature of the epoch).] we have seen that the origin of many of the most famous _crûs_ of france was due to monkish labours, and that at reims, as elsewhere, a large proportion of the ecclesiastical revenue was derived, either directly or indirectly, from the vineyards of the district. this was happily hit off in _le nouveau pressoir du clergé_, or _new wine-press for the clergy_, published in . a man of the people and a representative of the third estate, the latter in the famous slouched hat and short cloak, are working the levers of a press, under the influence of which a full-faced abbé is rapidly disgorging a shower of gold. a yet more portly ecclesiastic, worthy to be the archbishop of reims himself, is being led forward, in fear and trembling, to undergo a like operation; whilst in the background a couple of his compeers, reduced to the leanness of church-rats, are making off with gesticulations of despair. [illustration: henri quatre and louis seize. 'ventre st. gris! is this my grandson louis?' (facsimile of a woodcut of the time.)] the chief personal traits of louis seize, as depicted in numerous contemporary memoirs, seem to have been a passion for making locks and a gross and inordinate appetite. high feeding usually implies deep drinking, and one may suppose that a wine so highly esteemed at court as champagne was not neglected by the royal gourmand. still there seems to have been nothing in the unfortunate monarch's career to justify the cruel caricature wherein he is shown with the ears and hoofs of a swine wallowing in a wine-vat, with bottles, flasks, pitchers, cups, goblets, glasses, and _flûtes_ of every variety scattered around him; whilst henri quatre, who has just crossed the styx on a visit to earth, exclaims in amazement, 'ventre st. gris! is this my grandson louis?' in another caricature, entitled 'le gourmand,' and said to represent an incident in the flight of the royal family from paris, louis xvi. is shown seated at table--surrounded by stringed flasks of champagne, with the customary tall glasses--engaged in devouring a plump capon. his majesty is evidently annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of his repast, but it is difficult to divine who the intruder is intended for. he can scarcely be one of the commissioners despatched by the national assembly to secure the king's return to paris, as the german hussars drawn up in the doorway are inconsistent with this supposition. the female figure before the looking-glass is of course intended for marie antoinette, whilst the ungainly young cub in the background is meant for the dauphin in an evident tantrum with his nurse.[ ] as to the pamphleteers, who advocated the rights of man and aspersed marie antoinette; the poets, who addressed their countless airy trifles to phyllis and chloe; the penniless disciples of boucher and greuze; and the incipient demagogues, briefless advocates, unbeneficed abbés, discontented bourgeois, whose eloquence was to shatter the throne of the bourbons, they were fain for the time being to content themselves with the _petit bleu_ of argenteuil or suresnes, consumed in company with manon or margot, in one of the dingy smoky _cabarets_ which the _café_ was so soon in a great measure to replace. when, however, their day did come, we may be sure they denied themselves no luxury, and sparkling champagne would certainly have graced danton's luxurious repasts, and may possibly have played its part at the last repast of the condemned girondins. in ' , we find champagne of --the still wine, of course--announced for sale at lemoine's shop in the palais royal; while a delectable compound, styled _crême de fleur d'orange grillée au vin de champagne_, was obtainable at théron's in the rue st. martin.[ ] the sparkling wine can scarcely have failed to figure on the _carte_ of the sumptuous repasts furnished by the _restaurateurs_, méot and beauvillers, to the _de facto_ rulers of france,[ ] although in the price of wine generally in paris had increased tenfold.[ ] ex-_procureurs_ of the defunct parliament carefully hoarded all that remained of the champagne formerly lavished upon them by their ex-clients;[ ] whilst the latter had to content themselves with tea at london and beer at coblenz.[ ] [illustration] although details respecting the progress of the champagne wine-trade at home and abroad at the outset of the present century are somewhat scanty, we readily gather that the great popularity of the sparkling wine throughout europe dates from an event which, at the time of its occurrence, the short-sighted champenois looked upon as most disastrous. this was the allied invasion of - . consumption, so far as the foreign market was concerned, had been grievously interrupted by the great upset in all commercial matters consequent upon the wars of the revolution and the empire. it appears that the white wines of champagne were sent to paris, normandy, italy, and, 'when circumstances permitted of it,' to england, holland, sweden, denmark, russia, spain, portugal, and 'beyond the seas.' but the trade had suffered greatly during the wars with austria and russia in and ; and in the following years the consumption of white wine had fallen considerably, and a large number of wine-merchants had found themselves unable to meet their engagements.[ ] the wine which napoleon i. preferred is said to have been chambertin; still, his intimacy with the moëts of epernay could scarcely fail to have led to a supply of the best sparkling champagne from the cellars he had deigned to visit in person. his satraps, who travelled with the retinue of sovereign princes, included the wine in their equipment wherever they went, and the popping of its mimic artillery echoed in their tents the thunder of their victorious cannon. but comparatively few foreign guests met at their tables; and as their foes had on their side few victories to celebrate in a similar style, the knowledge of sparkling champagne outside france was confined to the comparatively small number of persons of wealth and position able to pay an extravagant price for it. at length the fatal year, , arrived, and the allies swarmed across the frontier after the 'nations' fight' at leipzig. the champagne lying directly on the way to paris saw some hard fighting and pitiless plundering. the prussians of baron von tromberg got most consumedly drunk at epernay. the cossacks ravaged rilly, taissy, and the other villages of the mountain; and not being able to carry off all the wine they found at sillery, 'added to their atrocities,' in the words of an anonymous local chronicler,[ ] by staving in the barrels and flooding the cellars. the russians, under the renegade st. priest, seized on reims, whetted their thirst with salt herrings till the retail price of these dainties rose from liards a pair to sous apiece, and then set to work to quench it with champagne to such an extent that when napoleon suddenly swooped down upon the city like his own emblematic eagle, a large number of them, especially among the officers, were neither in a condition to fight nor fly.[ ] the immense body of foreign troops who remained quartered in the east of france after the downfall of the empire continued to pay unabated devotion to the _dive bouteille_. tradition has especially distinguished the russians, and relates how the cossacks used to pour champagne into buckets, and share it with their horses. but the walking sand-beds of north germany, the swag-bellied warriors of baden and bavaria, and the stanch topers of saxony and swabia must of a surety have distinguished themselves. the votaries of gambrinus, the beer king, strove whether they could empty as many bottles of champagne at a sitting as they could flagons filled with the amber-hued beverage of their native province; while the inhabitants of those districts where the grape ripens sought to institute exhaustive comparisons between the vintages they gathered at home and the growths of the favoured region in which they now found themselves. [illustration: les russes À paris (from a coloured print of the time).] the berliner was fain to acknowledge the superiority of the foam engendered by champagne over that crowning his favourite _weissbier_, his own beloved _kuhle blonde_, and the beer-topers of munich and dresden to give the preference to the exhilaration produced by quaffing the wine of reims and epernay over that due to the consumption of _bockbier_. the nassauer and the rhinelander had to admit certain intrinsic merits in the vintages produced on the slopes of the marne, and found to be lacking in those grown on the banks of the rhine, the ahr, the main, and the moselle. the austrian recognised the superiority of the wines of the mountain over those of voslau or the luttenberg; and the magyar had to allow that the _crûs_ of the river possessed a special charm which nature had denied to his imperial tokay. even the red-coated officers who followed 'milord vilainton' to the great review at mont aimé, near epernay, proved faithless to that palladium of the british mess-table, their beloved 'black strop.' claret might in their eyes be only fit for boys and frenchmen, and port the sole drink for men; but they were forced to hail champagne as being, as old baudius had already phrased it, 'a wine for gods.' [illustration: le dÎner de milord gogo, (after a coloured print of the time).] the officers of the allied armies quartered in paris after the hundred days supplemented the charms of the palais royal--then in the very apogee of its vogue as the true centre of parisian life, with its cafés, restaurants, theatres, gambling-houses, and galeries de bois--with an abundance of sparkling champagne. royalty itself set the example by indicating a marked preference for the wine, louis dixhuit, according to a statement made by wellington to rogers, drinking nothing else at dinner. to celebrate the victories of leipsic and waterloo or a successful assault on the bank at frascati's, to console for the loss of a _grosse mise_ at no. or of a comrade transfixed beneath a lamp in the rue montpensier by a bonapartist sword-blade, to win the smiles of some fickle aspasia of the palais royal camp des tartares or to blot out the recollection of her infidelity, to wash down one of the homeric repasts in which the english prototypes of the 'fudge family abroad' indulged, the wine was indispensable; until, as a modern writer has put it, 'waterloo was avenged at last by the _gros bataillons_ of the bankers at _roulette_ and _trente et quarante_, and by the sale to the invaders of many thousand bottles of rubbishing champagne at twelve francs the flask.'[ ] the rancorous enmity prevailing between the officers of bonapartist proclivities placed on half-pay and the returned _émigrés_ who had accepted commissions from louis xviii., resulted, as is well known, in numerous hostile meetings. captain gronow has dwelt upon the bellicose exploits of a gigantic irish officer in the _gardes du corps_, named warren, who, when 'excited by champagne and brandy,'[ ] was prepared to defy an army; and he tells us that at tortoni's there was a room set apart for such quarrelsome gentlemen, where, after these meetings, they indulged in riotous champagne breakfasts.[ ] at home, the british government were being twitted on their parsimony in limiting the supply of champagne for the table of the exiled emperor at st. helena to a single bottle per diem, a circumstance which led sir walter scott to protest against the conduct of lord bathurst and sir hudson lowe in denying the captive 'even the solace of intoxication.' as is not unfrequently the case, out of evil came good. the assembled nations had drunk of a charmed fountain, and it had excited a thirst which could not be quenched. the russians had become acquainted with champagne, which talleyrand had styled '_le vin civilisateur par excellence_,' and to love this wine was with them a very decided step towards a liberal education. millions of bottles, specially fortified to the pitch of strength and sweetness suited for a hyperborean climate, were annually despatched to the great northern empire from the house of clicquot; and later on the travellers of rival firms, eager to secure a portion of this patronage, traversed the dominions of the autocrat throughout their length and breadth, and poured their wines in wanton profusion down the throats of one and all of those from whom there appeared a prospect of securing custom. [illustration] from this influx of sparkling wine into the frozen empire of the czar the acceptance of civilisation--of rather a superficial character, it is true--may be said to date. had peter the great only preferred champagne to corn-brandy, the country would have been europeanised long ago. as it is, the wine has to-day become a recognised necessity in higher class russian society, and scandal even asserts that whenever it is given at a dinner-party, the host is careful to throw the windows open, in order that the popping of the corks may announce the fact to his neighbours. abroad the russians are more reserved in their manners; and though ranking amongst the best customers of the parisian _restaurateurs_ for high-class wines, it is only now and then that some excited calmuck is to be seen flooding the glasses of his companions with champagne in a public dining-room. the russians, it should be noted, have sought, and not unsuccessfully, to produce sparkling wines of their own, more especially in the country of the don cossacks and near the axis. [illustration] béranger might exclaim, with a poet's license, that he preferred a turkish invasion to seeing the wines of the champagne profaned by the descendants of the alemanni;[ ] but the merchants of reims and epernay were of a different opinion. _les militaires_ have always affected champagne; and a military aristocracy like that of the fatherland, in the cruel days when peace forbade any more free quarters and requisitions, became as large purchasers of the wine as their somewhat scanty revenues allowed of. their example was followed to a considerable extent by the self-made members of that plutocratic class which modern speculation has caused to spring into life in germany. advantage was speedily taken of this taste by their own countrymen, who aimed at supplanting champagne by sparkling wines grown on native slopes. nay more, the germans, as a military nation, felt bound to carry the war into the enemy's territory, and hence it is that many important houses at reims and epernay are of german origin. across the rhine patriotism has had to yield to popularity, and the stanchest native topers have been forced to acknowledge, after due comparison in smoky _wein stuben_ and gloomy _keller_, that, though the sparkling wines of the rhine and the moselle are in their own way most excellent, there is but one _champagner-wein_, with reims for its mecca and epernay for its medina. [illustration] of england we shall elsewhere speak at length; but the speculative trade of her colonies, with its sharp bargains, dead smashes, and large profits could hardly be carried on without the wheels of the car of commerce and the tongues of her votaries being oiled with champagne. the swiss have only proved the truth of the proverb that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery by producing tolerable replicas of champagne at neufchâtel, vevay, and sion. northern, or, to speak by the map, scandinavian, europe takes its fair share of the genuine article; and although the economic belgian is apt to accept sparkling saumur and vouvray as a substitute, both he and his neighbour, the dutchman, can to the full appreciate the superiority of the produce of the marne over that of the loire. the italian and the spaniard may affect to outwardly despise a liquor which they profess not to be able to recognise as wine at all; but the former has to allow, _per bacco_, that it excels in its particular way his extolled lacryma christi, while the latter does not carry his proverbial sobriety so far as to exclude the wine from repasts in the upper circles of peninsular society. moreover, of recent years they have both commenced making sparkling wines of their own. the austrian also produces sparkling wines from native vintages, notably at voslau, graz, and marburg; still this has not in any way lessened his admiration for, or his consumption of, champagne. the greek is ready enough to 'dash down yon cup of samian wine,' provided there be a goblet of champagne close at hand to replace it with; and boyards and magnates of the debateable ground of eastern europe not only imbibe the sparkling wines of the marne ostentatiously and approvingly, but several of them have essayed the manufacture of _vin mousseux_ on their own estates. the east, the early home of the vine, and the first region to impart civilisation, is perhaps the last to receive its reflux in the shape of sparkling wine. but, the prohibition of the prophet notwithstanding, champagne is to be purchased on the banks of the golden horn, and has been imported extensively into egypt in company with _opéra-bouffe_, french _figurantes_, stock-jobbing, and sundry other matters of foreign extraction under the _régime_ of the late khedive. the land of iran has beheld with wonderment its sovereign freely quaffing the fizzing beverage of the franks in place of the wine of shiraz. the east indies consume champagne in abundance; for it figures not only on the proverbially hospitable tables of the merchants and officials of calcutta, bombay, and madras, but at the symposia of most of the rajahs, princes, nawabs, and other native rulers. the almond-eyed inhabitant of 'far cathay,' reluctant to abandon that strange civilisation so diametrically opposed in all its details to our own, continues to drink his native vintages, warm and out of porcelain cups, and to regard the sparkling drink of the fanquis as a veritable 'devils' elixir.' but his utterly differing neighbour, the japanese, so eager to welcome everything european, has gladly greeted the advent of champagne, and freely yielded to its fascination. turning to the undiscovered continent, we find sable sovereigns ruling at the mouths of the unexplored rivers of equatorial africa fully acquainted with champagne, though disposed, from the native coarseness of their taste, to rank it as inferior to rum; whilst the arab, filled with wonderment at the marvels of european civilisation which meet his eye at algiers, bears back with him to the _douar_, wrapped up in the folds of his burnous, a couple of bottles of the wondrous effervescing drink of the feringhees as a testimony, even as othere brought the walrus-tooth to alfred. one enthusiastic algerian colonist has gone so far as to prophesy the advent of the day when the products of the native vineyards shall eclipse champagne.[ ] let us hope, however, in the interest of algerian digestions, that this day is as yet far distant. [illustration] with respect to the consumption of champagne in the western world, the united states' exceeds that of any european country, england and france alone excepted, despite the competition of sparkling catawba and of a certain diabolical imitation, the raw material of which, it is asserted, is furnished not by the grapes of the carolinas, the peaches of new jersey, or the apples of vermont, but by the oil-wells of pennsylvania--in fact, petroleum champagne. the _cabinet particulier_ seems to be an institution as firmly established in the leading cities of the states as in paris; and rumour says that drinking from a champagne-glass touched by a fair one's lips has replaced the new england pastime of eating the same piece of maple-candy till mouths meet. as regards the south american republics, the popping of musketry at each fresh _pronunciamento_ is certain to be succeeded by that of champagne-corks in honour of the success of one or the other of the contending parties. in europe champagne has continued to be, from the days of paulmier and venner downwards, the drink of kings, princes, and great lords as they described it. take a list of the potentates of the present century, and the majority of them will be found to have evinced at some time or other a partiality for the wine. louis xviii. drank nothing else at table. the late ruler of prussia, frederick william iv., had such a penchant for champagne of a particular manufacture, that he obtained the cognomen of king clicquot. the predecessor of pio nono, gregory xvi., rivalled him in this appreciation, and, terrible to relate, so did the commander of the faithful, abdul medjid. the latter might, however, have pleaded the excuse put forward by abd-el-kader, that although the prophet had forbidden wine, yet champagne came into the category of aerated waters, concerning which he had said nothing, a remark justifying the title given to this wit-inspiring beverage of being 'the father of _bons mots_.' prince bismarck, in the stormy period of his youth, was in the barbarous habit of imbibing champagne mixed with porter; but at present he judiciously alternates it with old port. marshal macmahon and the king of the belgians are said to drink the pink variety of the _vin mousseux_ by preference. [illustration: 'sous la tonnelle' (from a print of the time of the restoration).] [illustration] [illustration] [illustration] [illustration: 'au beau sexe!'] naturally, in france as elsewhere, the sparkling vintage of the marne maintains its claims to be reckoned the wine of beauty and fashion, and more especially in beauty's gayer hours. a glass of champagne and a _biscuit de reims_ has been a refection which, though often verbally declined, was in the end pretty sure to be accepted from the days of the _merveilleuses_ and _incroyables_, through those of the _lionnes_, down to the present epoch of the _cocodettes de la haute gomme_. neither at ceremonial banquets nor at ordinary dinner-parties among our neighbours does champagne hold, however, so prominent a place as amongst ourselves, owing to the great variety of other wines--all capable of appreciation by trained palates--entering into the composition of these festive repasts. in fact, a _repas de noces_ is the only occasion on which champagne flows in france with anything like the freedom to which we are accustomed; and then it is that its exhilarating effect is marked, as some portly old boy rises with twinkling eye to propose the health of the bride, or of that _beau sexe_ to which he feels bound to profess himself deeply devoted. at such open-air gatherings as the races at longchamps and chantilly, the _buffet_ will be besieged by a succession of frail fair ones in the most elaborate _toilettes de courses_, seeking to nerve themselves to witness a coming struggle, or to console themselves for the defeat of the horse backed by their favoured admirer. and, when writing of this wine, it is altogether impossible to omit a reference to those _tête-à-tête_ repasts _en cabinet particulier_, of which it is the indispensable adjunct. its mollifying influence on the feminine heart on occasions such as these has been happily hit off by charles monselet in his _polichinelle au restaurant_: [illustration] '/polichinelle au restaurant./ i. in a cabinet of vachette, pomponnette listens to the pressing lover; who, before they've done their soup, cock-a-hoop, dares his passion to discover. ii. elbows resting on the cloth, partly wrath-- so much do his words astound-- resolute she to resist being kissed, draws her mantle closer round. iii. whilst in vain his cause he pressed, a third guest, who in ice-pail by them slumbered, rears above his wat'ry bed silver head and long neck with ice encumbered. iv. 'tis champagne, who murmurs low, "don't you know that when once you set me flowing, this fair rebel to love's dart in her heart soon will find soft passion glowing? v. this, if you will list to me, you shall see; cease to swear by flames and fire, cast aside each angry thought, as you ought, and at once cut through my wire, vi. for i am the king champagne, and i reign over e'en the sternest lasses, when midst maddening song and shout i gush out, flooding goblets, bumpers, glasses. vii. as thus spoke the generous wine, its benign influence her heart 'gan soften. who seeks such a cause to gain, to champagne his success finds owing often.'[ ] [illustration] vi. /champagne in england./ the strong and foaming wine of the champagne forbidden his troops by henry v.--the english carrying off wine when evacuating reims on the approach of jeanne darc--a legend of the siege of epernay--henry viii. and his vineyard at ay--louis xiv.'s present of champagne to charles ii.--the courtiers of the merry monarch retain the taste for french wine acquired in exile--st. evremond makes the champagne flute the glass of fashion--still champagne quaffed by the beaux of the mall and the rakes of the mulberry gardens--it inspires the poets and dramatists of the restoration--is drank by james ii. and william iii.--the advent of sparkling champagne in england--farquhar's _love and a bottle_--mockmode the country squire and the witty liquor--champagne the source of wit--port-wine and war combine against it, but it helps marlborough's downfall--coffin's poetical invitation to the english on the return of peace--a fraternity of chemical operators who draw champagne from an apple--the influence of champagne in the augustan age of english literature--extolled by gay and prior--shenstone's verses at an inn--renders vanbrugh's comedies lighter than his edifices--swift preaches temperance in champagne to bolingbroke--champagne the most fashionable wine of the eighteenth century--bertin du rocheret sends it in cask and bottle to the king's wine-merchant--champagne at vauxhall in horace walpole's day--old q. gets champagne from m. de puissieux--lady mary's champagne and chicken--champagne plays its part at masquerades and bacchanalian suppers--becomes the beverage of the ultra-fashionables above and below stairs--figures in the comedies of foote, garrick, coleman, and holcroft--champagne and real pain--sir edward barry's learned remarks on champagne--pitt and dundas drunk on jenkinson's champagne--fox and the champagne from brooks's--champagne smuggled from jersey--grown in england--experiences of a traveller in the champagne trade in england at the close of the century--sillery the favourite wine--nelson and the 'fair emma' under the influence of champagne--the prince regent's partiality for champagne punch--brummell's champagne blacking--the duke of clarence overcome by champagne--curran and canning on the wine--henderson's praise of sillery--tom moore's summer fête inspired by pink champagne--scott's muse dips her wing in champagne--byron's sparkling metaphors--a joint-stock poem in praise of pink champagne--the wheels of social life in england oiled by champagne--it flows at public banquets and inaugurations--plays its part in the city, on the turf, and in the theatrical world--imparts a charm to the dinners of belgravia and the suppers of bohemia--champagne the ladies' wine _par excellence_--its influence as a matrimonial agent--'o the wildfire wine of france!' [illustration] so great a favourite as champagne now is with all classes in england, the earliest notice of it in connection with our history nevertheless represents it in a somewhat inimical light. for, according to an italian writer of the fifteenth century, 'the strong and foaming wine of champagne was found so injurious that henry v. was obliged, after the battle of agincourt, to forbid its use in his army, excepting when tempered with water.'[ ] although this may be the earliest mention of the wine of the champagne by name in association with our own countrymen, opportunities had been previously afforded to them of becoming acquainted with its assumed objectionable qualities. the prelates who crossed 'the streak of silver sea' with thurstan of york to attend the ecclesiastical councils held at 'little rome,' as reims was styled in the twelfth century, and the knights and nobles who swelled the train of henry ii. when he did homage to philip augustus at the latter's coronation, may be regarded as exceptionally fortunate, or unfortunate, in this respect, since the bulk of the english wine-drinkers of that day had to content themselves with the annual shipments of anjou and poitevin wines from nantes and la rochelle.[ ] but the stout men-at-arms and death-dealing archers who followed the third edward to the gates of reims in the days when ''twas merry, 'twas merry in france to go, a yeoman stout with a bended bow, to venge the king on his mortal foe, and to quaff the gascon wine,' no doubt found consolation for some of the hardships they endured during their wet and weary watches in the bitter winter of in the familiarity they acquired with the vintages of the mountain and the marne. [illustration] and, their sovereign's prohibition notwithstanding, there is every reason to believe that the heroes of agincourt drank pottle-deep of the forbidden beverage. the grim earl of salisbury bore no love to the burghers of reims;[ ] but there is little likelihood that his aversion extended to the wine of the province he ruled as governor, and the garrisons of its various strongholds over which the red cross of st. george triumphantly floated revelled on the best of 'the white wyne and the rede.' in the days of hot fighting and keen foraging which marked the close of bedford's regency, there is ample evidence to show that our countrymen had acquired and retained a very decided taste for these growths. when charles vii. entered reims in triumph, with jeanne darc by his side and the chivalry of france around him, the retreating english garrison bore forth with them on the opposite side of the city a string of wains piled high with casks of wine, the pillage of the burghers' cellars.[ ] tradition tells, too, how the english, besieged in the town of epernay, had gathered there great store of wine, and how this suggested to their captain a cunning stratagem. having caused a number of wagons to be laden with casks of wine, he despatched them with a feeble escort through the gate furthest from the beleaguering forces, as though destined to chalons as a place of safety. the french commander marked this, and as soon as the convoy was well clear of the walls, a body of horse came spurring after it in hot haste. the wagon-train halted; there was a brief attempt to turn the laden vehicles homewards, and then, seeing the hopelessness of this, the escort galloped back into the town, and down swooped the frenchmen on their prize. the ride had been sharp; the day was hot, and the road dusty. so a score of the captured casks were quickly broached; and as the generous fluid flowed freely down the throats of the captors, it soon began to produce an effect. some of them, overcome by the heat and the wine, loosened their armour, and stretched themselves at length on the ground; whilst others, grouped around some fast emptying barrel, continued to quaff from their helmets and other improvised drinking vessels confusion to the 'island bull-dogs.' when lo, the gate of the town flew open; an english trumpet rang out its note of defiance; and, with lances levelled, the flower of the garrison poured forth like a living avalanche upon the startled frenchmen. before they could make ready to fight or fly, the foe was upon them, and their blood was soon mingling on the dusty highway with the pools of wine which had gushed forth from the abandoned casks. hardly one escaped the slaughter; but local tradition chuckles grimly as it notes that in revenge thereof every man of the garrison was put to the edge of the sword on the subsequent capture of the town by the french.[ ] [illustration] at the close of the fruitless struggle against the growing power of charles the victorious, we were fain to fall back, as of old, upon the strong wines of south-western france, the vintages of bergerac, gaillac, and rabestens, shipped to us from the banks of the garonne,[ ] and the luscious malmseys of the archipelago, to which were subsequently added the growths of southern spain. the taste of the wine of the champagne must have been almost forgotten amongst us when the growing fame of the vineyards of ay attracted the notice of bluff king hal. most likely he and francis i. swore eternal good fellowship at the field of the cloth of gold over a beaker of this regal liquor. once alive to its merits, the king, whose ambassadors, _pace_ john styles, seem to have had standing orders to keep an equally sharp look out for wines or wives likely to suit the royal fancy, neglected no opportunity of securing it in perfection. like his contemporaries, charles v., francis i., and leo x., he stationed a commissioner at ay intrusted with the onerous duty of selecting a certain number of casks of the best growths, and despatching them, carefully sealed, to the cellars of whitehall, greenwich, and richmond. the example set by the monarch was, however, too costly a one to be followed by his subjects, and the very name of champagne probably remained unknown to them for years to come. the poets and dramatists of the elizabethan era, who have left us so accurate a picture of the manners of their day, and make such frequent allusions to the wines in vogue, do not even mention champagne; gervase markham preserves a like silence in his _modern housewife_,[ ] while the passages in surflet's _maison rustique_ extolling the wine of ay are merely translations from the original french edition.[ ] and though venner speaks of these wines as excelling all others, he is careful to attribute their consumption to the king and the nobles of france.[ ] the captive queen of scots, whose consumption of wine elicited dire lament from one of her lordly jailers,[ ] may have missed at fotheringay the vintage she had tasted in early life when enjoying the hospitality of her uncle, cardinal charles of lorraine, at reims; but to the half-hearted pedant, her son, the name of epernay recalled no convivial associations--it was merely the title of a part of his slaughtered mother's appanage. spanish influence and spanish wine ruled supreme at his court; and though rhenish crowned the goblets of many of the high-souled cavaliers who rallied round king charles and henrietta maria, the bulk of the english nation remained faithful, till the close of the commonwealth, to their old favourites of the south of spain and the fragrant produce of the canaries. [illustration] all this was altered when 'the king enjoyed his own again;' for the restoration made champagne--that is, the still red wine of the province--the most fashionable, if not the most popular, wine in england. at the court of louis xiv. the future merry monarch and his faithful followers had acquired a taste for the wines of france, and they brought back this taste,[ ] together with sundry others of a far more reprehensible character, with them to england. one of the first and most acceptable gifts of louis to his brother-sovereign on the latter's recall was 'two hundred hogsheads of excellent wine--champagne, burgundy, and hermitage.'[ ] returning home more french than the french themselves, the late exiles ruminated on the flesh-pots of egypt, and sighed; and we can readily picture a gallant who had seen hot service under condé or turenne exclaiming to his friend and fellow-soldier: 'ah, courtine, must we be always idle? must we never see our glorious days again? when shall we be rolling in the lands of milk and honey, encamped in large luxuriant vineyards, where the loaded vines cluster about our tents, drink the rich juice just pressed from the plump grape?'[ ] and that friend replying: 'ah, beaugard, those days have been; but now we must resolve to content ourselves at an humble rate. methinks it is not unpleasant to consider how i have seen thee in a large pavilion drowning the heat of the day in champagne wines--sparkling sweet as those charming beauties whose dear remembrance every glass recorded--with half a dozen honest fellows more.'[ ] demand created supply, until, in , a few years after the restoration, france furnished two-fifths of the amount of wine consumed in the kingdom;[ ] and the taste of the royal sybarite for the light-coloured wines of the marne seems to be hinted at in malagene's exclamation: 'i have discovered a treasure of pale wine.... i assure you 'tis the same the king drinks of.'[ ] st. evremond, who, though not precisely cast by nature from 'the mould of form,' fulfilled for many years the duties of arbiter elegantiarum at charles's graceless court, decidedly did his best to render the champagne _flûte_ 'the glass of fashion.' ever ready to speak in praise of the wines of ay, avenay, and reims,[ ] the mentor of the count de grammont strove by example as well as by precept to win converts to his creed. in verse he declares that the beauties of the country fail to console him for the absence of champagne; regrets that the season of the wines of the marne is over, and that the yield of those of the mountain had failed; and shudders at the prospect of being obliged to have recourse to the loire, to bordeaux, or to cahors for the wine he will have to drink.[ ] [illustration] the lively frenchman found plenty of native writers to reëcho him. champagne sparkles in all the plays of the restoration, and seems the fitting inspiration of their matchless briskness of dialogue. the millamours and bellairs, the carelesses and rangers, the sir joskin jolleys and sir fopling flutters, the _beaux_ of the mall and the rakes of the mulberry and new spring gardens, the gay frequenters of the folly on the thames and the _habitués_ of pontack's ordinary, whom the contemporary dramatists transferred bodily to the stage of the king's or the duke's, are constantly tossing off bumpers of it. their lives would seem to have been one continuous round of love-making and champagne-drinking, to judge from the following 'catch,' sung by four merry gentlemen at a period when, according to redding, ten thousand tuns of french wine were annually pouring into england: 'the pleasures of love and the joys of good wine, to perfect our happiness, wisely we join; we to beauty all day give the sovereign sway, and her favourite nymphs devoutly obey. at the plays we are constantly making our court, and when they are ended we follow the sport to the mall and the park, where we love till 'tis dark; then sparkling champaign[ ] puts an end to their reign; it quickly recovers poor languishing lovers; makes us frolic and gay, and drowns all our sorrow; but, alas, we relapse again on the morrow.'[ ] [illustration] we learn, indeed, that under the influence of 'powerful champaign, as they call it, a spark can no more refrain running into love than a drunken country vicar can avoid disputing of religion when his patron's ale grows stronger than his reason.'[ ] probably it was owing to this quality of inspiring a tendency to amativeness that ladies were sometimes expected to join in such potations. 'she's no mistress of mine that drinks not her wine, or frowns at my friends' drinking motions; if my heart thou wouldst gain, drink thy flask of champaign; 'twill serve thee for paint and love-potions,'[ ] is the sentiment enunciated in chorus by four half-fuddled topers in the new spring gardens. at the mulberry gardens we find that 'jack wildish sent for a dozen more champaign, and a brace of such girls as we should have made honourable love to in any other place.'[ ] with such manners and customs can we wonder at one gentleman complaining how another 'came where i was last night roaring drunk; swore--d--him!--he had been with my lord such-a-one, and had swallowed three quarts of champaign for his share;'[ ] or have any call to feel surprised that such boon companions should 'come, as the sparks do, to a playhouse too full of champaign, venting very much noise and very little wit'?[ ] champagne remains ignored in such books as the _mystery of vintners_;[ ] but although technical works may be silent, the poets vie with the dramatists in extolling its exhilarating effects--effects surely perceptible in the witty, careless, graceful verse with which the epoch abounds. john oldham--who, after passing his early years as a schoolmaster, was lured into becoming, in the words of his biographer, 'at once a votary of bacchus and venus' by the patronage of rochester, dorset, and sedley in , and who realised the fable of the pot of brass and the pot of earthenware by dying from the effects of the company he kept two years later--has given a list of the wines in vogue in his day: 'let wealthy merchants, when they dine, run o'er their witty names of wine: their chests of florence and their mont alchine, their mants, champaigns, chablees, frontiniacks tell; their aums of hock, of backrag [bacharach] and mosell.'[ ] he gives the wines of our 'sweet enemy' a high position, too, in his _dithyrambick, spoken by a drunkard_, who is made to exclaim, 'were france the next, this round bordeau shall swallow, champaign, langou [l'anjou], and burgundy shall follow.'[ ] butler makes the hero of his immortal satire prepared to follow the old roman fashion with regard to his lady's name, and to 'drink ev'ry letter on't in stum, and make it brisk champaign become;'[ ] and speaks of routed forces having 'recovered many a desperate campaign with bordeaux, burgundy, and champaign.'[ ] and sir charles sedley, in an apologue written towards the close of the century, tells how a doctor of his day was sorely troubled by the unreasonable lives led by his patients, until 'one day he called 'em all together, and, one by one, he asked 'em whether it were not better by good diet to keep the blood and humours quiet, with toast and ale to cool their brains than nightly fire 'em with champains.'[ ] in the peculiar ideas of political economy then prevailing led to a formal prohibition of the importation of french wines, and the consequent substitution in their place of those of portugal. one can imagine the consternation of the 'beaux' and 'sparks' at this fatal decree, and the satisfaction of the few vintners whose cellars chanced to be well stored with the forbidden vintages of france--with 'the claret smooth, red as the lips we press in sparkling fancy while we drain the bowl; the mellow-tasted burgundy, and, quick as is the wit it gives, the gay champagne.'[ ] but, port wine and prohibitions notwithstanding, men of fashion of that epoch were not entirely obliged to abandon their favourite potations, since five thousand hogsheads of french wine were surreptitiously landed on the south-west coast of england in a single year.[ ] fortunately, too, for them, the government came to the conclusion that it was for the time being futile to fight against popular tastes, and in the obnoxious prohibition was removed, with the result that, two years later, the imports of french wine were registered as fifteen thousand tuns--that is, sixty thousand hogsheads.[ ] [illustration] on the outbreak of hostilities with france in , the import of french wines received a serious check, and as they vanished from the revenue returns, so champagne began to disappear from the social board and the literature of the day. strange to say, however, it was not only the favourite wine of william iii., but of his dethroned father-in-law, james ii. the red wines of the province of champagne had always found a ready sale in flanders and the low countries,[ ] and quickened the minds of the stout seamen who fought against blake and rupert. the variety produced from the beaune grape at vertus was the one patronised by macaulay's pet hero, the hook-nosed dutchman,[ ] whilst the exile of st. germain seems to have been more catholic in his tastes.[ ] eagerly must the _gourmets_ of the day, when, 'if we did not love the french, we coveted their wines,'[ ] have hailed the return of a peace which permitted them not only to indulge in their old favourites, but to welcome a new attraction in the shape of sparkling champagne. the term 'sparkling' as applied to wine did not at the outset necessarily mean effervescing, as in one of farquhar's comedies we find roebuck comparing himself to 'a bumper of claret, smiling and sparkling.'[ ] towards the close of the century, however, we meet with sure proof of the advent of the delectable beverage with which the worthy cellarer of hautvillers was the first to endow droughty humanity. the contemporary dramatists were ever on the alert to shoot folly as she flew. the stage was really the mirror of that time, and those who wrote for it seized on every passing whim, fashion, or fancy of the day. the introduction of a new wine was certainly not to be missed by them, and the recently discovered _vin mousseux_ of dom perignon is plainly referred to in farquhar's aptly-named comedy, _love and a bottle_, produced in , just after the peace of ryswick had allowed the reopening of trade with france. the second scene of act ii. represents the lodgings of mockmode, the country squire, who aims at being 'a beau,' and who is discovered in close confabulation with his landlady, the widow bullfinch: '_mock._ but what's most modish for beverage now? for i suppose the fashion of that always alters with the clothes. _w. bull._ the tailors are the best judges of that; but champaign, i suppose. _mock._ is champaign a tailor? methinks it were a fitter name for a wig-maker. i think they call my wig a campaign. _w. bull._ you're clear out, sir--clear out. champaign is a fine liquor, which all great beaux drink to make 'em witty. _mock._ witty! o, by the universe, i must be witty! i'll drink nothing else; i never was witty in my life. here, club, bring us a bottle of what d'ye call it--the witty liquor.' the widow having retired, club, mockmode's servant, reënters with a bottle and glasses. '_mock._ is that the witty liquor? come, fill the glasses.... but where's the wit now, club? have you found it? _club._ egad, master, i think 'tis a very good jest. _mock._ what? _club._ why, drinking. you'll find, master, that this same gentleman in the straw doublet, this same will o' the wisp, is a wit at the bottom. here, here, master, how it puns and quibbles in the glass![ ] _mock._ by the universe, now i have it; the wit lies in the jingling! all wit consists most in jingling. hear how the glasses rhyme to one another.... i fancy this same wine is all sold at will's coffee-house.' here we have a palpable hit at the source of inspiration indulged in by many of the wits and rhymesters who gathered round 'glorious john dryden' within the hallowed walls of that famous rendezvous. and likely enough, when they 'were all at supper, all in good humour, champaign was the word, and wit flew about the room like a pack of losing cards.'[ ] farquhar seems, above all others, to have hailed the new wine with pleasure. we all remember the 'red burgundy' which saves mirabel from his perilous position in the cut-throats' den; but the flighty hero of the _inconstant_ is equally enthusiastic over sparkling wine when he exclaims: 'give me the plump venetian, brisk and sanguine, that smiles upon me like the glowing sun, and meets my lips like sparkling wine, her person shining as the glass, and spirit like the foaming liquor.'[ ] the benignant influence of the beverage is, moreover, referred to by farquhar in his epilogue to the _constant couple_, where, in alluding to the critics, it is said that 'to coffee some retreat to save their pockets, others, more generous, damn the play at locket's; but there, i hope, the author's fears are vain, malice ne'er spoke in generous champain.'[ ] further, he makes benjamin wouldbe exclaim: 'show me that proud stoick that can bear success and champain; philosophy can support us in hard fortune, but who can have patience in prosperity?'[ ] farquhar shows his usual keen observation of the minutest features of the life of his day in his allusion to the flask--the pear-shaped _flacon_ in which champagne made its _entrée_ into fashionable life.[ ] archer, in his ditty on 'trifles,' thus warbles: 'a flask of champaign, people think it a trifle, or something as bad; but if you'll contrive how to drink it, you'll find it no trifle, egad!'[ ] congreve, in evident reference to the still wine, thus writes to mr. porter, husband of the celebrated actress, from calais, august , : 'here is admirable champaign for twelvepence a quart, as good burgundy for fifteenpence; and yet i have virtue enough to resolve to leave this place to-morrow for st. omers, where the same wine is half as dear again, and may be not quite so good.'[ ] champagne suffered like other french wines from the war of succession and the methuen treaty, by which the government strove to pour port wine down the throats of the people. the poets and satirists, supported by dean aldrich, 'the apostle of bacchus;' the miserly dr. ratcliffe, who ascribed all diseases to the lack of french wines, and imputed the badness of the vintages he was wont to place upon his table to the difficulty he experienced in obtaining them; the jovial portman seymour; the rich 'smell-feast' pereira and general churchill, marlborough's brother, together with a host of 'bottle companions,' lawyers, and physicians, united to fight against this attempt.[ ] they would drink their old favourites, in spite of treaties, and would praise them as they deserved; and means were found to gratify their wishes. according to official returns, the nominal importation of french wines fell in to a trifle over two thousand tons; and though this quantity was only once exceeded up to , the influence of a steady demand, a short sea-passage, an extensive coast-line, and a ridiculously inefficient preventive service in aid of the high duty need to be taken into consideration. the contraband traders of the beginning of the century smuggled french wine into england, just as they continued to do at a later period into scotland and ireland, when the taste for ardent spirits which sprang up in the georgian era rendered the surreptitious import of 'nantz' and 'geneva' the more profitable transaction as regarded england. farquhar throws light on one method pursued when colonel standard hands alderman smuggler his pocket-book, which he had dropped, with the remark: 'it contains an account of some secret practices in your merchandising, amongst the rest, the counterpart of an agreement with a correspondent at bordeaux about transporting french wine in spanish casks.'[ ] that the champenois were themselves aware of the appreciation in which their wine was held in england is shown by a passage in coffin's _campania vindicata_. writing in , the year before the ratification of the treaty of utrecht, he calls on the britons in presence of returning peace to cross the seas, and instead of lavishing their wealth to pleasure blood-stained mars, to fill their ships with the treasures of the remois bacchus, and bear home these precious spoils instead of fatal trophies.[ ] addison, referring to one source whence french wines were derived, remarks: 'there is in this city a certain fraternity of chymical operators who work underground, in holes, caverns, and dark retirements, to conceal their mysteries from the eyes and observation of mankind. these subterraneous philosophers are daily employed in the transmigration of liquors, and, by the power of magical drugs and incantations, raise under the streets of _london_ the choicest products of the hills and valleys of _france_. they can squeeze _bourdeaux_ out of a _sloe_, and draw _champagne_ from an _apple_.'[ ] he tells us that 'the person who appeared against them was a merchant, who had by him a great magazine of wines, that he had laid in before the war: but these gentlemen (as he said) had so vitiated the nation's palate, that no man could believe his to be _french_, because it did not taste like what they sold for such.' for the defence it was urged that 'they were under a necessity of making claret if they would keep open their doors, it being the nature of mankind to love everything that is prohibited.'[ ] the enquiry, 'and where would your beaux have champaign to toast their mistresses were it not for the merchant?'[ ] is from a panegyrist of the more legitimate school of trade. altogether it is tolerably certain that champagne--genuine or fictitious, from grape or gooseberry--played a more important part in the conviviality of the early portion of the eighteenth century than might be supposed from the imports of the epoch, whilst there is little doubt but that it helped to inspire some of the finest productions of the augustan age of english literature. gay places it first amongst the wines offered to a party of guests entering a tavern, making the drawer exclaim: 'name, sirs, the wine that most invites your taste, champaign or burgundy, or florence pure, or hock antique, or lisbon new or old, bourdeaux, or neat french wine, or alicant.'[ ] this reference to champagne most likely relates to the still wine; but it is probably the sparkling variety which is alluded to in the verses which gay addressed to pope on the completion of the _iliad_ in , and wherein he represents general wilkinson thus apostrophising as the ship conveying the poet passes greenwich: 'come in, my friends, here shall ye dine and lie; and here shall breakfast and shall dine again, and sup and breakfast on (if ye comply), for i have still some dozens of champaign.'[ ] witty mat prior, poet and diplomatist, was always ready to manifest his contempt for the heavy fluid with which the methuen treaty deluged our island in place of the light fresh-tasting wines of france that had cheered and inspired his earlier sallies. writing whilst in custody on a charge of treason between and , and referring to the mind under the name of alma, he tells us how 'by nerves about our palate placed, she likewise judges of the taste, else (dismal thought!) our warlike men might drink thick port for fine champagne.'[ ] he likewise inculcates a lesson of philosophy, especially suited to his own situation at that moment, when he remarks of fortune: 'i know we must both fortunes try, and bear our evils, wet or dry. yet, let the goddess smile or frown, bread we shall eat, or white or brown; and in a cottage or a court drink fine champagne or muddled port.'[ ] there were many, no doubt, ready to emulate the hero of one of his minor pieces, and 'from this world to retreat as full of champagne as an egg's full of meat.'[ ] shenstone gives expression to much the same sentiment as prior when he found 'his warmest welcome at an inn,' and wrote on the window-pane at henley: ''tis here with boundless power i reign, and every health which i begin converts dull port to bright champagne; such freedom crowns it at an inn.'[ ] [illustration] vanbrugh, whose writings were of a decidedly lighter character than the edifices he erected, probably had recourse to champagne to assist him in the composition of the former, and neglected it when planning the designs for the latter. these, indeed, would seem to have been conceived under the influence of some such 'heavy muddy stuff' as the 'norfolk nog,' which lady headpiece reproaches her husband for allowing their son and heir to indulge in, saying: 'well, i wonder, sir francis, you will encourage that lad to swill such beastly lubberly liquor. if it were burgundy or champaign, something might be said for't; they'd perhaps give him some art and spirit.'[ ] swift has given in his _journal to stella_ extensive information as to the wines in vogue in london in - . he seems for his own part to have been, as far as nature permitted him, an accommodating toper, indulging, in addition to champagne, in tokay, portugal, florence, burgundy, hermitage, 'irish wine,' _i.e._ claret, 'right french wine,' congreve's 'nasty white wine' that gave him the heartburn, and sir william read's 'admirable punch.' he acknowledges that the more fashionable beverages of the day were not to his taste. 'i love,' writes he, 'white portugal wine better than claret, champaign, or burgundy. i have a sad vulgar appetite.'[ ] still, while observing due moderation, he did not entirely shun the lighter potations with which the table of the luxurious and licentious st. john was so freely supplied. on one occasion he writes: 'i dined to-day by appointment with lord bolingbroke; but they fell to drinking so many spanish healths in champaign, that i stole away to the ladies and drank tea till eight.'[ ] and on another we find him refusing to allow his host to 'drink one drop of champaign or burgundy without water.'[ ] our countrymen do not appear to have taken heed of the controversy regarding the respective merits of champagne and burgundy, but thankfully accepted the goods that the gods and the sunny soil of france provided them. the accusation, however, banded about by the partisans of these rival vintages, of their tendency to produce gout, had apparently been accepted as gospel truth over here in the first decade of the century. thus the dean notes that he 'dined with mr. secretary st. john, and staid till seven, but would not drink his champaign and burgundy, for fear of the gout.'[ ] when suffering from a rheumatic pain he displays commendable caution at dinner with mr. domville, only drinking 'three or four glasses of champaign by perfect teasing,'[ ] for fear of aggravating his suffering. he is prompt, however, to acknowledge himself mistaken: 'i find myself disordered with a pain all round the small of my back, which i imputed to champaign i had drunk, but find it to have been only my new cold.'[ ] the dean does not appear to have been the only sufferer, for we find him writing: 'i called this evening to see mr. secretary, who had been very ill with the gravel and pains in his back, by burgundy and champaign, added to the sitting up all night at business; i found him drinking tea, while the rest were at champaign, and was very glad of it.'[ ] even pope, the perforcedly abstemious, was lured into similar excesses by the young earl of warwick and colley cibber, during his visits to london, whilst engaged on his translation of the _iliad_, and writes to congreve, 'i sit up till two o'clock over burgundy and champagne.'[ ] a proof of the popularity of french wines at this period is found in the fact that in , the year of the peace of utrecht, the registered imports, despite high duties, reached tuns, an amount not exceeded till . the treaty of commerce, with which bolingbroke (whose partiality to champagne we have seen) and m. de torcy sought to supplement that of peace, having fallen through, the tavern-keepers put such a price on these wines that it was only members of the fashionable world who could afford to have what was termed 'a good champagne stomach.'[ ] their vogue is confirmed by the order given to her servant by a lady aspiring to take a leading position in the _beau monde_ to 'go to mr. mixture, the wine-merchant, and order him to send in twelve dozen of his best champaign, twelve dozen of burgundy, and twelve dozen of hermitage,'[ ] as the entire stock for her cellar. 'good wine' was indeed, in those days, 'a gentleman.' [illustration: 'good wine a gentleman.'] the unvarying rule that the fashions set by the most select are inevitably aped by the most degraded, so far as lies in their power, is exemplified in the tavern scene of hogarth's _rake's progress_, where the table at which the hero and his _inamoratas_ are seated is set out with the tall wine-glasses wherein 'champaign goes briskly round.'[ ] [illustration: tavern scene from 'the rake's progress.'] the jacobites, faithful to their traditional ally, continued to toast 'the king over the water' by passing glasses charged with the sparkling wine of france across a bowl filled to the brim with the pure element. the middle classes clung to their beer, or at most indulged in port and punch; whilst the lower orders seem to have become seized with that insane passion for ardent spirits which hogarth satirised in his 'gin lane,' and hailed with glee sir robert walpole's 'attempt, superior to canary or champagne, geneva salutiferous to enhance.'[ ] [illustration: 'the king over the water.'] [illustration] the registered imports of the wines of france--though figures in this respect are, we admit, exceedingly deceptive--show a continuous falling off, which reached its lowest ebb in , during war time; and we may be certain that when, after supper, 'champagne was the word for two whole hours by shrewsbury clock,'[ ] it was at the cost of a pretty penny. although the recorded imports of french wines show but little improvement with the return of peace in , we gather from other sources that the champagne of met with a ready market over here, and find bertin du rocheret writing exultingly to his friend, the marquis de calvières, that the champenois were making the english pay the cost of the war. the voluminous correspondence of bertin du rocheret gives some curious information as to the manner in which the champagne trade was carried on with england during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. from to he was in constant communication with mr. james chabane, who seems to have been the court wine-merchant, and to whom he despatched at first ten, but during the latter portion of their transactions seldom more than four, pièces of wine annually during the winter months.[ ] as regards the particular vintage consumed in england, a preference evidently existed for that of ay, though it really appears as if bertin was wont to introduce under this name the then far cheaper growths of avize. such, at any rate, seems to have been the case with the parcel of wine divided, in , between king george in london and king stanislas at nancy. referring to the wines of hautvillers and sillery, bertin writes to chabane in , that a year's notice must be given in advance to obtain them. a _liquoreux_ wine was then preferred, as in he remarks, respecting the yield of the preceding year, that the english are as mad after _liqueur_ as the french; and it is evident that the taste continued, as in he announces the departure for london of eleven poinçons _liquoreux_. not only was chabane accustomed to bottle these wines, but while doing so was able to insure to them a semi-sparkling character. with this view bertin tells him, in , that he must not keep them in cask after the three _sèves_, or motions of the sap of april, june, or august, except in the case of a pièce from 'the _clos_' reserved 'for the supply of the court,' and intended to be drunk as still wine. some wine despatched in is recommended to be bottled during the first quarter of the moon.[ ] in addition to the wine thus sent in casks, bertin was also accustomed to send his correspondent a certain quantity in bottles. in he quotes for him 'flacons blancs mousseux liqueur,' at from to sols, and 'ambrés non-mousseux sablant,' at sols. these flasks were all despatched to dunkirk or into holland, whence they were smuggled to their ultimate destination, for the introduction of wine in bottles into england was rigidly prohibited until the close of , when it was legalised by act of parliament.[ ] horace walpole, who deals with men rather than manners, with sayings rather than doings, and whose forte is epigram and not description, has little to tell us about the drinking customs of his day. the strictly temperate regimen that marked his later years, and rendered him unfit for mere convivial gatherings, extended to his writings, and he seldom permits his pen to expatiate on those pleasures in which he sought no share. even in his letters from reims, written in , when he was doing the grand tour, he omits all mention of the wine for which that city is famed. still he incidentally furnishes a few instances of the esteem in which champagne was held by the upper classes in the middle of the eighteenth century. in a letter to george montague, dated june , , he describes how lord granby joined his party at vauxhall whilst suffering considerably under the influence of the champagne he had consumed at 'jenny's whim,' a noted tavern at chelsea; and writing to sir horace mann, a year later, he says that the then chief subjects of conversation in london were the two miss gunnings and an extravagant dinner at white's. [illustration: scene at vauxhall gardens (from an engraving after a drawing by gravelot).] 'the dinner was a frolic of seven young men, who bespoke it to the utmost extent of expense; one article was a tart made of duke cherries, from a hothouse; and another, that they tasted but one glass out of each bottle of champagne. the bill of fare has got into print, and with good people has produced the apprehension of another earthquake.'[ ] the earl of march, afterwards 'old q,' in a letter to walpole's friend, george selwyn, in november , writes: 'i have not yet received some champaign that monsieur de prissieux has sent me.'[ ] and we find horace walpole's fair foe, that eighteenth-century exemplar of strong-minded womanhood, lady mary wortley montague, whose letters indicate a _penchant_ for burgundy, acknowledging in verse the exhilarating effects of champagne. of the _beaux_ of she says that 'they sigh, not from the heart but from the brain, vapours of vanity and strong champagne.'[ ] better known by far are her oft-quoted lines, 'but when the long hours of the public are past, and we meet with champagne and a chicken at last, may every fond pleasure that moment endear, be banished afar both discretion and fear,'[ ] which drew from byron the terror-stricken comment, 'what say you to such a supper with such a woman?'[ ] [illustration] [illustration] during the third quarter of the eighteenth century a cloud dims the lustre of champagne. it was then looked upon by a vast majority as only a fit accompaniment to masquerades, ridottos, ultra-fashionable dinners, and bacchanalian suppers. 'the champaign made some eyes sparkle that nothing else could brighten,'[ ] says the contemporary account of one of those scenes of shameless revelry held under the title of masquerades at the pantheon, and the orgies that, under the auspices of mrs. cornelys, disgraced carlisle house were mainly inspired by the consumption of the same wine. the citizens of the georgian era, who had lost the tastes of their fathers, hated french wines simply because they were french; and the hundred thousand gallons imported on an average annually from to were entirely consumed amongst the upper or the dissipated classes. though smuggling was still looked upon as patriotic, if not loyal, those engaged in it had discovered that, thanks to the combined effects of duty and demand, nantes brandy and hollands gin paid better. what, indeed, is to be thought of the taste of an era that produced poets whose muse sought inspiration in punch, and who had the sublime audacity to extol the rum of the west indies above the produce of 'marne's flowery banks'?[ ] only a few of the higher-class men, however, engaged in literature and art seem to have retained a preference for french wine. the accounts of the literary club established by sir joshua reynolds show the average consumption at each sitting to have been half a bottle of port and a bottle of claret per head. johnson drank port mixed with sugar from about to ; became a total abstainer until , and then seems to have given the preference to madeira. [illustration: the literary club.] in contemporaneous comedy we are pretty sure to find the mirror held up to fashion, if not to nature; and turning to the playwrights of that day, it is easy to cull a few confirmatory excerpts. thus we have sterling, the ambitious british merchant, in order to do honour to his noble guests, preparing to 'give them such a glass of champaign as they never drank in their lives; no, not at a duke's table.'[ ] while lord minikin, the peer of fashion, makes his entrance on the stage, exclaiming: 'o my head! i must absolutely change my wine-merchant; i cannot taste his champaigne without disordering myself for a week.'[ ] on miss tittup inquiring if his depression is due to losses at cards, he replies, 'no, faith, our champaigne was not good yesterday.'[ ] jessamy, his lordship's valet, profits of course by so aristocratic an example; and when speaking of his exploits at the masquerade, says, 'i was in tip-top spirits, and had drunk a little too freely of the champaigne, i believe.'[ ] with philip the butler, 'burgundy is the word,' and from the choicest vintages of his master's cellar he places on the table 'claret, burgundy, and champaign; and a bottle of tokay for the ladies;'[ ] while port is characterised by the duke's servant as 'only fit for a dram.'[ ] mrs. circuit presses the guests at a clandestinely-given repast to 'taste the champagne;' and her husband, the sergeant, is surprised on his return home to find that they have been so indulging: 'delicate eating, in truth; and the wine [_drinks_] champagne, as i live! must have t'other glass ... delicate white wine, indeed! i like it better every glass.'[ ] such is his comment. the effects of the wine are characterised in the following fashion by garrick, when sparkish, entering, according to the stage directions, 'fuddled,' declares that 'when a man has wit, and a great deal of it, champaign gives it a double edge, and nothing can withstand it; 'tis a lighted match to gunpowder; the mine is sprung, and the poor devils are tossed heels uppermost in an instant.'[ ] [illustration: lord minikin.] we greet, too, what was perhaps the first appearance of a joke now grown venerable in its antiquity in a farce of foote's, the scene of which is laid at bath. he introduces us to a party of pseudo-invalids devoting their whole time and attention to conviviality, recruiting their debilitated stomachs with turtle and venison, and alternating bath waters with the choicest vintages, so that the hero racket is fain to observe to one of them, 'my dear sir kit, how often has dr. carawitchet told you that your rich food and champaigne would produce nothing but poor health and real pain?'[ ] and how many gentlemen in difficulties have not since followed the example set by harry dornton in the spunging-house, and ordered, as a consolation, 'a bottle of champagne and two rummers'![ ] turning from fancy to fact, we find sir edward barry furnishing some particulars respecting the champagne wines consumed in england during the latter half of the last century.[ ] he informs us at the outset that 'the wines of champaign and burgundy are made with more care than any other french wines; and the vaults in which the former are preserved are better than any other in france. these wines, from their finer texture and peculiar flavour, cannot be adulterated without the fraud being easily discovered, and are therefore generally imported pure, or by proper care may be certainly procured in that state.' his remarks evidently refer to the still wines, as he proceeds to explain that 'the champaign river wines are more delicate and pale than those which are distinguished from them by the name of mountain gray wines,' the latter being more durable and better suited for exportation, whilst the former, if allowed to remain too long in the cask, acquire a taste from the wood, although keeping in flasks from four to six years without harm. referring to the taste of the day, he explains that 'among the river wines the auvillers and epernay are most esteemed, and among the mountain wines the selery and st. thyery, and in general such as are of the colour of a partridge's eye. these are likewise distinguished for their peculiar grateful pungency and balsamic softness, which is owing to the refined saline principle which prevails more in them than in the burgundy wines, on which account they are less apt to affect the head, communicate a milder heat, and more freely pervade and pass through the vessels of the body.... to drink champaign wines in the greatest perfection, the flask should be taken from the vault a quarter of an hour before it is drunk, and immersed in ice-water, with the cork so loose in it as is sufficient to give a free passage to the air, and yet prevent too great an evaporation of its spirituous parts.' [illustration: high living at bath (after rowlandson, in the _new bath guide_).] the foregoing practice still obtains with sillery, classed by barry as the first of the mountain growths, and in the highest favour in england throughout the remainder of the century. regarding sparkling wine, of which he was evidently no admirer, he adds: 'for some years the french and english have been particularly fond of the sparkling frothy champaigns. the former have almost entirely quitted that depraved taste, nor does it now so much prevail here. they used to mix some ingredients to give them that quality; but this is unnecessary, as they are too apt spontaneously to run into that state; but whoever chooses to have such wines may be assured that they will acquire it by bottling them any time after the vintage before the month of the next may; and the most sure rule to prevent that disposition is not to bottle them before the november following. this rule has been confirmed by repeated experiments.' on the signature of the treaty of peace with france in , it had been stipulated that a treaty of commerce should likewise be concluded; and in , under the auspices of pitt, a treaty of this character was made, the first article providing that 'the wines of france imported directly from france into great britain shall in no case pay any higher duties than those which the wines of portugal now pay.' pitt, spite of his well known _penchant_ for port, had yet a sneaking liking for champagne, arising no doubt from his early familiarity with the wine when he went to reims to study, after leaving the university of cambridge. it was with champagne that he was primed on the memorable occasion when he, lord chancellor thurlow, and mr. secretary dundas galloped after dusk through an open turnpike-gate without paying toll, and only just missed receiving the contents of a loaded blunderbuss, which the turnpike man, fancying they were highwaymen, fired after them. the party had been dining with the president of the board of trade at addiscombe, and a rhymester of the epoch commemorated the incident in the following lines: 'how as pitt wandered darkling o'er the plain, his reason drowned in jenkinson's champagne, a rustic's hand, but righteous fate withstood, had shed a premier's for a robber's blood.' [illustration: dundas and pitt as silenus and bacchus (after gilray).] [illustration: william pitt (after gilray).] tickell has noted the appreciation of brooks' champagne shown by pitt's great rival in the lines addressed to sheridan, and purporting to be an invitation to supper from fox. the illustrious member for westminster promises his guest that 'derby shall send, if not his plate, his cooks, and know i've bought the best champaign from brooks.'[ ] brooks' club enjoyed a high reputation for its champagne, and we find fighting fitzgerald emptying three bottles there without assistance, the same evening on which he bullied the members into electing him.[ ] the year after the treaty of commerce was signed, we have an anonymous writer remarking[ ] that in time of peace the english drew large quantities of wine from bordeaux and nantes, and that the other french wines they were in the habit of consuming were those of mantes, burgundy, and champagne, shipped respectively from rouen, dunkirk, and calais. arthur young, writing at the same time, remarks, _apropos_ of champagne, that the trade with england 'used to be directly from epernay; but now the wine is sent to calais, boulogne, montreuil, and guernsey, in order to be passed into england they suppose here by smuggling. this may explain our champagne not being so good as formerly.'[ ] it is to be hoped that neither arthur young nor other connoisseurs of champagne had been enticed into drinking as the genuine article any of the produce of the vineyard which the hon. charles hamilton had planted with the auvernat grape near cobham, in surrey, and which was said to yield a wine 'resembling champagne.'[ ] the reduction of duty consequent upon the treaty as a matter of course largely increased the importation of french wine. respecting the taste for champagne then prevailing in england, and the price the wine commanded, a few interesting particulars are afforded by the early correspondence and account-books of messrs. moët & chandon of epernay, which we have courteously been permitted to inspect. from these we find that in october the chevalier colebrook, writing in french to the firm from bath, asks that seventy-two bottles of champagne may be sent to his friend, the hon. john butler of molesworth-street, dublin, 'who, if content with the wine, will become a very good customer, being rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many amateurs of _vin de champagne_.' the writer is no doubt the 'm. collebrock' to whom the firm shortly afterwards forward fifty bottles of '_vin non mousseux_, ,' on his own account. messrs. carbonnell, moody, & walker, predecessors of the well-known existing firm of carbonnell & co., london, in a letter dated november , and also written in french, say: 'if you can supply us with some champagne of a very good body, not too much charged with liqueur, but with an excellent flavour, and not at all _moussu_, we beg you to send two ten dozen baskets. also, if you have any dry champagne of very good flavour, solidity, and excellent body, send two baskets of the same size.' the taste of the day was evidently for a full-bodied non-sparkling wine; and this is confirmed by jeanson, messrs. moët's traveller in england, who writes from london in may : 'how the taste of this country has altered within the last ten years! almost everywhere they ask for a dry wine; but they want a wine so vinous and so strong, that there is hardly anything but sillery that will satisfy them.' additional confirmation is found in a letter, written from london in may to messrs. moët, by a mr. john motteux, complaining of delay in the delivery of a parcel of wine said to have been sent off by way of havre, and very likely destined to be surreptitiously introduced into england _viâ_ guernsey. he asks for a further supply of sillery, if its safe arrival can be guaranteed, and remarks, 'there is nothing to be compared to sillery when it is genuine; it must not have the least sweetness nor _mousse_.'[ ] during the great french war, patriotism and increased duties might have been expected to check the import of french wines; yet, if statistics are worth anything, the reverse would appear to have been the case. the registered imports, which from to had fluctuated between , and , gallons, rose during the last fourteen years of the century to an average of , gallons per annum. in those fighting, rollicking, hard-drinking times, when it was a sacred social duty to toast 'great george our king' on every possible occasion, champagne continued to be 'the wine of fashion.' the sparkling variety was terribly costly, no doubt, and was often doled out, as mr. walker relates, 'like drops of blood.'[ ] but whilst the stanch admirers of port might profess to despise champagne as effeminate, and the 'loyal volunteers' condemn it as the produce of a foeman's soil, there were plenty to sing in honour of 'the fair of britain's isle:' 'fill, fill the glass, to beauty charge, and banish care from every breast; in brisk champaign we'll quick discharge, a toast shall give the wine a zest.'[ ] indeed, the greatest of england's naval heroes was not insensible to the attractions of this gift from 'our sweet enemy france.' in october nelson, together with sir william and lady hamilton, was a guest of mr. elliot, the british resident at dresden. at dinner lady hamilton drank more champagne than the narrator of this little incident imagined it was possible for a woman to consume, and inspired thereby, insisted on favouring the company with her imitations of classical statuary. nelson thereupon got uproarious, and went on emptying bumper after bumper of the same fluid in honour of the fair emma, and swearing that she was superior to siddons. the host kept striving 'to prevent the further effusion of champagne,' but did not succeed till sir william in his turn had astonished all present with a display of his social talents. the grave diplomatist lay down on his back, with his arms and legs in the air, and in this position bounded all round the room like a ball, with his stars and ribbons flying around him.[ ] if we may give credit to tom moore, 'the best wigged prince in christendom,' who was subsequently to 'd---- madeira as gouty,' and bring sherry into fashion, preferred stronger potations than those produced on the banks of the marne. in one of the poet's political skits the prince is introduced soliloquising _à la_ jemmy thompson-- 'o roman punch! o potent curaçoa! o maraschino! maraschino o! delicious drams'[ ]-- and describing his favourite luncheon as 'good mutton cutlets and strong curaçoa.'[ ] nevertheless, the first gentleman in europe did consume champagne; but it was concentrated in the form of punch, especially devised for him, and indulged in by him in company with barrymore, hanger, and their fellows.[ ] his sometime model and subsequent victim, poor brummell, is said to have put the wine to a still more ignoble use. one day a youthful beau approached the great master in the arts of dress and deportment, and said, 'permit me to ask you where you get your blacking?' 'ah,' replied brummell, gazing complacently at his boots, 'my blacking positively ruins me. i will tell you in confidence it is made with the finest champagne.'[ ] probably the great dandy was merely quizzing his interlocutor, though such an act of extravagance would have been a pull on even the longest purse in those days, 'your bottle of champagne in the year costing you a guinea.'[ ] [illustration: the prince regent (after gilray).] as to the prince regent's brothers, we know that the duke of york was such a powerful toper, that 'six bottles of claret after dinner scarce made a perceptible change in his countenance,'[ ] and remember the duke of clarence making his appearance at the table of the royal household at windsor, and getting so helplessly drunk on champagne as to be utterly incapable of keeping his promise to open the ball that evening with his sister mary.[ ] two prominent orators of that day are credited with _mots_ upon champagne. curran said, _apropos_ of the rapid but transient intoxication produced by this wine, that 'champagne made a runaway rap at a man's head;' while canning maintained that any man who said he really liked dry champagne simply lied. after waterloo, although a few _gourmets_ continued to prefer the still wine, sparkling champagne became the almost universally accepted variety. nevertheless, henderson, while noting that 'by champagne wine is usually understood a sparkling or frothy liquor,' gives the foremost place to the wine of sillery, which, he remarks, 'has always been in much request in england, probably on account of its superior strength and durable quality.' he extols the ay wine as 'an exquisite liquor, lighter and sweeter than the sillery, and accompanied by a delicate flavour and aroma somewhat analogous to that of the pine-apple.'[ ] the poets of the first half of the present century have hardly done justice to champagne. tom moore, the most anacreontic of them all, although ready, like his grecian prototype, to 'pledge the universe in wine,' the merits of which he was continually chanting in the abstract, has seldom been so invidious as to particularise any especial vintage. champagne, the wine of all others best fitted to inspire his bright and sparkling lyrics, has received but scant attention in his earlier productions. bob fudge, writing from paris in , is made to speak approvingly of beaune and chambertin, but only mentions champagne as a vehicle in which to _sauter_ kidneys;[ ] and in the _sceptic_ it is simply brought in to point a moral respecting the senses: 'habit so mars them, that the russian swain will sigh for train-oil while he sips champagne.'[ ] in two instances only the poet who sang in such lively numbers of woman and wine pointedly refers to the vintage of the champagne. one is when he says: 'if ever you've seen a party relieved from the presence of ned, how instantly joyous and hearty they've grown when the damper was fled. you may guess what a gay piece of work, what delight to champagne it must be, to get rid of its bore of a cork, and come sparkling to you, love, and me.'[ ] and his description of a summer _fête_ is indeed 'a mere terrestrial strain inspired by naught but pink champagne;'[ ] such as might be penned 'while as the sparkling juice of france high in the crystal brimmers flowed, each sunset ray, that mixed by chance with the wine's diamond, showed how sunbeams may be taught to dance;'[ ] with the final result that 'thus did fancy and champagne work on the sight their dazzling spells, till nymphs that looked at noonday plain now brightened in the gloom to belles.'[ ] moore's diary, however, proves that if he did not care to praise the wine in verse, it was not for want of opportunities of becoming acquainted with it. witness his 'odd dinner in a borrowed room' at horace twiss's in chancery-lane, with the strangely incongruous accompaniments of 'champagne, pewter spoons, and old lady cork.'[ ] as to that most convivial of songsters, captain charles morris, poet-laureate of the ancient society of beefsteaks, he labours under a similar reproach. though he has filled several hundred octavo pages of his _lyra urbanica_ with verses in praise of wine, the liquor with which he crowns 'the mantling goblet,' 'the fancy-stirring bowl,' or 'the soul-subliming cup,' usually figures under some such fanciful designation as 'the inspiring juice,' 'the cordial of life,' or 'bacchus' balm.' champagne he evidently ignores as a beverage of gallic origin, utterly unfitted for the praise of so true a briton as himself; and the only vintage which he does condescend to mention with approbation is the favourite one of our beef-eating, hard-drinking, frog-hating forefathers, 'old oporto' from 'the stout lusitanian vine.' [illustration: captain charles morris (after gilray).] strange as it may seem, the manlier muse of scott used at times to dip her wing into the champagne cup, although she has failed to express any verbal gratitude to this source of inspiration. 'in truth,' says his biographer, 'he liked no wines except sparkling champaign and claret; but even as to this last he was no connoisseur, and sincerely preferred a tumbler of whisky-toddy to the most precious liquid ruby that ever flowed in the cup of a prince. he rarely took any other potation when alone with his family; but at the sunday board he circulated the champaign briskly during dinner, and considered a pint of claret each man's fair share afterwards.'[ ] scott himself, wearied with a round of london festivities, is impelled to write, 'i begin to tire of my gaieties. i wish for a sheep's head and whisky-toddy against all the french cookery and champaign in the world.'[ ] lockhart, in his _life of scott_, notes the excellent flavour of some champagne sent to abbotsford by a french admirer of the northern wizard in return for a set of his works, and more than once incidentally refers to the presence of the wine at scott's table on festive gatherings. byron, who furnished in the course of his career a practical exemplification of the maxim that 'comus all allows champaign, dice, music, or your neighbour's spouse,'[ ] did the vintage of the marne justice in his verses. in _don juan_ he shows himself not insensible to the charms of 'champagne with foaming whirls as white as cleopatra's melted pearls.'[ ] the wine, moreover, furnishes two striking comparisons in that poem--one when he observes that 'the evaporation of a joyous day is like the last glass of champagne, without the foam which made its virgin bumper gay;'[ ] and the other, where, in his sketch of lady adeline amundeville, he rejects the trite metaphor of the snow-covered volcano in favour of 'a bottle of champagne frozen into a very vinous ice, which leaves few drops of that immortal rain; yet in the very centre, past all price, about a liquid glassful will remain; and this is stronger than the strongest grape could e'er express in its expanded shape: 'tis the whole spirit brought to a quintessence; and thus the chilliest aspects may concentre a hidden nectar under a cold presence.'[ ] although we find henderson remarking, in , that 'the pink champagne is less in request than the colourless, and has in fact nothing to entitle it to the preference,' yet wine of this tint continued to reappear from time to time, securing a transitory popularity from its attractive appearance, which caused it to be likened to the dying reflection of the setting sun on a clear stream. an interesting incident in connection with its advent on one of these occasions at the table of rogers, the banker-poet, has been recorded by mr. r. a. tracy gould of the american bar. he was dining, it seems, in company with tom moore and john kenyon, with rogers at st. james's-place, when their host, who had recently received through the french ambassador a present of a case of pink champagne from louis philippe, had the first bottle of it produced at the end of the dinner. the saucer-shaped champagne glasses were then just coming into use, and pink champagne, which was a revived novelty in england at that moment, looked singularly beautiful in them, crowned with its snow-white foam. kenyon, who, as gould remarks, was nothing if not declamatory, held up his glass, and apostrophised it as follows: 'lily on liquid roses floating! so floats yon foam o'er pink champagne! fain would i join such pleasant boating, and prove that ruby main, and float away on wine!' this being vociferously applauded, after a few minutes' pause he added the second verse: 'those seas are dangerous, graybeards swear, whose sea-beach is the goblet's brim; and here it is they drown dull care-- but what care we for him? so we but float on wine!' on being desired to continue, kenyon declared that he had done his part, and that it was now the turn of some one else. moore and rogers both claimed exemption, as being on the 'retired list' of the parnassian army, and peremptorily demanded a contribution from the transatlantic guest, tracy gould, who thereupon, with 'great diffidence,' as he tells us, delivered himself of the third and fourth stanzas: 'gray time shall pause and smooth his wrinkles, bright garlands round his scythe shall twine; while sands from out his glass he sprinkles, to fill it up with wine-- with rosy sparkling wine! thus hours shall pass which no man reckons, 'mongst us, who, glad with mirth divine, heed not the shadowy hand that beckons across the sea of wine-- of billowy gushing wine!' kenyon then added another stanza, which suggested a final verse to the american: 'and though 'tis true they cross in pain, who sober cross the stygian ferry, yet only make our styx champagne, and we shall cross right merry, floating away on wine!' 'old charon's self shall make him mellow, then gaily row his bark from shore; while we and every jolly fellow hear unconcerned the oar that dips itself in wine!' by this time the inspiration and the champagne were alike exhausted. the history of champagne in england during the latter half of the present century may be briefly summed up in the assertion of the ever-growing popularity of the wine, and the high repute attained by certain brands, which it would be invidious to particularise. its success in oiling the wheels of social life is so great and so universally acknowledged that its eclipse would almost threaten a collapse of our social system. we cannot open a railway, launch a vessel, inaugurate a public edifice, start a newspaper, entertain a distinguished foreigner, invite a leading politician to favour us with his views on things in general, celebrate an anniversary, or specially appeal on behalf of a benevolent institution without a banquet, and hence without the aid of champagne, which, at the present day, is the obligatory adjunct of all such repasts. when the municipality of london welcome the khan of kamschatka to our shores and to the guildhall, champagne flows in the proverbial buckets full. when the master and wardens of the coalscuttle-makers' company bid the livery to one of their periodical feasts, scandal says that even this measure is exceeded. when sir fusby guttleton gives one of his noted 'little spreads' at greenwich, are not torrents of iced 'dry' needed to quench the thirst excited by the devilled bait? aware, too, of the unloosening effect the wine exercises upon the strings of both heart and purse, pomposo, as chairman at the annual festival of the decayed muffinmongers' asylum, is careful to see that the glasses of the guests have been well charged with it before he commences his stirring appeal on behalf of that deserving institution. does ingenioso wish to introduce to the notice of the british public a new heating-power or lighting-apparatus or ice-making machinery, he straightway issues cards for a private view to critics and cognoscenti, and is careful that these shall observe the merits of his invention through the medium of a glass--bubbling over with champagne. so it is at the openings of the latest extension of the mugby junction railway and of the palatial hotel, at the private view of the amicable afghans, or tinto's new picture, or any one of crotchet's manifold inventions. if the bidding, too, flags at a sale of shorthorns or thoroughbreds, at a wink from the auctioneer the champagne-corks are set a-popping, and advance promptly follows advance in responsive echoes. not less important is the part that champagne plays in the city. capel crash, the great financier, literally _floats_ the concerns he deigns to 'promote' by its agency. when consol, the millionaire, makes one of a set for rigging the market, and the 'ring' thus formed has reaped the reward of their ingenuity, does he not entertain his intimate friends with the story and with the choicest champagne? the amount of business, moreover, transacted by the aid of the wine is incalculable. bargains in stocks and shares, tea and sugar, cotton and corn, hemp and iron, hides and tallow, broadcloth and shoddy, are clinched by its agency. on the other hand, many a bit of sharp practice has been forgiven, many a hard bargain has been forgotten, many a smouldering resentment has been quenched for ever, and many an enmity healed and a friendship cemented, over a bottle of champagne. [illustration: 'i say, old fellow, how do you go to the derby this year?' 'o, the old way--hamper-and-four.' (from a drawing by john leech in 'punch.')] [illustration: at the derby (from a drawing by john leech in 'punch.')] the turf is said to be our national pastime, and no one will deny the close connection existing between sport and champagne. from the highest to the lowest of that wonderful agglomeration of individuals interested in equine matters, it is recognised as the only standard 'tipple.' champagne goes down to the derby in its hamper-and-four, like other pertinacious patrons of the race, and its all but ubiquitous presence on the course is warmly welcomed by thousands of thirsty visitors of very various grades. at ascot, does h. r. h. the prince of wales seek to congratulate the marquis of hartington on his success, it is by wishing him further success in a glass of sparkling wine. does mr. william kurr, welsher, desire to make the acquaintance of mr. druscovitch, detective, he seeks an introduction from mr. meiklejohn over a bottle of 'fiz.' does the favourite horse win--quick, fill high the bowl with sparkling wine, to celebrate his triumph; does he lose, the same vintage will serve to drown our sorrows and obliterate the recollection of our losses. how many cunning _coups_, how many clever combinations, have there not been worked out in all their details over a bottle of 'cham.' in quiet hotel-parlours at doncaster or newmarket! how many bets have been laid and paid in the same medium! how many a jockey has been bought, and how many a race has been sold, owing to the moral as well as physical obliquity of vision which the ingurgitation of the wine has induced! nor should the existence of champagne stakes be forgotten. there are now several races of this name at different meetings; but the oldest is that established at doncaster in , and taking its title from the fact of the owner of the winner having to present six dozen of champagne to the doncaster club. [illustration: _jones_: 'i say, brown, things are deuced bad in the city.' _brown_: 'then i'm deuced glad i'm at epsom.' (from a drawing by john leech in 'punch.')] [illustration] [illustration: at the star and garter, richmond.] look, too, at the influence exercised by the wine on the british drama, or rather on what to-day passes as such. plagioso the playwright freely opens a bottle of champagne with the object of stimulating the wit of his friend and collaborateur in the task of adapting messrs. meilhac & halévy's latest production to the london stage. adverse critics, moreover, are said to be mollified by the subjugating influence of the wine; while authors, enraged at the way in which their pieces have been 'cut,' are similarly soothed; squabbles too between rival _artistes_ as to parts and lengths are satisfactorily arranged in the managerial sanctum over a bottle of fiz. does lord nortiboy wish to smooth over a tiff with the tow-haired young lady who is making ducks and drakes of his money at the gynarchic theatre, and whose partiality for sparkling wine is notorious, a dinner at richmond and floods of 'cham' for herself and friends is the plan that naturally suggests itself. should the enterprising lessees of the chansonnette theatre determine to celebrate the thousand and first night of the run of _their girls_, a champagne supper is recognised as the fit and proper method of doing so. supper is the favourite meal of the profession, and champagne is of course the best of all wine to take at that repast. on the stage itself it has often proved of very serious service. robust tragedians and prima donnas in good training may indulge in stout, as more 'mellering to the organ;' but by the judicious administration of champagne many a nervous _débutant_ has been encouraged to conquer 'stage fright' and to face the footlights, many a jaded _tragédienne_ enabled to rally her fainting energies in the last act, and to carry her audience with her in a final outburst of pathos or passion. statesmen no longer prime themselves with port before strolling down to the house, till they get into the condition of the two members, one of whom averred that he could not see any speaker in the chair, whilst the other gravely accounted for the phenomenon of this disappearance by asserting that, for his part, he saw a couple. perhaps it is to be regretted that the records of the 'tea-room' do not vouch for a larger consumption of champagne, as then perhaps the reporters overnight and their readers the nest morning might escape the wearisome reiteration of purposeless recrimination and threadbare platitudes. such should certainly be the case, since the power of the wine as an incentive to brisk and sparkling conversation has been universally acknowledged in social life. [illustration: 'now, george, my boy, there's a glass of champagne for you. don't get such stuff at school, eh?' 'h'm! awfully sweet. very good sort for ladies. but i've arrived at a time of life when i confess i like my wine dry.' (from a drawing by john leech in 'punch.')] to the dinners of bloomsbury and belgravia, as well as the suppers of bohemia, champagne imparts a charm peculiarly its own by placing all there present _en rapport_. the modern mind may well look back with shuddering horror to that dreary period when champagne, if given at all, was doled out at dinner-parties 'like drops of blood.' no wonder the ladies used to fly from the table and the gentlemen to slide underneath it. and, speaking of the ladies, is not champagne their wine _par excellence_? how would the fragile products of modern civilisation be able to outdo the most robust of their ancestresses--whose highest saltatory feats were the execution of the slow and stately minuet, the formal quadrille with its frequent rests, or at most the romping country dance--by whirling almost uninterruptedly in the mazes of the giddy waltz from nine in the evening until five in the morning, without the sustaining power the sparkling fluid affords them? has it not on their tongues an influence equal to that which it exercises on their swiftly-flying feet, inspiring pretty prattle, sparkling repartee, enchanting smiles, and silvery laughter? old bertin du rocheret was quite right when he invited his fair friends to continue drinking 'de ce nectar délicieux, qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux mieux qu'il ne brille dans mon verre.' since these lines were penned, many thousands of bright eyes have so borrowed an additional lustre. [illustration] [illustration] it would certainly be going too far to suggest that flirtation and champagne must have been introduced simultaneously, yet the former can only have attained perfection since the advent of the latter. only consider what a failure a picnic or a garden-or water-party, or any other kind of entertainment to which that much-abused term _fête champêtre_ is applied, and where flirtation would be, without champagne! as a matrimonial agent, champagne's achievements outdo those of the cleverest of man[oe]uvring mammas. it was solely those two extra glasses at supper which emboldened young impey cue of the foreign office to summon up sufficient courage to propose in the conservatory to miss yellowboy, the great heiress; and impey cue now lords it at yellowboy park as though to the manor born. nor must the part it plays on the eventful day when the fatal knot is firmly tied be overlooked. it has been cynically remarked that it is a painful spectacle even for the most hardened to witness the consigning of a victim to the doom matrimonial; and that it becomes all the more painful when, under the futile pretext of festivity, bewildered fathers, harassed mothers, sorrowing sisters, envious cousins, bored connections, and pitying friends, arrayed in their best attire, meet at an abnormally early hour round the miscalled social board. still, fancy what a wedding breakfast would be without the accompaniment of champagne! [illustration: the social treadmill--the wedding breakfast (from a drawing by john leech in 'punch').] [illustration: coming of age (drawn by r. caldecott).] with mamma in tears and papa in the fidgets, the bride half-way towards hysterics, and the bridegroom wishing from the bottom of his heart that the crowded dining-room would suddenly transform itself into a securely-locked first-class coupé speeding onwards in the direction of dover, the task of those speakers on whom devolves the duty of descanting upon 'the happy occasion which has brought us together' is of a surety no easy one. and it would be still more uphill work were it not for the amount of cheerful inspiration fortunately to be drawn from the familiar foil-topped bottles. by and by, when the more serious speeches have been duly stammered through, and the jovial bachelor--a middle-aged one by preference--rises to propose 'the health of the bridesmaids,' bursts of laughter from the men and responsive titters, bubbling up like the sparkling atoms in the wine which has inspired them, from the lips of the damsels in question and their compeers, prove beyond question that champagne has done its duty in dissipating the gloom originally prevailing. a wedding, too, is the customary precursor of other family gatherings at which the vintage of the marne plays the same enlivening part. there are, for instance, christenings where godfathers bring as their offerings masterpieces of the silversmith's craft, and the infant's health is quaffed by turns in 'sherry in silver, hock in gold, and glassed champagne;' for the wine of mirth is out of place in metal, however precious, and needs the purest crystal to exhibit all its finer qualities. there are also coming-of-age banquets, whereat young hopeful is enabled to stumble and stutter through a series of jerky and disjointed phrases of thanks--commonplace as they may be, which never fail to awaken the tenderest emotions in the heart of the maternal author of his being--by the aid of sundry glasses of the sparkling wine of the marne. 'o the wildfire wine of france! quick with fantasies florescent, rapturously effervescent, how its atoms leap and dance! floric fount of love and laughter, where its emanations rise all the difficulty dies from the now and the hereafter. through the happy golden haze time's gray cheek is bright with dimples, and his laugh more lightly wimples than the sea's on summer days. tongue and throat it makes to tingle, beats the blood from heart to vein, and ascending to the brain, bids the spirit forth and mingle with a world no longer grim, but serene and sweet and spacious, where the girls are fair and gracious, and the cupids light of limb. soul and sense are all untethered! who would be an angel when, clement king of gods and men, he can soar so grandly, feathered with thy plumage, o champagne? bottled gladness! thou magician! silver-bearded! mist elysian! ecstasy of sun and rain! swift and subtle, glad and glorious, o the wildfire wine of france! how its atoms frisk and dance, over fate and time victorious!' [illustration] [illustration: map of the champagne vineyards, _reduced, by permission, from the larger map_. drawn by /m. j. lignier/, staff-captain, for messrs. mÖet & chandon, of epernay. the purple tint indicates the vineyards. the yellow, the woods and forests. the green, the meadows. the blue, the ponds and lakes. the figures indicate the altitudes in metres above the level of the sea. /scale in metres/: (_ metres are equal to - / miles._)] [illustration: the vineyards and abbey of hautvillers.] part ii. i. /the champagne vinelands--the vineyards of the river./ the vinelands in the neighbourhood of epernay--viticultural area of the champagne--a visit to the vineyards of 'golden plants'--the dizy vineyards--antiquity of the ay vineyards--st. tresain and the wine-growers of ay--the ay vintage of --the mareuil vineyards and their produce--avernay; its vineyards, wines, and ancient abbey--the vineyards of mutigny and cumières--damery and 'la belle hôtesse' of henri quatre--adrienne lecouvreur and the maréchal de saxe's matrimonial schemes--pilgrimage to hautvillers--remains of the royal abbey of st. peter--the ancient church--its quaint decorations and monuments--the view from the heights of hautvillers--the abbey vineyards and wine-cellars in the days of dom perignon--the vinelands of the côte d'epernay--pierry and its vineyard cellars--the moussy, vinay, and ablois st. martin vineyards--the côte d'avize--chavot, monthelon, grauves, and cuis--the vineyards of cramant and avize, and their light delicate white wines--the oger and le mesnil vineyards--vertus and its picturesque ancient remains--its vineyards planted with burgundy grapes from beaune--the red wine of vertus a favourite beverage of william iii. of england. [illustration: chÂteau de boursault.] with the exception of certain famous vineyards of the rhône, the vinelands of the champagne may, perhaps, be classed among the most picturesque of the more notable vine-districts of france. between paris and epernay, even, the banks of the marne present a series of scenes of quiet beauty. the undulating ground is everywhere cultivated like a garden. handsome châteaux and charming country houses peep out from amid luxuriant foliage. picturesque antiquated villages line the river's bank or climb the hill-sides, and after leaving la ferté-sous-jouarre, the cradle of the condés, all the more favoured situations commence to be covered with vines. this is especially the case in the vicinity of château-thierry--the birthplace of la fontaine--where the view is shut in on all sides by vine-clad slopes, which the spring frosts seldom spare. hence merely one good vintage out of four gladdens the hearts of the peasant proprietors, who find eager purchasers for their produce among the lower-class manufacturers of champagne. in the same way the _petit vin de chierry_, dexterously prepared and judiciously mingled with other growths, often figures as 'fleur de sillery' or 'ay mousseux.' in reality it is not until we have passed the ornate modern gothic château of boursault, erected in her declining years by the wealthy veuve clicquot, by far the shrewdest manipulator of the sparkling products of ay and bouzy of her day, and the many towers and turrets of which, rising above umbrageous trees, crown the loftiest height within eyeshot of epernay, that we find ourselves in that charmed circle of vineyards whence champagne--the wine, not merely of princes, as it has been somewhat obsequiously termed, but essentially the _vin de société_--is derived. the vinelands in the vicinity of epernay, and consequently near the marne, are commonly known as the 'vineyards of the river,' whilst those covering the slopes in the neighbourhood of reims are termed the 'vineyards of the mountain.' the vineyards of the river comprise three distinct divisions--first, those lining the right bank of the marne and enjoying a southern and south-eastern aspect, among which are ay, hautvillers, cumières, dizy, and mareuil; secondly, the côte d'epernay on the left bank of the river, of which pierry, moussy, and vinay form part; and thirdly, the côte d'avize (the region _par excellence_ of white grapes), which stretches towards the south-east, and includes the vinelands of cramant, avize, oger, le mesnil, and vertus. the entire vineyard area is upwards of , acres.[ ] the champagne vineyards most widely celebrated abroad are those of ay and sillery, although the last named are really the smallest in the champagne district. ay, distant only a few minutes by rail from epernay, is in the immediate centre of the vinelands of the river, having mareuil and avenay on the east, and dizy, hautvillers, and cumières on the west; while sillery lies at the foot of the so-called mountain of reims, and within an hour's drive of the old cathedral city. it was on one of those occasional sunshiny days in the early part of october[ ] when we first visited ay--the vineyard of 'golden plants,' the unique _premier cru_ of the wines of the river--and the various adjacent vinelands. the road lay between two rows of closely-planted poplar-trees reaching almost to the village of dizy, whose quaint gray church-tower, with its gabled roof, is dominated by the neighbouring vine-clad slopes, which extend from avenay to venteuil, some few miles beyond hautvillers, the cradle, so to speak, of the _vin mousseux_ of the champagne. the vineyards of dizy, the upper soil of which is largely mixed with loose stones, have chiefly a southern or western aspect, and, excepting in the case of the precipitous height suggestively styled 'grimpe chat,' their incline is generally a gentle one. in these vineyards, which rank among the _premiers crus_ of the champagne, a quantity of wine from white grapes is regularly made. from dizy the road runs immediately at the base of vine-clad slopes, broken up occasionally by a conical peak detaching itself from the mass, and tinted from base to summit with richly-variegated hues, among which deep purple, yellow, green, gray, and crimson by turns predominate. on our right hand we pass a vineyard called le léon, which tradition asserts to be the one whence pope leo the magnificent, the patron of michael angelo, raffaelle, and da vinci, drew his supply of ay wine. the village of ay lies immediately before us at the foot of the slopes of vines, with the tapering spire of its ancient church rising above the neighbouring hills and cutting sharply against the bright blue sky. the vineyards, which spread themselves over a calcareous declivity, have mostly a full southern aspect, and the predominating vines are those known as golden plants, the fruit of which is of a deep purple colour. after these comes the _plant vert doré_, and then a moderate proportion of the _plant gris_, white varieties of grapes being no longer cultivated as formerly.[ ] [illustration: dizy and its vineyard slopes.] the ay vineyards are mentioned in a charter of edmund of lancaster, son of our henry ii. and guardian of jehanne, heiress of henri le gros, count of champagne, dated , and confirming the right of the abbey of avenay to four hogsheads of wine from the _terroir_ of ay.[ ] if faith, however, may be placed in monkish legends, their existence dates back to the sixth century, at which epoch st. tresain, the patron saint of avenay and a contemporary of st. remi, emigrated to the champagne from scotland. having given away all he possessed in charity, he became perforce a swineherd at mutigny, a village on the summit of the hill overlooking ay, mareuil, and avenay. one day the vine-growers of ay, hearing that st. remi was at ville-en-selve, sought him out, and clamorously accused st. tresain of neglecting to look after his pigs, which had devastated the vineyards on the slopes, and so caused great loss to the community. when called upon for his defence, st. tresain acknowledged that he was wont to listen in the church-porch to the celebration of mass, and to forget on these occasions all such sublunary matters as swine. st. remi, finding him so deeply religious, not only forgave him his negligence and relieved him from his porcine charge for the future, but appointed him parish priest of mareuil and mutigny, the inhabitants of which, it is to be hoped, received more attention from him than his pigs had done. st. tresain, although his promotion was brought about by the complaint of the men of ay, retorted on the latter in a vindictive and unsaintly spirit, for he ill-naturedly cursed them, and declared that after thirty years of age not one of them or their posterity should prosper temporally or spiritually--a prophecy which, if it affected the vine-growers of that epoch, has proved harmless enough in the case of their descendants.[ ] at ay we visited the pressoir of the principal producer of _vin brut_, who, although the owner of merely five hectares, or about twelve and a half acres of vines, expected to make as many as pièces of wine that year, mainly of course from grapes purchased from other growers.[ ] on our way from ay to mareuil, along the lengthy rue de châlons, we looked in at the little auberge at the corner of the boulevard du sud, and found a crowd of coopers and others connected in some way with the vintage, taking their cheerful glasses round. the walls of the room were appropriately enough decorated with capering bacchanals squeezing bunches of purple grapes and flourishing their thyrsi about in a very tipsy fashion. all the talk--and there was an abundance of it--had reference to the yield of this particular vintage and the high rate the ay wine had realised. eight hundred francs the pièce of litres, equal to gallons, appeared to be the price fixed by the agents of the great champagne houses, and at this figure the bulk of the vintage was disposed of before a single grape passed through the winepress.[ ] [illustration] the mareuil vinelands, which include the vineyard bequeathed some six hundred years ago by canon john de brie to the chapter of reims cathedral, and possibly those vineyards bestowed in on the abbey of avenay by alain de jouvincourt, cover the slopes of two coteaux, the first a continuation of the côte d'ay, and the second a detached spur, known as the mont de fourche, overlooking the marne canal. owing to the steepness of the slopes and to the roads through the vineyards being impracticable for carts, the grapes were being conveyed to the press-houses in baskets slung across the backs of mules and donkeys, most of which, on account of their known partiality for the ripe fruit, were muzzled while thus employed. the wine yielded by the mareuil vineyards possesses body and vinosity, and while of course regarded as inferior to that of ay, found a ready market the year of our visit at from five to six hundred francs the pièce. prior to the french revolution, the produce of the winepresses of the seigneurs of mareuil and the abbess of avenay were almost as renowned as the best growths of ay. the reputation of the wine was then shared by the inhabitants of the village; the popular local diction, 'les gens d'ay, les messieurs de mareuil, et les crottés d'avenay,' referring to the days when the first was inhabited by enriched wine-growers, the second by people of some position, and the third merely by peasants, simply from its being cut off, in a great measure, from outside intercourse through the badness of its approaches. it was not until after , when the _seigneurie_ of louvois was purchased from the marquis de souvré by madame adelaïde, aunt of louis xvi., that the road from epernay to louvois, which passes through mareuil and avenay, was, if not constructed, at any rate rendered practicable, in order to facilitate the visits of the princess to her new acquisition. these roads exist, though no traces remain of the ancient fort of mareuil on the bank of the marne, taken from the english in by gaucher de chatillon, captain of reims, and alternately occupied by leaguers and royalists during the war of religion in the sixteenth century. nor does there seem any chance of identifying either the 'vineyard called la gibaudelle, lying next the vineyard of oudet, surnamed leclerc,' in the territory of mareuil, which guillaume de lafors and marguerite his wife bestowed upon the abbey of avenay in , or those from which, in the fourteenth century, archbishop richard pique of reims used to draw ten muids or hogsheads of wine annually for 'droits de vinage.' [illustration: avenay as seen from the railway.] the vineyards of avenay also date prior to the thirteenth century, mention being frequently made of them in the charters of that epoch.[ ] their best wine, which saint evremond extolled so highly, is vintaged to-day up the slopes of mont hurlé. avenay itself is a tumbledown little village situated in the direction of reims, and the year of our visit we found the yield from its vineyards had been scarcely more than the third of an average one, and that the wine produced at the first pressure of the grapes had been sold for francs the pièce. we tasted there some very fair still red wine, made from the same grapes as champagne, remarkably deep in colour, full of body, and possessing that slight sweet bitterish flavour which characterises certain of the better-class growths of the south of france. although at avenay vineyards cover the slopes as of yore, when marmontel used to wander amongst them in company with his inamorata mademoiselle hévin de navarre, no traces remain of the ancient royal abbey--founded by st. bertha in , on the martyrdom of her husband, st. gombert, one of the early christian missionaries to scotland--where charles v. took up his quarters when invading champagne in , and where the deputies of the leaguers of reims and of the royalists of châlons met in october to settle the terms of the 'traité des vendanges,' securing to both parties liberty to gather in the vintage unmolested.[ ] the villagers still point out the house where henri quatre slept, and the window from which he harangued the populace during the visit paid by him to madame françoise de la marck, the abbess of avenay,[ ] in august of the same year. this, by the way, does not seem to have been the only occasion when the spot was honoured by the presence of royalty; for a tradition, which, although unsupported by any documentary evidence, appears to be worthy of credence, is current to the effect that marie antoinette paid a visit to the abbey of avenay during her sojourn at louvois as the guest of madame adelaïde in . the spring which, according to the legend, gushed forth when st. bertha, in imitation of moses, struck the rock with her distaff, is still shown to travellers; and scandal has gone so far as to say that recourse is sometimes had to it to eke out the native vintage. on leaving avenay we ascended the hills to mutigny, and wound round thence to cumières, on the banks of the marne, finding the vintage in full operation all throughout the route. the vineyards of cumières--classed as a second cru--yield a wine which, though celebrated in the verses of eustache deschamps, a famous and prolific champenois poet of the fourteenth century, varies to-day considerably in quality, the best coming from the 'côtes-à-bras,' the property of the abbey of hautvillers in dom perignon's day. the cumières vineyards join those of hautvillers on the one side and damery on the other, the latter a cosy little river-side village, where the _bon roi henri_ sought relaxation from the turmoils of war in the society of the fair anne du pay, _sa belle hôtesse_, as the gallant béarnais was wont to style her. damery also claims to be the birthplace of adrienne lecouvreur, the celebrated actress of the regency, and mistress of the maréchal de saxe, who coaxed her out of her , _l._ of savings to enable him to prosecute his suit with the obese anna iwanowna, niece of peter the great, which, had he only been successful, would have secured the future hero of fontenoy the coveted dukedom of courland. from cumières can be distinguished far away on the horizon the ruined tower of the _bourg_ of châtillon, the birthplace of pope urban ii., preacher of the first crusade, and a devotee of the wine of ay.[ ] it was during the budding spring-time when we made our formal pilgrimage to hautvillers across the swollen waters of the marne at epernay. our way lay for a time along a straight level poplar-bordered road, with verdant meadows on either hand; then diverged sharply to the left, and we commenced ascending the vine-clad hills, on a narrow plateau of which the church and abbey remains are picturesquely perched. the closely-planted vines extend along the undulating slopes to the summit of the plateau, and wooded heights rise up beyond, affording shelter from the bleak winds that sweep over here from the north. spite of the reputation which the wine of hautvillers enjoyed a couple of centuries ago, and its association with the origin of _vin mousseux_, the vineyards to-day appear to have been relegated to the rank of a second cru, their produce ordinarily commanding less than two-thirds of the price obtained for the ay and verzenay growths.[ ] the church of hautvillers and the remains of the abbey are situated at the farther extremity of the village, at the end of its one long street, named, pertinently enough, the rue de bacchus. time, the iconoclasts of the great revolution, and the quieter, yet far more destructive, labours of the bande noire, have spared but little of the royal abbey of st. peter, where dom perignon lighted upon his happy discovery of the effervescent quality of champagne. the quaint old church, scraps of which date back to the twelfth century, the remnants of the cloisters, and one of the abbey's ancient gateways, are all that remain to testify to the grandeur of its past, when it was the proud boast of the brotherhood that it had given nine archbishops to the see of reims, and two-and-twenty abbots to various celebrated monasteries. [illustration: fountain at a cafÉ in the rue de bacchus, hautvillers.] passing through an unpretentious gateway, we find ourselves in a spacious courtyard, bounded by buildings somewhat complex in character. on our right rises the tower of the church with the remains of the old cloisters, now walled-in and lighted by small square windows, and propped up by heavy buttresses. to the left stands the residence of the bailiff, and beyond it an eighteenth-century château on the site of the abbot's house. formerly the abbey precincts were bounded on this side by a picturesque gateway-tower leading to the vineyards, and known as the 'porte des pressoirs,' from its contiguity to the winepresses. the court is enclosed on its remaining sides by huge barn-like buildings, stables, and cart-sheds; while roaming about are numerous live stock, indicating that what remains of the once-famous royal abbey of st. peter has degenerated into an ordinary farm. to-day the abbey buildings and certain of its lands are the property of m. paul chandon de brialles, of the firm of moët & chandon, the great champagne manufacturers of epernay, who maintains them as a farm, keeping some six-and-thirty cows there, with the object of securing the necessary manure for the numerous vineyards which the firm own hereabouts. [illustration: the porte des pressoirs, abbey of hautvillers (destroyed by fire in ).] [illustration: remains of cloisters, abbey of hautvillers.] the dilapidated cloisters, littered with old casks, farm implements, and the like, preserve ample traces of their former architectural character, changed as they are since the days when the sandalled feet of the worthy cellarer resounded through the echoing arches as he paced to and fro, meditating upon coming vintages and future marryings of wines. vine-leaves and bunches of grapes decorate some of the more ancient columns inside the church, and grotesque mediæval monsters, such as monkish architects habitually delighted in, entwine themselves around the capitals of others. the stalls of the choir are elaborately carved with cherubs' heads, medallions and figures of saints, cupids supporting shields, and free and graceful arabesques of the epoch of the renaissance. in the chancel, close by the altar-steps, are a couple of black-marble slabs, with latin inscriptions of dubious orthography, the one to johannes royer, who died in , and the other, which has been already cited in detail, setting forth the virtues and merits of dom petrus perignon, the discoverer of the effervescing qualities of champagne. in the central aisle a similar slab marks the resting-place of dom thedoricus ruynart--obit --an ancestor of the reims ruinarts; and little square stones interspersed among the tiles with which the side aisles of the church are paved record the deaths of other members of the benedictine brotherhood during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. several large pictures grace the walls of the church, the most interesting one representing st. nivard, bishop of reims, and his friend, st. berchier, designating to some mediæval architect the site which the contemplated abbey of st. peter is to occupy, as set forth in the legend already related. [illustration: from the abbey church, hautvillers.] [illustration: from the abbey church, hautvillers.] at a short distance from the abbey farm, messrs. moët & chandon have erected a tower, whence a splendid view, extending over the vineyards of cumières, hautvillers, dizy, and ay, with those lying on the opposite bank of the river, is to be obtained. gazing from here, it is easy to imagine the scene presented in the days when the abbey of st. peter still reared its stately walls, when louis chaumejan de tourille wore the abbatial insignia, and dom perignon displayed with equal pride as the badge of his office the key of the abbey cellars. over these slopes on a dewy autumn morning the latter's eyes, ere sealed in blindness, must have often wandered, and an unctuous chuckle must have welled up from between his lips as he marked the grapes steadily advancing towards maturity. we can fancy him pausing from time to time 'to breathe an ejaculatory prayer and a benediction on the vines,' although in those halcyon days there was neither oïdium nor phylloxera to be dreaded, and an extra taper or so to st. vincent, the patron of vine-dressers, sufficed to secure the crop from ordinary accidents of flood and field. when the epoch of the vintage arrived, and the slopes were all alive with bands of vintagers engaged in stripping the ripened purple bunches from the vines, and carefully transporting them to the winepress, one can picture dom perignon smiling contentedly at the report of the gray-haired bailiff that no such crop had been garnered for years before. and when the must began to gush forth as the stalwart bare-armed peasants tugged at the levers of the huge press on which m. de tourille had placed the glorifying inscription elsewhere cited, with what satisfaction must perignon have recognised a foreshadowing of that divine aroma which lends so exquisite a charm to the choice vintages of the champagne! later on we can imagine him entering the abbey cellar, stored with the results of his careful labours, as a 'sacred place, with a thoughtful, solemn, and reverent pace,' and softly chanting to himself, as he draws off a flagon of the best and choicest vintage which the gloomy vaults contain: 'ah, how the streamlet laughs and sings! what a delicious fragrance springs from the deep flagon as it fills, as of hyacinths and daffodils!' the vineyards of the côte d'epernay, on the southern bank of the marne, extend eastward from beyond boursault, on whose wooded height stands the fine château built by madame clicquot, and in which her granddaughter, the comtesse de mortemart, to-day resides. they then follow the course of the river, and, after winding round behind epernay, diverge towards the south-west. amongst them are the slopes of pierry, mardeuil, moussy, vinay, ablois, and chouilly, the last named situate somewhat apart from the rest to the east of epernay, and yielding a light wine, qualified as slightly purgative. the vines of the côte d'epernay produce only black grapes, and many of the vineyards are of great antiquity, the one known as the closet, near epernay, having been bequeathed under that name by a canon of laon named parchasius to the neighbouring abbey of st. martin six and a half centuries ago. [illustration: the village of pierry.] [illustration: vineyard wine-cellars at pierry.] a short drive along the high-road leading from epernay to orleans brings us to the village of pierry, cosily nestling amongst groves of poplars in the valley of the cubry, with some half-score of châteaux of the last century, belonging to well-to-do wine-growers of the neighbourhood, screened from the road by umbrageous gardens. vines mount the slopes that rise around, the higher summits being crowned with forest, while here and there some pleasant village shelters itself under the brow of a lofty hill. near pierry many cellars have been excavated in the chalky soil, to the flints so prevalent in which the village is said to owe its name. the entrances to these cellars are closed by iron gateways, and on the skirts of the vineyards we come upon whole rows of them picturesquely overgrown with ivy, and suggestive in appearance of catacombs. early in the last century the wine vintaged here in the clos st. pierre, belonging to an abbey of this name at châlons, acquired a high reputation through the care bestowed upon it by brother jean oudart, whose renown almost rivalled that of dom perignon himself; and to-day the pierry vineyards, producing exclusively black grapes, hold a high rank among the second-class crus of the marne.[ ] crossing the sourdon, a little stream which, after bubbling up in the midst of huge rocks in the forest of epernay, rushes down the hills, and then changes its name to the cubry, we soon reach moussy, where vineyards have been in existence for something like eight centuries; for we find enumerated in the list of bequests made to the hospital of st. mary at reims in the eleventh and twelfth centuries sundry 'vineas in moiseio' devised by such long-forgotten notabilities as pontius, priest and canon, tebaldus papilenticus, johannes de germania, and macela, wife of pepinus. spite, however, of their long pedigree and advantageous southern aspect, the moussy vineyards rank to-day merely as a second cru. continuing to skirt the vine-clad slopes we come to vinay, noted for an ancient grotto[ ]--the former comfortless abode of some rheumatic anchorite--and a pretended miraculous spring to which fever-stricken pilgrims to-day credulously resort. the water may possibly merit its renown; but the wine here produced is very inferior, due no doubt to the class of vines, the meunier being the leading variety cultivated. at ablois st. martin, once a fief of mary queen of scots, and picturesquely perched partway up a slope in the midst of hills covered with vines and crowned with forest trees, the côte d'epernay ends, and the produce becomes of a choicer character. as the côte d'avize lies to the south-east, to reach it we have to retrace our steps to pierry, and follow the road which there branches off, leaving on our right hand the vineyards of chavot, monthelon, and grauves, now of no particular note, although of undoubted antiquity, blanche of castille, countess of champagne, having endowed the abbey of argensolles, on its foundation in , with sundry strips of vineland, including one at grauves, possibly the vineyard of les roualles, which yields a wine not unlike certain growths of the mountain of reims. after passing through cuis, where the slopes, planted with both black and white varieties of vines, are extremely abrupt, and where simon la bole, man-at-arms of epernay, and his wife basile gave, in , 'four hogsheads of _vinage_ to be taken annually' to hugo, abbot of st. martin at epernay, we eventually reach cramant, one of the grand _premiers crus_ of the champagne. from the vineyards around this picturesque little village, and extending along the somewhat precipitous côte de saran--a prominent object, on which is m. moët's handsome château--there is vintaged a wine from white grapes, especially remarkable for lightness and delicacy and the richness of its bouquet, and an admixture of which is essential to every first-class champagne _cuvée_. from cramant the road runs direct to avize, a large thriving village, lying at the foot of vineyard slopes, where numerous champagne firms have established themselves. its prosperity dates from the commencement of the last century ( ), when the count de lhery, its feudal lord, cleared away the remains of its ancient ramparts, filled up the moat, and planted the ground with vines, the produce of which proved admirably suited for the sparkling wines then coming into vogue. prior to this the avize wine, made almost entirely from white grapes, fetched only from to francs the queue; but being found well adapted for the manufacture of the strongly-effervescent wine known as _saute-bouchon_, it soon commanded as much as francs, and the arpent of vineyard rose in value from to francs.[ ] to-day the light delicate wine of avize is classed, like that of cramant, as a _premier cru_, and it is the same with the wine of oger,[ ] lying a little to the south, while the neighbouring growths of le mesnil hold a slightly inferior rank. the latter village and its gray gothic church lie under the hill in the midst of vines that almost climb the forest-crowned summit. the stony soil hereabouts is said to be better adapted to the cultivation of white than of black grapes; besides which, the wines of le mesnil are remarkable for their effervescent properties. [illustration: le mesnil and its vineyards.] [illustration: view of vertus.] vertus forms the southern limit of the côte d'avize, and the vineyard slopes subsiding at their base into a broad expanse of fertile fields, and crested as usual with dense forest, rise up behind the picturesque old town, which is mentioned in a letter of the emperor louis and a charter of charles the bald in the ninth century. it was once strongly fortified, though a dilapidated gateway is all that to-day remains of the ancient ramparts, which failed to secure it in , when the english, under the 'comte de bouquingouan,' presumably buckingham, burnt the whole of the town except the abbey of st. martin, and elicited from the native poet, eustache deschamps, _dit_ morel, 'huissier d'armes' to charles vi. and castellan of fismes, a lamentation, wherein he fails not to mention the high renown of the local vintage.[ ] [illustration: old houses at vertus.] vertus can still boast a curious old church of the eleventh century, with solid romanesque towers, elaborate mouldings, and richly ornamented capitals; also a picturesque promenade, shaded with centenarian trees, together with several quaint old houses, including one with a florid gothic window surrounded by a border of grapes and vine-leaves, and another with a quaintly projecting corner turret, dominated by a conical roof. the vertus vineyards are mentioned in a charter of the abbey of ste. marie, dated . they were originally planted with vines from beaune in burgundy, and in the fourteenth century yielded a red wine held in high repute, of pleasant flavour, and rich in perfume,[ ] but which would appear to have been imbued with those purgative properties[ ] traceable in other growths of the champagne. the red wine of vertus formed the favourite beverage of william iii. of england, and was long in high repute. to-day, however, the growers find it more profitable to make white instead of red wine from their crops of black grapes, the former commanding a good price for conversion into _vin mousseux_, from being in the opinion of some manufacturers especially valuable for binding a _cuvée_ together. the vertus growths rank among the second-class champagne crus.[ ] [illustration: sillery and its vineyards.] ii. /the champagne vinelands--the vineyards of the mountain./ the wine of sillery--origin of its renown--the maréchale d'estrées a successful marchande de vin--the marquis de sillery the greatest wine-farmer in the champagne--cossack appreciation of the sillery produce--the route from reims to sillery--henri quatre and the taissy wines--failure of the jacquesson system of vine cultivation--château of sillery--wine-making at m. fortel's--sillery sec--the vintage at verzenay and the vendangeoirs--renown of the verzenay wine--the verzy vineyards--edward iii. at the abbey of st. basle--excursion from reims to bouzy--the herring procession at st. remi--rilly, chigny, and ludes--the knights templars' 'pot' of wine--mailly and the view over the champagne plains--wine-making at mailly--the village in the wood--château and park of louvois, louis le grand's war minister--the vineyards of bouzy--its church-steeple, and the lottery of the great gold ingot--pressing grapes at the werlé vendangeoir--still red bouzy--ambonnay--a pattern peasant vine-proprietor--the ambonnay vintage--the vineyards of ville-dommange and sacy, hermonville and st. thierry--the still red wine of the latter. [illustration: tower and gateway of the chÂteau de sillery.] the vineyards of the mountain of reims may be divided into two zones, one of which, known as the basse montagne, is situate north-west of reims, and comprises the vineyards of st. thierry, marsilly, hermonville, and others; whilst the more important zone lies to the south of the old cathedral city, and includes the better-known crus of sillery, verzy, verzenay, mailly, ludes, chigny, and rilly. the vinelands of bouzy and ambonnay are also reckoned within it, though situate somewhat apart on a southern slope of the mountain some few miles from the marne. the smallest of the champagne vineyards are those of sillery, and yet no wine of the marne enjoys a greater renown, due originally to the intelligence and energy of the family of the brularts, marquises of sillery and puisieux, to whom the estate originally belonged, and who seem to have devoted great attention to viticulture from certainly the middle of the seventeenth century. the reputation of the still wine of sillery, 'the highest manifestation of the divinity of bacchus in all france,' was firmly established at this epoch. 'as to m. de puyzieux,' writes st. evremond to his friend lord galloway in august , 'he acts wisely to fall in with the bad taste now in fashion concerning champagne in order to sell his own the better;' but at the same time he counsels his correspondent to get the marquis to make him 'a little barrel after the fashion in which it was made forty years before, prior to the existing depravation of taste.'[ ] the marquis here referred to was roger brulart, governor of epernay, who was himself a joyous _bon vivant_, and died from over-indulgence in the good things provided at a dinner given by the chartreux in .[ ] he was succeeded by his nephew, louis philogène brulart, marquis de sillery et de puisieux, to whom, in , on the occasion of his marriage with mademoiselle de souvré, granddaughter of louvois, the sieurs quatresous and chertemps presented at his château of sillery, on behalf of the town of epernay, a basket of one hundred flasks of wine.[ ] he died in , leaving an only daughter, adelaïde félicité brulart de sillery, married, in , to louis césar le tellier, maréchal duc d'estrées. the wine attained its apogee under the fostering care of the maréchale d'estrées, to whom not only this cru, but those of mailly, verzy, and verzenay belonged, and who concentrated their joint produce in the capacious cellars of her château, afterwards sending it forth with her own guarantee, under the general name of sillery, which, like aaron's serpent, thus swallowed up the others. the maréchale's social position enabled her to secure for her wines the recognition they really merited, being made with the utmost care and a rare intelligence, shown by the removal of every unripe, rotten, or imperfect grape from the bunches before pressing, so that the _vin de la maréchale_, as it was styled, became famous throughout europe.[ ] this lady is not to be confounded with that other maréchale d'estrées mentioned by st. simon, noted for her exquisite and magnificent although rare entertainments, and so sordid that when her daughter, who was covered with jewels, fell down at a ball, her first cry was, not like shylock's, 'my daughter!' but 'my diamonds!' as, rushing forward, she strove to pick up, not the fallen dancer, but her scattered gems. later owners of the famous sillery cru did their best to sustain its reputation, and arthur young, who stopped here in , speaks of the marquis de sillery as 'the greatest wine-farmer in the champagne,' having on his own hands arpents of vines, and cellar-room for a couple of hundred pièces of wine.[ ] among more recent appreciation of the merits of sillery sec may be mentioned the cossacks, who pillaged the district in , and who, not being able to carry off all the wine from the cellar of the count de valence at sillery, stove in some thirty pièces of the best, and set the place afloat.[ ] the drive from reims to sillery has nothing attractive about it. a long, straight, level road bordered by trees intersects a broad tract of open country, skirted on the right by the petite montagne of reims, with antiquated villages nestled among the dense woodland. after crossing the châlons line of railway--near where one of the new forts constructed for the defence of reims rises up behind the villages and vineyards of cernay and nogent l'abbesse--the country becomes more undulating. poplars border the broad marne canal, and a low fringe of foliage marks the course of the languid river vesle, on the banks of which is taissy, famous in the old days for its wines, great favourites with sully, and which almost lured henri quatre from his allegiance to the vintages of ay and arbois that he loved so well.[ ] to the left rises mont de la pompelle, where the first christians of reims suffered martyrdom, and where, in , the spaniards under montal, when attempting to ravage the vineyards of the district, were repulsed with terrible slaughter by the rémois militia, led on by grandpré. a quarter of a century ago the low ground on our right near sillery was planted with vines by the late m. jacquesson, the then owner of the sillery estate, and a large champagne manufacturer at châlons, who was anxious to resuscitate the ancient reputation of the domain. under the advice of dr. guyot, the well-known writer on viticulture, he planted the vines in deep trenches, which led to the vineyards being punningly termed jacquesson's _celery_ beds. to shield the vines from hailstorms prevalent in the district, and the more dangerous spring frosts, so fatal to vines planted in low-lying situations, long rolls of straw-matting were stored close at hand with which to roof them over when needful. these precautions were scarcely needed, however; the vines languished through moisture at the roots, and eventually were mostly rooted up. [illustration: henri quatre.] [illustration: chÂteau de sillery.] after again crossing the railway we pass the trim restored turrets of the famous château of sillery, with its gateways, moats, and drawbridges, flanked by trees and floral _parterres_. it was here that the stout squire laurent pichiet kept watch and ward over the 'forte maison de sillery' on behalf of the archbishop of reims at the close of the fourteenth century, that the maréchale d'estrées carried on her successful business as a _marchande de vins_, and that the pragmatic and pedantic comtesse de genlis, governess of the orleans princes, spent, as she tells us, the happiest days of her life. the few thriving vineyards of sillery cover a gentle eminence which rises out of the plain, and present on the one side an eastern and on the other a western aspect. they have fallen somewhat from their high estate since the days when old coffin of beauvais university sang their praises in latin: 'let horace the charms of old massica own, and the praise of falernian sound; such wines, although famous, must bow to that grown on sillery's fortunate ground.'[ ] to-day the vicomte de brimont and m. fortel of reims, the latter of whom cultivates some forty acres of vines, yielding ordinarily about hogsheads, are the only wine-growers at sillery. before pressing his grapes--of course for sparkling wine--m. fortel has them thrown into a trough, at the bottom of which are a couple of grooved cylinders, each about eight inches in diameter, and revolving in contrary directions, the effect of which, when set in motion, is to disengage the grapes partially from their stalks. grapes and stalks are then placed under the press, which is on the old cider-press principle, and the must runs into a reservoir beneath, whence it is pumped into large vats, each holding from to gallons. here it remains from six to eight hours, and is then run off into casks, the spigots of which are merely laid lightly over the holes, and in the course of twelve days the wine begins to ferment. it now rests until the end of the year, when it is drawn off into new casks and delivered to the buyer, invariably one or other of the great champagne houses, who willingly pay an exceptionally high price for it. the second and third pressures of the grapes yield an inferior wine, and from the husks and stalks _eau-de-vie_, worth about five shillings a gallon, is distilled. the wine known as sillery sec is a full, dry, pleasant-flavoured, and somewhat spirituous amber-coloured wine. very little of it is made nowadays, and most that is comes from the adjacent vineyards of verzenay and mailly, and is principally reserved by the growers for their own consumption. one of these candidly admitted that the old reputation of the wine had exploded, and that better white bordeaux and burgundy wines were to be obtained for less money. in making dry sillery, which locally is esteemed as a valuable tonic, it is essential that the grapes should be subjected to only slight pressure; while to have it in perfection it is equally essential that the wine should be kept for ten years in the wood according to some, and eight years in bottle according to others, to which circumstance its high price is in all probability to be attributed. in course of time it forms a deposit, and has the disadvantage common to all the finer still wines of the champagne district of not travelling well. beyond sillery the vineyards of verzenay unfold themselves, spreading over the extensive slopes and stretching to the summit of the steep height to the right, where a windmill or two are perched. everywhere the vintagers are busy detaching the grapes with their little hook-shaped _serpettes_, the women all wearing projecting close-fitting bonnets, as though needlessly careful of their anything but blonde complexions. long carts laden with baskets of grapes block the narrow roads, and donkeys, duly muzzled, with panniers slung across their backs, toil up and down the steeper slopes. half-way up the principal hill, backed by a dense wood and furrowed with deep trenches, whence soil has been removed for manuring the vineyards, is the village of verzenay--where in the middle ages the archbishop of reims had a fief--overlooking a veritable sea of vines. rising up in front of the old gray cottages, encompassed by orchards or gardens, are the white walls and long red roofs of the vendangeoirs belonging to the great champagne houses--moët & chandon, clicquot, g. h. mumm, roederer, deutz & geldermann, and others--all teeming with bustle and excitement, and with the vines almost reaching to their very doors. messrs. moët & chandon have as many as eight presses in full work, and own no less than acres of vines on the neighbouring slopes, besides the clos de romont--in the direction of sillery, and yielding a wine of the sillery type--belonging to m. raoul chandon. verzenay ranks as a _premier cru_, and for three years in succession-- , , and --its wines fetched a higher price than either those of ay or bouzy. in the _vin brut_ commanded the exceptionally large sum of francs the hogshead of gallons. all the inhabitants of verzenay are vine-proprietors, and several million francs are annually received by them for the produce of their vineyards from the manufacturers of champagne. the wine of verzenay, remarkable for its body and vinosity, has always been held in high repute,[ ] which is apparently more than can be said of the probity of the inhabitants, for, according to an old champagne saying, 'whenever at verzenay "stop thief" is cried every one takes to his heels.' [illustration: the vineyards of verzenay.] [illustration: device above entrance to vendangeoir at verzenay.] just over the mountain of reims is the village of verzy, the vine-growers of which distinguished themselves in the fifteenth century by their resistance to the officials sent to levy the 'aide en gros' of two sols per queue, imposed by louis xi. on all wine made within a radius of four miles of reims. the verzy vineyards--ranked to-day as a second cru--date at least from the days of the knights templars, when the commanderie of reims had 'two vineyards near the abbey' here. they adjoin those of verzenay, and are almost exclusively planted with white grapes, the only instance of the kind to be met with in the district. in the clos st. basse, however--taking its name from the abbey of st. basle, of which the village was a dependency, and where edward iii. of england had his head-quarters during the siege of reims--black grapes alone are grown, and its produce is almost on a par with the wines of verzenay. immediately prior to the revolution, one-fourth of the inhabitants of verzy were landholders, each cultivating about five arpents of vines, and obtaining therefrom, on an average, twenty poinçons, out of which the abbey exacted one and three-quarters for 'droits de dimes et de banalité de pressoir.' southwards of verzy are the third-class crus of villers-marmery and trépail, the former of which was of some repute in the middle ages. [illustration: portion of frieze of old house, rue du barbatre, reims.] we made several excursions to the vineyards of bouzy, driving out of reims along the ancient rue du barbâtre and past the quaint old church of st. remi, one of the sights of the champagne capital, and notable, among other things, for its magnificent ancient stained-glass windows, and the handsome modern tomb of the popular rémois saint. it was here in the middle ages that that piece of priestly mummery, the procession of the herrings, used to take place at dusk on the wednesday before easter. preceded by a cross, the canons of the church marched in double file up the aisles, each trailing a cord after him, with a herring attached. every one's object was to tread on the herring in front of him, and prevent his own herring from being trodden upon by the canon who followed behind--a difficult enough proceeding, which, if it did not edify, certainly afforded much amusement to the lookers-on. [illustration: ancient well, rue du barbatre, reims.] after crossing the canal and the river vesle, and leaving the gray antiquated-looking village of cormontreuil on our left, we traversed a wide stretch of cultivated country streaked with patches of woodland, with occasional windmills dotting the distant heights, and villages nestling among the trees up the mountain-sides and in the quiet hollows. soon a few vineyards occupying the lower slopes, and thronged by bands of vintagers, came in sight, and the country too grew more picturesque. we passed successively on our right hand rilly, a former fief of the archbishop of reims, and noted for its capital red wine; then chigny, where the abbot of st. remi had a vineyard as early as the commencement of the thirteenth century; and afterwards ludes,--all three of them situated more or less up the mountain, with vines in every direction, relieved by a dark background of forest-trees. in the old days, the knights templars of the commanderie of reims had the right of _vinage_ at ludes, and exacted their modest 'pot' (about half a gallon) per pièce on all the wine the village produced. on our left hand is mailly, the vineyards of which join those of verzenay, and, though classed only as a second cru, yielding a wine noted for _finesse_ and bouquet, identified by some as the vintage which was recommended in the ninth century to bishop hincmar of reims by his _confrère_, pardulus of laon. from the wooded knolls hereabouts a view is gained of the broad plains of the champagne, dotted with white villages and scattered homesteads among the poplars and the limes, the winding vesle glittering in the sunlight, and the dark towers of notre dame de reims, with all their rich gothic fretwork, rising majestically above the distant city. at one vendangeoir we visited, at mailly, between and pièces of wine were being made at the rate of some thirty pièces during the long day of twenty hours, five men being engaged in working the old-fashioned press, closely resembling a cider-press, and applying its pressure longitudinally. this ancient press doubtless differs but little from the one which the chapter of reims cathedral possessed at mailly in . as soon as the must was expressed it was emptied into large vats, holding about gallons, and in these it remained for several days before being drawn off into casks. of the above thirty pièces, twenty resulting from the first pressure were of the finest quality, while four produced by the second pressure were partly reserved to replace what the first might lose during fermentation, the residue serving for second-class champagne. the six pièces which came from the final pressure, after being mixed with common wine of the district, were converted into champagne of an inferior quality. [illustration: the vineyards of bouzy.] we now crossed the mountain, sighting ville-en-selve--the village in the wood--among the distant trees, and eventually reached louvois, whence the grand monarque's domineering war minister derived his marquisate, and where his château, a plain but capacious edifice, may still be seen nestled in a picturesque and fertile valley, and surrounded by lordly pleasure-grounds. château and park are to-day the property of m. frédéric chandon, who has bestowed much care on the restoration of the former. soon after we left louvois the vineyards of bouzy appeared in sight, with the prosperous-looking little village rising out of the plain at the foot of the vine-clad slopes stretching to ambonnay, and the glittering marne streaking the hazy distance. the commodious new church is said to have been indebted for its spire to the lucky gainer--who chanced to be a native of bouzy--of the great gold ingot lottery prize, value , _l._, drawn in paris some years ago. the bouzy vineyards occupy a series of gentle inclines, and have the advantage of a full southern aspect. the soil, which is of the customary calcareous formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the presence of iron, to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its distinguishing characteristics--its delicacy, spirituousness, and pleasant bouquet. vintagers were passing slowly in between the vines, and carts laden with grapes came rolling over the dusty roads. the mountain which rises behind the vineyards is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at its summit, and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the swift-descending winter torrents. [illustration: the vendangeoir of m. werlÉ at bouzy.] the principal vineyard proprietors at bouzy, which ranks, of course, as a _premier cru_, are m. werlé, m. irroy, and messrs. moët & chandon, the first and last of whom have capacious vendangeoirs here, m. irroy's pressing-house being in the neighbouring village of ambonnay. m. werlé possesses at bouzy from forty to fifty acres of the finest vines, forming a considerable proportion of the entire vineyard area. at the clicquot-werlé vendangeoir, containing as many as eight presses, about pièces of wine are made annually. at the time of our visit, grapes gathered that morning were in course of delivery, the big basketfuls being measured off in caques--wooden receptacles holding two-and-twenty gallons--while the florid-faced foreman ticked them off with a piece of chalk on the head of an adjacent cask. as soon as the contents of some half-hundred or so of these baskets had been emptied on to the floor of the press, the grapes undetached from their stalks were smoothed compactly down, and a moderate pressure was applied to them by turning a huge wheel, which caused the screw of the press to act--a gradual squeeze rather than a powerful one, and given all at once, coaxing out, it was said, the finer qualities of the fruit. the operation was repeated as many as six times; the yield from the three first pressures being reserved for conversion into champagne, while the result of the fourth squeeze would be applied to replenishing the loss, averaging - / per cent, sustained by the must during fermentation. whatever comes from the fifth pressure is sold to make an inferior champagne. the grapes are subsequently well raked about, and then subjected to a couple of final squeezes, known as the _rébêche_, and yielding a sort of _piquette_, given to the workmen employed at the pressoir to drink. the small quantity of still red bouzy wine made by m. werlé at the same vendangeoir only claims to be regarded as a wine of especial mark in good years. the grapes, before being placed beneath the press, are allowed to remain in a vat for as many as eight days. the must undergoes a long fermentation, and after being drawn off into casks is left undisturbed for a couple of years. in bottle--where, by the way, it invariably deposits a sediment, which is indeed the case with all the wines of the champagne, still or sparkling--it will outlive, we were told, any burgundy. still red bouzy has a marked and agreeable bouquet and a most delicate flavour, is deliciously smooth to the palate, and to all appearances is as light as a wine of bordeaux, while in reality it is quite as strong as burgundy, to the finer crus of which it bears a slight resemblance. it was, we learnt, very susceptible to travelling, a mere journey to paris being, it was said, sufficient to sicken it, and impart such a shock to its delicate constitution that it was unlikely to recover from it. to attain perfection, this wine, which is what the french term a _vin vif_, penetrating into the remotest corners of the organ of taste, requires to be kept a couple of years in wood and half a dozen or more years in bottle. [illustration: the ambonnay vineyards.] from bouzy it was only a short distance along the base of the vine-slopes to ambonnay, where there are merely two or three hundred acres of vines, and where we found the vintage almost over. the village is girt with fir-trees, and surrounded with rising ground fringed either with solid belts or slender strips of foliage. an occasional windmill cuts against the horizon, which is bounded here and there by scattered trees. inquiring for the largest vine-proprietor, we were directed to an open porte-cochère, and on entering the large court encountered half a dozen labouring men engaged in various farming occupations. addressing one whom we took to be the foreman, he referred us to a wiry little old man, in shirt-sleeves and sabots, absorbed in the refreshing pursuit of turning over a big heap of rich manure with a fork. he proved to be m. oury, the owner of we forget how many acres of vines, and a remarkably intelligent peasant, considering what dunderheads the french peasants as a rule are, who had raised himself to the position of a large vine-proprietor. doffing his sabots and donning a clean blouse, he conducted us into his little salon, a freshly-painted apartment about eight feet square, of which the huge fireplace occupied fully one-third, and submitted patiently to our catechising. at ambonnay, as at bouzy, they had that year, m. oury said, only half an average crop; the caque of grapes had, moreover, sold for exactly the same price at both places, and the wine had realised about francs the pièce. each hectare ( - / acres) of vines had yielded caques of grapes, weighing some - / tons, which produced - / pièces, equal to gallons of wine, or at the rate of gallons per acre. here the grapes were pressed four times, the yield from the second pressure being used principally to make good the loss which the first sustained during its fermentation. as the squeezes given were powerful ones, all the best qualities of the grapes were by this time extracted, and the yield from the third and fourth pressures would not command more than eighty francs the pièce. the vintagers who came from a distance received either a franc and a half per day and their food, consisting of three meals, or two francs and a half without food, the children being paid thirty sous. m. oury further informed us that every year vineyards came into the market, and found ready purchasers at from fifteen to twenty thousand francs the hectare, equal to an average price of _l._ the acre, which, although ambonnay is classed merely as a second cru, has since risen in particular instances to upwards of _l._ per acre. owing to the properties being divided into such infinitesimal portions, they were not always bought up by the large champagne houses, who objected to be embarrassed with the cultivation of such tiny plots, preferring rather to buy the produce from their owners. there are other vineyards of lesser note in the neighbourhood of reims producing very fair wines, which enter more or less into the composition of champagne, and almost all of which can boast of a pedigree extending back at least to the middle ages. noticeable among these are ville-dommange and sacy, south-west of reims. at sacy the abbey of st. remi had a vineyard in ; and in the return of church property made in , the doyen of the cathedral is credited with 'rentes de vin' and about six _jours_ of vineland here, the convent of clermares at reims owning a piece of 'vigne gonesse.' north-west of the city the best-known vineyards are those of hermonville--mentioned likewise at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and in the return which we have just quoted--and st. thierry, where the black prince took up his quarters during the siege of reims, and where gerard de la roche wrought such havoc amongst the vines in the twelfth century, to the great indignation of their monkish owners. the still red wine of st. thierry, which recalls the growths of the médoc by its tannin, and those of the côte d'or by its vinosity, is to-day almost a thing of the past, it being found here, as elsewhere, more profitable to press the grapes for sparkling in preference to still wine. [illustration: labourers at work in the early spring in m. ernest irroy's bouzy vineyards.] iii. /the vines of the champagne and the system of cultivation./ a combination of circumstances essential to the production of good champagne--varieties of vines cultivated in the champagne vineyards--different classes of vine-proprietors--cost of cultivation--the soil of the vineyards--period and system of planting the vines--the operation of 'provenage'--the 'taille' or pruning, the 'bêchage' or digging--fixing the vine-stakes--great cost of the latter--manuring and shortening back the vines--the summer hoeing around the plants--removal of the stakes after the vintage--precautions adopted against spring frosts--the guyot system of roofing the vines with matting--forms a shelter from rain, hail, and frost, and aids the ripening of the grapes--various pests that prey upon the champagne vines--destruction caused by the eumolpe, the chabot, the bêche, the cochylus, and the pyrale--attempts made to check the ravages of the latter with the electric light. [illustration: carrying manure to the vineyards.] good champagne does not rain down from the clouds, or gush out from the rocks, but is the result of incessant labour, patient skill, minute precaution, and careful observation. in the first place, the soil imparts to the natural wine a special quality which it has been found impossible to imitate in any other quarter of the globe. to the wine of ay it lends a flavour of peaches, and to that of avenay the savour of strawberries; the vintage of hautvillers, though somewhat fallen from its former high estate, is yet marked by an unmistakably nutty taste; while that of pierry smacks of the locally-abounding flint, the well-known _pierre à fusil_ flavour. so, on the principle that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, the produce of grapes grown in the more favoured vineyards is added in definite proportions, in order to secure certain special characteristics, as well as to maintain a fixed standard of excellence. while it is admitted that climate is not without its influence in imparting a delicate sweetness and aroma, combined with finesse and lightness, to the wine, some authorities maintain that to the careful selection of the vines best suited to the soil and temperature of the district the excellence of genuine champagne is mainly to be ascribed. four descriptions of vines are chiefly cultivated in the champagne, three of them yielding black grapes, and all belonging to the pineau variety, from which the grand burgundy wines are produced, and so styled from the clusters taking the conical form of the pine. the first is the franc pineau, the plant doré of ay, with its closely-jointed shoots and small leaves, producing squat bunches of small round grapes, with thickish skins of a bluish-black tint, and sweet and refined in flavour. the next is the plant vert doré, with its leaves of vivid green, more robust and more productive than the former, but yielding a less generous wine, and the berries of which, growing in compact pyramidal bunches, are dark and oval, very thin-skinned, and remarkably sweet and juicy. the third variety, extensively planted in the vineyards of verzy and verzenay, is the plant gris, or burot, as it is styled in the côte d'or, a somewhat delicate vine, whose fruit has a brownish tinge, and yields a light and perfumed wine. the remaining species is a white grape known as the épinette, a variety of the pineau blanc, and supposed by some to be identical with the chardonnet of burgundy, which yields the famous wine of montrachet. it is met with all along the côte d'avize, notably at cramant, the delicate and elegant wine of which ranks immediately after that of ay and verzenay. the épinette is a prolific bearer, and its round transparent golden berries, which hang in somewhat straggling clusters amongst its dark-green leaves, are both juicy and sweet. it ripens, however, much later than either of the black varieties. [illustration: types of the champagne vines in bearing.] there are several other species of vines cultivated in the champagne vineyards, notably the common meunier, or miller, prevalent in the valley of epernay, which bears black grapes, and takes its name from the young leaves appearing to have been sprinkled with flour. this variety being more hardy than the franc pineau is replacing the latter on the lower parts of the slopes, which are the most exposed to frosts--a regrettable circumstance, as it impairs the quality of the wine. there are also the black and white gouais; the meslier, a prolific white variety yielding a wine of fair quality; the black and white gamais, the leading grape in the mâconnais, and chiefly found in some of the vertus vineyards; together with the tourlon, the marmot, the cohéras, the plant doux, and half a score of others. the land in the champagne, as in other parts of france, is minutely subdivided, and it has been estimated that the , acres of vines are divided amongst no less than , proprietors. a few of the principal champagne firms are large owners of vineyards; and as the value of the soil has more than quadrupled within the last thirty years, even the smallest peasant proprietors have cause for congratulation.[ ] these latter cultivate their vineyards themselves; while the larger landowners employ labourers, termed _forains_ when coming from a distance and working by the week for their lodging, food, and from to francs wages, or _tâcherons_ when paid by the job. the last-mentioned class usually contract to cultivate and dress an arpent of vines, exclusive of the vintage, at from _l._ to _l._ per annum. in the champagne the old rule holds good--poor soil, rich product, grand wine in moderate quantity. the soil of the vineyards is chalk, with a mixture of silica and light clay, combined with a varying proportion of oxide of iron. many of the best have a substratum of stones and sand, and a thin superstratum of vegetable earth. the ruddier the soil, and consequently the more impregnated with ferruginous earth, the better suited it is found to the cultivation of black grapes; whilst the gray or yellowish soils, such as abound in the côte d'avize, are preferable for the white varieties. [illustration: manuring the newly-planted young vines.] the vines are almost invariably planted on rising ground, the lower slopes, which seldom escape the spring frosts, producing the best wines. the vines are placed very close together, there often being as many as six within a square yard, and the result is that they reciprocally impoverish each other. planting takes place between november and april, the vine-growers of the river being usually in advance of those of the mountain in this operation. plants two or three years old and raised in nurseries are usually made use of. these are placed either in holes or trenches. the roots have a little earth sprinkled over them, to which a liberal supply of manure or compost is added, and the holes having been filled up and trodden, the vines are pruned down to a couple of buds above the ground. [illustration: vine prepared for 'provinage.'] in the course of two or three years they are ready for the operation of 'provinage,' or layering, a method of multiplication universally practised in the champagne. this consists in burying in a trench, from six to eight inches deep dug on one side of the plant, two or more of the principal shoots, left when the vine was pruned for this especial purpose. the whole of the two-years'-old wood is thus buried, and the ends of the shoots of one-year-old, which are left above ground, are cut down to the second bud. the shoots thus laid underground are dressed with a light manure, and in course of time take root and form new vines, which bear during their second year. this operation is performed simultaneously with the 'bêchage' in the early spring, and is annually repeated until the vine is five years old, the plants thus being in a state of continual progression; a system which accounts for the juvenescent aspect of the champagne vineyards, where none of the wood of the vines showing above ground is more than three years old. [illustration: plan of 'provinage À l'Écart' in a newly-planted vineyard.] the two principal plans adopted in provining are styled the 'écart' and the 'avance.' in the first, which is usually followed in newly-planted vineyards, the two shoots are carried forward to the right and left--so as to form the two base points of an equilateral triangle, of which the point of departure is the summit--and are maintained in this position by the aid of wooden or iron pegs. in the 'provinage à l'avance' both shoots are carried forward in the same direction, and sometimes a variation embodying the two systems is employed. [illustration: provinage À l'Écart.] [illustration: provinage À l'avance.] when the vine has attained its fifth year it is allowed to rest for a couple of years, and then the provining is resumed, the shoots being dispersed in any direction throughout the vineyard, so as to fill up vacancies. the plants remain in this condition henceforward, merely requiring to be renewed from time to time by judicious provining. for instance, it is sometimes found necessary to bend one of the shoots round into a circle, so that its end may issue from the ground at the point occupied by the parent stock. the system of provinage is sometimes carried to excess in the champagne, with a view of increasing the yield of wine, which suffers, however, in quality. the network of roots, too, renders the various operations of cultivation difficult and dangerous, as they are liable to be injured by the short-handled hoe in universal use among the champenois vine-dressers. [illustration: triple 'provinage' to replace the parent stock.] viticulturists inclined to make experiments have tried the system of arranging the vines in transverse and longitudinal lines, quincunxes, &c., or have replaced their vine-stakes with iron wires supported by wooden pickets. some of these experiments have proved successful, although none of them are as yet in general use. [illustration: vine dresser's hoe.] [illustration: vine prior to the february pruning, showing the extent of root.] the first operation of importance carried out during the year in the vineyards is the 'taille,' or pruning, which takes place in february, and consists in cutting away the superfluous shoots, simply leaving one--or, if it is intended to multiply by provinage, two--on each stock. this is followed about march or april by the 'bêchage,' or 'hoyerie'--that is, the digging round the roots of the vine--with which is combined the provinage. a trench being opened, as already noted, and the vine laid bare to the roots, it is bent down so that, on filling up the trench with earth and manure, the stock is entirely covered and only the new wood appears above ground. this new wood is then shortened back, and the stakes intended for the support of the vines are fixed in the ground. these stakes are set up in the spring of the year by men or women, the former of whom force them into the ground by pressing against them with their chest, which is protected with a shield of wood. the women use a mallet, or have recourse to a special appliance, in working which the foot plays the principal part. the latter method is the least fatiguing, and in some localities is practised by the men. an expert labourer will set up as many as stakes in the course of the day. when of oak these stakes cost sixty francs the thousand; and as the close system of plantation followed in the champagne renders the employment of no less than , stakes necessary on every acre of land, the cost per acre of propping up the vines amounts to upwards of _l._, or more than treble what it is in the médoc and quadruple what it is in burgundy. the stakes last only some fifteen years, and their renewal forms a serious item in the vine-grower's budget. [illustration: vines in february after the 'taille.'] [illustration: the 'bÊchage' of the vines.] [illustration: putting stakes to the vines in the spring.] [illustration: apparatus for fixing vine-stakes.] [illustration: unstacking the vine-stakes.] [illustration: newly-staked vines after the 'bÊchage.'] [illustration: vines in autumn after the vintage.] in may or june, after the vines have been hoed around their roots, they are secured to the stakes, and their tops are broken off at a shoot to prevent them from growing above the regulation height, which is ordinarily from to inches. they are liberally manured with a kind of compost formed of the loose friable soil termed 'cendre'--dug out from the sides of the hills, and of supposed volcanic origin--mixed with animal and vegetable refuse. the vines are shortened back while in flower, and in the course of the summer the ground is hoed a second and a third time, the object being, first, to destroy the superficial roots of the vines and force the plants to live solely on their deep roots; and secondly, to remove all pernicious weeds from round about them. after the third hoeing, which takes place in the middle of august, the vines are left to themselves until the period of the vintage, excepting that some growers remove a portion of the leaves in order that the grapes may receive the full benefit of the sun, and raise up those bunches that rest upon the ground. the vintage over, the stakes supporting the vines are pulled up later in the autumn and stacked in compact masses, styled 'moyères,' with their ends out of the ground, or else 'en chevalet,' the vine, which is left curled up in a heap, remaining undisturbed until the winter, when the earth around it is loosened. in the month of february following the vine is pruned and subsequently sunk into the earth, as already described, so as to leave only the new wood above ground. owing to the vines being planted so closely together they naturally starve one another, and numbers of them perish. whenever this is the case, or the stems chance to get broken during the vintage, their places are filled up by provining. [illustration: stacking stakes 'en chevalet.'] [illustration: stacking stakes in a 'moyÈre.'] the vignerons of the champagne regard the numerous stakes which support the vines as affording some protection against the white frosts of the spring. to guard against the dreaded effects of these frosts, which invariably occur between early dawn and sunrise, and the loss arising from which is estimated to amount annually to per cent, some of the cultivators place heaps of hay, fagots, dead leaves, &c., about twenty yards apart, taking care to keep them moderately damp. when a frost is feared the heaps on the side of a vineyard whence the wind blows are set light to, whereupon the dense smoke which rises spreads horizontally over the vines, producing the same result as an actual cloud, intercepting the rays of the sun, warming the atmosphere, and converting the frost into dew. among other methods adopted to shield the vines from frosts is the joining of branches of broom together in the form of a fan, and afterwards fastening them to the end of a pole, which is placed obliquely in the ground, so that the fan may incline over the vine and protect it from the sun's rays. a single labourer can plant, it is said, as many as eight thousand of these fans in the ground during a long day. [illustration: unrolling matting for roofing the vines with.] dr. guyot's system of roofing the vines with straw matting, to protect them alike against frosts and hailstorms, is very generally followed in low situations in the champagne, the value of the wine admitting of so considerable an expense being incurred. this matting, which is made about a foot and a half in width, and in rolls of great length, is fastened either with twine or wire to the vine-stakes; and it is estimated that half a dozen men can fix nearly , yards of it, or sufficient to roof over - / acres of vines, during an ordinary day. to carry out the system properly, a double row of tall and short stakes connected with iron wires has to be provided. the matting can then be used as a shelter to the young vines in spring, as a south wall to aid the ripening of the grapes in summer, and as a protection against rain and autumn frosts. [illustration: matting arranged to aid the ripening of the grapes.] [illustration: matting arranged to protect the vines against autumn frosts.] owing to the system of cultivation by rejuvenescence, and the constant replenishing of the soil by well-compounded manures, the champenois wine-growers entertain great hopes that their vineyards will escape the ravages of the phylloxera vastatrix. they certainly deserve such an immunity, for, according to dr. plonquet of ay, they are already the prey of no less than fifteen varieties of insects, which feed upon the leaves, stalks, roots, or fruit of the vines. one of the most destructive of these is the eumolpe, gribouri, or écrivain as it is popularly styled, from the traces it leaves upon the vine-leaves bearing some resemblance to lines of writing. it is a species of beetle, the larvæ of which pass the winter amongst the roots of the vine, and in the spring attack the young leaves and buds, their ravages often proving fatal to the plant. then there is the chabot, which has caused great destruction at verzy and verzenay; the attelabe, cunche, or bêche, which rolls up the leaves of the vine like cigars, and seems to be identical with the hurebet or urbec of the middle ages; and the cochylis, teigne, or vintage-worm, which develops into a white-and-black butterfly, producing in the course of the year two generations of larvæ, having the form of small red caterpillars, one of which attacks the blossoms of the vine, while the second pierces and destroys the grapes themselves. the list of foes further comprises the altise, a kind of beetle allied to the gribouri; the liset or coupe-bourgeon, a tiny worm assailing the first sprouting shoots; and the hanneton or cockchafer. [illustration: matting arranged to keep off rain or hail.] [illustration: the pyrale.] the greatest havoc, however, appears to be wrought by the pyrale, a species of caterpillar, which feeds on the young leaves, flowers, and shoots until the vine is left completely bare. the larva of this insect, after passing the winter either in the crevices of the stakes or in the cracks in the bark of the vine, emerges in the spring, devours leaves, buds, and shoots indifferently, and eventually becomes transformed into a small yellow-and-brown butterfly, which deposits its eggs amongst the bunches of grapes in july. between and the vineyards of ay were devastated by the pyrale, which, like the locusts of scripture, spared no green thing; and all the efforts made to rid them of this scourge proved ineffectual until the wet and cold weather of put a stop to the insect's ravages.[ ] more recently it was discovered that its attacks could be checked by sulphurous acid, or by scalding the stakes and the vine-stocks with boiling water during the winter. nevertheless, it appeared impossible to check its destructiveness at ay, where it made its reappearance in , and caused an immense amount of damage. on this occasion an ingenious gentleman, m. testulat gaspar, was seized with the idea of combating the pyrale by means of the electric light. his theory was, that on a powerful light being exhibited in a central position at midnight amongst the vineyards, with a number of tin reflectors distributed in every direction around, the butterflies, roused from slumber, would wing their way in myriads towards the latter, when their flight could be arrested by sheets of muslin stretched between poles, smeared with honey and baited with a dash of champagne liqueur. the theory was put to the test in august , amongst the vineyards between dizy and ay, where the pyrale was committing the greatest ravages. the light was turned on, and the butterflies rose 'in millions;' but they failed to flock to the reflectors, and the honey-smeared muslin proved quite useless to secure the few which came in contact with it. [illustration: a vintage scene in the champagne.] iv. /the vintage in the champagne./ period of the champagne vintage--vintagers summoned by beat of drum--early morning the best time for plucking the grapes--excitement in the neighbouring villages at vintage-time--vintagers at work--mules employed to convey the gathered grapes down the steeper slopes--the fruit carefully examined before being taken to the wine-press--arrival of the grapes at the vendangeoir--they are subjected to three squeezes, and then to the 'rébêche'--the must is pumped into casks and left to ferment--only a few of the vine-proprietors in the champagne press their own grapes--the prices the grapes command--air of jollity throughout the district during the vintage--every one is interested in it, and profits by it--vintagers' fête on st. vincent's-day--endless philandering between the sturdy sons of toil and the sunburnt daughters of labour. [illustration: wine-press in the champagne.] when the weather has been exceedingly propitious, the vintage in the champagne commences as early as the third week in september, and in good average years the pickers set to work during the first week of october. if, however, the summer has been an indifferent one, and only an inferior vintage is looked forward to, it is scarcely before the latter half of october that the gathering of the grapes is proceeded with. there is no vintage-ban in the champagne, as in burgundy and other parts of france; but, as a rule, the growers of ay and of the neighbouring slopes commence operations a week or more earlier than those of the mountain of reims, whilst around cramant and avize, the white-grape region, the vintagers usually set to work when in the other districts they have nearly finished. [illustration: the champagne vintage in the neighbourhood of epernay.] the pleasantest season of the year to visit the champagne is certainly during the vintage. when this is about to commence, the vintagers--some of whom come from sainte menehould, forty miles distant, while others hail from as far as lorraine--are summoned at daybreak by beat of drum in the market-places of the villages adjacent to the vineyards, and then and there a price is made for the day's labour. this, as we have already explained, is generally either a franc and a half, with food consisting of three meals, or two francs and a half, rising on exceptional occasions to three francs, without food, children being paid a franc and a half. the rate of wage satisfactorily arranged, the gangs start off to the vineyards, headed by their overseers. the picking ordinarily commences with daylight, and the vintagers assert that the grapes gathered at sunrise always produce the lightest and most limpid wine. moreover by plucking the grapes when the early morning sun is upon them, they are believed to yield a fourth more juice. later on in the day, too, spite of all precautions, it is impossible to prevent some of the detached grapes from partially fermenting, which frequently suffices to give a slight excess of colour to the must, a thing especially to be avoided in a high-class champagne. when the grapes have to be transported in open baskets for some distance to the press-house, jolting along the road either in carts or on the backs of mules, and exposed to the torrid rays of a bright autumnal sun, the juice expressed from the fruit, however dexterously the latter may be squeezed in the press, is occasionally of a positive purple tinge, and consequently useless for conversion into champagne. [illustration] at vintage-time everywhere is bustle and excitement; every one is big with the business in hand. in these ordinarily quiet little villages nestling amidst vine clad hollows, or perched half-way up a slope tinted from base to summit with richly-variegated hues, there is a perpetual pattering of sabots and a rattling and bumping of wheels over the roughly-paved streets. the majority of the inhabitants are afoot: the feeble feminine half, baskets on arm, thread their way with the juveniles through the rows of vines planted half-way up the mountain, and all aglow with their autumnal glories of green and purple, crimson and yellow; while the sturdy masculine portion are mostly passing to and fro between the press-houses and the wine-shops. carts piled up with baskets, or crowded with peasants from a distance on their way to the vineyards, jostle the low railway-trucks laden with brand-new casks, and the somewhat rickety cabriolets of the agents of the big champagne houses, who are reduced to clinch their final bargain for a hundred or more pièces of the peerless wine of ay or bouzy, verzy or verzenay, beside the reeking wine-press. dotting the steep slopes like a swarm of huge ants are a crowd of men, women, and children, the men, in blue blouses or stripped to their shirt-sleeves, being for the most part engaged in carrying the baskets to and fro and loading the carts; whilst the women, in closely-fitting neat white caps, or wearing old-fashioned unbleached straw-bonnets of the contemned coalscuttle type, resembling the 'sun-bonnet' of the midland counties, together with the children, are intent on stripping the vines of their luscious-looking fruit. they detach the grapes with scissors or hooked knives, technically termed 'serpettes,' and in some vineyards proceed to remove all damaged, decayed, or unripe fruit from the bunches before placing them in the baskets which they carry on their arms, and the contents of which they empty from time to time into a larger basket resembling an ass's pannier in shape, numbers of these being dispersed about the vineyard for the purpose, and invariably in the shade. when filled the baskets are carried by a couple of men to the roadside, along which dwarf stones carved with initials, and indicating the boundaries of the respective properties, are encountered every eight or ten yards, into such narrow strips are the vineyards divided. large carts with railed open sides are continually passing backwards and forwards to pick these baskets up; and when one has secured its load it is driven slowly to the neighbouring pressoir, so that the grapes may not be in the least degree shaken, such is the care observed throughout every stage of the process of champagne manufacture. when the vineyard slopes are very steep--as, for instance, at mareuil--and the paths do not admit of the approach of carts, mules, equipped with panniers and duly muzzled, are employed to convey the gathered fruit to the press-house. [illustration] [illustration] in many vineyards the grapes are inspected in bulk instead of in detail before being sent to the wine-press. the hand-baskets, when filled, are brought to a particular spot, where their contents are minutely examined by some half-dozen men and women, who pluck off the bruised, rotten, and unripe berries, and fling them aside into a separate basket. in other vineyards we came upon parties of girls, congregated round a wicker sieve perched on the top of a large tub by the roadside, engaged in sorting the grapes, pruning away the diseased stalks, and picking off all the doubtful berries. the latter were let fall through the interstices of the sieve, while the sound fruit was deposited in large baskets standing beside the sorters, and which, as soon as they were filled, were conveyed to the pressoir. when the proprietor is of an economic turn he usually has the refuse grapes pressed for wine for home consumption. spite of the minute examination to which the grapes are subjected, a sharp eye will frequently discover in the heart of what looks like a regular and well-grown bunch a grape that is absolutely rotten, and capable of infecting its companions when the whole are heaped up together in the wine-press. [illustration: arrival of the grapes at the press-house.] [illustration: the vintage in the champagne: a wine-press at work.] carts laden with grapes are continually arriving at the pressoirs, discharging their loads and driving off for fresh ones. the piled-up baskets, marked with the names of the vineyard-owners whose grapes they contain, are temporarily stored under a shed in a cool place, and are brought into the pressoir from time to time as required. in the district of the river the grapes are weighed, while in that of the mountain they are measured, before being emptied on to the floor of the press. in some places the latter is of the old-fashioned type, resembling the ordinary cider-press; but usually powerful presses of modern invention, worked by a large fly-wheel requiring four sturdy men to turn it, are employed. the grapes are spread over the floor of the press in a compact mass, and in some rare cases are lightly trodden by a couple of men with their naked feet before being subjected to mechanical pressure, which is again and again repeated, only the first squeeze giving a high-class wine, and the second and third a relatively inferior one. after three pressures the grapes are usually worked about with peels, and subjected to a final squeeze known as the 'rébêche,' which produces a sort of _piquette_, given to the workmen to drink, but in many instances forming the habitual, and indeed only, beverage of the economically-inclined peasant proprietor. the must filters through a wicker basket into the reservoir beneath, whence, after remaining a certain time to allow of its ridding itself of the grosser lees, it is pumped through a gutta-percha tube into the casks. the wooden stoppers of the bungholes, instead of being fixed tightly in the apertures, are simply laid over them, and after the lapse of ten or twelve days fermentation usually commences, and during its progress the must, which is originally of a pale-pink tint, fades to a light-straw colour. the wine usually remains undisturbed until christmas, when it is drawn off into fresh casks and delivered to the purchaser. one peculiarity of the champagne district is that, contrary to the prevailing practice in the other wine-producing regions of france, where the owner of even a single acre of vines will crush his grapes himself, only a limited number of vine-proprietors press their own grapes. the large champagne houses, possessing vineyards, always have their pressoirs in the neighbourhood, and other large vine-proprietors press the grapes they grow; but the multitude of small cultivators invariably sell the produce of their vineyards to one or other of the former at a certain rate, either by weight or else by caque, a measure estimated to hold sixty kilogrammes (equal to lb. avoirdupois) of grapes. the price which the fruit fetches varies of course according to the quality of the vintage and the requirements of the manufacturers; but the average may be taken at about centimes per kilogramme, equivalent to rather more than - / _d._ per lb.[ ] [illustration] if in the champagne the picturesque rejoicings immortalised in the italian vintage scenes of léopold robert are lacking, and if the grapes, instead of being trodden to the blithe accompaniment of flute and fiddle, as in some parts of france, are pressed in more quiet fashion, a pleasant air of jollity nevertheless pervades the district at the season of the vintage. every one participates in the interest which this excites. it influences the takings of all the artificers and all the tradespeople, and brings grist to the mill of the baker and the bootmaker, as well as to the café and cabaret. the contending interests of capital and labour are, moreover, singularly satisfied, the vintagers being content at getting their two francs and a half a day, and the men at the pressoirs their three francs and their food; the vineyard proprietor reaping the return of the time, care, and money expended upon his patch of vines, and the champagne manufacturer acquiring raw material on sufficiently satisfactory terms, the which, when duly guaranteed by his name and brand, will bring to him both fame and fortune. should the vintage be a scanty one, the plethoric _commissionnaires-en-vins_ will wipe their perspiring foreheads with satisfaction when they have at last secured the full number of hogsheads they had been instructed to buy--at a high figure maybe; still this is no disadvantage to them, as their commission mounts up the higher. and even the thickest-skulled among the small vine-proprietors, who make all their calculations on their fingers, see at a glance that, although the crop may be no more than half an average one, they are gainers, thanks to the ill-disguised anxiety of the agents to secure all the wine they require, which has the effect of sending prices up to nearly double those of ordinary years, and this with only half the work in the vineyard and at the winepress to be done. [illustration] the vintage in the champagne comes to a close without any of those festivals which still linger in the department of the gironde. on the d of january, the fête of st. vincent, the patron saint of vine-growers, it is customary, however, for one of the proprietors in each village to pay for a mass and give a breakfast to his relatives and friends, at which he presents a bouquet to one of the guests, who, in his turn, is expected to pay for the mass and give the breakfast the year following. on the same day the proprietors entertain their workpeople, who, after having eaten and drunk their fill, wind up the day with song and dance, leading to no end of innocent philandering between the sturdy sons of toil and the sunburnt daughters of labour. on these occasions the famous vintage song is sometimes heard: 'vendangeons et vive la france, le monde un jour avec nous trinquera.' [illustration] [illustration: the disgorging, liqueuring, corking, stringing, and wiring of champagne.] v. /the preparation of champagne./ the treatment of champagne after it comes from the wine-press--the racking and blending of the wine--the proportions of red and white vintages composing the 'cuvée'--deficiency and excess of effervescence--strength and form of champagne bottles--the 'tirage' or bottling of the wine--the process of gas-making commences--details of the origin and development of the effervescent properties of champagne--the inevitable breakage of bottles which ensues--this remedied by transferring the wine to a lower temperature--the wine stacked in piles--formation of sediment--bottles placed 'sur pointe' and daily shaken to detach the deposit--effect of this occupation on those incessantly engaged in it--the present system originated by a workman of madame clicquot's--'claws' and 'masks'--champagne cellars--their construction and aspect--raw recruits for the 'regiment de champagne'--transforming the 'vin brut' into champagne--disgorging and liqueuring the wine--the composition of the liqueur--variation in the quantity added to suit diverse national tastes--the corking, stringing, wiring, and amalgamating--the wine's agitated existence comes to an end--the bottles have their toilettes made--champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage round the world. [illustration] the special characteristic of champagne is that its manufacture only commences where that of other wines ordinarily ends. no one would recognise in the still brut fluid--which, after being duly racked and fined, has somewhat the taste and colour of an acrid rhine wine, with a more or less pronounced bitter flavour--that exhilarating essence which is capable of raising the most depressed spirits, and imparting gaiety to the dismallest gatherings. much as champagne may stand indebted to nature, soil, climate, and species of vine, the sparkling fluid has contracted a far greater debt towards man, to whose incessant labour, patient skill, and minute precautions it owes that combination of qualities which causes it to be so highly prized. in the preceding chapter we left the newly-expressed must flowing direct from the press into capacious reservoirs, whence it is drawn off into large vats, where it clears itself by depositing its mucous lees, usually within twenty-four hours. it is then transferred to new or perfectly clean casks, holding some forty gallons each, in which a sulphur match has been previously burnt. these casks are not filled quite up to the bunghole, which is generally covered with a vine-leaf kept in its place by a piece of tile. the bulk of the newly-made wine is left to repose at the vendangeoirs until the commencement of the following year; still, when the vintage is over, numbers of long narrow carts laden with casks of newly-expressed must may be seen rolling along the dusty highways, bound for those towns and villages in the department of the marne where the manufacture of champagne is carried on, and where the leading firms have their establishments. chief amongst these is the cathedral city of reims, after which comes the rising town of epernay, stretching to the very verge of the river; then ay, nestling between the vine-clad slopes and the marne canal, with the neighbouring village of mareuil; next pierry; and finally avize, in the centre of the white-grape district southwards of epernay. châlons, owing to its distance from the vineyards, does not usually draw its supply of wine until the new year. in the vast celliers of the manufacturers' establishments, where a temperature of about to degrees fahrenheit usually prevails, the wine undergoes its first fermentation, entailing a loss of about - / per cent, and lasting from a fortnight to a month, according as to whether the wine be _mou_--that is, rich in sugar--or the reverse. in the former case fermentation naturally lasts much longer than when the wine is _vert_ or green. this active fermentation is converted into latent fermentation by transferring the wine to a cooler cellar, as it is essential it should retain a certain proportion of its natural saccharine to insure its future effervescence. the casks have previously been completely filled, and their bungholes tightly stopped, a necessary precaution to guard the wine from absorbing oxygen, the effect of which would be to turn it yellow, and cause it to lose some of its lightness and perfume. after being racked and fined--an operation generally performed about the third week in december--the produce of the different vineyards is ready for mixing together in accordance with the traditional theories of the various manufacturers; and should the vintage have been an indifferent one, a certain proportion of old reserved wine of a good year enters into the blend. the mixing is usually effected in gigantic vats holding at times as many as , gallons each, and having fan-shaped appliances inside, which, on being worked by handles, insure a complete amalgamation of the wine. this process of marrying wine on a gigantic scale is technically known as making the _cuvée_. usually four-fifths of wine obtained from black grapes, and now of a pale-pink hue, are tempered by one-fifth of the juice of white ones. it is necessary that the first should comprise a more or less powerful dash of the finer growths both of the mountain of reims and of the river; while, as regards the latter, one or other of the delicate vintages of the côte d'avize is essential to the perfect _cuvée_. the aim is to combine and develop the special qualities of the respective crus, body and vinosity being secured by the red vintages of bouzy and verzenay, softness and roundness by those of ay and dizy, and lightness, delicacy, and effervescence by the white growths of avize and cramant. the proportions are never absolute, but vary according to the manufacturer's style of wine and the taste of the countries which form his principal markets. in the opinion of some clever amalgamators, a blend comprising one-third of the vintages of sillery, verzenay, and bouzy, one-third of those of mareuil, ay, and dizy, and the remaining third composed of the produce of pierry, cramant, and avize, constitutes the wine of champagne _par excellence_. others not less expert declare that a simple mixture of the ay, pierry, and cramant vintages furnishes a perfect wine. as when this blending takes place the wine is only imperfectly fermented and exceedingly crude, the reader may imagine the delicacy and discrimination of palate requisite to judge of the flavour, finesse, and bouquet which the _cuvée_ is likely eventually to develop. these, however, are not the only matters to be considered. there is, above everything, the effervescence, which depends upon the quantity of carbonic acid gas the wine already contains, and the further quantity it is likely to develop, which depends upon the amount of its natural saccharine. after the bottling, if the gas be present in excess, there will be a shattering of bottles and a flooding of cellars; while, on the other hand, if there be a paucity, the corks will refuse to pop, and the wine to sparkle aright in the glass. the amount of saccharine in the _cuvée_ has therefore to be accurately ascertained by means of a glucometer; and should it fail to reach the required standard, as is the case at times when the season has been wet and cold and the vintage a poor one, the deficiency is made up by the addition of the purest sugar-candy. if, on the other hand, there be an excess of saccharine, the only thing to be done is to defer the final blending and bottling of the wine until the superfluous saccharine matter has been absorbed by fermentation in the cask. [illustration] the _cuvée_ completed, the blended wine, which in its present condition gives to the uninitiated palate no promise of the exquisite delicacy and aroma it is destined to develop, is drawn off again into casks for further treatment. this comprises fining with some gelatinous substance, usually isinglass, made into a jelly and strained through a 'tammy;' while, as a precaution against ropiness and other maladies, liquid tannin, derived from nut-galls, catechu, or grape husks and pips, is at the same time frequently added to supply the place of the natural tannin, which has departed from the wine with its reddish hue at the epoch of its first fermentation. if at the expiration of a month the wine has not become perfectly clear and limpid, it is racked off the lees, and the operation of fining is repeated. [illustration] the operation of bottling the wine next ensues, when the scriptural advice not to put new wine into old bottles is rigorously followed. for the tremendous pressure of the gas engendered during the subsequent fermentation of the wine is such that the bottle becomes weakened, and can never be safely trusted again.[ ] it is because of this pressure that the champagne bottle is one of the strongest made, as indicated by its weight, which is almost a couple of pounds. to insure this unusual strength, it is necessary that the sides should be of equal thickness and the bottom of a uniform solidity throughout, in order that no particular expansion may ensue from sudden changes of temperature. the neck must, moreover, be perfectly round and widen gradually towards the shoulder. in addition--and this is of the utmost consequence--the inside ought to be perfectly smooth, as a rough interior causes the gas to make efforts to escape, and thus renders an explosion imminent. the composition of the glass, too, is not without its importance, as on one occasion a manufactory established for the production of glass by a new process turned out champagne bottles charged with alkaline sulphurets, and the consequence was that an entire _cuvée_ was ruined by their use, through the reciprocal action of the wine and these sulphurets. the acids of the former disengaged hydrosulphuric acid, and instead of champagne the result was a new species of mineral water. most of the bottles used for champagne come from the factories of loivre (which supplies the largest quantity), folembray, vauxrot, and quiquengrogne, and they cost on the average from to francs the hundred.[ ] they are generally tested by a practised hand, who, by knocking them sharply together, professes to be able to tell, from the sound that they give, the substance of the glass and its temper, though occasionally a special machine, subjecting them to hydraulic pressure, is had recourse to. [illustration] the operation of washing, which takes place immediately preceding the bottling of the wine, is invariably performed by women, who at the larger establishments accomplish it with the aid of machines, provided at times with a revolving brush, although small glass beads are generally used by preference. each bottle after being washed is minutely examined, to make certain of its perfect purity, and is then placed neck downwards in a tall basket to drain. [illustration: machine for fixing the agrafes.] with the different champagne houses the mode of bottling the wine, which may take place any time between april and august, varies in some measure, still the _tirage_, as this operation is called, is ordinarily effected as follows: the wine, after a preliminary test as to its fitness for bottling, is emptied from the casks into vats or tuns of varying capacity in the _salle du tirage_. from these it flows through pipes into oblong reservoirs, each provided with a row of syphon-taps, on to which the bottles are slipped, and from which the wine ceases to flow directly the bottles become filled. men or lads remove the full bottles, replacing them by empty ones, while other hands convey them to the corkers, whose guillotine machines are incessantly in motion. speed in the process is of much importance, as during a single day the wine may undergo a notable change. from the corkers the bottles are passed on to the _agrafeurs_, who secure the corks by means of an iron clip termed an agrafe; and they are afterwards conveyed either to a spacious room above-ground known as a cellier or to a cool vault underground, according to the number of atmospheres which the wine may indicate. [illustration] with reference to these atmospheres, it should be explained that air compressed to half its volume acquires twice its ordinary force, and to a quarter of its volume quadruple this force--hence the phrase of two, four, or more atmospheres. the exact degree of pressure is readily ascertained by means of a manometer, an instrument resembling a pressure-gauge, with a hollow screw at the base, which is driven through the cork of the bottle. a pressure of - / atmospheres constitutes what is styled a 'grand mousseux,' and the wine exhibiting it may be safely conveyed to the coolest subterranean depths, for no doubt need be entertained as to its future effervescent properties. should the pressure, however, scarcely exceed four atmospheres, it is advisable to keep the wine in a cellier above-ground, that it may more rapidly acquire the requisite sparkling qualities. if fewer than four atmospheres are indicated, it would be necessary to pour the wine back into the casks again, and add a certain amount of cane-sugar to it; but such an eventuality very rarely happens, thanks to the scientific formulas and apparatus, which enable the degree of pressure the wine will show to be determined beforehand to a nicety. still mistakes are sometimes made, and there are instances where charcoal fires have had to be lighted in the cellars to encourage the latent effervescence to develop itself.[ ] [illustration: the tirage or bottling of champagne.] the bottles are first placed in a horizontal position, the side to be kept uppermost being indicated by a daub of whitewash, and are stacked in rows of varying length and depth, one above the other, to about the height of a man, with narrow laths between them. thus they will spend the summer, providing all goes well; but in about three weeks' time the process of gas-making inside the bottles is at its height, and a period of considerable anxiety to the champagne manufacturer ensues, through his dread lest an undue number of them should burst from the expansion of the carbonic acid gas generated in the wine. the glucometer notwithstanding, it is impossible to check a certain amount of breakage, especially when a hot season has caused the grapes, and consequently the raw wine, to be sweeter than usual. moreover, when once _casse_ or breakage sets in on a large scale, the temperature of the cellar is raised by the volume of carbonic acid gas let loose, which is not without its effect on the remaining bottles. not only does the increased temperature unduly accelerate fermentation, but the mere shock of one bottle exploding often starts such of its neighbours as are predisposed that way, in addition to the direct havoc wrought by the heavier fragments of flying glass. the only remedy is the instant removal of the wine to a lower temperature whenever this is practicable. [illustration] a manufacturer of the pre-scientific days of the last century relates how one year, when the wine was rich and strong, he only preserved out of bottles; and it is not long since that , out of , were destroyed in the cellars of a well-known champagne firm. m. mauméné, moreover, relates that in he was called in to consult about the checking of a _casse_, which had already reached per cent.[ ] over-knowing purchasers affect to select a wine which has exploded in the largest proportion in the cellars, as being well up to the mark as regards its effervescence, and are in the habit of making inquiries as to its performances in this direction. [illustration] it is evident that, in spite of the teachings of science, the bursting of champagne bottles has not yet been reduced to a minimum, for whereas in some cellars it averages and per cent, and rises to when the pressure is unusually strong, in others it rarely exceeds - / or . the period between may and september is that in which the greatest destruction takes place. in the month of october, the first and severest breakage being over, the newly-bottled wine is definitively stacked in the cellars in piles from two to half a dozen bottles deep, from six to seven feet high, and frequently a hundred feet or upwards in length. usually the bottles remain in their horizontal position, in which they gradually develop two essential qualities, that of effervescing well and that of travelling satisfactorily, for about eighteen or twenty months, though some firms, who pride themselves upon shipping perfectly matured wines, leave them thus for double this space of time. during this period the temperature to which the wine is exposed is, as far as practicable, carefully regulated; for the risk of breakage, though greatly diminished, is never entirely at an end. [illustration] [illustration] by this time the fermentation is over; but in the interval, commencing from a few days after the bottling of the wine, a loose dark-brown sediment has been forming, which has now settled on the lower side of the bottle, and to get rid of which is a delicate and tedious task. as the time approaches for preparing the wine for shipment, the bottles are placed _sur pointe_, as it is termed--that is to say, slantingly in racks with their necks downwards, the inclination being increased from time to time to one more abrupt.[ ] the object of this change in their position is to cause the sediment to leave the side of the bottle where it has gathered. afterwards it becomes necessary to twist and turn it and coagulate it, as it were, until it forms a kind of muddy ball, and eventually to get it well down into the neck of the bottle, so that it may be finally expelled with a bang when the temporary cork is removed and the proper one adjusted. to accomplish this the bottles are sharply turned in one direction every day for at least a month or six weeks, the time being indefinitely extended until the sediment shows a disposition to settle near the cork. the younger the wine the longer the period necessary for the bottles to be shaken, new wine often requiring as much as three months. only a thoroughly practised hand can give the right amount of revolution and the requisite degree of slope; and in some of the cellars men were pointed out to us who had acquired such dexterity as to be able at a pinch to shake with their two hands as many as , bottles in a single day, whilst , to , is by no means an uncommon performance. [illustration] some of these men have spent thirty or forty years of their lives engaged in this perpetual task. fancy being entombed all alone day after day in vaults which are invariably dark and gloomy, and often cold and dank, and being obliged to twist sixty to seventy of these bottles every minute throughout the day of ten hours! why, the treadmill and the crank, with their periodical respites, must be pastime compared to this maddeningly monotonous occupation, which combines hard labour, with the wrist, at any rate, with next to solitary confinement. one can understand these men becoming gloomy and taciturn, and affirming that they sometimes see devils hovering over the bottle-racks and frantically shaking the bottles beside them, or else grinning at them as they pursue their humdrum task. still it may be taken for granted that the men who reach this stage are accustomed to drink freely of raw spirits, as an antidote to the damp to which they are exposed, and merely pay the penalty of their over-indulgence. [illustration] in former times the bottles used to be placed with their heads downwards on tables pierced with holes, from which they had to be removed and agitated. at a still earlier date the process was more or less successfully accomplished by holding the bottles upside down by the neck, tapping them at the bottom to detach the sediment, and then, after shaking them well up, laying them on their sides until the operation was repeated. in , however, a man named müller, in the employment of madame clicquot, suggested that the bottles should remain in the tables whilst being shaken, and further that the holes should be cut obliquely, so that they might recline at varying angles. his suggestions were privately adopted by madame clicquot; but eventually the improved plan got wind, and the system which he initiated now prevails throughout the champagne.[ ] [illustration] when the bottles have gone through their regular course of shaking, they are examined before a lighted candle to ascertain whether the deposit has all fallen on to the cork, and the wine has become perfectly clear. sometimes it happens that, twist these men never so wisely, the deposit, instead of becoming flaky or granular, refuses to stir, and takes the shape of a bunch of threads technically called a 'claw,' or an adherent membrane styled a 'mask.' when this is the case an attempt is made to start it by tapping the part to which it adheres with a piece of iron, the result being frequently the sudden explosion of the bottle in the workman's hands. by way of precaution, therefore, the operator protects his face with a wire mask, or by gigantic wire spectacles, which give to him a ghoul-like aspect. frequently it is found impossible to detach the 'mask' from the side of the bottle, and in this case the only thing that remains is to pour the wine back again into the cask, with the view of mixing it in some future _cuvée_.[ ] [illustration] the cellars of the champagne manufacturers are very varied in character. the wine that has been grown on the chalky hills is left to develop itself in vaults burrowed out of the calcareous strata which underlie the entire district. in excavating these cellars the sides and roofs are frequently worked smooth and regular as finished masonry. the larger ones are composed of a number of spacious and lofty galleries, sometimes parallel with each other, but often ramifying in various directions, and evidently constructed on no definite plan. they are of one, two, and, in rare instances, of three stories, and now and then consist of a series of parallel galleries communicating with each other, lined with masonry, and with their stone walls and vaulted roofs resembling the crypt of some conventual building. others of ancient date are less regular in their form, being merely so many narrow, low, winding corridors, varied, perhaps, by recesses hewn roughly out of the chalk, and resembling the brigands' cave of melodrama; while a certain number of the larger cellars at reims are simply abandoned quarries, the broad and lofty arches of which are suggestive of the nave and aisles of some gothic church. in these varied vaults, lighted by solitary lamps in front of metal reflectors, or by the flickering tallow candles which we carry in our hands, we pass rows of casks filled with last year's vintage or reserved wine of former years, and piles after piles of bottles of _vin brut_ in seemingly endless sequence--squares, so to speak, of raw recruits for the historically famous 'regiment de champagne'[ ]--awaiting their turn to be thoroughly drilled and disciplined. these are varied by bottles reposing neck downwards in racks at different degrees of inclination, according to the progress their education has attained. reports caused by exploding bottles now and then assail the ear, and as the echo dies away it becomes mingled with the rush of the escaping wine, cascading down the pile, and finding its way across the sloping sides of the floor to the narrow gutter in the centre. the dampness of the floor and the shattered fragments of glass strewn about show the frequency of this kind of accident. [illustration: detaching the 'mask' from the sides of the bottles.] in these subterranean galleries we frequently come upon parties of workmen engaged in transforming the perfected _vin brut_ into champagne. viewed at a distance while occupied in their monotonous task, they present in the semi-obscurity a series of picturesque rembrandt-like studies. one of the end figures in each group is engaged in the important process of _dégorgement_, which is performed when the deposit, of which we have already spoken, has satisfactorily settled in the neck of the bottle. baskets full of bottles with their necks downwards are placed beside the operator, who stands before a cask set on end, and having a large oval opening in front. this nimble-fingered manipulator seizes a bottle, raises it for a moment before the light to test the clearness of the wine and the subsidence of the deposit; holds it horizontally in his left hand, with the neck directed towards the opening already mentioned; and with a jerk of the steel hook which he holds in his right hand loosens the agrafe securing the cork. bang goes the latter, and with it flies out the sediment and a small glassful or so of wine, further flow being checked by the workman's finger, which also serves to remove any sediment yet remaining in the bottle's neck. like many other clever tricks, this looks very easy when adroitly performed, though a novice would probably allow the bottle to empty itself by the time he discovered that the cork was out. yet such is the dexterity acquired by practice that the average amount of wine, foam, and deposit ejected by this operation does not exceed one-fourteenth of the contents of the bottle. occasionally a bottle bursts in the _dégorgeur's_ hand, and his face is sometimes scarred from such explosions. the sediment removed, the _dégorgeur_ slips a temporary cork into the bottle, or places the latter in a machine provided with fixed gutta-percha corks and springs for securing the bottles firmly in their places. the wine is now ready for the important operation of the _dosage_, upon the nature and amount of which the character of perfected champagne, whether it be dry or sweet, light or strong, very much depends.[ ] [illustration] different manufacturers have different recipes for the composition of this syrup, all more or less complex in character, and varying with the quality of the wine and the country for which it is intended; but the genuine liqueur consists of nothing but old wine of the best quality, to which a certain amount of sugar-candy and perhaps a dash of the finest cognac spirit has been added.[ ] the saccharine addition varies according to the market for which the wine is destined: thus the high-class english buyer demands a dry champagne, the russian a wine sweet and strong as 'ladies' grog,' and the frenchman and german a sweet light wine. to the extra-dry champagnes a modicum dose is added, while the so-called '_brut_' wines receive no more than from one to three per cent of liqueur.[ ] [illustration] in establishments wedded to old-fashioned usages the dose is administered with a tin can or ladle; but more generally an ingenious machine which regulates the percentage of liqueur to a nicety is employed. the bottle being usually nearly full when passed to the _doseur_, he, when a heavy percentage of liqueur has to be administered, is constrained, under the old system, to pour out some of the wine to make room for it, and this surplus in many cases is afterwards transformed into the well-known _tisane de champagne_. as soon as the _dosage_ is accomplished, the bottle is passed to another workman known as the _égaliseur_, who fills it up with pure wine, frequently with a part of that which has been poured out by the _doseur_, to the requisite level for corking. in the event of a pink champagne being required, the wine thus added will be red, although manufacturers of questionable reputation sometimes employ the solution of elderberries, known as _teinte de fismes_, to impart that once-favourite roseate hue which has been compared to the glow of fading sunlight on a crystal stream. [illustration: the doseur.] [illustration: the corker.] [illustration: the metteur de fil.] [illustration: dosing machine.] [illustration: corking machine.] the _égaliseur_ in his turn hands the bottle to the corker, who places it under a machine furnished with a pair of claws (so as to compress the cork to a size sufficiently small to allow it to enter the neck of the bottle) and a suspended weight, which in falling drives it home. these corks, principally obtained from catalonia and andalucia, are bound to possess a close and regular fibre and perfect elasticity. they form no unimportant item in the champagne manufacturer's budget, costing upwards of twopence each, and are delivered in huge sacks resembling hop-pockets. previous to being used they are either boiled in wine or soaked in a solution of tartar, or else they have been steamed by the cork merchants, in order to prevent their imparting a bad flavour to the wine, and to hinder any leakage. they are commonly handed warm to the corker, who dips them into a small vessel of wine before making use of them. some firms, however, prepare their corks by subjecting them to cold-water _douches_ a day or two beforehand. the _ficeleur_ receives the bottle from the corker, and with a twist of the fingers secures the cork with string, at the same time rounding its hitherto flat top, at a rate which allows from a thousand to twelve hundred bottles to pass through his hands in course of the day. the _metteur de fil_ next affixes the wire with like celerity;[ ] and then the final operation is performed by a workman seizing a couple of bottles by the neck and whirling them round his head, as though engaged in the indian-club exercise, in order to secure a perfect amalgamation of the wine and the liqueur. [illustration] the final manipulation accomplished, the agitated course of existence through which the wine has been passing at last comes to an end, and the bottles are conveyed to another part of the establishment, where they repose for several days, or even weeks, in order that the mutual action of the wine and the liqueur upon each other may be complete. when the time arrives for despatching them, they are confided to feminine hands to have their dainty toilettes made, and are tastefully labelled, and are either capsuled, or else have their corks and necks imbedded in sealing-wax or swathed in gold or silver foil, whereby they are rendered presentable at the best-appointed tables. all that now remains is to wrap them up in coloured tissue-paper, to slip them into straw envelopes, or encircle them with wisps of straw, and pack them either in cases or baskets for despatch to all quarters of the civilised globe. [illustration] it is thus that champagne sets out on its beneficial pilgrimage to promote the spread of mirth and light-heartedness, to drive away dull care and foment good-fellowship, to comfort the sick and cheer the sound. wherever civilisation penetrates, champagne sooner or later is sure to follow; and if queen victoria's morning drum beats round the world, its beat is certain to be echoed before the day is over by the popping of champagne corks. nowadays the exhilarating wine graces not merely princely but middle-class dinner-tables, and is the needful adjunct at every _petit souper_, as well as the stimulant to the wildest revels in all the gayer capitals of the world. it gives a flush to beauty at garden-parties and picnics, sustains the energies of the votaries of terpsichore until the hour of dawn, and imparts to many a young gallant the necessary courage to declare his passion. it enlivens the dullest of _réunions_, brings smiles to the lips of the sternest cynics, softens the most irascible tempers, and loosens the most taciturn tongues. the grim berliner and the gay viennese both acknowledge the exhilarating influence of the wine. champagne sparkles in crystal goblets in the great capital of the north, and the moslem wipes its creamy foam from his beard beneath the very shadow of the mosque of st. sophia; for the prophet has only forbidden the use of wine, and of a surety--allah be praised!--this strangely-sparkling delicious liquor, which gives to the true believer a foretaste of the joys of paradise, cannot be wine. at the diamond-fields of south africa and the diggings of australia the brawny miner who has hit upon a big bit of crystallised carbon, or a nugget of virgin ore, strolls to the 'saloon' and shouts for champagne. the mild hindoo imbibes it quietly, but approvingly, as he watches the evolutions of the nautch girls, and his partiality for the wine has already enriched the anglo-bengalee vocabulary and london slang with the word 'simkin.' it is transported on camel-backs across the deserts of central asia, and in frail canoes up the mighty amazon. the two-sworded daimio calls for it in the tea-gardens of yokohama, and the new yorker, when not rinsing his stomach by libations of iced water, imbibes it freely at delmonico's. wherever the romans died they left traces behind them in their quaint funeral urns; wherever the civilised man of the nineteenth century has set his foot--at the base of the pyramids and at the summit of the cordilleras, in the mangrove swamps of ashantee and the gulches of the great lone land, in the wilds of the amoor and on the desert isles of the pacific--he has left traces of his presence in the shape of the empty bottles that were once full of the sparkling vintage of the marne. they are strewn broadcast over the face of the globe, literally from indus to the pole. the crews of the alert and the discovery left them on the ice-bound verge of the paleocrystic sea; the french expeditionary columns have scattered them within the limits of the great sahara. in the lodges of the red man they are found playing the part of a great medicine, and in the huts of the negro they assume all the importance due to a big fetish. stanley, arriving fainting and exhausted at the mouth of the congo, hailed with joy the foil-tipped flask that the hospitable merchants who answered his appeal for succour had despatched; and as he quaffed its contents, recalled how he and livingstone, when thousands of miles from any other european, had emptied a bottle of sparkling champagne together on the night of their memorable meeting at ujiji. and when, after the battle of ulundi, the victorious british troops occupied cetewayo's kraal, they found within the sable potentate's private chamber several empty champagne bottles, the contents of which, it is to be presumed, he had quaffed the night before to the success of his followers. in the transvaal too, during the negotiations for an armistice, sir evelyn wood regaled the boer delegates with champagne. on a subsequent occasion, the latter were unable to return the compliment, excusing themselves by suggestively remarking, 'we don't take such things with us when we go to fight.' [illustration] [illustration: renaissance house at reims, in which madame clicquot resided.] vi. /reims and its champagne establishments./ the city of reims--its historical associations--the cathedral--its western front one of the most splendid conceptions of the thirteenth century--the sovereigns crowned within its walls--present aspect of the ancient archiepiscopal city--the woollen manufactures and other industries of reims--the city undermined with the cellars of the great champagne firms--reims hotels--gothic house in the rue du bourg st. denis--renaissance house in the rue de vesle--church of st. jacques: its gateway and quaint weathercock--the rue des tapissiers and the chapter court--the long tapers used at religious processions--the place des marchés and its ancient houses--the hôtel de ville--statue of louis xiii.--the rues de la prison and du temple--messrs. werlé & co., successors to the veuve clicquot-ponsardin--their offices and cellars on the site of a former commanderie of the templars--origin of the celebrity of madame clicquot's wines--m. werlé and his son--remains of the commanderie--the forty-five cellars of the clicquot-werlé establishment--our tour of inspection through them--ingenious dosing machine--an explosion and its consequences--m. werlé's gallery of paintings--madame clicquot's renaissance house and its picturesque bas-reliefs--the werlé vineyards and vendangeoirs. [illustration: head of bacchus in the courtyard of the hÔtel du lion d'or.] the ancient city of reims is pleasantly situate in a spacious natural basin, surrounded by calcareous hills, for the most part planted with vines. it is fertile in historical associations, rich in archæological treasures, and at the same time able to claim the respect more readily accorded in the nineteenth century to a busy and prosperous commercial centre. indeed, its historical, archæological, and commercial importance is in advance of its actual political situation, for administratively it only ranks as a simple subprefecture in the department of the marne. the student of history can hardly afford to neglect a city so intimately associated with the story of monarchy in france, and one which has witnessed the coronations of a long series of sovereigns, beginning with clovis and ending with charles x. from the day when the 'proud sicamber' bent his neck at the adjuration of st. remi, and vowed to adore that which he had burnt and to burn that which he had adored, down to the time when the future exile of holyrood had his forehead touched by jean baptiste antoine de latil with the remnant of the 'sacred pomatum' so miraculously saved from revolutionary hands, few of the titular rulers of the country have failed to honour it with their presence. as the durocortorum of cæsar, the residence of charlemagne, the seat of the great ecclesiastical councils of the twelfth century, the stronghold of the league, and the scene of one of the first napoleon's most brilliant feats of arms during the campaign of - , it has also earned for itself a conspicuous place in history. to englishmen it is, perhaps, most noteworthy as having successfully checked the victorious advance of the third edward after cressy, and witnessed the apogee of that meteoric career, which began in the inn-yard at domremi and ended in the market-place at rouen, the career of jeanne la pucelle. nor must it be forgotten that reims sheltered the childhood of mary stuart, and saw the heralds of england hurl solemn defiance at henri ii. in the abbey of st. remi, at the command of mary tudor. [illustration: general view of reims, .] to the archæologist as to the ordinary sightseer, the chief attractions presented by reims consist in its numerous ecclesiastical edifices, some still serving the purpose for which they were originally erected, others long since converted to secular usages. most conspicuous among them is the cathedral church of notre dame, the stately basilica in which the sovereigns of france were wont to be crowned. this superb monument of gothic architecture was commenced in , upon the plans of robert de coucy, by archbishop alberic de humbert. it was completed at the commencement of the fourteenth century, and though the original design was somewhat modified--owing, it is said, to the contributions of the faithful not coming in with sufficient rapidity--it remains a marvel of strength, admirably combined with grace. the exterior is extremely fine; and the western face, with its elaborately ornate portal, has been described as 'one of the most splendid conceptions of the thirteenth century.'[ ] amidst the almost bewildering multiplicity of ornament, the triple porch, surmounted by a group representing the coronation of the virgin, the great rose window, flanked by colossal effigies of david and goliath, and the range of statues known as the gallery of the kings, running across the façade near its summit, are conspicuous. the interior, although fine, and containing many objects of interest, is less impressive, while the plundered treasury can still boast of many quaint and curious relics of bygone times. but the chief interest centres in the fact of the surrounding walls having witnessed so many scenes of stately pomp and pageantry. st. louis, philip the fair, philip of valois, the unfortunate john the good, charles the simple, and charles the victorious, with joan of arc, standard in hand, by his side; the wily louis xi., louis the father of his people, the magnificent francis i., and his scarcely less magnificent son, the young husband of mary queen of scots; the savage charles ix., henri iii., with his protest that the crown hurt him, louis the just, the roi soleil himself, louis the well-beloved, the hapless louis seize, and charles x., have all knelt here in turns whilst the crown was placed on their heads, the sword girded to their sides, and the oriflamme waved above them. many of the most famous cities of the middle ages are mere fossilised representatives of former grandeur, but with reims the case is otherwise. if somewhat fallen from its former high estate, politically speaking--though it should be remembered that troyes was the titular capital of the champagne when the province was ruled by independent counts--its material prosperity has augmented. round the nucleus of narrow and often tortuous streets, representing the old archiepiscopal city--the 'little rome' of the twelfth century--a network of spacious thoroughfares and broad boulevards has spread itself, and the life and movement of a busy manufacturing population are not lacking. in addition to the wine trade, which of course employs, both directly and indirectly, a large number of hands, reims is one of the most important seats of the woollen manufacture in france, and the industrial element forms a very important factor amongst its inhabitants. in addition to the flannels, merinoes, blankets, trouserings, shawls, &c., that are annually produced, to the value of from thirty to forty million of francs, there is also a considerable production of gingerbread, biscuits, and dried pears, enjoying a wide-spread reputation. the cellars of the great champagne manufacturers of reims are scattered in all directions over the historical old city. they undermine its narrowest and most insignificant streets, its broad and handsome boulevards, and on the eastern side extend beyond its more distant outskirts. in whichever direction we may elect to proceed when visiting the principal champagne establishments, our starting-point will necessarily be the vicinity of the cathedral, for it is here that all the hotels are situated. facing the great western doorway of the ancient gothic edifice is the hôtel lion d'or, formerly the hôtel petit moulinet, where the allied sovereigns sojourned on their way to paris in , and napoleon rested on his flight after the battle of waterloo. close by is the hôtel maison rouge, with the commemorative tablet on its renovated façade setting forth that in the year , at the coronation of charles vii. in this hostelry, then named the striped ass, the father and mother of jeanne darc were lodged at the expense of the city council. almost facing is the newly-erected grand hôtel, and on the north-western side of the cathedral is the hôtel de commerce, the resort, as its name implies, of most of the commercial travellers frequenting the capital of the champagne. the visitor to reims, be his object business or pleasure, is bound to put up at one or other of these four hostelries, and hence the starting-point of his peregrinations is necessarily the same. [illustration: gothic doorway in the rue du bourg st. denis, reims.] proceeding along the rue tronçon ducoudray, we reached the rue de vesle, where the palais de justice and the new theatre are situated. in the adjacent rue du bourg st. denis is an old house--the ground-floor of which is a wine-shop styled buvette du théâtre--notable for its antique gothic doorway, containing, within the upper portion of the arch, the bas-relief of a man fighting with a bear. there is a tradition that on this spot formerly stood a hospital dedicated to st. hubert, and intended for the reception of persons wounded when hunting, or who might have chanced to be bitten by mad dogs. in the rue de vesle is another old house with an ornamental frieze surmounting its façade, which looks on to one of the entrances of the church of st. jacques. this edifice, originally erected at the close of the twelfth century, is hemmed in on all sides by venerable-looking buildings, while above them rises its tapering steeple, surmounted by a mediæval weathercock in the form of an angel. the interior of the church presents a curious jumble of architectural styles from early gothic to late renaissance. one noteworthy object of art which it contains is a life-size crucifix carved by pierre jacques, a remois sculptor of the days of the good king henri, and from an anatomical point of view a perfect _chef-d'[oe]uvre_. [illustration: frieze of old house in the rue de vesle, reims.] [illustration: gateway of the church of st. jacques, reims.] [illustration: weathercock of the church of st. jacques.] the rue de vesle merges into the rue des tapissiers, where in former times the carpet manufacturers of reims had their warehouses. in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the carpets of reims were as famous in france as those of aubusson are to-day, but subsequently they began to decline. half-way up this street--where, by the way, in the first numbers of the _gazette de france_, the oldest existing french newspaper, were printed, the news being duly forwarded from paris--we pass the ancient gateway leading to the chapter-court of the cathedral. within the court a weekly market of small wares is now held; but in the days when the archbishops, dukes, and peers of reims wielded sovereign sway in the capital of the champagne, this open space was a _champ clos_, where trials by battle took place. the surrounding buildings comprised residences for various ecclesiastics connected with the cathedral, together with a small farm whence these epicurean priests derived their supply of fresh milk and fatted capons. according to ancient custom, the inhabitants of the houses facing the chapter-gateway were required to keep their doors and windows open on days of religious processions, the tapers carried by the clergy on these occasions being of such immoderate length that it was necessary to incline them, and run them into the doors and windows of the houses opposite when the bearers passed under the archway. [illustration: gothic house in the market-place, reims.] at the end of the rue des tapissiers is the handsome place royale, connected with the place des marchés by a broad rectangular street lined with lofty edifices in the modern parisian style of architecture. a break ensues in this range of massive-looking buildings as we enter the ancient place des marchés, the forum of roman reims, and to-day bordered more or less by houses of a mediæval character, remarkably well preserved. principal among these is a gothic timber-house of the fifteenth century, with its projecting upper stories supported by elaborately-carved corbels, and its entire façade enriched with mouldings and finials, and with columns and capitals overlaid with sculptured ornaments. [illustration: statue of louis xiii. on the hÔtel de ville, reims.] some little distance beyond the place des marchés is the place de l'hôtel de ville, which derives all its interest from the handsome-looking edifice in the florid italian style of the early part of the seventeenth century which gives it its name. the façade of this building is profusely decorated with ionic, doric, and corinthian columns, and on the pediment above the principal entrance is a bas-relief equestrian statue of louis xiii., whom the latin inscription beneath fulsomely characterises as 'the just, the pious, the victorious, the clement, the beloved of his people, the terror of his enemies, and the delight of the world,' and to whom 'the senate and inhabitants of reims have raised this imperishable trophy.' some century and a half later, however, the imperishable trophy got hurled down and shattered into fragments by the populace, and its vacant place was only filled by the present statue in the year . to the right of the place is the chambre des notaires of reims, raised on the site of the ancient _présidial_, or court of justice, where the city magistrates used to be elected during the middle ages, and to which a chapel and a prison were attached. the latter building evidently gave its name to the adjoining rue de la prison, the gloomy-looking houses of which--of a more massive character than the gabled structures of the market-place and the rue de l'etape--with their formidably-barred windows, possible relics of the religious wars, seem to frown, as it were, upon the passer-by. in a narrow tortuous street leading from this thoroughfare messrs. werlé & co., the successors of the famous veuve clicquot-ponsardin, have their offices and cellars, on the site of a former commanderie of the templars; and strangers passing by this quiet spot would scarcely imagine that under their feet hundreds of busy hands are incessantly at work, disgorging, dosing, shaking, corking, storing, wiring, labelling, capsuling, waxing, tinfoiling, and packing hundreds of thousands of bottles of champagne destined for all parts of the civilised world. the house of clicquot, established in the year by the husband of la veuve clicquot-ponsardin, who died in , in her th year, was indebted for much of the celebrity of its wine to the lucky accident of the russians occupying reims in and , and freely requisitioning the sweet champagne stored in the widow's capacious cellars. madame clicquot's wines were slightly known in russia prior to this date; but the officers of the invading army, on their return home, proclaimed their merits throughout the length and breadth of the muscovite empire, and the fortune of the house was made. madame clicquot, as every one knows, amassed enormous wealth, and succeeded in marrying both her daughter and granddaughter to counts of the _ancien régime_. the present head of the firm is m. werlé, who comes of an old lorraine family although born in the ancient free imperial town of wetzlar on the lahn, where goethe lays the scene of his 'sorrows of werther,' the leading incidents of which really occurred there. m. werlé entered the establishment which he has done so much to raise to its existing position so far back as the year . his care and skill, exercised for nearly two-thirds of a century, have largely contributed to obtain for the clicquot brand that high repute which it enjoys to-day all over the world. m. werlé, who has long been naturalised in france, was for many years mayor of reims and president of its chamber of commerce, as well as one of the deputies of the marne to the corps législatif. he enjoys the reputation of being the richest man in reims, and, like his late partner, madame clicquot, he has also secured brilliant alliances for his children, his son, m. alfred werlé, having married the daughter of the duc de montebello, while his daughter espoused the son of m. magne, minister of finance under the second empire. [illustration: heads of ph[oe]bus and bacchus.] half-way down the narrow rue du temple is an ancient gateway, on which may be traced the half-effaced sculptured heads of ph[oe]bus and bacchus. immediately in front is a green _porte-cochère_ forming the entrance to the clicquot-werlé establishment, and conducting to a spacious trim-kept courtyard, set off with a few trees, with some extensive stabling and cart-sheds on the left, and on the right hand the entrance to the cellars. facing us is an unpretending-looking edifice, where the firm has its counting-houses, with a little corner tower surmounted by a characteristic weathercock consisting of a figure of bacchus seated astride a cask beneath a vine-branch, and holding up a bottle in one hand and a goblet in the other. the old remois commanderie of the knights templars existed until the epoch of the great revolution, and today a few fragments of the ancient buildings remain adjacent to the 'celliers' of the establishment, which are reached through a pair of folding-doors and down a flight of stone steps. the date of the foundation of this commanderie is uncertain, but it is known that a templar's church occupied a portion of the site in . in both the church and the commanderie passed into possession of the order of st. john of jerusalem, which held them until the epoch of the revolution. formerly the _échevins_ of reims used to be elected in the ancient hall of the commanderie, which at one period was a sanctuary for debtors, and also for criminals. early in the present century the buildings were sold and demolished. [illustration: the clicquot-werlÉ establishment at reims.] [illustration] [illustration: arms of the dauphins of france. arms of the knight of malta. devices from the commanderie at reims.] after being furnished with lighted candles, we set out on our tour of inspection of the clicquot-werlé establishment, entering first of all the vast cellar of st. paul, where the thousands of bottles requiring to be daily shaken are reposing necks downward on the large perforated tables which crowd the apartment. it is a peculiarity that each of the clicquot-werlé cellars--forty-five in number, and the smallest among them a vast apartment--has its special name. in the adjoining cellar of st. matthew other bottles are similarly arranged, and here wine in cask is likewise stored. we pass rows of huge tuns, each holding its twelve or thirteen hundred gallons of fine reserved wine designed for blending with more youthful growths; next, are threading our way between seemingly endless piles of hogsheads filled with later vintages, and anon are passing smaller casks containing the syrup with which the _vin préparé_ is dosed. at intervals we come upon some square opening in the floor through which bottles of wine are being hauled up from the cellars beneath in readiness to receive their requisite adornment before being packed in baskets or cases, according to the country to which they are destined to be despatched. to russia the clicquot champagne is sent in cases containing sixty bottles, while the cases for china contain as many as double that number. [illustration: remains of the commanderie at reims.] the ample cellarage which the house possesses has enabled m. werlé to make many experiments which firms with less space at their command would find it difficult to carry out on the same satisfactory scale. such, for instance, is the system of racks in which the bottles repose while the wine undergoes its diurnal shaking. instead of these racks being, as is commonly the case, at almost upright angles, they are perfectly horizontal, which, in m. werlé's opinion, offers a material advantage, inasmuch as the bottles are all in readiness for disgorging at the same time, instead of the lower ones being ready before those above, as is the case when the ancient system is followed, owing to the uppermost bottles getting less shaken than the others. after performing the round of the celliers we descend into the _caves_, a complete labyrinth of gloomy underground corridors excavated in the bed of chalk which underlies the city, and roofed and walled with solid masonry, more or less blackened by age. in one of these cellars we catch sight of rows of workpeople engaged in the operation of dosing, corking, securing, and shaking the bottles of wine which have just left the hands of the _dégorgeur_ by the dim light of half-a-dozen tallow-candles. the latest invention for liqueuring the wine is being employed. formerly, to prevent the carbonic acid gas escaping from the bottles while the process of liqueuring was going on, it was necessary to press a gutta-percha ball connected with the machine, in order to force the escaping gas back. the new machine, however, renders this unnecessary, the gas, by its own power and composition, forcing itself back into the wine. in the adjoining cellar of st. charles are stacks of bottles awaiting the manipulation of the _dégorgeur_; while in that of st. ferdinand men are engaged in examining other bottles before lighted candles, to make certain that the sediment is thoroughly dislodged, and the wine perfectly clear before the disgorgement is effected. here, too, the corking, wiring, and stringing of the newly-disgorged wine are going on. another flight of steps leads to the second tier of cellars, where the moisture trickles down the dank dingy walls, and save the dim light thrown out by the candles we carried, and by some other far-off flickering taper, stuck in a cleft stick, to direct the workmen, who with dexterous turns of their wrists, give a twist to the bottles, all is darkness. on every side bottles are reposing in various attitudes, the majority in huge square piles on their sides, others in racks slightly tilted; others, again, almost standing on their heads, while some, which through overinflation have come to grief, litter the floor and crunch beneath our feet. tablets are hung against each stack of wine indicating its age, and from time to time a bottle is held up before the light to show us how the sediment commences to form, or to explain how it eventually works its way down the neck of the bottle, and finally settles on the cork. suddenly we are startled by a loud report, resembling a pistol-shot, which reverberates through the vaulted chamber, as a bottle close at hand explodes, dashing out its heavy bottom as neatly as though it had been cut by a diamond, and dislocating the necks and pounding-in the sides of its immediate neighbours. the wine trickles down, and eventually finds its way along the sloping sides of the slippery floor to the narrow gutter in the centre. [illustration: madame veuve clicquot at eighty years of age (from the painting by léon coignet).] ventilating shafts pass from one tier of cellars to the other, enabling the temperature in a certain measure to be regulated, and thereby obviate an excess of breakage. m. werlé estimates that the loss in this respect during the first eighteen months of a cuvée amounts to per cent, but subsequently is considerably less. in one champagne manufacturer lost as much as per cent of his wine by breakages. the clicquot cuvée is made in the cave of st. william, where hogsheads of wine are hauled up by means of a crane, and discharged into the vat daily as long as the operation lasts. the tirage, or bottling of the wine, ordinarily commences in the middle of may, and occupies fully a month. m. werlé's private residence is close to the establishment in the rue du temple, and here he has collected a small gallery of high-class modern paintings by french and other artists, including meissonier's 'card-players,' delaroche's 'beatrice cenci on her way to execution,' fleury's 'charles v. picking up the brush of titian,' various works by the brothers scheffer, knaus's highly-characteristic _genre_ picture, 'his highness on a journey,' and several fine portraits, among which is one of madame clicquot, painted by léon coignet, when she was eighty years of age, and another of m. werlé by the same artist, regarded as a _chef-d'[oe]uvre_. before her father's death madame clicquot used to reside in the rue de marc, some short distance from the cellars in which her whole existence centred, in a handsome renaissance house, said to have had some connection with the row of palaces that at one time lined the neighbouring and then fashionable rue du tambour. this, however, is extremely doubtful. a number of interesting and well-preserved bas-reliefs decorate one of the façades of the house looking on to the court. the figures are of the period of françois premier and his son henri ii., who inaugurated his reign with a comforting edict for the protestants, ordaining that blasphemers were to have their tongues pierced with red-hot irons, and heretics to be burnt alive, and who had the ill-luck to lose his eye and life through a lance-thrust of the comte de montgomerie, captain of his scotch guards, whilst jousting with him at a tournament held in honour of the marriage of his daughter isabelle with the gloomy widower of queen mary of england, of sanguinary fame. [illustration] [illustration] [illustration] the first of these bas-reliefs represents two soldiers of the swiss guard, the next a turk and slav tilting at each other, and then comes a scroll entwined round a thistle, and inscribed with this enigmatical motto: 'giane le sur ou rien.' in the third bas-relief a couple of passionate italians are winding up a gambling dispute with a hand-to-hand combat, in the course of which table and cards have got canted over; the fourth presents us with two french knights, armed _cap-à-pie_, engaged in a tourney; while in the fifth and last a couple of german lansquenets essay their gladiatorial skill with their long and dangerous weapons. several years back a tablet was discovered in one of the cellars of the house, inscribed 'ci-gist vénérable religieux maistre pierre derclé, docteur en théologie, jadis prieur de céans. priez dieu pour luy. ,' which would almost indicate that the house had originally a religious character, although the warlike spirit of the bas-reliefs decorating it renders any such supposition with regard to the existing building untenable. we should mention that the spaces above the _porte cochère_, and the window by its side, are occupied by four medallions, which present that curious mingling of classic and contemporary styles for which the epoch of the renaissance was remarkable. [illustration: medallions from madame clicquot's house.] the messrs. werlé own numerous acres of vineyards, comprising the very finest situations in the well-known districts of verzenay, bouzy, le mesnil, and oger, at all of which places they have vendangeoirs or pressing-houses of their own. their establishment at verzenay contains seven presses, that at bouzy eight, at le mesnil six, and at oger two, in addition to which grapes are pressed under their own supervision at ay, avize, and cramant, in vendangeoirs belonging to their friends. since the death of madame clicquot the legal style of the firm has been 'werlé & co., successors to veuve clicquot-ponsardin,' the mark, of which m. werlé and his son are the sole proprietors, still remaining 'veuve clicquot-ponsardin,' while the corks of the bottles are branded with the words 'v. clicquot-p. werlé,' encircling the figure of a comet. the style of the wine--light, delicate, elegant, and fragrant--is familiar to all connoisseurs of champagne. what, however, is not equally well known is that within the last few years the firm, in obedience to the prevailing taste, have introduced a perfectly dry wine of corresponding quality to the richer wine which made the fortune of the house, and gave enduring fame to the clicquot brand. [illustration] [illustration: the place royale at reims.] vii. /reims and its champagne establishments/ _(continued)_. the house of louis roederer founded by a plodding german named schreider--the central and other establishments of the firm--ancient house in the rue des elus--the gloomy-looking rue des deux anges and prison-like aspect of its houses--inside their courts the scene changes--handsome renaissance house and garden, a former abode of the canons of the cathedral--the place royale--the hôtel des fermes and the statue of the 'wise, virtuous, and magnanimous louis xv.'--birthplace of colbert in the rue de cérès--quaint adam and eve gateway in the rue de l'arbalète--heidsieck & co.'s central establishment in the rue de sedan--their famous 'monopole' brand--the firm founded in the last century--their extensive cellars inside and outside reims--the matured wines shipped by them--the boulevard du temple--m. ernest irroy's cellars, vineyards, and vendangeoirs--recognition by the reims agricultural association of his plantations of vines--his wines and their popularity at the best london clubs--various champagne firms located in this quarter of reims--the rue du tambour and the famous house of the musicians--the counts de la marck assumed former occupants of the latter--the brotherhood of minstrels of reims--périnet & fils' establishment in the rue st. hilaire--their cellars of three stories in solid masonry--their soft, light, and delicate wines--a rare still verzenay--the firm's high-class extra sec. [illustration] the house of louis roederer, originally founded by a plodding german named schreider, was content to pursue the sleepy tenor of its way for some years--until indeed it suddenly felt prompted to lay siege to the muscovite connection of la veuve clicquot-ponsardin, and secure a market for its wine at moscow and st. petersburg. it next opened up the united states, and finally introduced its brand into england. the house possesses cellars in various parts of reims, and has its offices in one of the oldest quarters of the city--namely, the rue des elus, or ancient rue des juifs, where the old synagogue formerly stood, and the records of which date as far back as . at the corner of this street, and abutting on the place des marchés, is a curious old house, the overhanging upper stories of which are supported by huge massive carved brackets, decorated with figures more or less quaint in design. m. louis roederer's offices in the rue des elus are at the farther end of a courtyard, beyond which is found a second court, where carts laden with cases of champagne seem to indicate that some portion of the shipping business of the house is here carried on. several requests made by us for permission to visit m. louis roederer's establishments having been refused, it is only of their external appearance that we are competent to speak. one of them, in the boulevard du temple, is distinguished by a rather imposing façade, and has a carved head of bacchus surmounting its _porte-cochère_; while the principal establishment, a picturesque range of buildings of considerable extent, is situated in the neighbouring rue de la justice. [illustration: old house at the corner of the rue des Élus and the place des marchÉs, reims.] leading from the rue des elus into the rue de vesle is a gloomy-looking ancient street known as the rue des deux anges, all the houses of which have their windows secured by iron gratings, and their massive doors thickly studded with huge nails. these prison-like façades, which in all probability refer to the epoch of the religious wars, succeed each other in lugubrious monotony along either side of the way; but gain admittance to their inner courts, and quite a different scene presents itself. in one notable instance, looking on to a pleasant little flower-garden, we found a small but charming renaissance house, with its windows ornamented with elaborate mouldings, and surmounted by graceful sculptured heads, while at one corner there rose up a tower with a sun-dial displayed on its front. in this and in an adjoining house the canons of the cathedral were accustomed to reside in the days when something like four-fifths of the city were the property of the church. [illustration: renaissance house in the rue des deux anges, reims.] proceeding along the rue de vesle and the neighbouring rue des tapissiers, we find ourselves once more in the place royale, the principal side of which is occupied by the once notable hôtel des fermes, where, in the days of the _ancien régime_, the farmers-general of the champagne were accustomed to receive the revenues of the province. a bronze statue rises in the centre of the place, which from its roman costume and martial bearing might be taken for some hero of antiquity, did not the inscription on the pedestal apprise us that it is intended for the 'wise, virtuous, and magnanimous louis xv.,' a misuse of terms which has caused a transatlantic republican to characterise the monument as a brazen lie. leading out of the place royale is the rue de cérès, in which there is a modernised sixteenth-century house claiming to be the birthplace, on the th august , of jean baptiste colbert, son of a reims wool-merchant, and the famous minister who did so much to consolidate the finances of the state which the royal voluptuary, masquerading at reims in roman garb, afterwards made such dreadful havoc of. [illustration: heads surmounting the principal windows of the renaissance house in the rue des deux anges.] [illustration: jean baptiste colbert (from a portrait of the time).] we again cross the place des marchés, at the farther end of which, on the left-hand side, is the rue de l'arbalète, notable for a curious renaissance gateway, with its pediment supported by two life-size figures, which the rémois, for no very sufficient reason, have popularly christened adam and eve. beyond the place des marchés and the place de l'hôtel de ville, and at no great distance from the clicquot-werlé establishment, is the narrow winding rue de sedan, where the old-established firm of heidsieck & co., which has secured a high-class reputation in both eastern and western hemispheres for its famous monopole and dry monopole brands, has its central offices. the original firm dates back to , when france was struggling with those financial difficulties that a few years later culminated in that great social upheaving which kept europe in a state of turmoil for more than a quarter of a century. among the archives of the firm is a patent, bearing the signature of the minister of the prussian royal household, appointing heidsieck & co. purveyors of champagne to frederick william iii. the champagne-drinking hohenzollern _par excellence_, however, was the son and successor of the preceding, who, from habitual over-indulgence in the exhilarating sparkling beverage during the last few years of his reign, acquired the _sobriquet_ of king clicquot. [illustration: adam and eve gateway, rue de l'arbalÈte, reims.] on passing through the large _porte-cochère_ giving entrance to messrs. heidsieck's principal establishment, one finds oneself in a small courtyard, with the surrounding buildings overgrown with ivy and venerable vines. on the left is a dwelling-house enriched with elaborate mouldings and cornices, and at the farther end of the court is the entrance to the cellars, surmounted by a sun-dial bearing the date . the latter, however, is no criterion of the age of the buildings themselves, as these were occupied by the firm at its foundation, towards the close of the last century. we are first conducted into an antiquated-looking low cellier, the roof of which is sustained with rude timber supports, and here bottles of wine are being labelled and packed, although this is but a mere adjunct to the adjacent spacious packing-room, provided with its loading platform and communicating directly with the public road. at the time of our visit this hall was gaily decorated with flags and inscriptions, the day before having been the fête of st. jean, when the firm entertain the people in their employ with a banquet and a ball, at which the choicest wine of the house liberally flows. from the packing-room we descend into the cellars, which, like all the more ancient vaults in reims, have been constructed on no regular plan. here we thread our way between piles after piles of bottles, many of which, having passed through the hands of the disgorger, are awaiting their customary adornment. the lower tier of cellars is mostly stored with _vin sur pointe_, and bottles with their necks downward are encountered in endless monotony along a score or more of long galleries. the only variation in our lengthened promenade is when we come upon some solitary workman engaged in his monotonous task of shaking his , or , bottles per diem. the disgorging at messrs. heidsieck's takes place, in accordance with the good old rule, in the cellars underground, where we noticed large stocks of wine three and five years old, the former in the first stage of _sur pointe_, and the latter awaiting shipment. it is a specialty of the house to ship only matured wine, which is necessarily of a higher character than the ordinary youthful growths, for a few years have a wonderful influence in developing the finer qualities of champagne. at the time of our visit, in the spring of , when the english market was being glutted with the crude full-bodied wine of , messrs. heidsieck were continuing to ship wines of and , beautifully rounded by keeping, and of fine flavour and great delicacy of perfume. of these thoroughly matured wines the firm had fully a year's consumption on hand. messrs. heidsieck & co. have a handsome modern establishment in the rue coquebert--a comparatively new quarter of the city, where champagne establishments are the rule--the courtyard of which, alive with workmen at the time of our visit, is broad and spacious, while the surrounding buildings are light and airy, and the cellars lofty, regular, and well ventilated. in a large cellier here, where the tuns are ranged side by side between the rows of iron columns supporting the roof, the firm make their cuvée. here, too, the bottling of their wine takes place, and considerable stocks of high-class reserve wines and more youthful growths are stored ready for removal when required by the central establishment. the bulk of messrs. heidsieck's reserve wines, however, repose in the outskirts of reims, near the porte dieu-lumière, in one of the numerous abandoned chalk quarries, which of late years the champagne manufacturers have discovered are capable of being transformed into admirable cellars. in addition to shipping a rich and a dry variety of the monopole brand, of which they are sole proprietors, messrs. heidsieck export to this country a rich and a dry grand vin royal. it is, however, to their famous monopole wine, and especially to the dry variety, which must necessarily comprise the finest growths, that the firm owe their principal celebrity. few large manufacturing towns like reims--which is one of the most important of those engaged in the woollen manufacture in france--can boast of such fine promenades and such handsome boulevards as the capital of the champagne. as the ancient fortifications of the city were from time to time razed, their site was levelled and generally planted with trees, so that the older quarters of reims are almost encircled by broad and handsome thoroughfares, separating the city, as it were, from its outlying suburbs. in or close to the broad boulevard du temple, which takes its name from its proximity to the site of the ancient commanderie of the templars, various champagne manufacturers, including m. louis roederer, m. ernest irroy, and m. charles heidsieck, have their establishments; while but a few paces off, in the neighbouring rue coquebert, are the large and handsome premises of messrs. krug & co. [illustration: m. ernest irroy's establishment at reims.] the offices of m. ernest irroy, who is known in reims not merely as a large champagne grower and shipper, but also as a distinguished amateur of the fine arts, taking a leading part in originating local exhibitions and the like, are attached to his private residence, a handsome mansion flanked by a large and charming garden in the boulevard du temple. the laying out of this sylvan oasis is due to m. varé, the head gardener of the city of paris, who contributed so largely to the picturesque embellishment of the bois de boulogne. m. irroy's establishment, which comprises a considerable range of buildings grouped around two courtyards, is immediately adjacent, although its principal entrance is in the rue de la justice. the vast celliers, covering an area of upwards of square yards, and either stocked with wine in cask or used for packing and similar purposes, afford the requisite space for carrying on a most extensive business. the cellars beneath comprise three stories, two of which are solidly roofed and lined with masonry, while the lowermost one is excavated in the chalk. they are admirably constructed on a symmetrical plan, and their total surface is very little short of square yards. spite of the great depth to which these cellars descend, they are perfectly dry, the ventilation is good, and their temperature moreover is remarkably cool, one result of which is that m. irroy's loss from breakage never exceeds four per cent per annum. m. irroy holds a high position as a vineyard proprietor in the champagne, his vines covering an area of nearly ninety acres. at mareuil and avenay he owns some twenty-five acres, at verzenay and verzy about fifteen, and at ambonnay and bouzy close upon fifty acres. his father and his uncle, whose properties he inherited or purchased, commenced some thirty years ago to plant vines on certain slopes of bouzy possessing a southern aspect, and he has followed their example with such success both at bouzy and ambonnay, that the reims agricultural association in conferred upon him a silver-gilt medal for his plantations of vines, and in presented him with a _coupe d'honneur_. m. irroy owns vendangeoirs at verzenay, avenay, and ambonnay; and at bouzy, where his largest vineyards are, he has built some excellent cottages for his labourers. he has also constructed a substantial bridge over the ravine which, formed by winter torrents from the hills, intersects the principal vineyard slopes of bouzy. m. ernest irroy's wines, prepared with scrupulous care and rare intelligence, have been known in england for some years past, and are steadily increasing in popularity. they are emphatically connoisseurs' wines. the best west-end clubs, such as white's, arthur's, the old carlton, and the like, lay down the cuvées of this house in good years as they lay down their vintage ports and finer clarets, and drink them, not in a crude state, but when they are in perfection--that is, in five to ten years' time. m. irroy exports to the british colonies and to the united states the same fine wines which he ships to england. several well-known champagne firms have their establishments in this quarter of reims. in addition to those already mentioned, we may instance g. h. mumm & co., who are located in the rue andrieux, only a short distance from the grand triumphal arch known as the gate of mars, by far the most important roman remain of which the champagne can boast. within a stone's throw of this arch there formerly stood the ancient château of the archbishops of reims, demolished close upon three centuries ago. in the rue de mars, a winding ill-paved thoroughfare leading from the gate of mars to the place de l'hôtel de ville, jules mumm & co., an offshoot from the once famous firm of p. a. mumm & co., are installed; while in a massive and somewhat pretentious-looking house, dating back to the time of louis quatorze, in a corner of the place de l'hôtel de ville, ruinart père et fils, who claim to rank as the oldest existing champagne establishment, have their offices. the late vicomte de brimont, the recent head of the firm, was a collateral descendant of the dom ruinart, whose remains repose nigh to those of the illustrious dom perignon in the abbey church of hautvillers. from the place de l'hôtel de ville we proceed through the narrow rue du tambour, originally a roman thoroughfare, and during the middle ages the locality where the nobility of reims principally had their abodes. half-way up this street stands the famous house of the musicians, one of the most interesting architectural relics of which the capital of the champagne can boast. it evidently dates from the early part of the fourteenth century, but by whom it was erected is unknown. some ascribe it to the knights templars, others to the counts of champagne, while others suppose it to have been the residence of the famous counts de la marck, who in later times diverged into three separate branches, the first furnishing dukes of cleves and jülich to germany, and dukes of nevers and counts of eu to france; while the second became dukes of bouillon and princes of sedan, titles which passed to the turennes when henri de la tour d'auvergne, vicomte de turenne, married the surviving heiress of the house. the third branch comprised the barons of lumain, allied to the hohenzollerns. their most famous member slew louis de bourbon, archbishop of liège, and flung his body into the meuse; and subsequently became celebrated as the wild boar of the ardennes, of whom all readers of _quentin durward_ will retain a lively recollection. [illustration: the house of the musicians in the rue du tambour, reims.] to return, however, to the house of the musicians. a probable conjecture ascribes the origin of the quaint mediæval structure to the brotherhood of minstrels of reims, who in the thirteenth century enjoyed a considerable reputation, not merely in the champagne, but throughout the north of france. the house takes its present name from five seated statues of musicians, larger than life-size, occupying the gothic niches between the first-floor windows, and resting upon brackets ornamented with grotesque heads. it is thought that the partially-damaged figure on the left-hand side was originally playing a drum and a species of clarionet. the next one evidently has the remnants of a harp in his raised hands. the third or central figure is supposed merely to have held a hawk upon his wrist; whilst the fourth seeks to extract harmony from a dilapidated bagpipe; and the fifth, with crossed legs, strums complacently away upon the fiddle. the ground-floor of the quaint old tenement is to-day an oil and colour shop, the front of which is covered with chequers in all the tints of the rainbow. leading from the rue du tambour is the rue de la belle image, thus named from a handsome statuette of the virgin, which formerly decorated a corner niche; and beyond is the rue st. hilaire, where messrs. barnett et fils, trading under the designation of périnet et fils, and the only english house engaged in the manufacture of champagne, have an establishment which is certainly as perfect as any to be found in reims. above-ground are several large store-rooms, where vintage-casks and the various utensils common to a champagne establishment are kept; and a capacious cellier, upwards of one hundred and fifty feet in length, with its roof resting on massive timber supports. here new wine is stored preparatory to being blended and bottled; and in the huge tun, holding nearly three thousand gallons, standing at the further end, the firm make their cuvée; while adjacent is a room where stocks of corks and labels, metal foil, and the like are kept. [illustration: messrs. pÉrinet et fils' establishment in the rue st. hilaire, reims.] underneath this building there are three stories of cellars--an exceedingly rare thing anywhere in the champagne--all constructed in solid masonry on a uniform plan, each story comprising two wide galleries, running parallel with each other and connected by means of transverse passages. spite of the great depth to which these cellars descend, they are perfectly dry; the ventilation, too, is excellent; and their different temperatures render them especially suitable for the storage of champagne, the temperature of the lowest cellar being ° centigrade ( ° fahrenheit), or one degree centigrade below the cellar immediately above, which in its turn is two degrees below the uppermost of all. the advantage of this is that, when the wine develops an excess of effervescence, any undue proportion of breakages can be checked by removing the bottles to a lower cellar, and consequently into a lower temperature. the first cellars we enter are closely stacked with wine in bottle, which is gradually clearing itself by the formation of a deposit; while in an adjoining cellar on the same level the operations of disgorging, liqueuring, and corking are going on. at the end of this gallery is a spacious compartment, where a large stock of _pure champagne_ cognac of grand vintages is stored for cask and liqueur use. in the cellars immediately beneath, bottles of wine repose in solid stacks ready for the _dégorgeur_; while others rest in racks, in order that they may undergo their daily shaking. in the lowest cellars reserved wine in cask is stored, as it best retains its natural freshness and purity in a very cool place. all air is carefully excluded from the casks; any ullage is immediately replaced; and, as evaporation is continually going on, the casks are examined every fortnight, when any deficiency is at once replenished. at messrs. périnet et fils', as at all the first-class establishments, the _vin brut_ is a _mélange_ comprising the produce of some of the best vineyards, and has every possible attention paid to it during its progressive stages of development. from the second tier of cellars at messrs. périnet et fils' a gallery extends, under the rue st. hilaire, to some extensive vaults excavated beneath an adjacent building, in which the reims military club is installed. these vaults, arranged in two separate stories, are eight in number, and in them we found a quarter of a million bottles of _vin brut_, reposing either in solid stacks or _sur pointe_, the latter going through their daily shaking in order to fit them for the operation of _dégorgement_. on the whole the cellars of périnet et fils, including the six long galleries already described, suffice for the storage of a million bottles of champagne. [illustration: the cellier and cellars of messrs. pÉrinet et fils.] before leaving the establishment champagnes of different years were shown to us, all of them soft, light, and delicate, and with that fine flavour and full perfume which the best growths of the marne alone exhibit. among several curiosities submitted to us was a still verzenay of the year , one of the most delicate wines it was ever our fortune to taste. light in body, rich in colour, of a singularly novel and refined flavour, and with a magnificent yet indefinable bouquet, the wine was in every respect perfect. not only was the year of the vintage a grand one, but the wine must have been made with the greatest possible care, and from the most perfect grapes, for so delicate a growth to have retained its flavour in such perfection, and preserved its brilliant ruby colour for such a length of time. from the samples shown to us of périnet et fils' champagne, we were prepared to find that at some recent tastings in london, the particulars of which have been made public, their extra sec took the first place at each of the three severe competitions to which it was subjected. [illustration: grotto beneath the old fortifications of reims.] viii. /reims and its champagne establishments/ _(continued)_. la prison de bonne semaine--mary queen of scots at reims--messrs. pommery & greno's offices--a fine collection of faïence--the rue des anglais a former refuge of english catholics--remains of the old university of reims--ancient tower and grotto--the handsome castellated pommery establishment--the spacious cellier and huge carved cuvée tuns--the descent to the cellars--their great extent--these lofty subterranean chambers originally quarries, and subsequently places of refuge of the early christians and the protestants--madame pommery's splendid cuvées of and --messrs. de st. marceaux & co.'s new establishment in the avenue de sillery--its garden-court and circular shaft--animated scene in the large packing hall--lowering bottled wine to the cellars--great depth and extent of these cellars--messrs. de st. marceaux & co.'s various wines--the establishment of veuve morelle & co., successors to max sutaine--the latter's 'essai sur le vin de champagne'--the sutaine family formerly of some note at reims--morelle & co.'s cellars well adapted to the development of sparkling wines--the various brands of the house--the porte dieu-lumière. [illustration: head overseer at pommery and greno's.] nigh the cathedral of reims, and in the rear of the archiepiscopal palace, there runs a short narrow street known as the rue vauthier le noir, and frequently mentioned in old works relating to the present capital of the champagne. the discovery of various pillars and statues, together with a handsome gallo-roman altar, whilst digging some foundations in , points to the fact that a pagan temple formerly occupied the site. the street is supposed to have taken its name, however, from some celebrated gaoler, for in mediæval times here stood 'la prison de bonne semaine.' on the site of this prison a château was subsequently built, which tradition has erroneously fixed upon as the residence of the beautiful and luckless mary queen of scots, in the days when her uncle, cardinal charles de lorraine, was lord archbishop of reims. temple, prison, and palace have alike disappeared, and where they stood there now rises midway between court and garden a handsome mansion, the residence of madame pommery, head of the well-known firm of pommery & greno. to the left of the courtyard, which is entered through a monumental gateway, are some old buildings, let into the walls of which are a couple of sculptured escutcheons, the one comprising the arms of france, and the other those of the cardinal de lorraine. on the right-hand side of the courtyard are the pommery offices, together with the manager's sanctum, replete with artistic curiosities, the walls being completely covered with remarkable specimens of faïence, including rouen, gien, palissy, delft, and majolica, collected in the majority of instances by madame pommery in the villages around reims. here we were received by m. vasnier, who at once volunteered to accompany us to the cellars of the firm outside the city. messrs. pommery & greno originally carried on business in the rue vauthier le noir, where there are extensive cellars, but their rapidly-increasing connection long since compelled them to emigrate beyond the walls of reims. [illustration: old coats of arms in the courtyard of madame pommery's residence.] in close proximity to the rue vauthier le noir is the rue des anglais, so named from the english catholic refugees, who, flying from the persecutions of our so-called good queen bess, here took up their abode and established a college and a seminary. they rapidly acquired great influence in reims, and one of their number, william gifford, was even elected archbishop. at the end of this street, nigh to madame pommery's, there stands an old house erected late in the fifteenth century, with a corner tower and rather handsome renaissance window, which formerly belonged to some of the clergy of the cathedral, and subsequently became the 'bureau général de la loterie de france,' an institution abolished by the national convention in . [illustration: old house in the rue des anglais, reims.] the rue des anglais conducts into the rue de l'université, where a few remnants of the old university, founded by cardinal charles de lorraine ( - ), formerly attracted attention, notably a conical-capped corner tower, the sculptured ornaments at the base of which had crumbled into dust beneath the corroding tooth of time.[ ] from the rue de l'université our way lies along the boulevard du temple to the porte gerbert, about a mile beyond which there rises up the curious castellated structure in which the pommery establishment is installed, with its tall towers commanding a view of the whole of reims and its environs. as we drive up the avenue gerbert we espy on the right an isolated crumbling tower, a remnant of the ancient fortifications of reims,[ ] while close at hand, and under the old city-walls, is a grotto, to which an ancient origin is likewise ascribed. in another minute we reach the open iron gates of messrs. pommery's establishment, flanked by a picturesque porter's lodge; and proceeding up a broad drive, we alight under a gothic portico at the entrance to the spacious and lofty cellier. iron girders support the roof of this vast hall, feet in length and feet in width, without the aid of a single column. at one end is the office and tasting-room, provided with a telegraphic apparatus and telephone, by means of which communication is carried on with the reims bureaux. stacked up on every side of the cellier, and often in eight tiers when empty, are rows upon rows of casks, of which contain wine of the costly vintage of sufficient for a million and a half bottles of champagne. the temperature of this hall is carefully regulated; the windows are high up near the roof, and the sun's rays are rigidly excluded, so that a pleasant coolness pervades the building. on the left-hand side stand two huge tuns, with the monogram p. and g., surmounting the arms of reims, carved on their heads. these are capable of containing gallons of wine, and in them the firm make their cuvée. a platform, access to which is gained by a staircase in a side aisle, runs round one of these _foudres_; and when the wine, which has been hoisted up in casks and poured through a metal trough into the _foudre_, is being blended, boys stand on this platform and, by means of a handle protruding above the cask, work the paddle-wheels placed inside, thereby securing the complete amalgamation of the wine. adjoining are the chains and lifts worked by steam, by means of which wine is raised and lowered from and to the cellars beneath, one lift raising or lowering eight casks, whether full or empty, in the space of a minute. [illustration: the pommery and greno establishment in the outskirts of reims.] at the farther end of the hall a gothic door, decorated with ornamental ironwork, leads to the long broad flight of steps, in number, and nearly twelve feet in width, conducting to the suite of lofty subterranean chambers, where bottles of _vin brut_ repose in their hundreds of thousands in slanting racks or solid piles, passing leisurely through those stages of development necessary to fit them for the _dégorgeur_. altogether there are large shafts, feet in depth and feet square at their base, which were originally quarries, and are now connected by spacious galleries. this side of reims abounds with similar chalk quarries, commonly believed to have served as places of refuge for the protestants at the time of the league and after the revocation of the edict of nantes; and it is even conjectured that the early christians--the followers of st. sixtus and st. sinicus--here hid themselves from their persecutors. since the cellars within the city have no longer sufficed for the storage of the immense stocks required through the development of the champagne trade, these vast subterranean galleries have been successfully utilised by various firms. messrs. pommery, after filling up the chambers above the water level, proceeded to excavate the connecting tunnels, shore up the cracking arches, and repair the flaws in the chalk with masonry, finally converting these abandoned quarries into magnificent cellars for the storage of champagne. no less than , _l._ was spent upon them and the castellated structure aboveground. several millions of bottles of champagne can be stored in these capacious vaults, the area of which is nearly , square feet. [illustration: interior of messrs. pommery and greno's cellier.] madame pommery made a great mark with her splendid cuvées of and , the result being that her brand has become widely popular, and that it invariably realises exceptionally high prices. on leaving messrs. pommery's we retrace our steps down the avenue gerbert, bordered on either side with rows of plane-trees, until we reach the treeless avenue de sillery, where messrs. de st. marceaux & co.'s new and capacious establishment is installed. simple and without pretension, the establishment, which covers an area of upwards of , feet, is distinguished for its perfect appropriateness to the industry for which it was designed. the principal block of building is flanked by two advanced wings enclosing a garden-court, set off with flowers and shrubs, and from the centre of which rises a circular shaft, covered in with glass, and admitting light and air to the cellars below. in the building to the left the wine is received on its arrival from the vineyard, and here are ranged large quantities of casks replete with the choice crus of verzenay, ay, cramant, and bouzy, while thousands of bottles ready for labelling are stacked in massive piles at the end of the packing-hall in the corresponding wing of the establishment. here, too, a tribe of workpeople are arraying the bottles with gold and silver headdresses, and robing them in pink paper, while others are filling, securing, marking, and addressing the cases or baskets destined to hong-kong, san francisco, yokohama, bombay, london, new york, st. petersburg, berlin, or paris. [illustration: the packing-hall of messrs. de st. marceaux at reims.] the wine in cask, stored in the left-hand wing, after having been duly blended in an enormous vat, is drawn off into bottles, which are then lowered down a shaft to the second tier of cellars by means of an endless chain, on to which the baskets of bottles are swiftly hooked. the workman engaged in this duty, in order to guard against his falling down the shaft, has a leather belt strapped round his waist, by means of which he is secured to an adjoining iron column. we descended into the lower cellars down a flight of ninety-three broad steps--a depth equal to the height of an ordinary six-storied house--and found no less than four-and-twenty galleries excavated in the chalk, devoid of masonry supports, and containing upwards of a million bottles of champagne. these galleries vary in length, but are of uniform breadth, and allow either for a couple of racks with wine _sur pointe_, or stacks of bottles, in four row's on either side, with ample passage-room down the centre. the upper range of cellars comprises two large arched galleries of considerable breadth, one of which contains wine in wood and wine _sur pointe_, while the other is stocked with bottles of wine heads downward, ready to be delivered into the hands of the _dégorgeur_. mm. de st. marceaux & co. have the honour of supplying the king of the belgians, the president of the french republic, and several german potentates with an exceedingly delicate champagne known as the royal st. marceaux. the same wine is popular in russia and other parts of europe, just as the dry royal of the firm is much esteemed in the united states. the brand of the house most appreciated in this country is its carte d'or, a very dry wine, the extra superior quality of the firm, which secured the first place at a recent champagne competition in england. some little distance beyond the remnants of the ancient fortifications of reims, skirting the butte de st. nicaise, is the establishment of veuve morelle & co., successors to veuve max sutaine & co. this house was founded in by the late m. maxime sutaine, who, like several other notabilities in the reims wine trade, was as familiar with art and science as with the special industry to which he had devoted himself. an amateur painter of no mean skill, he showed himself thoroughly at home in the biographical and critical notices on artists and art in his native province which he produced. his name, however, is chiefly identified in literature with his _essai sur le vin de champagne_.[ ] this work may be regarded as the first attempt to collect the scattered materials relating to the history of champagne wine, and to deal with them in a critical spirit. though necessarily imperfect, its value is undoubtedly great, and it has been frequently quoted from in the present volume. the family of sutaine long held an honourable position at reims, the name of one of m. max sutaine's immediate ancestors, who filled the position of lieutenant of the city in , appearing on the bronze slab at the base of the statue of louis xv. in the place royale, erected during that year. [illustration: the cellars of max sutaine and co. in the chemin de la procession, reims.] the cellars of the firm of veuve morelle & co., successors to max sutaine & co., are very extensive; and while more than usually picturesque in appearance, are in every respect admirably adapted for the rearing and development of the delicate wines of the champagne. these cellars, hewn out of the chalk, are of great depth. the firm has been careful to adhere to the good traditions of its predecessors in the composition of its cuvées, and at the same time to avoid those errors which experience and the resources of modern science have made manifest. its rule is only to send out wines of a good cru, and never before they are thoroughly matured, thereby avoiding the shipment of young wines. the chief kinds bearing the brand of max sutaine & co. are vin brut (of great years), extra dry, creaming sillery, and bouzy for england, sillery sec for russia, and verzenay and cabinet for germany and belgium. it should be mentioned that of late years the abandoned quarries, so numerous on this side of the city, have been largely utilised by the reims champagne manufacturers as cellars for the storage of their wines. beyond the firms that have been already alluded to as possessing cellars in this direction, there remain to be enumerated messrs. kunkelmann & co., ruinart père et fils, the goulets, jules champion, théophile roederer, &c. the cellars of several of the last named are immediately outside the porte dieu-lumière, near which is a seventeenth-century house having let into its face a curious bas-relief, of evidently much earlier date, the subject of which has been a source of considerable perplexity to local antiquaries. a like cloud enshrouds the origin of the name of dieu-lumière, bestowed upon the fortified gate formerly standing here, and originally erected during the fourteenth century, when, the circle of the ramparts having been carried round the bourg de st. remi so as to unite it to the old city, the porte st. nicaise was walled up.[ ] like the other portals of reims, it has no lack of historical associations. its vaulted roof resounded with the trampling of barbed war-steeds when, on the th july , charles the victorious swept beneath it into the city, with joan of arc by his side and the steel-clad chivalry of france at his back.[ ] the year saw its keys handed to the duc de guise, and the green flag of the league, with its device 'auspice christo,' hoisted above it; and twenty-three years later, as henri quatre rode through it amidst shouts of welcome, the jesting remark, 'i had no idea i was so well beloved at reims,' was the only attempt at revenge made by the easy-going béarnais on the population who had so long flouted his authority. rebuilt in , it witnessed the triumphant return of grandpré's cavalry and the rémois militia, after their victory over montal and his spaniards at la pompelle in , and the successful assault of the renegade saint priest, whose cossacks entered the walls at this point in , and gave way to the most brutal excesses. nor must it be forgotten that marie louise passed through this gate _en route_ for paris, on which occasion its summit was crowned with elaborate allegorical devices supported by cupids weaving garlands of flowers; or that for several centuries the relics of st. timotheus and his companions were annually carried through it on whit-monday by the clergy of reims, escorted by a procession of pilgrims, to the scene of the martyrdom of these early christians at la pompelle. [illustration: bas-relief near the porte dieu-lumiÈre.] [illustration] ix. /epernay./ the connection of epernay with the production of wine of remote date--the town repeatedly burnt and plundered--hugh the great carries off all the wine of the neighbourhood--vineyards belonging to the abbey of st. martin in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries--abbot gilles orders the demolition of a wine-press which infringes the abbey's feudal rights--bequests of vineyards in the fifteenth century--francis i. bestows epernay on claude duke of guise in --the eschevins send a present of wine to their new seigneur--wine levied for the king's camp at rethel and the strongholds of the province by the duc de longueville--epernay sacked and fired on the approach of charles v.--the charles-fontaine vendangeoir at avenay--destruction of the immense pressoirs of the abbey of st. martin--the handsome renaissance entrance to the church of epernay--plantation of the 'terre de siége' with vines in --money and wine levied on epernay by condé and the duke of guise--henri quatre lays siege to epernay--death of maréchal biron--desperate battle amongst the vineyards--triple talent of the 'bon roy henri' for drinking, fighting, and love-making--verses addressed by him to his 'belle hôtesse' anne du puy--the epernay town council make gifts of wine to various functionaries to secure their good-will--presents of wine to turenne at the coronation of louis xiv.--petition to louvois to withdraw the epernay garrison that the vintage may be gathered in--the duke and duchess of orleans at epernay--louis xiv. partakes of the local vintage at the maison abbatiale on his way to the army of the rhine--increased reputation of the wine of epernay at the end of the seventeenth century--numerous offerings of it to the marquis de puisieux, governor of the town--the old pretender presented at epernay with twenty-four bottles of the best--sparkling wine sent to the marquis de puisieux at sillery, and also to his nephew--further gifts to the prince de turenne--the vintage destroyed by frost in --the epernay slopes at this epoch said to produce the most delicious wine in europe--vines planted where houses had formerly stood--the development of the trade in sparkling wine--a 'tirage' of fifty thousand bottles in --arthur young drinks champagne at epernay at forty sous the bottle--it is surmised that louis xvi., on his return from varennes, is inspired by champagne at epernay--napoleon and his family enjoy the hospitality of jean remi moët--king jerome of westphalia's true prophecy with regard to the russians and champagne--disgraceful conduct of the prussians and russians at epernay in --the mayor offers them the free run of his cellars--charles x., louis philippe, and napoleon iii. accept the 'vin d'honneur' at epernay--the town occupied by german troops during the war of - . [illustration] if reims be the titular capital of the champagne wine-trade, epernay can boast of containing the establishments of some of the most eminent firms engaged therein. its connection with the production of the wines of champagne is of the remotest. the vineyards stretching for miles around the ancient sparnacum claim indeed an antiquity far exceeding that of any existing portion of the town itself, which, despite the remote date of its foundation, and the fact that it was a place of considerable importance as early as , presents a thoroughly modern aspect. unlike reims--so rich in the remains of antiquity--it possesses no mementoes of the days when its lord eulogius gave it to st. remi,[ ] and he in turn bequeathed it to the church. [illustration] the reason is simple, for the history of epernay may be briefly summed up in the words--fire, pestilence, and pillage. from the days when misfortune first overtook it, after the division of the frankish monarchy on the death of clovis, it has been burnt down on half a dozen occasions, repeatedly depopulated by the plague, and captured and sacked times out of number. the contending sovereigns of austrasia and neustria alternately obtained forcible possession of it, and the rival counts of paris and vermandois snatched it repeatedly from each other's hold, like hungry dogs contending for a bone; whilst the normans, the hungarians, the vassals of charles of lorraine, and the followers of otho of germany added their quota to the work of destruction during the long period of anarchy preceding the establishment of the capetian race upon the throne of france. the founder of the said race, hugh the great, distinguished himself in by plundering the town of epernay, ravaging the surrounding country, and profiting by the fact that it was vintage-time to carry off all the wine of the neighbourhood.[ ] even during the epoch of comparative tranquillity which prevailed up to the english invasion, epernay became from time to time the prey of robber knights like thomas de marlé and rebellious nobles like count john of soissons; and at the commencement of the thirteenth century count thibault of champagne was fain to burn it, in order to prevent it from serving as a rallying-place for the lords who had risen against queen blanche and her infant son louis ix. after the battle of poitiers it was pillaged by the partisans of charles the bad of navarre; edward the black prince entered it twice as a conqueror; and john of gaunt exacted a heavy tribute from it. in the struggles which followed the death of henry v. of england it was again taken and re-taken, partially burnt and utterly ruined, remaining for three years absolutely depopulated after the unwelcome visit paid it by the duke of burgundy in . yet during all these ravages the vineyards clothing the slopes around the town were gradually developed, chiefly by the fostering care of the good fathers of the abbey of st. martin. the charter of foundation of this abbey, which was endowed in , makes mention of vineyards amongst its possessions, and they are also spoken of in the confirmation of donations and privileges granted by pope eugenius iii. in . count henry of champagne in gave the canons of the abbey the hospital of epernay, with the fields and vineyards belonging to it; and twenty years later, abbot guy purchased from abbot noah, of the monastery of the chapelle aux planches, near troyes, the fields, vineyards, house, barn, and garden adjoining the 'ruisseau du cotheau' at epernay for livres. in , parchasius, a canon of laon, left by will to the abbey the 'vigne du clozet,' which is still celebrated for the excellence of its products, at epernay; and in , abbot theodoric gave the 'terres de la croix boson' at mardeuil to sundry of the inhabitants of that village, on the condition of planting them with vines and paying a yearly rent of fourteen hogsheads of wine obtained therefrom as vinage. tithes of wine at oger, cuis, cramant, monthelon, &c., and the vineyards of genselin, beaumont, and montfelix also figure amongst the possessions of the abbey in the thirteenth century.[ ] a certain proportion of the tithes of the 'fields, meadows, and vineyards' owned by the abbey at epernay was assigned to the dependent priory in the faubourg of igny-le-jard by abbot richard de cuys in . the cultivation of the grape seems to have been carried on in even the most distant of the numerous possessions of the abbey, which drew 'rentes de vin' from chatillon and dormans; and in we find abbot gilles de baronne compelling an unfortunate inhabitant of romains, near fismes, to demolish forthwith a wine-press he had dared to erect to the prejudice of the 'droits seigneuriaux et bannaux' which the abbey had over that village. the military orders had their share, too; for the commandery of the temple at reims owned at epernay at the commencement of the fourteenth century a house and some vineyards, still bearing the name of 'les tempières.' in , philippe le maître and his wife left to the curé of epernay a little vineyard at montebon to pay for a yearly mass; and at a somewhat later date, isabelle la linotte bequeathed to the abbey the vineyard de la ronce at mardeuil.[ ] [illustration: francis i. (from a portrait of the time).] indeed, the history of epernay is most intimately connected with that of its wine, which figures throughout its records as a constant attraction to friends and foes. after the final expulsion of the english, the town gradually recovered its prosperity, and became an appanage of the dukes of orleans. at the commencement of the sixteenth century we find francis i.--to whom it had reverted on the death of louise of savoy--presenting it to claude, duke of guise, and the eschevins resolving in that their new seigneur should be offered 'twenty poinçons of the best wine that can be found in the cellars of the district, and that after the vintage twenty more of the new crop shall be sent to him.'[ ] a levy of one hundred poinçons had already been demanded of them for the camp formed by the king at rethel two years before; and the various strongholds of the province had been freely supplied with wine exacted from epernay by the duke de longueville, lieutenant-governor of the champagne. [illustration: the emperor charles v. (from a portrait of the time).] [illustration] on the advance of charles v. in , the dauphin, afterwards henri ii., following the example successfully set by anne de montmorency in provence, pitilessly sacked the entire district of the marne, in order that the enemy might find nothing to live on, and stored the product, which included an enormous quantity of wine, in epernay. the emperor advanced, meeting with but little opposition, and having taken up his quarters in the abbey of avenay, amused himself with building the vendangeoir known as charles-fontaine on the adjacent slope, as a testimony of his intention to make, if possible, a permanent sojourn in a province, the vinous products of which he so highly esteemed.[ ] but whilst the illustrious patron of titian and his 'swarthy grave commanders' were snugly tippling the choicest vintages contained in the abbey cellars, and his followers camped outside epernay were waiting for the hour when they should revel at pleasure on the wine stored in the town, their hopes vanished literally in smoke. for francis, fearing the town would be unable to hold out, had sent word to captain sery to burn it, and destroy the accumulated store of provisions, in order to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. this was accordingly done on the d september, and amongst the property consumed were the immense pressoirs of the abbey of st. martin. in this conflagration the church of epernay was no doubt also destroyed, as the handsome renaissance doorway--the sole ancient portion of the existing edifice--was evidently erected in the latter half of the sixteenth century. the misfortunes of the town did not cease with this calamity, for a great pestilence seems to have marked the return of the inhabitants to their ruined dwellings at the epoch of the following vintage.[ ] five years later, six arpents of the 'terre de siege' where the spaniards had encamped were planted with vines by the count de nanteuil-le-haudouin, and received the name of the vineyard de la plante.[ ] [illustration: marie stuart, queen of scots.] [illustration: renaissance doorway to the church of epernay.] [illustration: attack on the huguenots at epernay.] as a matter of course, the hapless fate of the town pursued it during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. in the huguenots, under condé, seized on epernay--then a portion of the appanage of the unfortunate marie stuart of scotland--and exacted a ransom of , livres, towards which the abbey of st. martin contributed livres, partly in money and partly in wine, calculated at no more than eleven livres the queue. a higher price appears to have ruled on the recapture of the town by the duke of guise the same year, when the levy made consisted of pièces of wine, estimated at twenty-four livres the queue.[ ] guise was driven out by the inhabitants in ; but after one fruitless assault, the leaguers under rosné succeeded in obtaining forcible possession of epernay four years later. on henri quatre laying siege in turn to epernay in , the vineyards around the town were again literally watered with blood. one notable episode of this siege was the death of maréchal biron, the most devoted of henri's adherents. on the th july the king and biron were returning on horseback from damery to the camp. as they advanced up the road leading from mardeuil to the faubourg of igny, the wind blew off henri's hat, adorned with the famous white plume, and biron, picking it up, jestingly placed it upon his own head. at this moment the white plume unluckily caught the eye of petit, the master gunner of epernay, and he at once pointed a cannon at it from the tour saint antoine. 'for the béarnais!' he exclaimed, as he fired; and the ball carried away the head of the maréchal, to whom henri was speaking, and upon whose shoulder the king's hand was actually resting. 'ah, mordieu, the dog has bitten the béarnais!' cried the exulting gunner, believing it was the king who had fallen, and alluding to the name of the cannon, which was known as the 'dog of orleans,' from its having been captured from the english at the siege of that city, and bearing on its breech the figure of a dog.[ ] [illustration] [illustration: henri quatre before epernay.] the death of maréchal biron, and the fact that henri was devoting quite as much attention to his 'belle hôtesse' at damery, the fair présidente anne du puy, as he was to the siege, encouraged st. paul, who commanded at reims for the league, to despatch a strong body of walloon pikemen and musketeers to the relief of the beleaguered town. they approached by the hollow road leading from the faubourg des ponts neufs to the slope of the vignes des capinets, and passing between the vineyards dure epine and gouttes d'or. attacked by the royalists, they drew up in good order in the latter spot, and prepared to defend themselves with all the stubborn valour of their race, their dense array of pikes bristling amongst the bright green leaves--for it was the close of summer, and the vines were in all the glory of their luxuriant foliage. vainly for a long time the royalists assailed them. attack after attack was repulsed, till the 'golden drops' were turned to drops of gore; and it was not until the white plume of king henri came dashing on in the forefront of his choicest cavalry that the walloons were finally broken and routed, after inflicting upon their assailants a far greater loss than they themselves sustained. the vineyard thus baptised in blood was thenceforward known as the vigne des sièges.[ ] [illustration] [illustration] though data may be lacking to connect the 'bon roi henri' directly with the wine of epernay, there can be no doubt that the sovereign whose triple talent for drinking, fighting, and love-making has been handed down to us in song[ ] found a fair opportunity of exercising all three of these attributes during the siege. of fighting, as we have seen, he had plenty, and, anacreon-like, he seems to have blended love and wine together.[ ] he who, when a new-born babe, had his lips wetted in the old castle of pau by stout antoine de bourbon with a cup of the generous wine of the south, and who gloried in the title of the sieur d'ay, was not likely to neglect the nectar vintaged on the slopes around epernay. and probably the recollection of the raven-haired, black-eyed, bronze-skinned bernais peasant-girls, whom tradition vows he used to woo when in the first flush of youthful manhood beneath the trellised vines of jurançon and gan, served by contrast to heighten the fairer charms of the blonde anne du puy, in whose honour he is reported to have sung: 'morning bright, thy pure light i rejoice when i see; the fair dove whom i love so, is rosy like thee. she is fair, none so rare, with a waist matched by none; by my hand it is spanned, and eyes bright as the sun. wet with new fallen dew, the rose sparkles less bright; freer from spot ermine's not, nor is lily more white. fair dupuis, all agree, on ambrosia is fed; from her lip when i sip nectar's perfume is shed.'[ ] at the outset of the seventeenth century epernay had its full share in the troubles that marked the early part of the reign of louis xiii., being taken in turn by condé, by the count de soissons, acting for the malcontent nobles leagued against richelieu in , and by the king's forces the year following. the peaceful records are, however, plentiful and interesting. in we find the town council deciding to present 'six caques of white wine, the best that can be found,' to m. de vignolles, and the same to m. d'elbenne; and two years later protesting to the 'treasurers of france' their inability to pay , livres, demanded towards the maintenance of the army, owing to the all but total failure of the wine crop. the council were fully aware of the merits of their vintage, and of the advantages of appealing to the heart by way of the stomach. six 'feuillettes' of the best wine were ordered to be sent in september to m. de vaubecourt, and one to his secretary, 'to retain their good-will towards the town,' and induce the former to use his influence with a committee appointed by the king for repaying loans and advances, and also towards getting rid of the garrison. a little later the marquis de senneterre received a queue of wine to withdraw his troops from the town. the maréchal de chatillon, m. de vaubecourt, m. de belfonds, and the count d'estaing were in frequent receipt of such gifts; and it is noteworthy that amongst them figure 'two caques of wine in bottles,' sent to each of the two first at sainte ménéhoulde in .[ ] [illustration] the successful efforts of turenne against his great rival condé during the wars of the fronde were encouraged by frequent presents of the wine of epernay. as the brother of the duc de bouillon, to whom the town of epernay had been given in in exchange for sedan, and as the protector of the district against the spaniards, he received numerous tokens of the citizens' good-will. in september twelve caques of wine were sent to him, with the result that he at once ordered his soldiers to repair the broken bridge across the marne. in the following january a chevreuil and two caques, and in june wine, fowls, and game, were presented to him. in june it was resolved that a deputation should be sent to the coronation of louis xiv. at reims, 'to render the homage due to the king,' and to present 'a caque of wine in bottles' to m. de turenne, which helped no doubt to spread the fame of the epernay wine amongst the nobility present on that occasion. the same social lever was applied in to the 'traitant général' of the so-called 'don gratuit' exacted on the occasion of the king's marriage, two feuillettes being proffered in order to get him to reduce the assessment. representations made to an eschevin of paris, despatched to epernay in to see if there was any store of grain in the town that could be sold to benefit the starving poor of the capital, to the effect that the district was a wine-growing and not a corn country; and the despatch of a deputation in august to louvois, to request that the garrison might be withdrawn to allow of the vintage being gathered in--the inhabitants of the surrounding country having fled to avoid sheltering soldiers,--serve to show the importance of the epernay wine-trade. in , on the passage of the duke and duchess of orleans from châlons, fruit and sweetmeats were presented to them, and wine to the lords of their suite, at a cost of livres sols; and two years later, louis xiv. partook of the local vintage during his sojourn at the 'maison abbatiale,' when on his way to the army of the rhine. towards the close of this century the wine grew in repute, and was eagerly sought after. in november two caques were sent to 'a person who enjoys some credit,' and who was willing to accord his protection to the town in the matter of quartering troops upon it; and the following january twelve more caques were despatched to this 'unknown,' who may have been louvois himself. as to roger brulart, marquis de puisieux et de sillery and governor of epernay, a joyous companion, if we may credit st. simon, his appreciation of the local vintage is borne ample testimony to. in six caques of 'the best' were sent to him by the town council; but by he must have become used to larger offerings, as in september a letter was addressed to him begging him to be satisfied with the like amount, as 'the inhabitants could not manage more,' and could only promise, with regard to three caques still due, that they would 'make an effort' to supply them the following year. wise in their generation, they sent at the same time 'twelve bottles of the best wine' to his intendant, and a similar gift to his secretary; but the following year they were forced to write again that it would be impossible to supply the wine promised unless he obtained a permission to levy it.[ ] the old pretender, or, as he is styled in the local records, 'jacques stuart iii., roy d'angleterre,' arrived at epernay in september , and was presented with 'twenty-four bottles of the best;' whilst the marquis de puisieux, who accompanied him, was satisfied with nothing less than a 'carteau,' or quarter-cask. and when the latter announced his intention of paying a visit in the autumn of to maître adam bertin du rocheret, conseiller du roy and ex-president of the grenier-à-sel at epernay, a resolution was passed to offer him wine on his arrival, and to send 'a hundred _flasks_ of the best' to his château of sillery. the use of the word 'flaçons' clearly implies that the discoveries of dom perignon were being acted upon at epernay, and that the gift in question was one of sparkling wine. [illustration: james edward francis stuart, the old pretender.] in june the sieurs quatresous and chertemps, despatched to congratulate the marquis's nephew and successor, louis philogène brulart, on his appointment to the governorship of the town and his marriage with mademoiselle de souvré, granddaughter of louvois, took with them a similar offering. at the coronation of louis xv., in october, deputies were sent to compliment the prince de turenne, representative of his father the duc de bouillon, seigneur d'epernay, and to present him with 'game, trout, and other fish,' and 'a basket of a hundred flasks of the best.' in august the bourgeois were drawn up under arms, and four dozen bottles were got ready, on the passage through the town of the duke of orleans, son of the late regent, on his way to espouse, as the king's proxy, marie leczinska. this was, however, a sad year for the wine-growers, for ten months of incessant rain, beginning in april, not only ruined the at first promising crop entirely, but caused floods which wrought some havoc. the terrible hail-storm of , which devastated the vineyards of reims, fortunately spared those of epernay; but a frost in october destroyed the vintage, and led to a dearness of provisions which pressed even on the most well-to-do.[ ] for the next three-quarters of a century epernay continued quietly to profit by the yield of 'the slopes laden with vines producing the most delicious wines in europe,' to quote the expression of stapart, who in notes the importance of the trade in wine carried on, not only with paris, but with foreign countries; though at the same time complaining of the decreasing size of the town, and the fact of vineyards being planted where houses had formerly stood.[ ] the only events of importance were from time to time an unusually good or an uncommonly bad crop, or--as the manufacture of _vin mousseux_ gradually swallowed up that of still wine--a disastrous _casse_, like the memorable one of , varied by an occasional royal visit or so. by , max sutaine notes that a single manufacturer would turn out from five to six thousand bottles of sparkling champagne, and exults over the fact that seven years later an enterprising firm risked a _tirage_ of fifty thousand, though people at the time regarded this as something prodigious, and wondered where an outlet would be found.[ ] very likely a bottle of this identical _tirage_ was 'the excellent _vin mousseux_' with which arthur young regaled himself, at a cost of forty sous, on the th july of the same year, at that 'very good inn' the hôtel de rohan, at epernay.[ ] at this same inn the hapless louis xvi. stopped to dine on his return from the intercepted flight to varennes; and when we recall his timid nature, we may fairly surmise that it was champagne which inspired him, amidst the insults of the mob, to remind the authorities that his ancestor, henri quatre, had entered the town in a very different fashion, and by implication to assert that he might yet do the same.[ ] the emperor napoleon, the empress josephine, the king of westphalia, and the other members of the bonaparte dynasty, who from time to time visited epernay and partook of the hospitality of jean remi moët, showed a healthy appreciation of its vintage. indeed king jerome, in giving an order for six thousand bottles _premier cru_, remarked with a strange foresight that he would have taken more, only he was afraid that it would be the russians after all who would come and drink it. sure enough the eventful year witnessed the arrival at epernay of a host of self-invited guests, all equally appreciative of the merits of champagne, and gifted with an almost unlimited power of consumption, but entertaining insuperable objections to pay for what they consumed. the prussians and russians who came hither in february and march misconducted themselves in a very sad manner, burning and pillaging houses, insulting and maltreating the inhabitants, requisitioning all the wine they could lay hands on, and drinking in a manner recalling the bacchic exploits of gargantua and pantagruel. the mayor, jean remi moët, moved by the state of affairs, offered the invaders the free run of his cellars rather than that they should pillage those of others, doubtless under the idea that the reputation his house would thus acquire abroad would soon enable him to retrieve the temporary loss--a proviso happily and amply realised. beyond the facts that epernay has profited, and continues to profit, by the ever-increasing development of the taste for sparkling wine; that charles x., louis philippe, and napoleon iii. have successively favoured it with their presence, and accepted the _vin d'honneur_ offered on such occasions; and that during the war of - the town, in common with the rest of the province of champagne, was occupied by the german invading army, there is nothing more to be said respecting its history. [illustration: the rue du commerce (faubourg de la folie), epernay.] [illustration: the packing-hall at messrs. moËt and chandon's, epernay.] x. /the champagne establishments of epernay and pierry./ early records of the moët family at reims and epernay--jean remi moët, the founder of the commerce in champagne wines--extracts from old account-books of the moëts--jean remi moët receives the emperor napoleon, the empress josephine, and the king of westphalia--the firm of moët & chandon constituted--their establishment in the rue du commerce--the delivery and washing of new bottles--the numerous vineyards and vendangeoirs of the firm--their cuvée made in vats of , gallons--the bottling of the wine--a subterranean city, with miles of streets, cross-roads, open spaces, tramways, and stations--the ancient entrance to these vaults--tablet commemorative of the visit of napoleon i.--the original vaults known as siberia--scene in the packing-hall--messrs. moët & chandon's large and complete staff--the famous 'star' brand of the firm--perrier-jouët's château, offices, and cellars--classification of the wine of the house--the establishment of messrs. pol roger & co.--their large stock of the fine vintage--the preparations for the tirage--their vast fireproof cellier and its temperature--their lofty and capacious cellars--pierry becomes a wine-growing district consequent upon dom perignon's discovery--esteem in which the growths of the clos st. pierre were held--cazotte, author of _le diable amoureux_, and guillotined for planning the escape of louis xvi. from france, a resident at pierry--his contest with the abbot of hautvillers with reference to the abbey tithes of wine--the château of pierry--its owner demands to have it searched to prove that he is not a forestaller of corn--the vineyards and champagne establishment of gé-dufaut & co.--the reserves of old wines in the cellars of this firm--honours secured by them at vienna and paris. [illustration] those magnates of the champagne trade, messrs. moët & chandon, whose famous 'star' brand is familiar in every part of the civilised globe, and whose half-score miles of cellars contain as many million bottles of champagne as there are millions of inhabitants in most of the secondary european states, have their head-quarters at epernay in a spacious château--in that street of châteaux named the rue du commerce, but commonly known as the faubourg de la folie--which is approached through handsome iron gates, and has beautiful gardens in the rear extending in the direction of the river marne. the existing firm dates from the year , but the family of moët--conjectured to have originally come from the low countries--had already been associated with the champagne wine trade for well-nigh a century previously. if the moëts came from holland they must have established themselves in the champagne at a very early date, for the annals of reims record that in the fourteenth century jehan moët de mennemont, _escuier_, held a fief at attigny from the archbishop richard pique, and that in the following century jean and nicolas moët were _échevins_ of the city. a moët was present in that capacity at the coronation of charles vii. in , when joan of arc stood erect by the principal altar of the cathedral with her sacred banner in her hand; and for having contributed to repulse an attempt on the part of the english to prevent the entrance of the royal party into the city, the moëts were subsequently ennobled by the same monarch. a mural tablet in the church of st. remi records the death of d. g. moët, grand prior, in ; and nine years later we find nicol moët claiming exemption at epernay for the payment of _tailles_ on the ground of his being a noble. an old commercial book preserved in the family archives shows that in the year --at the epoch when the rashness of the duc de grammont saved the english army under george ii. from being cut to pieces at dettingen--a descendant of the foregoing, one claude louis nicolas moët, who owned considerable vineyard property in the vicinity of epernay, decided upon embarking in the wine trade. it is his son, however, jean remi moët, born in , who may be looked upon as the veritable founder of the present commerce in champagne wines, which, thanks to his efforts, received a wonderful impulse, so that instead of the consumption of the vintages of the marne being limited as heretofore to the privileged few, it spread all over the civilised world. [illustration: jean remi moËt.] at messrs. moët & chandon's we had the opportunity of inspecting some of the old account-books of the firm, and more particularly those recording the transactions of jean remi moët and his father. the first sales of sparkling wine, on may d, , comprised bottles of the vintage of to pierre joly, wine-merchant, _bon des douze chez le roi_, whatever that may mean, at paris; bottles to pierre gabriel baudoin, also _bon des douze_, at paris; and a similar quantity to the sieur compoin, keeping the 'hotellerie ditte la pestitte escurie,' rue du port-maillart, at nantes in brittany. the entry specifies that the wine for nantes is to be left at choisy-le-roi, and taken by land to orleans by the carters of that town, who are to be found at the ecu d'orléans, porte st. michel, paris, the carriage as far as choisy being livres deniers (about francs) for the two half-baskets, and to paris livres deniers the basket. between and ' parcels of wine were despatched to warsaw, vienna, berlin, königsberg, dantzig, stettin, brussels, and amsterdam; but one found no mention of any sales to england till the year , when the customers of the firm included 'milord' farnham, of london, and messrs. felix calvert & sylvin, who had a couple of sample-bottles sent to them, for which they were charged five shillings. in the same year messrs. carbonnell, moody, & walker (predecessors of the well-known existing firm of carbonnell & co.) wrote in french for two baskets, of ten dozens each, of _vin de champagne_ 'of good body, not too charged with liqueur, but of excellent taste, and not at all sparkling.' the chevalier colebrook, writing from bath, also requests that bottles of champagne may be sent to his friend the hon. john butler, molesworth-street, dublin, 'who, if contented with the wine, will become a good customer, he being rich, keeping a good house, and receiving many amateurs of _vin de champagne_.' shortly afterwards the chevalier himself receives bottles of still wine, vintage . in bottles of champagne, vintage , are supplied to 'milord' findlater, of london; and in the customers of the house include power & michel, of lamb-street, london, and manning, of the st. alban tavern, the latter of whom is supplied on march th with bottles of champagne at three livres, or two 'schillings,' per bottle; while a month later mr. lockart, banker, of pall mall, is debited with bottles, vintage , at three shillings. in this same year m. moët despatches a traveller to england named jeanson, and his letters, some two hundred in number, are all preserved in the archives of the house. on the th may he writes from london as follows: 'as yet i have only gone on preparatory and often useless errands. i have distributed samples of which i have no news. patience is necessary, and i endeavour to provide myself with it. how the taste of this country has changed since ten years ago! almost everywhere they ask for dry wine, but at the same time require it so vinous and so strong that there is scarcely any other than the wine of sillery which can satisfy them.... to-morrow i dine five miles from here, at m. macnamara's. we shall uncork four bottles of our wine, which will probably be all right.' in may jean remi moët is married, and thenceforward assumes the full management of the house. on december of the year following, when the reign of terror was fairly inaugurated, we find the accounts in the ledger opened to this or the other 'citoyen.' the orthodox republican formula, however, did not long continue, and 'sieur' and 'monsieur' resumed their accustomed places, showing that jean remi moët had no sympathy with the jacobin faction of the day. in he became mayor of epernay, and between this time and the fall of the empire received napoleon several times at his residence, as well as the empress josephine and the king of westphalia. the emperor, after recapturing reims from the allies, came on to epernay, on which occasion he presented m. moët with the cross of the legion of honour. in the latter was arbitrarily dismissed from his mayoralty by charles x., but was speedily reinstated by louis philippe, though he did not retain his office for long, his advanced age compelling him to retire from active life in the course of . at this epoch the firm, which since had been known as moët & co., was remodelled under the style of moët & chandon, the two partners being m. victor moët, son of the outgoing partner, and m. p. g. chandon, the descendant of an old ennobled family of the mâconnais, who had married m. jean remi moët's eldest daughter. the descendants of these gentlemen are to-day ( ) at the head of the business, the partners being, on the one hand, m. victor moët-romont and m. c. j. v. auban moët-romont; and on the other, mm. paul and raoul chandon de briailles. facing messrs. moët & chandon's offices at epernay is a range of comparatively new buildings, with its white façade ornamented with the well-known monogram m. & c., surmounted by the familiar star. it is here that the business of blending and bottling the wine is carried on. passing through the arched gateway, access is obtained to a spacious courtyard, where carts laden with bottles are being expeditiously lightened of their fragile contents by the busy hands of numerous workmen. another gateway on the left leads into the spacious bottle-washing room, which from the middle of may until the middle of july presents a scene of extraordinary animation. bottle-washing apparatus, supplied by a steam-engine with , gallons of water per diem, are ranged in fifteen rows down the entire length of this hall, and nearly women strive to excel each other in diligence and celerity in their management, a practised hand washing from to bottles in the course of the day. to the right of this _salle de rinçage_, as it is styled, bottles are stacked in their tens of thousands, and lads furnished with barrows, known as _diables_, hurry to and fro, conveying these to the washers, or removing the clean bottles to the adjacent courtyard, where they are allowed to drain prior to being taken to the _salle de tirage_ or bottling-room. before, however, the washing of bottles on this gigantic scale commences, the 'marrying' or blending of the wine is accomplished in a vast apartment, feet in length and feet broad, during the early spring. the casks of newly-vintaged wine, which have been stowed away during the winter months in the extensive range of cellars hewn out of the chalk underlying epernay, where they have slowly fermented, are mixed together in due proportion in huge vats, each holding upwards of , gallons. some of this wine is the growth of messrs. moët & chandon's own vineyards, of which they possess as many as acres (giving constant employment to labourers and vinedressers) at ay, avenay, bouzy, cramant, champillon, chouilly, dizy, epernay, grauves, hautvillers, le mesnil, moussy, pierry, saran, st. martin, verzy, and verzenay, and the average annual cost of cultivating which is about £ per acre. at ay the firm own acres of vineyards; at cramant and chouilly, nearly acres; at verzy and verzenay, acres; at pierry and grauves, upwards of acres; at hautvillers, acres; at le mesnil, acres; at epernay, nearly acres; and at bouzy, acres. messrs. moët & chandon, moreover, possess vendangeoirs, or pressing-houses, at ay, bouzy, cramant, epernay, hautvillers, le mesnil, pierry, saran, and verzenay, in which the large number of presses are installed. at these vendangeoirs no less than pièces of fine white wine, sufficient for , , bottles of champagne, are annually made--that is, pièces at ay, at cramant and saran, at verzy and verzenay, and smaller quantities at the remaining establishments. all these establishments have their celliers and their cellars, together with cottages for the accommodation of the numerous vinedressers in the employment of the firm. [illustration: washing bottles at messrs. moËt and chandon's, epernay.] extensive as are the vineyards owned by messrs. moët & chandon, the yield from them is utterly inadequate to the enormous demand which the great epernay firm are annually called upon to supply, and large purchases have to be made by their agents from the growers throughout the champagne. the wine thus secured, as well as that grown by the firm, is duly mixed together in such proportions as will insure lightness with the requisite vinosity, and fragrance combined with effervescence, a thorough amalgamation being effected by stirring up the wine with long poles provided with fan-shaped ends. if the vintage be indifferent in quality, the firm have scores of huge tuns filled with the yield of more favoured seasons to fall back upon to insure any deficiencies of character and flavour being supplied. [illustration: messrs. moËt and chandon's vendangeoir at bouzy.] the casks of wine to be blended are raised from the cellars, half a dozen at a time, by means of a lift provided with an endless chain, and worked by the steam-engine of which we have already spoken. they are emptied, through traps in the floor of the room above, into the huge vats which, standing upon a raised platform, reach almost to the ceiling. from these vats the fluid is allowed to flow through hose into rows of casks stationed below. before being bottled the wine reposes for a certain time; is next duly racked and again blended; and is eventually conveyed through silver-plated pipes into oblong reservoirs, each fitted with a dozen syphon-taps, so arranged that directly the bottle slipped on to one of them becomes full the wine ceases to flow. upwards of workpeople are employed in the _salle de tirage_ at messrs. moët & chandon's, which, while the operation of bottling is going on, presents a scene of bewildering activity. men and lads are gathered round the syphon-taps, briskly removing the bottles as they become filled, and supplanting them by empty ones. other lads hasten to transport the filled bottles on trucks to the corkers, whose so-called 'guillotine' machines send the corks home with a sudden thud. the corks being secured with _agrafes_, the bottles are placed in large flat baskets called _manettes_, and wheeled away on trucks, the quarts being deposited in the cellars by means of lifts, while the pints slide down an inclined plane by the aid of an endless chain, which raises the trucks with the empty baskets at the same time the full ones make their descent into the cellars. what with the incessant thud of the corking-machines, the continual rolling of iron-wheeled trucks over the concrete floor, the rattling and creaking of the machinery working the lifts, the occasional sharp report of a bursting bottle, and the loudly-shouted orders of the foremen, who display the national partiality for making a noise to perfection, the din becomes at times all but unbearable. the number of bottles filled in the course of the day naturally varies, still messrs. moët & chandon reckon that during the month of june a daily average of , are taken in the morning from the stacks in the _salle de rinçage_, washed, dried, filled, corked, wired, lowered into the cellars, and carefully arranged in symmetrical order. this represents a total of two and a half million bottles during that month alone. the bottles on being lowered into the cellars, either by means of the incline or the lifts, are placed in a horizontal position, and, with their uppermost side daubed with white chalk, are stacked in layers from two to half a dozen bottles deep, with narrow oak laths between. the stacks are usually about or feet high, and feet and upwards in length. whilst the wine is thus reposing in a temperature of about ° fahrenheit, fermentation sets in, and the ensuing month is one of much anxiety. thanks, however, to the care bestowed, messrs. moët & chandon's annual loss from bottles bursting rarely exceeds three per cent, though fifteen was once regarded as a respectable and satisfactory average. the broken glass is a perquisite of the workmen, the money arising from its sale, which at the last distribution amounted to no less than , francs, being divided amongst them every couple of years. [illustration: bottling champagne at messrs. moËt and chandon's, epernay.] the usual entrance to messrs. moët & chandon's epernay cellars--which, burrowed out in all directions, are of the aggregate length of nearly seven miles, and have usually between , , and , , bottles and , casks of wine stored therein--is through a wide and imposing portal, and down a long and broad flight of steps. it is, however, by the ancient and less imposing entrance, through which more than one crowned head has condescended to pass, that we set forth on our lengthened tour through these intricate underground galleries--this subterranean city, with its miles of streets, cross-roads, open spaces, tramways, and stations devoted solely to champagne. a gilt inscription on a black-marble tablet testifies that 'on the th july , napoleon the great, emperor of the french, king of italy, and protector of the confederation of the rhine, honoured commerce by visiting the cellars of jean remi moët, mayor of epernay, president of the canton, and member of the general council of the department,' within three weeks of the signature of the treaty of tilsit. passing down the flight of steep slippery steps traversed by the victor of eylau and jena, access is gained to the upper range of vaults, brilliantly illuminated by the glare of gas, or dimly lighted by the flickering flame of tallow-candles, upwards of , lb. of which are annually consumed. here group after group of the small army of workmen employed in these subterranean galleries are encountered, engaged in the process of transforming the _vin brut_ into champagne. at messrs. moët & chandon's, the all-important operation of liqueuring the wine is effected by aid of machines of the latest construction, which regulate the quantity administered to the utmost nicety. the corks are branded by being pressed against steel dies heated by gas by women, who can turn out per day apiece, the quantity of string used to secure them amounting to nearly ten tons in the course of the year. [illustration: tablet commemorative of the visit of napoleon i.] there is another and a lower depth of cellars to be explored, to which access is gained by trap-holes in the floor--through which the barrels and baskets of wine are raised and lowered--and by flights of steps. from the foot of the latter there extends an endless vista of lofty and spacious passages hewn out of the chalk, the walls of which, smooth as finished masonry, are lined with thousands of casks of raw wine, varied at intervals by gigantic vats. miles of long, dark-brown, dampish-looking galleries stretch away to the right and left, devoid of the picturesque festoons of fungi which decorate the london dock vaults, yet exhibiting a sufficient degree of mouldiness to give them an air of respectable antiquity. these multitudinous galleries, lit up by petroleum-lamps, are mostly lined with wine in bottles stacked in compact masses to a height of six or seven feet, only room enough for a single person to pass being left. millions of bottles are thus arranged, the majority on their side, in huge piles, with tablets hung up against each stack to note its age and quality; and the rest, which are undergoing daily evolutions at the hands of the twister, in racks at various angles of inclination. these cellars contain nearly , racks, and as many as , bottles are commonly twisted here daily. [illustration] the way runs on between regiments of bottles of the same size and shape, save where at intervals pints take the place of quarts; and the visitor, gazing into the black depths of the transverse passages to the right and left, becomes conscious of a feeling that if his guide were suddenly to desert him, he would feel as hopelessly lost as in the catacombs of rome. there are two galleries, each feet in length, containing about , bottles, and connected by transverse galleries, with an aggregate length of feet, in which nearly , , bottles are stored. there are, further, eight galleries, each feet in length, and proportionably stocked; also the extensive new vaults, excavated some five or six years back, in the rear of the then existing cellarage, and a considerable number of smaller vaults. the different depths and varying degrees of moisture afford a choice of temperature of which the experienced owners know how to take advantage. the original vaults, wherein more than a century ago the first bottles of champagne made by the infant firm were stowed away, bear the name of siberia, on account of their exceeding coldness. this section consists of several roughly-excavated low winding galleries, resembling natural caverns, and affording a striking contrast to the broad, lofty, and regular-shaped corridors of more recent date. when the proper period arrives for the bottles to emerge once more into the upper air, they are conveyed to the packing-room, a spacious hall feet long and feet broad. in front of its three large double doors wagons are drawn up ready to receive their loads. the men and women employed here easily foil, label, wrap, and pack up some , bottles a day. cases and baskets are stacked in different parts of this vast hall, at one end of which numerous trusses of straw used in the packing are piled. seated at tables ranged along one side of the apartment women are busily occupied in pasting on labels or encasing the necks of bottles in gold or silver foil, whilst elsewhere men, seated on three-legged stools in front of smoking caldrons of molten sealing-wax of a deep green hue, are coating the necks of other bottles by plunging them into the boiling fluid. when labelled and decorated with either wax or foil, the bottles pass on to other women, who swathe them in pink tissue-paper and set them aside for the packers, by whom, after being deftly wrapped round with straw, they are consigned to baskets or cases, to secure which last no less than , lb. of nails are annually used. england and russia are partial to gold foil, pink paper, and wooden cases holding a dozen or a couple of dozen bottles of the exhilarating fluid, whereas other nations prefer waxed necks, disdain pink paper, and insist on being supplied in wicker baskets containing fifty bottles each. some idea of the complex character of so vast an establishment as that of messrs. moët & chandon may be gathered from a mere enumeration of their staff, which, in addition to twenty clerks and cellarmen proper, includes numerous agrafe-makers and corkcutters, packers and carters, wheelwrights and saddlers, carpenters, masons, slaters and tilers, tinmen, firemen, needlewomen, &c., while the inventory of objects used by this formidable array of workpeople comprises no fewer than distinct heads. a medical man attached to the establishment gives gratuitous advice to all those employed, and a chemist dispenses drugs and medicines without charge. while suffering from illness the men receive half-pay, but should they be laid up by an accident met with in the course of their work full salary is invariably awarded to them. as may be supposed, so vast an establishment as this is not without a provision for those past work, and all the old hands receive liberal pensions from the firm upon retiring. it is needless to particularise messrs. moët & chandon's wines, which are familiar to all drinkers of champagne. still it may be mentioned that the great epernay firm, with the view of meeting the requirements of the time, have lately commenced shipping a high-class _vin brut_, or natural champagne, possessing great vinosity, combined with remarkable delicacy of flavour. to this fine dry wine the name of 'brut impérial' has been given by the house. moët & chandon's famous 'star' brand is known in all societies, figures equally at clubs and mess-tables, at garden-parties and picnics, dinners and _soirées_, and has its place in hotel _cartes_ all over the world. one of the best proofs of the wine's universal popularity is found in the circumstance that as many as a thousand visitors from all parts of the world come annually to epernay and make the tour of messrs. moët & chandon's spacious cellars. a little beyond messrs. moët & chandon's, in the broad rue du commerce, we encounter a heavy, ornate, pretentious-looking château, the residence of the late m. perrier-jouët, presenting a striking contrast to the almost mean-looking premises opposite, where the business of the firm is carried on. on the left-hand side of a courtyard surrounded by low buildings, which serve as celliers, store-houses, packing-rooms, and the like, are the offices; and from an inner courtyard, where piles of bottles are stacked under open sheds, the cellars themselves are reached. previous to descending into these we passed through the various buildings, in one of which a party of men were engaged in disgorging and preparing wine for shipment. in another we noticed one of those heavy beam presses for pressing the grapes which the more intelligent manufacturers regard as obsolete, while in a third was the cuvée vat, holding no more than gallons. in making their cuvée the firm commonly mix one part of old wine to three parts of new. an indifferent vintage, however, necessitates the admixture of a larger proportion of the older growth. the cellars, like all the more ancient ones at epernay, are somewhat straggling and irregular; still they are remarkably cool, and on the lower floor remarkably damp as well. this, however, would appear to be no disadvantage, as the breakage in them is calculated never to exceed - / per cent. the firm have no less than five qualities of wine, and at one of the recent champagne competitions at london, where the experts engaged had no means of identifying the brands submitted to their judgment, messrs. perrier-jouët's first quality got classed below a cheaper wine of their neighbours, messrs. pol roger & co., and very considerably below the extra sec of messrs. périnet et fils, and inferior even to a wine of de venoge's, the great epernay manufacturer of common-class champagne. champagne establishments, combined with the handsome residences of the manufacturers, line both sides of the long imposing rue du commerce at epernay. on the left hand is a succession of fine châteaux, commencing with one belonging to m. auban moët, whose terraced gardens overlook the valley of the marne, and command views of the vine-clad heights of cumières, hautvillers, ay, and mareuil, and the more distant slopes of ambonnay and bouzy; while on the other side of the famous epernay thoroughfare we encounter beyond the establishments of messrs. moët & chandon and perrier-jouët the ornate monumental façade which the firm of piper & co.--of whom messrs. kunkelmann & co. are to-day the successors--raised some years since above their extensive cellars. in a side street at the farther end of the rue du commerce stands a château of red brick, overlooking on the one side an extensive pleasure-garden, and on the other a spacious courtyard, bounded by celliers, stables, and bottle-sheds, all of modern construction and on a most extensive scale. these form the establishment of messrs. pol roger & co., settled for many years at epernay, and known throughout the champagne for their large purchases at the epoch of the vintage. from the knowledge they possess of the best crus, and their relations with the leading vineyard proprietors, they are enabled whenever the wine is good to acquire large stocks of it. having bottled a considerable quantity of the fine wine of , they resolved to profit by the exceptional quality of this vintage to commence shipping champagne to england, where their agents, messrs. reuss, lauteren, & co., have successfully introduced the new brand. passing through a large open gateway, we enter the vast courtyard of the establishment, which, with arriving and departing carts--the first loaded with wine in cask or with new bottles, and the others with cases of champagne--presents rather an animated scene. under a roof projecting from the wall of the vast cellier on the right hand a tribe of 'sparnaciennes'--as the feminine inhabitants of epernay are termed--are occupied in washing bottles in readiness for the coming tirage. the surrounding buildings, most substantially constructed, are not destitute of architectural pretensions. the extensive cellier, the area of which is , square feet, is understood to be the largest single construction of the kind in the champagne district. built entirely of iron, stone, and brick, its framework is a perfect marvel of lightness. the roof, consisting of rows of brick arches, is covered above with a layer of portland cement, in order to keep it cool in summer and protect it against the winter cold, two most desirable objects in connection with the manipulation of champagne. here an endless chain of a new pattern enables wine in bottle to be lowered and raised with great rapidity to or from the cellars beneath--lofty and capacious excavations of two stories, the lower one of which is reached by a flight of no less than steps. [illustration: courtyard of messrs. pol roger and co.'s establishment at epernay.] less than a couple of miles southward of epernay, on the high-road to troyes, is the village of pierry, which, unlike most of the champagne villages, is one of those happy spots with little or no history. up to the close of the seventeenth century it was an insignificant hamlet; but at that epoch--when dom perignon's discovery gave such an impetus to the viticultural industry of the marne--the waste land lying around it was broken up and planted with vines, and a number of rich strangers, chiefly from epernay, built themselves houses and vendangeoirs here, and contributed to the erection of the church. the benedictines of st.-pierre-aux-monts at châlons, who continued to be the titular seigneurs of pierry up to the period of the revolution, were not behindhand in attention to their vines, and during the early part of the eighteenth century the wine vintaged in their clos st. pierre, under the fostering care of brother jean oudart--whose renown almost equalled that of perignon himself--was very highly esteemed.[ ] during the eighteenth century pierry continued to be a favourite residence of well-to-do landowners,[ ] and was further embellished by the construction of numerous handsome châteaux, the most interesting, from a historic point of view, being that formerly belonging to cazotte.[ ] it was here that the ex-commissary general of the navy composed the greater part of his works, and elaborated that futile scheme for the escape of louis xvi. after varennes, which was to conduct its author to the scaffold.[ ] the visionary dreamer, to whom we owe the _diable amoureux_, appears at pierry in the triple character of a practical viticulturist, a village hampden withstanding with dauntless breast that little tyrant of the surrounding vineyards--the abbot of hautvillers,[ ] and a local legislator put forward in the proprietarial interest at the outbreak of that revolution[ ] which he appears to have foreseen, if not to have directly prophesied, as he has been credited with doing.[ ] amongst the most imposing of the remaining pierry châteaux is the one situate in that part of the village known as corrigot, and now in the occupation of messrs. gé-dufaut & co. its grandiose aspect, various courts, charming garden, fine trees, and clear lake justify this firm in adopting, in combination with an anchor, the title château de pierry as the brand of their wine. prior to the revolution the château belonged to m. de papillon de sannois, a fermier-général of that period. the municipal records of pierry contain a petition addressed by him to the authorities in , at a time when a panic prevailed respecting the forestallers of corn, begging them to institute a formal search throughout his residence, in order to give the lie to the rumours accusing him of having bought up and stored away a considerable quantity of wheat. the municipality accepted his invitation, and the result was a certificate to the effect that the total amount of wheat and oats stored there only represented three months' consumption for the household. messrs. gé-dufaut & co. are the owners of vineyards both in pierry and the neighbouring parts, and for upwards of thirty years the firm have been engaged in preparing and shipping champagnes. their cellars, excavated in the mingled stone, chalk, and earth which form the prevailing soil of the district, extend beneath the vineyards belonging to the firm, and are walled and vaulted throughout. the circumstance of their being on one level, slightly below the celliers of the establishment, is a great convenience as regards the various manipulations which the wine has to undergo. considerable reserves of old wines of the best years are stored in these vaults. the cultivation of the vineyards owned by the firm, and the pressing, maturing, and general cellar management of their wines are under the personal superintendence of the various partners, with a highly satisfactory result, as is proved by the first-class medal secured by the firm at the vienna exhibition of , and the gold medal awarded to them at the paris exhibition of . messrs. gé-dufaut & co. ship their wines to europe, america, and india, and more especially to england, where their dry, natural, and unalcoholised champagne has acquired a deserved reputation. the firm, moreover, are the officially appointed furnishers of champagne to the courts of italy and spain. [illustration: chÂteau of pierry, the property of messrs. gÉ-dufaut and co.] [illustration] [illustration: view of ay from the banks of the marne canal.] xi. /some champagne establishments at ay and mareuil./ the _bourgade_ of ay and its eighteenth-century château--gambling propensities of a former owner, balthazar constance dangé-dorçay--appreciation of the ay vintage by sigismund of bohemia, leo x., charles v., francis i., and henry viii.--bertin du rocheret celebrates this partiality in triolets--estimation of the ay wine in the reigns of charles ix. and henri iii.--is a favoured drink with the leaders of the league, and with henri iv., catherine de medicis, and the courtiers of that epoch--the 'vendangeoir d'henri quatre' at ay--the king's pride in his title of seigneur d'ay and gonesse--dominicus baudius punningly suggests that the 'vin d'ay' should be called 'vinum dei'--the merits of the wine sung by poets and extolled by wits--the ay wine in its palmy days evidently not sparkling--arthur young's visit to ay in --the establishment of deutz & geldermann--drawing off the cuvée there--mode of excavating cellars in the champagne--the firm's new cellars, vineyards, and vendangeoir--m. duminy's cellars and wines--the house founded in --the new model duminy establishment--picturesque old house at ay--messrs. pfungst frères & co.'s cellars--their finely-matured dry champagnes--the old church of ay and its numerous decorations of grapes and vine-leaves--the sculptured figure above the renaissance doorway--the montebello establishment at mareuil--the château formerly the property of the dukes of orleans--a titled champagne firm--the brilliant career of marshal lannes--a promenade through the montebello establishment--the press-house, the cuvée-vat, the packing-room, the offices, and the cellars--portraits and relics at the château--the establishment of bruch-foucher & co.--the handsome carved gigantic cuvée-tun--the cellars and their lofty shafts--the wines of the firm. [illustration: figure above the doorway of ay church.] the historic _bourgade_ of ay is within a short walk of the station on the line of railway connecting epernay with reims. the road lies across the light bridge spanning the marne canal, the tall trees fringing which hide for a time the clustering houses; still we catch sight of the steeple of the antique church, relieved by a background of vine-covered slopes, and of an eighteenth-century château rising above a mass of foliage. perched half-way up the slope, covered with 'golden plants,' which rises in the rear of the village, the château, with its long façade of windows, commands the valley of the marne for miles; and from the stately-terraced walk, planted with ancient lime-trees, geometrically clipped in the fashion of the last century, a splendid view of the distant vineyards of avize, cramant, epernay, and chouilly is obtained. the château formed one of a quartette of seignorial residences which, at the commencement of the present century, belonged to balthazar constance dangé-dorçay, whose ancestors had been lords of chouilly under the _ancien régime_. dorçay had inherited from an aunt the châteaux of ay, mareuil, boursault, and chouilly, together with a large patrimony in land and money; but a mania for gambling brought him to utter ruin, and he dispossessed himself of money, lands, and châteaux in succession, and was reduced, in his old age, to earn a meagre pittance as a violin-player at the paris opera-house. the old château of boursault, which still exists contiguous to the stately edifice raised by madame clicquot on the summit of the hill, was risked and lost on a single game at cards by this pertinacious gamester, whose pressing pecuniary difficulties compelled him to sell the remaining châteaux one by one. that of ay was purchased by m. froc de la boulaye, and by him bequeathed to his cousin the count de mareuil, whose son is to-day a partner in the champagne house of ayala & co. the wine of ay, from an early date, has found equal favour in the eyes of poets and princes. eustache deschamps sang its praises in the fourteenth century, and was echoed a hundred years later by the anonymous author of the _eglogue sur le retour de bacchus_.[ ] sigismund of bohemia, the betrayer of john huss, on visiting france in , desired to pass through ay in order to taste the wine at the place of its production.[ ] leo x., charles v., francis iii., and our own henry viii., each had a house in or near ay; 'for amongst all the great affairs of state which these princes had to unravel, supplying themselves with this vintage was not the least of their cares.'[ ] malicious tongues have asserted that they were somewhat suspicious of the honesty of the wine-growers of the district, and, in order to secure a genuine article, deemed it needful to have a commissioner or agent resident on the spot, to superintend the making of the wine set apart for their own consumption.[ ] tradition still points out, on the right of the road from dizy to ay, a vineyard called le léon, as the one whence the pope derived his wine, though no traces remain of the vendangeoir built by the emperor in a coppice above ay during the siege of epernay in , and still standing in .[ ] the president bertin du rocheret has celebrated the partiality of a couple of these potentates for the wine of ay in some triolets addressed to m. de senécé, and published in the _mercure_ in : 'ay produces the best wine-- i call the world to witness this; though you may for reims opine, ay produces the best wine. it ranks the first, and the most fine st. evremond has said it is. ay produces the best wine-- i call the world to witness this. charles the fifth was well aware of this--far better than his friend adrian in the papal chair; charles the fifth was well aware of this, and so, to get his share, sought in france his days to end. charles the fifth was well aware of this--far better than his friend. lest some fraud the juice should mix, and his table thus disgrace, he would his own vintage fix, lest some fraud the juice should mix. leo, fearing the like tricks, bought in ay a pressing-place, lest some fraud the juice should mix, and his table thus disgrace.'[ ] the wine of ay ranked at the court of charles ix. as 'a very pleasant and noble wine;'[ ] and even that bigoted uprooter of vines and heresy had a vendangeoir in this stronghold of protestantism,[ ] which the catholics of the champagne marched against, singing-- 'parpaillot d'ay, t'es bien misérable, t'as quitté ton di pour servir le diable; tu n'auras ni chien, ni chat, pour te chanter libera, et tu mourras mau-chrétien, toi qu'a maudit saint trézain.'[ ] [illustration: henri iii. (from a painting of the period).] in the reign of henri iii. the wines of ay--'claret and yellowish, subtile, fine, and in taste very pleasing to the palate, ... yet therewithal such wines as the greeks call oligophora, and as will not admit the mixture of much water'[ ]--were 'eagerly sought after for the use of kings, princes, and great lords.'[ ] at a time when the bulk of the vintage of burgundy was denounced as rough, sour, and harsh; and that of bordeaux stigmatised as thick and black; and when good and bad years were allowed to have a considerable influence upon the growths of the isle of france, the orleannais, and anjou, it was admitted that 'the wines of ay do, for the most part, hold the first and principal place, ... and are, in all good and evil years, found better than any others.'[ ] the kings and princes of the day made the wines of ay their ordinary drink.[ ] they flowed freely in the scandalous orgies with which the french heliogabalus and his _mignons_ alternated their pious flagellations and solemn processions, and mantled in the beakers over which the chiefs of the league sat in dark and solemn conclave; they were quaffed by the béarnais to the bright eyes of the fair de saulve, and cheered the nightly vigils of catherine de medicis and ruggieri; they sharpened the biting wit of chicot, and spurred the plotting spirit of francis of anjou. guise and crillon, joyeuse and d'epernon, mayenne and d'aubigné made common cause in recognising their merits; quelus and maugiron may have quaffed a goblet before setting forth on their fatal journey to the barrière saint antoine; and a cup, filled by the fair hands of the duchess de montpensier, may have fired the brain and nerved the arm of the regicide jacques clément. [illustration: old house at ay, known as the vendangeoir of henri quatre.] henri quatre boasted the merits of his vineyard at prepaton, near vendôme, when he was only king of navarre,[ ] and delighted in the wine of arbois.[ ] at ay, within a few yards of the church, there is a quaint old timber house traditionally known as the 'vendangeoir d'henri quatre,' with obliterated carved escutcheons on the pillars of its doorway. in this dilapidated yet interesting structure we have a mute but certain testimony to the king's appreciation of the wine of ay, if not a confirmation of the truth of the assertion that henri was as proud of his title of seigneur d'ay as of that of king of france.[ ] giving an audience to the spanish ambassador, and irritated at the long list of titles appended by the punctilious hidalgo to his royal master's name, he exclaimed: 'you will say to his highness philip, king of spain and the indies, castille, leon, arragon, murcia, and the balearic isles, that henri, sieur of ay and of gonesse ...,' being the places producing the best wine and the whitest bread in france.[ ] when encamped at damery, during the siege of epernay, this favourite beverage, and the smiles of the fair anne dudey, présidente du puy, helped to relieve the tedium of campaigning; for, as bertin du rocheret has sung, 'our great henry, king benign, with it cheered his "belle hôtesse." when at damery he'd dine, our great henry, king benign, chose it for his favourite wine; and for bread, that of gonesse our great henry, king benign, with it cheered his "belle hôtesse."'[ ] with the vintage of ay in such universal esteem, it is scarcely to be wondered at that dominicus baudius, professor of eloquence at the university of leyden and historiographer to the states of the netherlands, should, in the fulness of his admiration, have declared to his friend the président du thou that instead of _vin d'ay_ it ought to be called _vinum dei_.[ ] olivier de serres, the french tusser, praises this divine liquor.[ ] the anonymous author of the _hercule guepin_, a poem penned at the commencement of the seventeenth century in honour of the wine of orleans, is forced to acknowledge the merits of that of ay;[ ] and that indefatigable commentator, the abbé de marolles, in a note to his edition of martial, classes the growths of ay, avenay, and epernay amongst the best that france produced. 'vive le bon vin d'ay!' exclaims guy patin enthusiastically; and that strange compound of the wit and the philosopher, st. evremond, has extolled its qualities in prose and verse.[ ] 'if you ask me which wine of all others i prefer,' he writes from london to the count d'olonne, about , 'without yielding to tastes introduced by people of sham daintiness, i will answer that good wine of ay is the most natural of all wines, the most healthy, the best purified from all earth smack; of a most exquisite charm, through the peach flavour which is peculiar to it; and is, in my opinion, the finest of all flavours.'[ ] it is improbable that the wine of ay of francis i., or of henri quatre, was _mousseux_, for had it been so history would have mentioned it. in good years the still wine of ay has a bouquet and perfume sufficient to account for its ancient reputation. neither was the wine st. evremond preferred sparkling, though his reference to the taste introduced by sham _gourmets_ points probably to the custom of drinking the wine before its fermentation was completed, or else to the practice of icing it. when once, however, the introduction of _vin mousseux_ added a new charm to the pleasures of the table, the poets who sang the praises of the foaming nectar seem one and all to have celebrated it as the 'pétillant ay,' and to have chosen, perhaps for euphonistic reasons, that spot as its birthplace.[ ] the material results were equally satisfactory; for arthur young mentions that when, on july , , he visited 'ay, a village not far out on the road to reims very famous for its wines,' he was provided with a letter for m. lasnier, who had , bottles in his cellar, whilst m. dorsé had from , to , .[ ] a century ago the foregoing were no doubt considered large stocks, but to-day the very smallest of the ay firms would think itself poorly provided if its cellars contained under quadruple this quantity. the largest champagne establishment at ay is that of messrs. deutz & geldermann, whose extra dry 'gold lack' and 'cabinet' champagnes have long been favourably known in england, through the energetic exertions of their agents, messrs. j. r. parkington & co., of crutched friars. the ay firm have their offices in a massive-looking corner-house at the further extremity of the town, in the direction of the steep hills sheltering it on the north. this forms their central establishment, and here are spacious celliers for disgorging and finishing off the wine, a large packing-hall, and rooms where bales of corks and other accessories of the trade are stored, the operations of making the cuvées and bottling being accomplished in an establishment some little distance off. on proceeding thither, we find an elegant château with a charming terraced garden, lying at the very foot of the vine-clad slopes, and on the opposite side of the road some large celliers where wine in wood is stored, and where the cuvées of the firm, consisting usually of upwards of , gallons each, are made in a vat of gigantic proportions, furnished with a raised platform at one end for the accommodation of the workman who agitates the customary paddles. when the wine is completely blended it is drawn off into casks disposed for the purpose in the cellar below, as shown in the accompanying engraving, and after being fined it rests for about a month to clear itself. to each of these casks of newly-blended wine a portion of old wine is added separately, and at the moment of bottling the whole is newly amalgamated. [illustration: drawing off the cuvÉe at deutz and geldermann's, ay.] adjoining m. deutz's château is the principal entrance to the extensive cellars of the firm, to which, at our visit in , considerable additions were being made. in excavating these cellars in the chalk a uniform system is pursued. the workmen commence by rounding off the roof of the gallery, and then proceed to work gradually downwards, extracting the chalk, whenever practicable, in blocks suitable for building purposes, which, being worth from three to four shillings the square yard, help to reduce the cost of the excavation. when any serious flaws present themselves in the sides or roof of the galleries, they are invariably made good with masonry. this splendid range of cellars now comprises eight long and lofty galleries no less than seventeen feet wide, and the same number of feet in height, and of the aggregate length of yards. these spacious vaults, which run parallel with each other, and communicate by means of cross passages, underlie the street, the château, the garden, and the vineyard slopes beyond, and possess the great advantage of being always dry. they are capable, we were informed, of containing several million bottles of champagne, in addition to a large quantity of wine in cask. messrs. deutz & geldermann possess vineyards at ay, and own a large vendangeoir at verzenay, where in good years they usually press pièces of wine. they, moreover, make large purchases of grapes at bouzy, cramant, le mesnil, pierry, &c., and invariably have these pressed under their own superintendence. beyond large shipments to england, where their wine is deservedly held in high estimation, messrs. deutz & geldermann transact a considerable business with other countries, and more especially with germany, in which country their brand has been for years one of the most popular, while to-day it is the favourite at numerous regimental messes and the principal hotels. within a hundred yards of the open space, surrounded by houses of different epochs and considerable diversity of design, where the ay market-hall stands, and in one of those narrow winding streets common to the town, an escutcheon, with a bunch of grapes for device, surmounting a lofty gateway, attracts attention. beyond, a trim courtyard, girt round with orange-trees in bright green boxes, and clipped in orthodox fashion, affords access to the handsome residence and offices of m. duminy, well known in england and america as a shipper of high-class champagnes, and whose parisian connection is extensive. on the right-hand side of the courtyard is the packing-room; and through the cellars, which have an entrance here, one can reach the celliers in an adjoining street, where the cuvée is made and the bottling of the wine accomplished. [illustration: the excavation of deutz and geldermann's new cellars at ay.] m. duminy's cellars are remarkably old, and consequently of somewhat irregular construction, being at times rather low and narrow, as well as on different levels. in addition, however, to these venerable vaults, packed with wines of and ' , m. duminy has a new and extensive establishment on the outskirts of ay, as well as various subterranean adjuncts in the town itself. this new establishment, which stands under the vineclad slope, and merely a stone's throw from the railway line to reims, consists of a large ornamental building looking on to a spacious courtyard ordinarily alive with busy workpeople. in addition to the pavilion already erected, it is intended to construct one of similar design, and to connect the two with a monumental tower. the requisite land has already been purchased, the architectural plans are prepared, and the work is now in active progress. [illustration] entering the courtyard of which we have spoken, we notice the new offices of the firm on the left hand, and extending along the wall beyond is a long zinc-roofed shed, crowded with baskets filled with newly-purchased champagne bottles. on the opposite side of the courtyard is a building in which the operation of bottle-washing is carried on. the pavilion in the rear of the courtyard is of somewhat monumental proportions, and is ornamented with dressings of white stone and red brick. entering through the principal doorway, we find ourselves in a vast cellier, where the packing operations are carried on, and where are a couple of huge tuns in which the cuvées of the house are made. a stone staircase conducts to an upper cellier, where several hundred casks of _vin brut_ are stored, and for the raising or lowering of which lifts are provided at stated distances. in an apartment above this second cellier straw envelopes for bottles and other accessories employed in the trade are kept. [illustration: m. duminy's new establishment at ay.] the cellars extend, not merely beneath this large building and the courtyard in front, but run under the adjacent mountain-slope. they comprise four galleries on the same level, vaulted and faced with brick or stone, each gallery being about feet in length and upwards of twelve feet in width and height. eight transverse passages connect these galleries with each other, and numerous lifts communicate with the cellier and the courtyard above. the galleries that run under the vineyard slope are ventilated by shafts no less than feet in height. m. duminy has already provided room here for a million bottles of sparkling wine; and it is estimated that, when the establishment is completed, two and a half millions of bottles can be stored here in addition to the stock contained in the old cellars possessed by m. duminy in the town. during its two-thirds of a century of existence the house has invariably confined itself to first-class wines, taking particular pride in shipping fully-matured growths. besides its own large reserve of these, it holds considerable stocks long since disposed of, and now merely awaiting the purchasers' orders to be shipped. [illustration] a few paces beyond m. duminy's we come upon an antiquated, decrepit-looking timber house, with its ancient gable bulging over as though the tough oak brackets on which it rests were at last grown weary of supporting their unwieldy burden. judging from the quaint carved devices on the timbers at the lower portions of this building, one may imagine it to have been the residence of an individual of some importance in the days when the principal european potentates had their commissioners installed at ay to secure them the finest vintages. the house evidently dates back to this or to an earlier epoch. [illustration: ancient timber house at ay.] the cellars of messrs. pfungst frères et cie. are situated some little distance from the vineyard owned by them at ay. the firm lay themselves out exclusively for the shipment of high-class champagne, and the excellent growths of this district necessarily form an important element in their carefully-composed cuvées. a considerable portion of their stock consists of reserves of old wine of grand years; and a variety of samples of finely-matured champagnes were submitted to our judgment. all of these wines were of superior quality, combining delicacy and fragrance with dryness, the latter being their especial feature. in addition to their business with england, where the brand of the firm is rapidly increasing in popularity among connoisseurs of matured wines, messrs. pfungst frères ship largely to india and the united states. [illustration: capitals and mouldings in ay church.] on the northern side of the town stands the handsome gothic church of ay, dating from about the middle of the fifteenth century. the existing building replaced the edifice erected some two hundred years previously, and traces of which are still to be seen in the present transept. the stone tower, which is in striking contrast with the other portions of the structure, bears the date on its western face. this tower and the interior of the church were greatly damaged by the fire--traditionally ascribed to lightning--which occurred at the close of the sixteenth century, and the former had to be strengthened by filling up the arched windows and by the addition of buttresses. the bell, whose terrible tocsin used to warn good citizens that the _patrie_ was in danger in the days of the revolution, when the church was converted into a temple of reason, had previously swung in the abbey of hautvillers, and may have summoned the vintagers to labour as well as the faithful to prayer. from to extensive interior repairs and restorations, costing upwards of _l._, greatly transformed the interior of the church. care was, however, taken to preserve the numerous bits of mediæval and renaissance sculpture with which both the interior and exterior of the edifice were studded. in many of the ornamental mouldings, as well as the capitals of the columns, grape-laden vine-branches had been freely introduced, as if to indicate the honour in which the vine, the material source of all the prosperity enjoyed by the little town, was held both by mediæval and later architects; and these appear all to have been scrupulously restored. one of the most characteristic decorations of this character is the sculptured figure of a boy bearing a basket of grapes upon his head, which surmounts the handsome renaissance doorway. [illustration: mouldings from ay church.] within half an hour's walk of ay, in an easterly direction, is the village of mareuil, a long straight street of straggling houses, bounded by trees and garden-plots, with vine-clad hills rising abruptly behind on the one side, and the marne canal flowing placidly by on the other. the archaic church, a mixture of the romanesque and early gothic, stands at the farther end of the village, and some little distance on this side of it is a massive-looking eighteenth-century building, spacious enough to accommodate a regiment of horse, but conventual rather than barrack-like in aspect, from the paucity of windows looking on to the road. a broad gateway leads into a spacious courtyard, to the left of which stands a grand château; while on the right there rises an ornate round tower of three stories, from the gallery on the summit of which a fine view over the valley of the marne is obtained. the buildings, enclosing the court on three sides, comprise press-houses, celliers, and packing-rooms, an antiquated sun-dial marking the hour on the blank space above the vines that climb beside the entrance gateway. the more ancient of these tenements formed the vendangeoir of the dukes of orleans at the time they owned the château of mareuil, purchased in by the duke de montebello, son of the famous marshal lannes, and minister and ambassador of louis philippe and napoleon iii. the acquisition of this property, to which were attached some important vineyards, led, several years later, to the duke's founding, in conjunction with his brothers, the marquis and general count de montebello, a champagne firm, whose brand speedily acquired a notable popularity. to-day the business is carried on by their sons and heirs, for all the original partners in the house have followed their valiant father to the grave. struck down by an austrian cannon-ball in the zenith of his fame, the career of marshal lannes, brief as it was, furnishes one of the most brilliant pages in french military annals. joining the army of italy as a volunteer in , he was made a colonel on the battle-field in the gorges of millesimo, when augereau's bold advance opened piedmont to the french. he fought at bassano and lodi, took part in the assault of pavia and the siege of mantua, and at arcola, when napoleon dashed flag in hand upon the bridge, lannes was seriously wounded whilst shielding his general from danger. he afterwards distinguished himself in egypt, and led the van of the french army across the alps, displaying his accustomed bravery both at montebello and marengo. at austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing of the army, he greatly contributed to the victory; and at jena, friedland, and eylau his valour was again conspicuous. sent to spain, he defeated the spaniards at tudela, and took part in the operations against saragossa. wounded at the battle of essling, when the archduke charles inflicted upon napoleon i. the first serious repulse he had met with on the field of battle, the valiant lannes expired a few days afterwards in the emperor's arms. [illustration: the montebello establishment at mareuil.] we were met at mareuil, on the occasion of our visit, by count alfred ferdinand de montebello, the present manager of the house, and conducted by him over the establishment. in the press-house, to the left of the courtyard, were two of the ponderous presses used in the champagne, for, like all other large firms, the house makes its own wine. grapes grown in the mareuil vineyards arrive here in baskets slung over the backs of mules, muzzled, so that while awaiting their loads they may not devour the fruit within reach. in a cellier adjoining the press-house stands a large vat, capable of holding fifty pièces of wine, with a crane beside it for hauling up the casks when the cuvée is made. here the tirage likewise takes place; and in the range of buildings roofed with glass, in the rear of the tower, the bottled wine is labelled, capped with foil, and packed in cases for transmission to paris, england, and other places abroad. a double flight of steps, decorated with lamps and vases, leads to the handsome offices of the firm, situated on the first-floor of the tower; while above is an apartment with a panelled ceiling, gracefully decorated with groups of cupids engaged in the vintage and the various operations which the famous wines of the mountain and the river undergo during their conversion into champagne. on the ground-floor of the tower a low doorway conducts to the spacious cellars, which, owing to the proximity of the marne, are all on the same level as well as constructed in masonry. the older vaults, where the marquis de pange, a former owner of the château, stored the wine which he used to sell to the champagne manufacturers, are somewhat low and tortuous compared with the broad and lofty galleries of more recent date, which have been constructed as the growing connection of the firm obliged them to increase their stocks. spite, however, of numerous additions, portions of their reserves have to be stored in other cellars in mareuil. considerable stocks of each of the four qualities of wine supplied by the firm are being got ready for disgorgement, including cartes noires and bleues, with the refined carte blanche and the delicate crêmant, which challenge comparison with brands of the highest repute. [illustration: chÂteau of mareuil, belonging to the duke of montebello.] in the adjacent château, the gardens of which slope down to the marne canal, there are various interesting portraits, with one or two relics of the distinguished founder of the montebello family, notably marshal lannes's gold-embroidered velvet saddle trappings, his portrait and that of marshal gerard, as well as one of napoleon i., by david, with a handsome clock and candelabra of egyptian design, a bust of augustus cæsar, and a portrait of the regent d'orleans. [illustration: general view of avize.] xii. /champagne establishments at avize and rilly./ avize the centre of the white grape district--its situation and aspect--the establishment of giesler & co.--the tirage and the cuvée--vin brut in racks and on tables--the packing-hall, the extensive cellars, and the disgorging cellier--bottle stores and bottle-washing machines--messrs. giesler's wine-presses at avize and vendangeoir at bouzy--their vineyards and their purchases of grapes--reputation of the giesler brand--the establishment of m. charles de cazanove--a tame young boar--boar-hunting in the champagne--m. de cazanove's commodious cellars and carefully-selected wines--vineyards owned by him and his family--reputation of his wines in paris and their growing popularity in england--interesting view of the avize and cramant vineyards from m. de cazanove's terraced garden--the vintaging of the white grapes in the champagne--roper frères' establishment at rilly-la-montagne--their cellars penetrated by roots of trees--some samples of fine old champagnes--the principal châlons establishments--poem on champagne by m. amaury de cazanove. [illustration: doorway of avize church.] avize, situated in the heart of the champagne white grape district, may be reached from epernay by road through pierry and cramant, or by the châlons railway to oiry junction, between which station and romilly there runs a local line, jocularly termed the _chemin de fer de famille_, from the general disregard displayed by the officials for anything approaching to punctuality. avize can scarcely be styled a town, and yet its growing proportions are beyond those of an ordinary village. it lies pleasantly nestled among the vines, sheltered by bold ridges on the north-west, with the monotonous plains of la champagne pouilleuse, unsuited to the cultivation of the vine, stretching away eastward in the direction of châlons. avize cannot pretend to the same antiquity as its neighbour vertus, and lacks the many picturesque vestiges of which the latter can boast. its church dates back only to the fifteenth century, although the principal doorway in the romanesque style evidently belongs to a much earlier epoch. there is a general air of trim prosperity about the place, and the villagers have that well-to-do appearance common to the inhabitants of the french wine districts. only at vintage-time, however, are there any particular outdoor signs of activity, although half a score of champagne firms have their establishments here, giving employment to the bulk of the population, and sending forth their two or three million bottles of the sparkling wine of the marne annually. [illustration: making the cuvÉe at messrs. giesler's, at avize.] proceeding along the straight level road leading from the station to the village, we encounter on our right hand the premises of messrs. giesler & co., the reputation of whose brand is universal. when m. giesler quitted the firm of p. a. mumm, giesler, & co., at reims, in , he removed to avize, and founded the present extensive establishment. entering through a large open gateway, we find ourselves within a spacious courtyard, with a handsome dwelling-house in the rear, and all the signs of a champagne business of magnitude apparent. a spiral staircase conducts to the counting-house on the first story of a range of buildings on the left hand, the ground floor of which is divided into celliers. passing through a door by the side of this staircase, we enter a large hall where the operation of bottling the wine is going on. four tuns, each holding five ordinary pièces of wine, and raised upon large blocks of wood, are standing here, and communicating with them are bottling syphons of the type commonly employed in the champagne. messrs. giesler do not usually consign the newly-bottled wine at once to the cellars, but retain it above-ground for about a fortnight, in order that it may develop its effervescent qualities more perfectly. we find many thousands of these bottles stacked horizontally in the adjoining celliers, in one of which stands the great cuvée tun, wherein some fifty hogsheads of the finest champagne growths are blended together at one time, two hundred hogsheads being thus mingled daily while the cuvées are in progress. the casks of wine having been hoisted from the cellars to the first floor by a crane, and run on to a trough, their bungs are removed, and the wine flows through an aperture in the floor into the huge tun beneath, its amalgamation being accomplished by the customary fan-shaped appliances, set in motion by the turning of a wheel. in an adjacent room is the machine used for mixing the liqueur which messrs. giesler add so sparingly to their light and fragrant wines. there are a couple of floors above these celliers, the uppermost of which is used as a general store, while in the one beneath many thousands of bottles of _vin brut_ repose _sur pointe_, either in racks or on tables, as at the clicquot-werlé establishment. this latter system requires ample space, for as the workman who shakes the bottles is only able to use one hand, the operation of dislodging the sediment necessarily occupies a much longer time than is requisite when the bottles rest in racks. the buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard comprise a large packing-hall, celliers where the wine is finished off, and rooms where corks and suchlike things are stored. here, too, is the entrance to the cellars, of which there are three tiers, all lofty and well-ventilated galleries, very regular in their construction, and faced with either stone or brick. in these extensive vaults are casks of fine reserved wines for blending with youthful vintages, and bottles of _vin brut_, built up in solid stacks, that may be reckoned by their hundreds of thousands. at messrs. giesler's the disgorging of the wine is accomplished in a small cellier partially underground, and the temperature of which is very cool and equable. the _dégorgeurs_, isolated from the rest of the workpeople, are carrying on their operations here by candlelight. so soon as the sediment is removed, the bottles are raised in baskets to the cellier above, where the liqueuring, recorking, stringing, and wiring are successively accomplished. by pursuing this plan the loss sustained by the disgorgement is believed to be reduced to a minimum. extensive as these premises are, they are still insufficient for the requirements of the firm; and across the road is a spacious building where new bottles are stored, and the washing of the bottles in preparation for the tirage takes place. by the aid of the machinery provided sixteen women, assisted by a couple of men, commonly wash some fifteen or sixteen thousand bottles in the course of a day. here, too, stands one of the two large presses with which, at the epoch of the vintage, a hundred pièces of wine are pressed every four-and-twenty hours. the remaining press is installed in a cellier at the farther end of the garden on the other side of the road. messrs. giesler possess additional presses at their vendangeoir at bouzy, and during the vintage have the command of presses at ay, verzenay, vertus, le mesnil, &c.; it being a rule of theirs always to press the grapes within a few hours after they are gathered, to obviate their becoming bruised by their own weight and imparting a dark colour to the wine, a contingency difficult to guard against in seasons when the fruit is over-ripe. the firm own vineyards at avize, and have agreements with vine-proprietors at ay, bouzy, verzenay, and elsewhere, to purchase their crops regularly every year. messrs. giesler's brand has secured its existing high repute solely through the fine quality of the wines shipped by the house--wines which are known and appreciated by all real connoisseurs of champagne. from messrs. giesler's it is merely a short walk to the establishment of m. charles de cazanove, situated in the principal street of avize. on entering the court we encountered a tame young boar engaged in the lively pursuit of chasing some terrified hens; while a trio of boar-hounds, basking on the sunny flagstones, contemplated his proceedings with lazy indifference. boars abound in the woods hereabouts, and hunting them is a favourite pastime with the residents; and the young boar we had noticed proved to be one of the recent captures of the sons of m. de cazanove, who are among the warmest partisans of the exciting sport. the house of m. charles de cazanove was established in , by its present proprietor, on the foundation of a business which had been in existence since . compared with the monumental grandeur of some of the great reims and epernay establishments, the premises present a simple and modest aspect; nevertheless, they are capacious and commodious, besides which, the growing business of the house has led to the acquisition of additional cellarage in other parts of avize. more important than all, however, is the quality of the wine with which these cellars are stocked; and, following the rule observed by champagne firms of the highest repute, it has been a leading principle with m. de cazanove always to rely upon the choicer growths--those light, delicate, and fragrant wines of the marne which throw out the true aroma of the flower of the vine. m. de cazanove, who is distinguished for his knowledge of viticulture, occupies an influential position at avize, being vice-president of the horticultural society of the marne, and a member of the committee charged with guarding the champagne vineyards against the invasion of the phylloxera. his own vines include only those fine varieties to which the crus of the marne owe their great renown. he possesses an excellent vineyard at grauves, near avize; and his mother-in-law, madame poultier of pierry, is one of the principal vine-growers of the district. m. de cazanove's wines are much appreciated in paris, where his business is very extensive. his shipments to england are also considerable; but from the circumstance of some of his principal customers importing the wine under special brands of their own, the brand of the house is not so widely known as we should have anticipated. [illustration: vineyards of avize and cramant, from the garden of m. c. de cazanove.] from m. de cazanove's terraced garden in the rear of his establishment a fine view is obtained of one of the most famous viticultural districts of the champagne, yielding wines of remarkable delicacy and exquisite bouquet. on the left hand rises up the mountain of avize, its summit fringed with dense woods, where in winter the wild-boar has his lair. in front stretch the long vine-clad slopes of cramant, with orchards at their base, and the housetops of the village and the spire of the quaint old church just peeping over the brow of the hill. to the right towers the bold forest-crowned height of saran, with m. moët's château perched half-way up its north-eastern slope; and fading away in the hazy distance are the monotonous plains of the champagne. we have already explained that the wines of avize and cramant rank as _premiers crus_ of the white grape district, and that every champagne manufacturer of repute mingles one or the other in his cuvée. the white grapes are usually gathered a fortnight or three weeks later than the black varieties, but in other respects the vintaging of them is the same. the grapes undergo the customary minute examination by the _éplucheuses_, and all unripe, damaged, and rotten berries being thrown aside, the fruit is conveyed with due care to the press-houses in the large baskets known as _paniers mannequins_. the pressing takes place under exactly the same conditions as the pressing of the black grapes; the must, too, is drawn off into hogsheads to ferment, and by the end of the year, when the active fermentation has terminated, the wine is usually clear and limpid. at rilly-la-montagne, on the line of railway between reims and epernay, roper frères & cie., late of epernay, have their establishment. starting from the latter place, we pass ay and avenay, and then the little village of germaine in the midst of the forest, and nigh the summit of the mountain of reims, with its 'rendezvous des chasseurs' in immediate proximity to the station. finally we arrive at rilly, which, spite of its isolated situation, has about it that aspect of prosperity common to the more favourable wine districts of france. this is scarcely surprising, when the quality of its wines is taken into consideration. the still red wine of rilly has long enjoyed a high local reputation, and to-day the rilly growths are much sought after for conversion into champagne. white wine of , from black grapes, fetched, we are informed, as much as to francs the pièce; while the finer qualities from white grapes realised from to francs. messrs. roper frères & cie. are the owners of some productive vineyards situated on the high-road to chigny and ludes. the establishment of roper frères is adjacent to a handsome modern house standing back from the road in a large and pleasant garden, bounded by vineyards on two of its sides. in the celliers all the conveniences pertaining to a modern champagne establishment are to be found, while extending beneath the garden are the extensive cellars of the firm, comprising two stories of long and spacious galleries excavated in the chalk, their walls and roofs being supported whenever necessary by masonry. a curious feature about these cellars is that the roots of the larger trees in the garden above have penetrated the roof of the upper story, and hang pendent overhead like innumerable stalactites. here, after the comparatively new wine of had been shown to us--including samples of the vin brut or natural champagne of which the firm make a specialty at a moderate price--some choice old champagnes were brought forth, including the fine vintages of , , and . the latter wine had of course preserved very little of its effervescence, still its flavour was exceedingly fine, being soft and delicate to a degree. at the vienna exhibition of , and the london exhibition of , the collection of champagnes exhibited by roper frères met with favourable recognition from the international juries. our tour through the champagne vineyards and wine-cellars here comes to an end. it is true there are important establishments at châlons, notably those of the perriers, freminet et fils, dagonet et fils, and jacquard frères. as, however, any description of these would be little else than a recapitulation of something we have already said, we content ourselves with merely notifying their existence, and close the present chapter with a poem on champagne, from the pen of m. amaury de cazanove of avize: ode au champagne. pour ta beauté, pour ta gloire, ô patrie, nous t'adorons ... surtout pour tes malheurs! oublions-les.... avec idolâtrie, chantons ton ciel, tes femmes et tes fleurs. france, nous chanterons tes femmes et tes roses; france, nous chanterons tes vins, autre trésor; qu'on voie, ouvrant tes lèvres longtemps closes, un fier sourire étinceler encor! nectar qu'aux dieux jadis versait hébé la blonde! o noir falerne! ô massique vermeil! pauvres vins du vieux temps oubliés à la ronde ... car le champagne a fait le tour du monde en conquérant, à nos drapeaux pareil; il rit, léger, sous la mousse qui tremble, et semble dans le cristal un rayon de soleil. 'je suis le sang des coteaux de bourgogne!' dit celui-là baron à parchemin, grand assommeur qui vous met sans vergogne son casque au front, si lourd le lendemain.... 'c'est moi l'exquis bordeaux, je sens la violette; mes rubis, le gourmet goutte à goutte les boit, et mon parfum délicat se complète par ta saveur, aile d'un perdreau froid.' messeigneurs les grand vins, s'il faut qu'on vous réponde; bordeaux, bourgogne, écoutez un conseil: vantez un peu moins fort vos vertus à la ronde.... car le champagne a fait le tour du monde en conquérant, à nos drapeaux pareil; il rit, léger, sous la mousse qui tremble, et semble dans le cristal un rayon de soleil. car le champagne est le vrai vin de france; c'est notre c[oe]ur pétillant dans nos yeux, se relevant plus haut sous la souffrance; c'est dans sa fleur l'esprit de nos aïeux; le souffle de bravoure aimable, qui tressaille sous le vent de l'épée aux plumes des cimiers; c'est le galant défi de la bataille: 'a vous, messieurs les anglais, les premiers!' certain buveur de bière en vain ricane et gronde; aux cauchemars de ses nuits sans sommeil dieu livre ses remords! ... nous chantons à la ronde que le champagne a fait le tour du monde en conquérant, à nos drapeaux pareil; il rit, léger, sous la mousse qui tremble, et semble dans le cristal un rayon de soleil.[ ] avize, juillet . [illustration] [illustration: the boar takes soil.] xiii. /sport in the champagne./ the champagne forests the resort of the wild-boar--departure of a hunting-party in the early morning to a boar-hunt--rousing the boar from his lair--commencement of the attack--chasing the boar--his course is checked by a bullet--the dogs rush on in full pursuit--the boar turns and stands at bay--a skilful marksman advances and gives him the _coup de grâce_--hunting the wild-boar on horseback in the champagne--an exciting day's sport with m. d'honnincton's boar-hounds--the 'sonnerie du sanglier' and the 'vue'--the horns sound in chorus 'the boar has taken soil'--the boar leaves the stream, and a spirited chase ensues--brought to bay, he seeks the water again--deathly struggle between the boar and a full pack of hounds--the fatal shot is at length fired, and the 'hallali' is sounded--as many as fifteen wild-boars sometimes killed at a single meet--the vagaries of some tame young boars--hounds of all kinds used for hunting the wild-boar in the champagne--damage done by boars to the vineyards and the crops--varieties of game common to the champagne. the champagne does not merely comprise vineyards producing some of the finest wine in the world. in parts it is covered by vast and luxuriant forests, where the pleasures of the chase are not lacking to the champenois, who as a rule are eager in the pursuit of sport. in winter these forests are the resort of wild-boar, who haunt by preference the woods around reims, journeying thither, it is said, by night from the famous forest of the ardennes--the scene of rosalind's wanderings and touchstone's eccentricities, as set forth in _as you like it_; and whose gloomy depths and tangled glens shelter not merely boars, but wolves as well. [illustration] in the villages of the champagne on a cold winter's morning, with it snowing or blowing, you are frequently awake before daylight by the noise of barking dogs, of horns sounding the departure, and of some vehicle rolling heavily over the stones. a party of sportsmen is proceeding to the meet. jokes and laughter enliven the journey, but every one becomes silent and serious upon reaching the place of rendezvous, for the object of the gathering is the excitable and perilous boar-hunt. in the champagne it is no longer the fashion, as in burgundy, 'with javelin's point a churlish swine to gore.' the more certain rifle is the weapon usually employed, and these arms are now examined and carefully loaded. meanwhile the reports of the keepers are attentively listened to. they have beaten the wood, each on his own side, accompanied by a bloodhound, and they inform the hunters what they have seen or found. great experience is necessary to accomplish the _rembuchement_, as this tour of inspection is termed, in a satisfactory manner; and with some it is a veritable science. eventually, after a discussion among the more experienced ones, it is decided to follow the scent which appears to be freshest; whereupon the dogs are brought up coupled, and let loose upon the trail. the attack now begins. there are always two or three _piqueurs_ who follow the dogs, exciting them with their voices, and making all the noise possible, as long as the game has not been roused from its lair. meanwhile the marksmen place themselves at the posts indicated by the president of the hunt, the most experienced being assigned the best spots, whilst those whose habit it is never to harm the boar go of their own accord 'up wind'--that is, to bad places--thus causing the animal to 'refuse,' and to pass within range of guns that rarely let him escape unhurt. at first the dogs raise a somewhat distant cry--perhaps one has followed a wrong scent--and some of the huntsmen remark in a low tone to themselves that after all they would have done better to have stopped at home, and turned out of their beds at a less unseasonable hour; then, at least, they would not be standing with frozen feet in the snow, and with colds in the head in perspective. but suddenly there comes a cry of 'vlô!'--the champenois expression for designating the boar--'attention!' 'look out!' then the report of a couple of shots, and finally the howling of the pack of dogs. snow and cold are at once forgotten. each man grasps his rifle and waits for the boar to pass by. the branches of the underwood creak and break; there is a noise as of a squadron of cavalry dashing into a wood; then, all of a sudden, a black mass is caught sight of approaching. but the boar is a cunning fellow; he has seen the sportsman who is in wait for him, or has scented his presence, and will pass out of range. now that luck has betrayed the latter, he has to content himself with the _rôle_ of a spectator. so far as one can judge by the barking of the dogs, the boar is directing his course to where an experienced marksman is posted--one who is not about to fire his first difficult shot. observe him: he is perfectly motionless, for the least movement might betray his presence; his eyes alone dart right and left in quest of the foe. here comes the boar, passing like a cannon-ball along the line, and there is scarcely time to catch a glimpse of him between the reports of two shots, which succeed each other with the rapidity of lightning. the boar is by no means an animal easy to knock over. the forest roads are never more than ten to fifteen paces broad; and as there are marksmen both on the right and left, it is necessary to reserve your fire until the animal has crossed the road and is plunging again into cover. in addition to this, there are only two spots where a mortal wound can be inflicted upon the boar--either behind the shoulder or in the neck. hit elsewhere, he will lose but little blood, and the only effect of the wound will be to render him more savage. he will rip up a dog or two, perhaps, and then rush off far away, without showing any further sign of injury. boars carrying several bullets in their bodies, but rejoicing in capital health, as well as others covered with cicatrices, are frequently killed. firing too high is a common fault with many marksmen, arising from the fact that in winter the boar's bristles are very long and thick, and that each one stands on end at the sight of an enemy, thus making the animal look much higher on his legs than he really is. but to return to our description of the hunt. the boar has just been hit by one of those rare marksmen, every bullet of whose rifle goes straight to its intended billet. although struck, the animal continues his onward course, a couple of drops of blood which have tinged the snow with red showing unmistakably that he has not been missed. the dogs who follow him closely hesitate for a minute as they reach the roadway, but the leader has espied the spot where the boar was wounded; he sniffs the blood, and darts off again, followed by the pack, who have full confidence in his discernment. the dogs are torn and wounded by the thorns and briers which continually obstruct their path, for the boar rushes through the thickest and most inaccessible cover, in hopes of retarding the progress of his pursuers; but the hounds divine that their prey is near, and the most tired among them recover all their energy. suddenly a great silence succeeds the furious yelping and baying of a short time ago. the boar is about to turn at bay. his strength is becoming exhausted, and feeling that he is doomed to die, he has faced round, with his back towards some inaccessible thicket, so as not to be taken in the rear, and confronts his pursuers, determined to die bravely and to sell his life dearly. it is no longer the baying of a pack in full cry that now rends the air, but isolated yelpings and plaintive howlings, such as watch-dogs give vent to when strangers are wandering round the house they protect. then comes the crowning feat of the hunt, and the most difficult to accomplish. the most intrepid marksman advances towards the dogs, his hunting-knife and rifle alike ready, the former to be made use of should the latter not suffice. he has need of great prudence and great coolness to accomplish his task, for directly the boar hears his approach he will unhesitatingly dash upon him. he must await the animal's onslaught with a firm heart and steady hand, and only fire when sure of his aim. often, however, the hunter is bothered by the dogs, which surround the boar on all sides, hang on to him from behind, and excite his fury. the position may become critical, and many a sportsman who has counted too much upon his nerve has found himself compelled to climb a tree, whence he has been able to 'bowl over' the enemy, without incurring any danger. it is needless to add that when discovered in this position he has felt very much ashamed at having resorted to such an expedient. in the champagne the wild boar is almost invariably pursued on foot, the minute subdivision of the land into different holdings and consequent limitation of the right of sport rendering it very difficult to follow the animal on horseback. m. roederer, it is true, started a pack of hounds in the forest of reims; but at his death there were not sufficient lovers of the chase to keep up this style of sport, and every one fell into the habit of knocking over a wild-boar in the same prosaic fashion as a simple rabbit. however, some few years back, a rich landowner from brittany, the vicomte d'honnincton, having had an opportunity of sport in the champagne, and having seen that large game abounded, installed himself near the fine forêt de la traconne, in the neighbourhood of sézanne, and resumed the chase of the wild-boar on horseback. the great success he met with induced him to take up his quarters in this district, and his pack, composed of a cross between the english staghound and the artois hound, has become justly famous. in the month of december , an exciting day's sport was had with m. d'honnincton's boar-hounds. the presence of herds of wild-boar having been noted in the neighbouring woods between epernay and montmort, m. d'honnincton was soon to the fore with his pack, and all the sportsmen for miles around were summoned. the meet was at the château de la charmoye, a regular hunters' rendezvous, belonging to the vicomte de bouthylliers, and situate in the heart of the woodland. during breakfast one of the huntsmen came to announce that a huge _solitaire_ had passed the night at a short distance from the château. everything, therefore, promised well for sport. the guests mounted in haste, each one equipped in true french style, with an immense hunting-horn round his body and a light gun or a pistol attached to the saddle. the lively strains of the horn had begun to sound on every side, and the hounds were being uncoupled, when the boar, disturbed by all this noise, majestically traversed the main avenue of the château, and pushed on towards a group of ladies assembled to witness the departure of the sportsmen. a finer start would have been impossible. the hounds dashed towards their prey as soon as they caught sight of him at full cry, and the _sonnerie du sanglier_ and the _vue_ were blazed forth by the horns on every side. the hunt commenced. the greatest difficulty and the object of all was to hinder the boar from plunging into the thick of the forest, where, in the dense cover, he would have gained a considerable advance upon the dogs. thanks to the activity of the huntsmen, who cut off his retreat on this side, it was possible to drive him towards the plain of montmort; and from this moment the sport was as fine as can be imagined, it being easy to note the minor details of the hunt even from a distance. the boar made his way with difficulty over the ground saturated by rain, and the eagerness of the hounds increased in proportion as they gained upon him. a broadish rivulet with very steep banks was reached. the boar tried to clear it at a bound, but fell into mid-stream. the sportsmen all came up at this moment, and with their horns began to sound in chorus 'the boar has taken soil;' the hounds plunged in and began to swim after the boar, and the scene became a truly exciting one. at length the boar succeeded in quitting the stream; but frightened by the horsemen whom he saw on the opposite shore, he recrossed it a second and then a third time, amidst the hounds, who were assailing him on every side, and each time met with the same difficulty in ascending the bank. it may be readily understood that he was getting exhausted by his efforts, and began to appear done up. he recovered his vigour, however, and soon gained ground on the hounds. he had still two or three miles to cover in order to regain the forest, and it was necessary at all costs to prevent him from accomplishing this. then ensued a wild hunt, a mad steeplechase over fields, hedges, brooks, ditches; the horses in several places sank over their hocks, and were covered with foam, but whip and spur restored energy to the least ardent. the boar was gasping, but still kept on, and the steam from his body, which quite surrounded him and caused him to resemble a four-legged demon, could be plainly perceived from a distance. in this style the hunt swept through the little village of lucy, with all the dogs of the place howling, the women and children shrieking, and the men arming themselves with spades and pitchforks. but the boar not losing courage on this account, and despising these primitive weapons, did not stop, and drew nearer and nearer to the wood. the hounds were getting tired, and the most experienced sportsmen began to despair somewhat of a successful day, when suddenly the beast plunged into a pond situate close to the forest, halted, rolled several times in the mud, and rose completely covered in steam and mire. it is all over: the animal is at bay, and cannot go any further. this is the interesting moment. the boar pulls himself together, feeling that he is to die, and, up to his belly in water, he bravely awaits the pack. with his eye glowing with rage, his bristles erect, he utters grunts of defiance. the fifty dogs throw themselves on to him without a moment's hesitation; but four or five are sent rolling into the middle of the water, never more to rise. the struggle which follows is terrible; the boar's tusks tell at every blow, and the water becomes literally red with blood. at length the foremost sportsmen come up, and it is high time they do. seven dogs are already lying on their backs, with their legs in the air, and almost all bear marks of the boar's terrible tusks. the first who is ready alights from his steed, and boldly advances into the water; for it would be imprudent to fire at the boar from the edge of the pond, and thereby run the risk of wounding him, and rendering him still more furious, or even of killing one of the dogs, by whom he is surrounded. an interval of solemn silence ensues; the horns only wait for the shot to be fired to sound the _hallali_. the dogs make way in order to let the sportsman advance; the boar draws back a little, and then making a bound recovers all his strength for a rush upon his enemy. woe to the man who misses him! the boar will give him no quarter. but the sportsman waits for him very quietly, and when he is only two paces from him plants a bullet between his eyes, which lays him dead. the notes of the _hallali_ awake the echoes: never had a hunt been crowned by finer results. the setting sun lighted up the scene, which transpired just below the château de montmort, scarcely half a mile off, and the ladies assembled on the terrace of the old château of sully waved their handkerchiefs in congratulation to the fortunate sportsmen. the foregoing narrative furnishes a good idea of the ordinary method of hunting the wild-boar on horseback in the champagne, a method which, though offering at times varying details, arising from the size of the animal pursued and the number and strength of the hounds engaged in the chase, presents, on the whole, a general resemblance to the description just given. some years back boars were far from numerous in the champagne, hiding themselves, moreover, in inaccessible positions far away in the woods, so that it was necessary to cover a larger extent of ground in order to sight a recent trail. latterly, however, these animals have multiplied considerably, each sow having seven or eight young ones at a litter, and littering three times a year. in the forests around reims and epernay twelve, and even fifteen, boars have been killed during a single hunt. it not unfrequently happens that a herd of fifty, and even a hundred, boars are encountered together, when a veritable massacre often ensues, if the hunting-party only comprises a sufficient number of guns. the victims include at times some sows with young grice, which the hunters frequently try to bring up. one of these little animals, who had been named 'snow' from having been captured one day when the snow was on the ground, followed his owner about everywhere like the most faithful poodle. his master would often take him into the wood and simulate a hunt with his dogs. snow, however, possessed vices as well as virtues, and one of his habits was an extremely disagreeable one. like the rest of his species, he was very fond of rolling himself in the mire, and, on returning home, would proceed to clean himself by rubbing unconcernedly against the dresses of the ladies of the house. one sunday his master had taken him out for a walk, and as they returned home they passed the church, which the ladies of the locality, arrayed in their richest attire, were just leaving. during his walk snow had taken two or three mud-baths, and, on meeting the fair devotees of avize, he thought the occasion a propitious one for cleansing himself. he at once put the idea into practice, employing the silk dresses of the ladies for the purpose. the children who accompanied them were greatly terrified, and rushed shrieking into the adjoining houses, pursued by the gambolling boar, who seemed to greatly enjoy the panic he had caused. as la fontaine has remarked, 'rien que la mort n'était capable d'expier son forfait.' so, after such an offence, poor snow was sentenced to undergo capital punishment, and expiated by death his want of regard for the silk attire of the fair sex. another boar named 'scotsman,' and belonging to the same sportsman, was also an amusing fellow. he would stretch himself out in the sun of an afternoon as majestically as the sultan on his divan, whilst a hen with whom he had contracted a tender friendship kindly relieved him of his parasites. a gentleman of the same district owns two enormous sows, which follow him like greyhounds whenever he rides out. when a friend asks him to step indoors and to refresh or rest himself, he replies: 'i must beg you to excuse me; i have with me _catherine_ and _rigolette_, who might inconvenience you.' the friend looks round to see who these interesting young people may be, and his surprise may be imagined when two big swine familiarly place their forepaws upon his shoulders. several sportsmen of the champagne possess packs of hounds, and the true boar-hound, the 'dog of black st. hubert breed,' is really a magnificent animal, with his long pendant ears, his open chest, and broad-backed body. hounds of the la vendée and poitou breeds are also used at boar-hunts. dogs, though they may be of excellent race, require, however, skilful training before they will hunt the boar. it is necessary they should see several boars killed ere they will venture to tackle this formidable enemy, of which the dog is instinctively afraid. house-dogs, curs, and terriers will at times pursue the boar admirably, and prolong his standing for hours without approaching within range of the beast's tusks, whilst animals of a higher spirit will allow themselves to be ripped up alive, or, if they escape, will not dare to again approach their foe after a first repulse. since boars became so numerous in the champagne they have done considerable damage to the crops, a corn or potato field being soon devastated by them. at harvest-time a watch has often to be set for them by night. a few years ago, at the moment of the vintage, people were even compelled to light large fires near the vineyards to scare away these dangerous neighbours. the shooting season in the champagne extends from the commencement of september till the end of february; but boar-hunting is often prolonged until the first of may, and occasionally _battues_ are organised during the summer. other four-footed game tenanting the forests of the champagne are the roe-deer, in tolerable quantity; a few fallow-deer and stags and wolves, which latter are still numerous, spite of the warfare carried on against them. the roe-deer is hunted, like the boar, with hounds; but this easy sport, which does not possess the attraction of danger, is quite neglected when boars are numerous. the forests also give shelter to hares in abundance, martins, wild-cats, and foxes, the latter being rigorously destroyed on account of their depredations. they are stifled by smoke in their holes, or else poisoned or taken in traps. sportsmen are so numerous in every little village of the marne, the shooting license only costing five-and-twenty francs, that feathered game has become very rare. the most remarkable specimen is the caimpetière, or small bustard, which exists only in the champagne and algeria, and the flesh of which is highly esteemed. partridges and hares would have entirely disappeared from the plains were it not for the shelter which the vineyards afford them, for woe to him who ventures to shoot among the vines! the vine is as sacred to the champenois as the mistletoe was to their gallic forefathers. great severity is shown in respect to trespassers at the epoch when the vines are sprouting, for each broken bud represents a bunch of grapes, which its owner hoped might realise its weight in gold. [illustration] [illustration: the vineyards of the coteau de saumur.] part iii. i. /sparkling saumur and sparkling sauternes./ the sparkling wines of the loire often palmed off as champagne--the finer qualities improve with age--anjou the cradle of the plantagenet kings--saumur and its dominating feudal château and antique hôtel de ville--its sinister rue des payens and steep tortuous grande rue--the vineyards of the coteau of saumur--abandoned stone-quarries converted into dwellings--the vintage in progress--old-fashioned pressoirs--the making of the wine--touraine the favourite residence of the earlier french monarchs--after a night's carouse at the epoch of the renaissance--the vouvray vineyards--balzac's picture of la vallée coquette--the village of vouvray and the château of moncontour--vernou, with its reminiscences of sully and pépin-le-bref--the vineyards around saumur--remarkable ancient dolmens--ackerman-laurance's establishment at saint-florent--their extensive cellars, ancient and modern--treatment of the newly-vintaged wine--the cuvée--proportions of wine from black and white grapes--the bottling and disgorging of the wine and finishing operations--the château of varrains and the establishment of m. louis duvau aîné--his cellars a succession of gloomy galleries--the disgorging of the wine accomplished in a melodramatic-looking cave--m. duvau's vineyard--his sparkling saumur of various ages--marked superiority of the more matured samples--m. e. normandin's sparkling sauternes manufactory at châteauneuf--angoulême and its ancient fortifications--vin de colombar--m. normandin's sparkling sauternes cuvée--his cellars near châteauneuf--recognition accorded to the wine at the concours régional d'angoulême. [illustration] after the champagne, anjou is the french province which ranks next in importance for its production of sparkling wines. vintaged on the banks of the loire, these are largely consigned to the english and other markets, labelled crême de bouzy, sillery and ay mousseux, cartes noires and blanches, and the like; while their corks are branded with the names of phantom firms, supposed to be located at reims and epernay. as a rule, these wines come from around saumur; but they are not necessarily the worse on that account, for the district produces capital sparkling wines, the finer qualities of which improve greatly by being kept for a few years. one curious thing shown to us at saumur was the album of a manufacturer of sparkling wines containing examples of the many hundred labels ticketed with which his produce had for years past been sold. not one of these labels assigned to the wines the name of their real maker or their true birthplace, but introduced them under the auspices of mythical dukes and counts, as being manufactured at châteaux which are so many 'castles in spain,' and as coming from ay, bouzy, châlons, epernay, reims, and verzenay, but never by any chance from saumur. being produced from robuster growths than the sparkling wines of the department of the marne, sparkling saumur will always lack that excessive lightness which is the crowning grace of fine champagne; still, it has only to be kept for a few years, instead of being drunk shortly after its arrival from the wine-merchant, for its quality to become greatly improved and its intrinsic value to be considerably enhanced. we have drunk sparkling saumur that had been in bottle for nearly twenty years, and found the wine not only remarkably delicate, but, singular to say, with plenty of effervescence. [illustration: statue of richard c[oe]ur de lion at fontevrault.] to an englishman anjou is one of the most interesting of the ancient provinces of france. it was the cradle of the plantagenet kings, and only ten miles from saumur still repose the bones of henry, the first plantagenet, and richard of the lion heart, beneath their elaborate coloured and gilt effigies, in the so-called cimetière des rois of the historic abbey of fontevrault. the famous vineyards of the coteau de saumur, eastward of the town and bordering the loire, extend as far as here, and include the communes of dampierre, souzay, varrains, chacé, parnay, turquant, and montsoreau, the last-named within three miles of fontevrault, and chiefly remarkable through its seigneur of ill-fame, jean de chambes, who instigated his wife to lure bussy d'amboise to an assignation in order that he might the more surely poignard him. saumur is picturesquely placed at the foot of this bold range of heights, near where the little river thouet runs into the broad and rapid loire. a massive-looking old château, perched on the summit of an isolated crag, stands out grandly against the clear sky and dominates the town, the older houses of which crouch at the foot of the lofty hill and climb its steepest sides. the restored antique hôtel de ville, in the pointed style, with its elegant windows, graceful belfry, and florid wrought-iron balconies, stands back from the quay bordering the loire. in the rear is the rue des payens, whither the last of the huguenots of this 'metropolis of protestantism,' as it was formerly styled, retired, converting their houses into so many fortresses to guard against being surprised by their catholic adversaries. adjacent is the steep tortuous grande rue, of which balzac--himself a tourangeau--has given such a graphic picture in his _eugénie grandet_, the scene of which is laid at saumur. to-day, however, only a few of its ancient carved-timber houses, quaint overhanging corner turrets, and fantastically studded massive oak doors, have escaped demolition. the vineyards of the coteau de saumur, yielding the finest wines, are reached by the road skirting the river, the opposite low banks of which are fringed with willows and endless rows of poplars, which at the time of our visit were already golden with the fading tints of autumn. numerous fantastic windmills crown the heights, the summit of which is covered with vines, varied by dense patches of woodland. here, as elsewhere along the banks of the loire, the many abandoned quarries along the face of the hill have been turned by the peasants into cosy dwellings by simply walling-up the entrances, while leaving, of course, the necessary apertures for doors and windows. dampierre, the first village reached, has many of these cave-dwellings, and numbers of its houses are picturesquely perched up the sides of the slope. the holiday costumes of the peasant women encountered in the neighbourhood of saumur are exceedingly quaint, their elaborate and varied headdresses being counterparts of _coiffures_ in vogue so far back as three and four centuries ago. [illustration: peasant women of the environs of saumur.] quitting the banks of the river, we ascend a steep tortuous road, shut in on either side by high stone walls--for hereabouts all the best vineyards are scrupulously enclosed--and finally reach the summit of the heights, whence a view is gained over what the saumurois proudly style the grand valley of the loire. everywhere around the vintage is going on. the vines are planted rather more than a yard apart, and those yielding black grapes are trained, as a rule, up tall stakes, although some few are trained espalier fashion. women dexterously detach the bunches with pruning-knives and throw them into the _seilles_--small squat buckets with wooden handles--the contents of which are emptied from time to time into baskets--the counterpart of the chiffonnier's _hotte_, and coated with pitch inside so as to close all the crevices of the wickerwork--which the _portes-bastes_ carry slung to their backs. when white wine is being made from black grapes for sparkling saumur, the grapes are conveyed in these baskets to the underground pressoirs in the neighbouring villages before their skins get at all broken, in order that the wine may be as pale as possible in colour. the black grape yielding the best wine in the saumur district is the breton, said to be the same as the carbinet-sauvignon, the leading variety in the grand vineyards of the médoc. other species of black grapes cultivated around saumur are the varennes, yielding a soft and insipid wine of no kind of value, and the liverdun, or large gamay, the prevalent grape in the mâconnais, and the same which in the days of philippe-le-hardi the _parlements_ of metz and dijon interdicted the planting and cultivation of. the prevalent white grapes are the large and small pineau blanc, the bunches of the former being of an intermediate size, broad and pyramidal in shape, and with the berries close together. these have fine skins, are oblong in shape, and of a transparent yellowish-green hue tinged with red, are very sweet and juicy, and as a rule ripen late. as for the small pineau, the bunches are less compact, the berries are round and of a golden tint, are finer as well as sweeter in flavour, and ripen somewhat earlier than the fruit of the larger variety. we noticed as we drove through the villages of champigny and varrains--the former celebrated for its fine red wines, and more especially its cru of the clos des cordeliers--that hardly any of the houses had windows looking on to the narrow street, but that all were provided with low openings for shooting the grapes into the cellar, where, when making red wine, they are trodden, but when making white wine, whether from black or white grapes, they are invariably pressed. each of the houses had its ponderous porte-cochère and low narrow portal leading into the large enclosed yard at its side, and over the high blank walls vines were frequently trained, pleasantly varying their dull gray monotony. the grapes on being shot into the openings just mentioned fall through a kind of tunnel into a reservoir adjacent to the heavy press, which is invariably of wood and of the old-fashioned cumbersome type. they are forthwith placed beneath the press and usually subjected to five separate squeezes, the must from the first three being reserved for sparkling wine, while that from the two latter, owing to its being more or less deeply tinted, only serves for table-wine. the must is at once run off into casks, in order that it may not ferment on the grape-skins and imbibe any portion of their colouring matter. active fermentation speedily sets in, and lasts for a fortnight or three weeks, according to whether the temperature chances to be high or low. the vintaging of the white grapes takes place about a fortnight later than the black grapes, and is commonly a compound operation, the best and ripest bunches being first of all gathered just as the berries begin to get shrivelled and show symptoms of approaching rottenness. it is these selected grapes that yield the best wine. the second gathering, which follows shortly after the first, includes all the grapes remaining on the vines, and yields a wine perceptibly inferior in quality. the grapes on their arrival at the press-house are generally pressed immediately, and the must is run off into tuns to ferment. at the commencement these tuns are filled up every three or four days to replace the fermenting must which has flowed over; afterwards any waste is made good at the interval of a week, and then once a fortnight, the bungholes of the casks being securely closed towards the end of the year, by which time the first fermentation is over. it should be noted that the saumur sparkling wine manufacturers draw considerable supplies of the white wine, required to impart lightness and effervescence to their _vin préparé_, from the vouvray vineyards. vouvray borders the loire a few miles from the pleasant city of tours, which awakens sinister recollections of truculent louis xi., shut up in his fortified castle of plessis-lez-tours, around which scott has thrown the halo of his genius in his novel of _quentin durward_. a succession of vineyard slopes stretch from one to another of the many historic châteaux along this portion of the loire, the romantic associations of which render the touraine one of the most interesting provinces of france. near tours, besides the vineyards of saint-cyr are those of joué and saint-avertin; the two last situate on the opposite bank of the cher, where the little town of joué, perched on the summit of a hill in the midst of vineyards, looks over a vast plain known by the country-people as the landes de charlemagne, the scene, according to local tradition, of charles martel's great victory over the saracens. the saint-avertin vineyards extend towards the east, stretching almost to the forest of larçay, on the borders of the cher, where paul louis courier, the famous vigneron pamphleteer of the restoration, noted alike for his raillery, wit, and satire, fell beneath the balls of an assassin. a noticeable cru in the neighbourhood of tours is that of cinq mars, the ruined château of which survives as a memorial of the vengeance of cardinal richelieu, who, after having sent its owner to the scaffold, commanded its massive walls and towers to be razed '_à hauteur d'infamie_,' as we see them now. touraine, from its central position, its pleasant air, and its fertile soil, was ever a favourite residence of the earlier french monarchs, and down to the days of the bourbons the seat of government continually vacillated between the banks of the seine and those of the loire. the vintages that ripen along the river have had their day of court favour too; for if henri of andelys sneeringly describes the wine of tours as turning sour, in his famous poem of the _bataille des vins_, the sweet white wines of anjou were greatly esteemed throughout the middle ages, and, with those of orleans, were highly appreciated in paris down to the seventeenth century. the cult of the 'dive bouteille' and the fashion of pantagruelic repasts have always found favour in the fat and fertile 'garden of france;' and the spectacle of citizens, courtiers, and monks staggering fraternally along, 'waggling their heads,' as rabelais describes them, after a night of it at the tavern, was no uncommon one in the streets of its old historic towns during the period of the renaissance. [illustration: tavern roysterers at early morning in the touraine.] on proceeding to vouvray from tours, we skirt a succession of poplar-fringed meadows, stretching eastward in the direction of amboise along the right bank of the loire; and after a time a curve in the river discloses to view a range of vine-clad heights, extending some distance beyond the village of vouvray. our route lies past the picturesque ruins of the abbey of marmoûtier, immortalised in the piquant pages of the _contes drôlatiques_, and the château des roches--one of the most celebrated castles of the loire--the numerous excavations in the soft limestone ridge on which they are perched being converted as usual into houses, magazines, and wine-cellars. we proceed through the village of rochecorbon, and along a road winding among the spurs of the vouvray range, past hamlets, half of whose inhabitants live in these primitive dwellings hollowed out of the cliff, and finally enter the charming vallé coquette, hemmed in on all sides with vine-clad slopes. here a picturesque old house, half château, half homestead, was pointed out to us as a favourite place of sojourn of balzac, who held the wine of vouvray in high esteem, and who speaks of this rocky ridge as 'inhabited by a population of vine-dressers, their houses of several stories being hollowed out in the face of the cliff, and connected by dangerous staircases hewn in the soft stone. smoke curls from most of the chimneys which peep above the green crest of vines, while the blows of the cooper's hammer resound in several of the cellars. a young girl trips to her garden over the roofs of these primitive dwellings, and an old woman, tranquilly seated on a ledge of projecting rock, supported solely by straggling roots of ivy spreading itself over the disjointed stones, leisurely turns her spinning-wheel, regardless of her dangerous position.' the foregoing picture, sketched by the author of _la comédie humaine_ forty years ago, has scarcely changed at the present day. at the point where the village of vouvray climbs half-way up the vine-crested ridge the rapid-winding cise throws itself into the loire, and on crossing the bridge that spans the tributary stream we discern on the western horizon, far beyond the verdant islets studding the swollen loire, the tall campaniles of tours cathedral, which seem to rise out of the water like a couple of venetian towers. vouvray is a trim little place, clustered round about with numerous pleasant villas in the midst of charming gardens. the modern château of moncontour here dominates the slope, and its terraced gardens, with their fantastically-clipped trees and geometric parterres, rise tier above tier up the face of the picturesque height that overlooks the broad fertile valley, with its gardens, cultivated fields, patches of woodland, and wide stretches of green pasture which, fringed with willows and poplars, border the swollen waters of the loire. where the river brenne empties itself into the cise the coteau de vouvray slopes off towards the north, and there rise up the vine-clad heights of vernou, yielding a similar but inferior wine to that of vouvray. the village of vernou is nestled under the hill, and near the porch of its quaint little church a venerable elm-tree is pointed out as having been planted by sully, henry iv.'s able minister. here, too, an ancient wall, pierced with curious arched windows, and forming part of a modern building, is regarded by popular tradition as belonging to the palace in which pépin-le-bref, father of charlemagne, lived at vernou. the communes of dampierre, souzay, and parnay, in the neighbourhood of saumur, produce still red wines rivalling those of champigny, besides which all the finest white wines are vintaged hereabouts--in the perrière, the poilleux, and the clos morain vineyards, and in the rotissans vineyard at turquant. wines of very fair quality are also grown on the more favourable slopes extending southwards along the valley of the thouet, and comprised in the communes of varrains, chacé, st. cyr-en-bourg, and brézé. the whole of this district, by the way, abounds with interesting archæological remains. while visiting the vineyards of varrains and chacé we came upon a couple of dolmens--vestiges of the ancient celtic population of the valley of the loire singularly abundant hereabouts. brézé, the marquisate of which formerly belonged to louis xvi.'s famous grand master of the ceremonies--immortalised by the rebuff he received from mirabeau--boasts a noble château on the site of an ancient fortress, in connection with which there are contemporary excavations in the neighbouring limestone, designed for a garrison of or men. beyond the vineyards of saint-florent, westward of saumur and on the banks of the thouet, is an extensive plateau, partially overgrown with vines, where may be traced the remains of a roman camp. moreover, in the southern environs of saumur, in the midst of vineyards producing exclusively white wines, is one of the most remarkable dolmens known. this imposing structure, perfect in all respects save that one of the four enormous stones which roof it in has been split in two, and requires to be supported, is no less than feet in length, feet in width, and feet high. [illustration: dolmen at bagneux, near saumur.] at saint-florent, the pleasant little suburb of saumur, skirting the river thouet, and sheltered by steep hills formed of soft limestone, which offers great facilities for the excavation of extensive cellars, the largest manufacturer of saumur sparkling wines has his establishment. externally this offers but little to strike the eye. a couple of pleasant country houses, half hidden by spreading foliage, stand at the two extremities of a spacious and well-kept garden, beyond which one catches a glimpse of some outbuildings sheltered by the vine-crowned cliff, in which a labyrinth of gloomy galleries has been hollowed out. here m. ackerman-laurance, the extent of whose business ranks him as second among the sparkling wine manufacturers of the world, stores something like , casks and several million bottles of wine. at the commencement of the present century, in the days when, as balzac relates in his _eugénie grandet_, the belgians bought up entire vintages of saumur wine, then largely in demand with them for sacramental purposes, the founder of the saint-florent house commenced to deal in the ordinary still wines of the district. nearly half a century ago he was led to attempt the manufacture of sparkling wines, but his efforts to bring them into notice failed; and he was on the point of abandoning his enterprise, when an order for one hundred cases revived his hopes, and led to the foundation of the present vast establishment. as already mentioned, for many miles all the heights along the loire have been more or less excavated for stone for building purposes, so that every one hereabouts who grows wine or deals in it has any amount of cellar accommodation ready to hand. it was the vast extent of the galleries which m. ackerman _père_ discovered already excavated at saint-florent that induced him to settle there in preference to saumur. extensive, however, as the original vaults were, considerable additional excavations have from time to time been found necessary; and to-day the firm is still further increasing the area of its cellars, which already comprise three principal avenues, each the third of a mile long, and no fewer than sixty transverse galleries, the total length of which is several miles. one great advantage is that the whole are on the ordinary level. ranged against the black uneven walls of the more tortuous ancient vaults which give access to these labyrinthine corridors are thousands of casks of wine--some in single rows, others in triple tiers--forming the reserve stock of the establishment. as may be supposed, a powerful vinous odour permeates these vaults, in which the fumes of wine have been accumulating for the best part of a century. after passing beneath a massive stone arch which separates the old cellars from the new, a series of broad and regularly proportioned galleries are reached, having bottles stacked in their tens of thousands on either side. overhead the roof is perforated at regular intervals with circular shafts, affording both light and ventilation, and enabling the temperature to be regulated to a nicety. in these lateral and transverse galleries millions of bottles of wine in various stages of preparation are stacked. [illustration: the cellars of m. ackerman-laurance at saint-florent. labelling and packing sparkling saumur.] we have explained that in the champagne it is the custom for the manufacturers of sparkling wine to purchase considerable quantities of grapes from the surrounding growers, and to press these themselves, or have them pressed under their own superintendence. at saumur only those firms possessing vineyards make their own _vin brut_, the bulk of the wine used for conversion into sparkling wine being purchased from the neighbouring growers. on the newly-expressed must arriving at m. ackerman-laurance's cellars it is allowed to rest until the commencement of the ensuing year, when half of it is mixed with wine in stock belonging to last year's vintage, and the remaining half is reserved for mingling with the must of the ensuing vintage. the blending is accomplished in a couple of colossal vats hewn out of the rock, and coated on the inside with cement. each of these vats is provided with paddles for thoroughly mixing the wine, and with five pipes for drawing it off when the amalgamation is complete. usually the cuvée will embrace hogsheads, or , gallons of wine, almost sufficient for half a million bottles. a fourth of this quantity can be mixed in each vat at a single operation, and this mixing is repeated again and again until the last gallon run off is of precisely the same type as the first. for the finer qualities of sparkling saumur the proportion of wine from the black grapes to that from white is generally at the rate of three or four to one. for the inferior qualities more wine from white than from black grapes is invariably used. only in the wine from white grapes is the effervescent principle retained to any particular extent; but, on the other hand, the wine from black grapes imparts both quality and vinous character to the blend. the blending having been satisfactorily accomplished, the wine is stored in casks, never perfectly filled, yet with their bungholes tightly closed, and slowly continues its fermentation, eating up its sugar, purging itself, and letting fall its lees. three months later it is fined. it is rarely kept in the wood for more than a year, though sometimes the superior qualities remain for a couple of years in cask. occasionally it is even bottled in the spring following the vintage; still, as a rule, the bottling of sparkling saumur takes place during the ensuing summer months, when the temperature is at the highest, as this insures to it a greater degree of effervescence. at the time of bottling its saccharine strength is raised to a given degree by the addition of the finest sugar-candy, and henceforward the wine is subjected to precisely the same treatment as is pursued with regard to champagne. it is in a broad but sombre gallery of the more ancient vaults--the roughly-hewn walls of which are black from the combined action of alcohol and carbonic acid gas--that the processes of disgorging the wine of its sediment, adding the syrup, filling up the bottles with wine to replace that which gushes out when the disgorging operation is performed, together with the re-corking, stringing, and wiring of the bottles, are carried on. the one or two adjacent shafts impart very little light, but a couple of resplendent metal reflectors, which at a distance one might fancy to be some dragon's flaming eyes, combined with the lamps placed near the people at work, effectually illuminate the spot. [illustration: the cellars of m. louis duvau aÎnÉ at the chÂteau of varrains.] another considerable manufacturer of sparkling saumur is m. louis duvau aîné, owner of the château of varrains, in the village of the same name, at no great distance from the coteau de saumur. his cellars adjoin the château, a picturesque but somewhat neglected structure of the last century, with sculptured medallions in high relief above the lower windows, and florid vases surmounting the mansards in the roof. in front is a large rambling court shaded with acacia and lime trees, and surrounded by outbuildings, prominent among which is a picturesque dovecot, massive at the base as a martello tower, and having an elegant open stone lantern springing from its bell-shaped roof. the cellars are entered down a steep incline under a low stone arch, the masonry above which is overgrown with ivy in large clusters and straggling creeping plants. we soon come upon a deep recess to the right, wherein stands a unique cumbersome screw-press, needing ten or a dozen men to work the unwieldy capstan which sets the juice flowing from the crushed grapes into the adjacent shallow trough. on our left hand are a couple of ancient reservoirs, formed out of huge blocks of stone, with the entrance to a long vaulted cellar filled with wine in cask. we advance slowly in the uncertain light along a succession of gloomy galleries, with moisture oozing from their blackened walls and roofs, picking our way between bottles of wine stacked in huge square piles and rows of casks raised in tiers. suddenly a broad flood of light shooting down a lofty shaft throws a rembrandtish effect across a spacious and most melodramatic-looking cave, roughly hewn out of the rock, and towards which seven dimly-lighted galleries converge. on all sides a scene of bustling animation presents itself. from one gallery men keep arriving with baskets of wine ready for the disgorger; while along another bottles of wine duly dosed with syrup are being borne off to be decorated with metal foil and their distinctive labels. groups of workmen are busily engaged disgorging, dosing, and re-corking the newly-arrived bottles of wine; corks fly out with a succession of loud reports, suggestive of the irregular fire of a party of skirmishers; a fizzing, spurting, and spluttering of the wine next ensues, and is followed by the incessant clicking of the various apparatus employed in the corking and wiring of the bottles. gradual inclines conduct to the two lower tiers of galleries, for the cellars of m. duvau consist of as many as three stories. down below there is naturally less light, and the temperature, too, is sensibly colder. advantage is taken of this latter circumstance to remove the newly-bottled wine to these lower vaults whenever an excessive development of carbonic acid threatens the bursting of an undue proportion of bottles, a casualty which among the saumur sparkling wine manufacturers ranges far higher than with the manufacturers of champagne. for the economy of time and labour, a lift, raised and lowered by means of a capstan worked by horses, is employed to transfer the bottles of wine from one tier of cellars to another. [illustration] the demand for sparkling saumur is evidently on the increase, for m. duvau, at the time of our visit, was excavating extensive additional cellarage. the subsoil at varrains being largely composed of marl, which is much softer than the tufa of the saint-florent coteau, necessitated the roofs of the new galleries being worked in a particular form in order to avoid having recourse to either brickwork or masonry. tons of this excavated marl were being spread over the soil of m. duvau's vineyard in the rear of the château, greatly, it was said, to the benefit of the vines, whose grapes were all of the black variety; indeed, scarcely any wine is vintaged from white grapes in the commune of varrains. at m. duvau's we went through a complete scale of sparkling saumurs, commencing with the younger and less matured samples, and ascending step by step to wines a dozen and more years old. every year seemed to produce an improvement in the wine, the older varieties gaining greatly in delicacy and softening very perceptibly in flavour. finding that sparkling wines were being made in most of the wine-producing districts of france, where the growths were sufficiently light and of the requisite quality, messrs. e. normandin & co. conceived the idea of laying the famous bordeaux district under contribution for a similar purpose, and, aided by a staff of experienced workmen from epernay, they have succeeded in producing a sparkling sauternes. sauternes, as is well known, is one of the finest of white wines, soft, delicate, and of beautiful flavour, and its transformation into a sparkling wine has been very successfully accomplished. messrs. normandin's head-quarters are in the thriving little town of châteauneuf, in the pleasant valley of the charente, and within fifteen miles of angoulême, a famous old french town, encompassed by ancient ramparts and crumbling corner-towers; and which, dominated by the lofty belfry of its restored semi-byzantine cathedral, rising in a series of open arcades, spreads itself picturesquely out along a precipitous height, watered at its base by the rivers anguienne and charente. between angoulême and châteauneuf vineyard plots dotted over with walnut-trees, or simple rows of vines divided by strips of ripening maize, and broken up at intervals by bright green pastures, line both banks of the river charente. the surrounding country is undulating and picturesque. poplars and elms fringe the roadsides, divide the larger fields and vineyards, and screen the cosy-looking red-roofed farmhouses, which present to the eyes of the passing tourist a succession of pictures of quiet rural prosperity. châteauneuf communicates with the sauternes district by rail, so that supplies of wine from there are readily obtainable. vin de colombar--a famous white growth which english and dutch cruisers used to ascend the charente to obtain cargoes of when the jerez wines were shut out from england by the spanish war of succession--vintaged principally at montignac-le-coq, also enters largely into messrs. normandin & co.'s sparkling sauternes cuvée. this colombar grape is simply the semillon--one of the leading varieties of the sauternes district--transported to the charente. the remarkably cool cellars where the firm store their wine, whether in wood or bottle, have been formed from some vast subterranean galleries whence centuries ago stone was quarried, and which are situated about a quarter of an hour's drive from châteauneuf, in the midst of vineyards and cornfields. the wine is invariably bottled in a cellier at the head establishment, but it is in these cellars where it goes through the course of careful treatment similar to that pursued with regard to champagne. [illustration] in order that the delicate flavour of the wine may be preserved, the liqueur is prepared with the finest old sauternes, without any addition of spirit, and the dose is administered with the most improved modern appliance, constructed of silver, and provided with crystal taps. at the concours régional d'angoulême of , the jury, after recording that they had satisfied themselves by the aid of a chemical analysis that the samples of sparkling sauternes submitted to their judgment were free from any foreign ingredient, awarded to messrs. normandin & co. the only gold medal given in the group of alimentary products. encouraged, no doubt, by the success obtained by messrs. normandin & co. with their sparkling sauternes, the house of lermat-robert & co., of bordeaux, introduced a few years ago a sparkling barsac, samples of which were submitted to the jury at the paris exhibition of . [illustration] [illustration: vintager of the cÔte d'or.] [illustration: vintager of the jura.] ii. /the sparkling wines of burgundy, the jura, and the south of france./ sparkling wines of the côte d'or at the paris exhibition of --chambertin, romanée, and vougeot--burgundy wines and vines formerly presents from princes--vintaging sparkling burgundies--their after-treatment in the cellars--excess of breakage--similarity of proceeding to that followed in the champagne--principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies--sparkling wines of tonnerre, the birthplace of the chevalier d'eon--the vin d'arbanne of bar-sur-aube--death there of the bastard de bourbon--madame de la motte's ostentatious display and arrest there--sparkling wines of the beaujolais--the mont-brouilly vineyards--ancient reputation of the wines of the jura--the vin jaune of arbois beloved of henri quatre--rhymes by him in its honour--lons-le-saulnier--vineyards yielding the sparkling jura wines--their vintaging and subsequent treatment--their high alcoholic strength and general drawbacks--sparkling wines of auvergne, guienne, dauphiné, and languedoc--sparkling saint-péray the champagne of the south--valence, with its reminiscences of pius vi. and napoleon i.--the 'horns of crussol' on the banks of the rhône--vintage scene at saint-péray--the vines and vineyards producing sparkling wine--manipulation of sparkling saint-péray--its abundance of natural sugar--the cellars of m. de saint-prix, and samples of his wines--sparkling côte-rotie, château-grillé, and hermitage--annual production and principal markets of sparkling saint-péray--clairette de die--the porte rouge of die cathedral--how the die wine is made--the sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of die--sparkling wines of vercheny and lagrasse--barnave and the royal flight to varennes--narbonne formerly a miniature rome, now noted merely for its wine and honey--fête of the black virgin at limoux--preference given to the new wine over the miraculous water--blanquette of limoux, and how it is made--characteristics of this overrated wine. [illustration] sparkling wines are made to a considerable extent in burgundy, notably at beaune, nuits, and dijon; and though as a rule heavier and more potent than the subtile and delicate-flavoured wines of the marne, still some of the higher qualities, both of the red and white varieties, exhibit a degree of refinement which those familiar only with the commoner kinds can scarcely form an idea of. at the paris exhibition of we tasted, among a large collection of the sparkling wines of the côte d'or, samples of chambertin, romanée, and vougeot, of the highest order. although red wines, they had the merit of being deficient in that body which forms such an objectionable feature in sparkling wines of a deep shade of colour. m. regnier, the exhibitor of sparkling red vougeot, sent, moreover, a white sparkling wine, from the species of grape known locally as the clos blanc de vougeot. these wines, as well as the chambertin, came from the côte de nuits, the growths of which are generally considered of too vigorous a type for successful conversion into sparkling wine, preference being usually given to the produce of the côte de beaune. among the sparkling burgundies from the last-named district were samples from savigny, chassagne, and meursault, all famous for their fine white wines. burgundy ranks as one of the oldest viticultural regions of central europe, and for centuries its wines have been held in the highest renown. in the middle ages both the wines and vines of this favoured province passed as presents from one royal personage to another, just as grand _cordons_ are exchanged between them nowadays. the fabrication of sparkling wine, however, dates no further back than some sixty years or so. the system of procedure is much the same as in the champagne, and, as there, the wine is mainly the produce of the pineau noir and pineau blanc varieties of grape. at the vintage, in order to avoid bruising the ripened fruit and to guard against premature fermentation, the grapes are conveyed to the pressoirs in baskets, instead of the large oval vats termed _balonges_, common to the district. they are placed beneath the press as soon as possible, and for superior sparkling wines only the juice resulting from the first pressure, and known as the _mère goutte_, or mother drop, is employed. for the ordinary wines, that expressed at the second squeezing of the fruit is mingled with the other. the must is at once run off into casks, which have been previously sulphured, to check, in a measure, the ardour of the first fermentation, and lighten the colour of the newly-made wine. towards the end of october, when this first fermentation is over, the wine is removed to the cellars, or to some other cool place, and in december it is racked into other casks. in the april following it is again racked, to insure its being perfectly clear at the epoch of bottling in the month of may. the sulphuring of the original casks having had the effect of slightly checking the fermentation and retaining a certain amount of saccharine in the wine, it is only on exceptional occasions that the latter is artificially sweetened previous to being bottled. a fortnight after the tirage the wine commonly attains the stage known as _grand mousseux_, and by the end of september the breakage will have amounted to between and per cent, which necessitates the taking down the stacks of bottles and piling them up anew. the wine as a rule remains in the cellars for fully a couple of years from the time of bottling until it is shipped. posing the bottles _sur pointe_, agitating them daily, together with the disgorging and liqueuring of the wine, are accomplished precisely as in the champagne. among the principal manufacturers of sparkling burgundies are messrs. andré & voillot, of beaune, whose sparkling white romanée, nuits, and volnay are well and favourably known in england; m. louis latour, also of beaune, and equally noted for his sparkling red volnay, nuits, and chambertin, as for his sparkling white varieties; messrs. maire et fils, likewise of beaune; m. labouré-goutard and messrs. geisweiller et fils, of nuits; messrs. marey & liger-belair, of nuits and vosne; and m. regnier, of dijon. in the department of the yonne--that is, in lower burgundy--sparkling wines somewhat alcoholic in character have been made for the last half century at tonnerre, where the chevalier d'eon, that enigma of his epoch, was born. the tonnerre vineyards are of high antiquity, and for sparkling wines the produce of the black and white pineau and the white morillon varieties of grape is had recourse to. the vintaging is accomplished with great care, and only the juice which flows from the first pressure is employed. this is run off immediately into casks, which are hermetically closed when the fermentation has subsided. the after-treatment of the wine is the same as in the champagne. sparkling wines are likewise made at epineuil, a village in the neighbourhood of tonnerre, and at chablis, so famous for its white wines, about ten miles distant. an effervescing wine known as the vin d'arbanne is made at bar-sur-aube, some fifty miles north-east of tonnerre, on the borders of burgundy, but actually in the province of champagne, although far beyond the limits to which the famed viticultural district extends. it was at bar-sur-aube where the bastard de bourbon, chief of the sanguinary gang of _écorcheurs_ (flayers), was sewn up in a sack and flung over the parapet of the old stone bridge into the river beneath, by order of charles vii.; and here, too, madame de la motte, of diamond necklace notoriety, was married, and in after years made a parade of the ill-gotten wealth she had acquired by successfully fooling that infatuated libertine the cardinal prince de rohan, until her ostentatious display was cut short by her arrest. this vin d'arbanne is produced from pineaux and white gamay grapes, which, after being gathered with care at the moment the dew falls, are forthwith pressed. the wine is left on its lees until the following february, when it is racked and fined, the bottling taking place when the moon is at the full in march. red and white sparkling wines are made to a small extent at saint-lager, in the beaujolais, from wine vintaged in the mont-brouilly vineyards, one of the best known of the beaujolais crus. mont-brouilly is a lofty hill near the village of cercie, and is covered from base to summit on all its sides with vines of the gamay species, rarely trained at all, but left to trail along the ground at their own sweet will. at the vintage, as we witnessed it, men and women--young, middle-aged, and old--accompanied by troops of children, were roaming all over the slopes dexterously nipping off the bunches of grapes with their thumb and finger nails, and flinging them into the little wooden tubs with which they were provided. the pressing of the grapes and the after-treatment of the wine destined to become sparkling are the same in the beaujolais as in upper and lower burgundy. the red, straw, and yellow wines of the jura have long had a high reputation in the east of france, and the _vin jaune_ of arbois, an ancient fortified town on the banks of the cuisance, besieged and sacked in turn by charles of amboise, henri iv., and louis xiv., was one of the favourite beverages of the tippling béarnais who styled himself seigneur of ay and gonesse, and who acquired his liking for it while sojourning during the siege of arbois at the old château des arsures. in one of henri quatre's letters to his minister sully we find him observing, 'i send you two bottles of vin d'arbois, for i know you do not detest it.' a couple of other bottles of the same wine are said to have cemented the king's reconciliation with mayenne, the leader of the league; and the lover of la belle gabrielle is moreover credited with having composed at his mistress's table some doggrel rhymes in honour of the famous jura cru: 'come, little page, serve us aright, the crown is often heavy to bear; so fill up my goblet large and light whenever you find a vacancy there. this wine is surely no christian wight, and yet you never complaint will hear that it's not baptised with water clear. down my throat i pour the old arbois; and now, my lords, let us our voices raise, and sing of silenus and bacchus the praise!' in more modern times the jura, not content with the fame of the historic yellow wines of arbois and the deservedly-esteemed straw wines of château-châlon, has produced large quantities of sparkling wine, the original manufacture of which commenced as far back as a century ago. to-day the principal seats of the manufacture are at arbois and lons-le-saulnier, the latter town the capital of the department, and one of the most ancient towns of france. originally founded by the gauls on the banks of the vallière, in a little valley bordered by lofty hills, which are to-day covered with vines, it was girded round with fortifications by the romans. subsequently the huns and the vandals pillaged it; then the french and the burgundians repeatedly contested its possession, and it was only definitively acquired by france during the reign of louis xiv. rouget de l'isle, the famous author of the 'marseillaise,' was born at lons-le-saulnier, and here also marshal ney assembled and harangued his troops before marching to join napoleon, whom he had promised louis xviii. to bring back to paris in an iron cage. the vineyards whence the principal supplies for these sparkling wines are derived are grouped at varying distances around lons-le-saulnier at l'etoile, quintigny, salins, arbois, st. laurent-la-roche, and pupillin, with the jura chain of mountains rising up grandly on the east. the best vineyards at l'etoile--which lies some couple of miles from lons-le-saulnier, surrounded by hills, planted from base to summit with vines--are la vigne blanche, montmorin, and montgenest. at quintigny, the wines of which are less potent than those of arbois, and only retain their effervescent properties for a couple of years, the paridis, prémelan, and montmorin vineyards are held in most repute, while at pupillin, where a soft agreeable wine is vintaged, the principal vineyards are the faille and the clos. the vines cultivated for the production of sparkling wines are chiefly the savagnin, or white pineau, the melon of poligny, and the poulsard, a black variety of grape held locally in much esteem. at the vintage, which commences towards the end of october and lasts until the middle of the following month, all the rotten or unripe grapes are carefully set aside, and the sound ones only submitted to the action of a screw-press. after the must has flowed for about half an hour, the grapes are newly collected under the press and the screw again applied. the produce of this double operation is poured into a vat termed a _sapine_, where it remains until bubbles are seen escaping through the _chapeau_ that forms on the surface of the liquid. the must is then drawn off--sometimes after being fined--into casks, which the majority of wine-growers previously impregnate with the fumes of sulphur. when in cask the wine is treated in one of two ways; either the casks are kept constantly filled to the bunghole, causing the foam which rises to the surface during the fermentation to flow over, and thereby leave the wine comparatively clear, or else the casks are not completely filled, in which case the wine requires to be racked several times before it is in a condition for fining. this latter operation is effected about the commencement of february, and a second fining follows if the first one fails to render the wine perfectly clear. at the bottling, which invariably takes place in april, the jura wines rarely require any addition of sugar to insure an ample effervescence. subsequently they are treated in exactly the same manner as the vintages of the marne are treated by the great champagne manufacturers. in addition to white sparkling wine, a pink variety, with natural effervescent properties, is made by mixing with the savagnin and melon grapes a certain proportion of the poulsard species, from which the best red wines of the jura are produced. one of the principal sparkling wine establishments at lons-le-saulnier is that of m. auguste devaux, founded in the year . he manufactures both sweet and dry wines, which are sold largely in france and elsewhere on the continent, and have lately been introduced into england. their alcoholic strength is equivalent to from ° to ° of proof spirit, being largely above the dry sparkling wines of the champagne, which the jura manufacturers regard as a positive advantage rather than a decided drawback, which it most undoubtedly is. besides being too spirituous, the sparkling wines of the jura are deficient in refinement and delicacy. the commoner kinds, indeed, frequently have a pronounced unpleasant flavour, due to the nature of the soil, to careless vinification, or to the inferior quality of liqueur with which the wines have been dosed. out of some fifty samples of all ages and varieties which in my capacity of juror i tasted at the paris exhibition of , i cannot call to mind one that a real connoisseur of sparkling wines would care to admit to his table. sparkling wines are made after a fashion in several of the southern provinces of france--in auvergne, at clermont-ferrand, under the shadow of the lofty puy de dôme; in guienne, at astaffort, the scene of a bloody engagement during the wars of religion, in which the protestant army was cut to pieces when about to cross the garonne; at nérac, where frail marguerite de valois kept her dissolute court, and catherine de médicis brought her flying squadron of fascinating maids-of-honour to gain over the huguenot leaders to the catholic cause; and at cahors, the divina, or divine fountain of the celts, and the birthplace of pope john xxii., of clement marot, the early french poet, and of léon gambetta; in dauphiné, at die, saint-chef, saint-péray, and largentière--so named after some abandoned silver mines--and where the vines are cultivated against low walls rising in a series of terraces from the base to the summit of the lofty hills; and in languedoc, at brioude, where st. vincent, the patron saint of the vine-dressers, suffered martyrdom, and where it is the practice to expose the must of the future sparkling wine for several nights to the dew in order to rid it of its reddish colour; also at linardie, and, more southward still, at limoux, whence comes the well-known effervescing blanquette. principal among the foregoing is the excellent wine of saint-péray, commonly characterised as the champagne of the south of france. the saint-péray vineyards border the rhone some ten miles below the hermitage coteau--the vines of which are to-day well-nigh destroyed by the phylloxera--but are on the opposite bank of the river. our visit to saint-péray was made from valence, in which dull southern city we had loitered in order to glance at the vast hôtel du gouvernement--where octogenarian pius vi., after being spirited away a prisoner from rome and hurried over the alps in a litter by order of the french directory, drew his last breath while silently gazing across the rushing river at the view he so much admired--and to discover the house in the grande rue, numbered , in an attic of which history records that napoleon i., when a sub-lieutenant of artillery in garrison at valence, resided, and which he quitted owing three and a half francs to his pastrycook. we crossed the rhone over one of its hundred flimsy suspension-bridges, on the majority of which a notice warns you neither to smoke nor run, and were soon skirting the base of a lofty, bare, precipitous rock, with the 'horns of crussol,' as the peasants term two tall pointed gables of a ruined feudal château, perched at the dizzy edge, and having a perpendicular fall of some five or six hundred feet below. the château, which formerly belonged to the dukes of uzès, recognised by virtue of the extent of their domains as _premiers pairs de france_, was not originally erected in close proximity to any such formidable precipice. the crag on which it stands had, it seems, been blasted from time to time for the sake of the stone, until on one unlucky occasion, when too heavy a charge of powder was employed, the entire side of the rock, together with a considerable portion of the château itself, were sent flying into the air. the authorities, professing to regard what remained of the edifice as an historical monument of the middle ages, hereupon stepped in and prohibited the quarry being worked for the future. [illustration: conveying grapes to the press at saint-pÉray.] passing beneath the cliff, one wound round to the left and dived into a picturesque wooded dell at the entrance to a mountain pass, then crossed the rocky bed of a dried-up stream, and drove along an avenue of mulberry-trees, which in a few minutes conducted us to saint-péray, where one found the vintage in full operation. carts laden with tubs filled with white and purple grapes, around which wasps without number swarmed, were arriving from all points of the environs and crowding the narrow streets. any quantity of grapes were seemingly to be had for the asking, for all the pretty girls in the place were gorging themselves with the luscious-looking fruit. in the coopers' yards brand-new casks were ranged in rows in readiness for the newly-made wine, and through open doorways, and in all manner of dim recesses, one caught sight of sturdy men energetically trampling the gushing grapes under their bare feet, and of huge creaking winepresses reeking with the purple juice. it was chiefly common red wine, of an excellent flavour, however, that was being made in these nooks and corners, the sparkling white wine known as saint-péray being manufactured in larger establishments, and on more scientific principles. it is from a white species of grape known as the petite and grosse rousette--the same which yields the white hermitage--that the champagne of the south is produced; and the vineyards where they are cultivated occupy all the more favourable slopes immediately outside the village, the most noted being the coteau-gaillard, solignacs, thioulet, and hungary. although there is a close similarity between the manufacture of champagne and the effervescing wine of saint-péray, there are still one or two noteworthy variations. for a wine to be sparkling it is requisite that it should ferment in the bottle, a result obtained by bottling it while it contains a certain undeveloped proportion of alcohol and carbonic acid, represented by so much sugar, of which they are the component parts. this ingredient has frequently to be added to the champagne wines to render them sparkling, but the wine of saint-péray in its natural state contains so much sugar that any addition would be deleterious. this excess of saccharine enables the manufacturer to dispense with some of the operations necessary to the fabrication of champagne, which, after fermenting in the cask, requires a second fermentation to be provoked in the bottle, whereas the saint-péray wine ferments only once, being bottled immediately it comes from the wine-press. the deposit in the wine after being impelled towards the neck of the bottle is got rid of by following the same system as is pursued in the champagne, but no liqueur whatever is subsequently added to the wine. on the other hand, it is a common practice to reduce the over-sweetness of sparkling saint-péray in years when the grapes are more than usually ripe by mixing with it some old dry white wine. at saint-péray we visited the cellars of m. de saint-prix, one of the principal wine-growers of the district. the samples of effervescing wine which he produced for us to taste were of a pale golden colour, of a slightly nutty flavour, and with a decided suggestion of the spirituous essence known to be concentrated in the wine, one glass of which will go quite as far towards elevating a person as three glasses of champagne. keeping the wine for a few years is said materially to improve its quality, to the sacrifice, however, of its effervescing properties. m. de saint-prix informed us that he manufactured every year a certain quantity of sparkling côte-rotie, château-grillé, and hermitage. the principal markets for the saint-péray sparkling wines--the production of which falls considerably short of a million bottles per annum--are england, germany, russia, holland, and belgium. [illustration] the other side of the rhone is fruitful in minor sparkling wines, chief among which is the so-called clairette de die, made at the town of that name, a place of some splendour, as existing antiquities show, in the days of the roman dominion in gaul. later on, die was the scene of constant struggles for supremacy between its counts and bishops, one of the latter being massacred by the populace in front of the cathedral doorway--ever since known by the sinister appellation of the porte rouge--and catholics and huguenots alike devastated the town in the troublesome times of the reformation. clairette de die is made principally from the blanquette or malvoisie variety of grape, which, after the stalks have been removed, is both trodden with the feet and pressed. the must is run off immediately into casks, and four-and-twenty hours later it is racked into other casks, a similar operation being performed every two or three days for the period of a couple of months, when, the fermentation having subsided, the wine is fined and usually bottled in the following march. newly-made clairette de die is a sweet sparkling wine, but it loses its natural effervescence after a couple of years, unless it has been treated in the same manner as champagne, which is rarely the case. the wine enjoys a reputation altogether beyond its merits. in addition to the well-known clairette, some of the wine-growers of die make sparkling white and rose-coloured muscatels of superior quality, which retain their effervescing properties for several years. a sparkling wine is also made some ten miles from die, on the road to saillans, in a district bounded on the one side by the waters of the drôme, and on the other by strange mountains with helmet-shaped crests. the centre of production is a locality called vercheny, composed of several hamlets, one of which, named le temple, was the original home of the family of barnave. the impressionable young deputy to the national assembly formed one of the trio sent to bring back the french royal family from varennes after their flight from paris. it will be remembered how, under the influence of marie antoinette and madame elizabeth, barnave became transformed during the journey into a faithful partisan of their unhappy cause, and that he eventually paid the penalty of his devotion with his life. in the extreme south of france, and almost under the shadow of the pyrenees, a sparkling wine of some repute is made at a place called lagrasse, about five-and-twenty miles westward of narbonne, the once-famous mediterranean city, the maritime rival of marseilles, and in its palmy days, prior to the christian era, a miniature rome, with its capitol, its curia, its decemvirs, its consuls, its prætors, its questors, its censors, and its ediles, and which boasted of being the birthplace of three roman emperors. to-day narbonne has to content itself with the humble renown derived from its delicious honey and its characterless full-bodied wines. limoux, so celebrated for its blanquette, lies a long way farther to the west, behind the corbières range of mountains that join on to the pyrenees, and the jagged peaks, deep barren gorges, and scarred sides of which have been witness of many a desperate struggle during the century and a half when they formed the boundary between france and spain. we arrived at limoux just too late for the famous _fête_ of the black virgin, which lasts three weeks, and attracts crowds of southern pilgrims to the chapel of our lady of marseilles, perched on a little hill some short distance from the town, with a fountain half-way up, whose water issues drop by drop, and has the credit of possessing unheard-of virtues. the majority of pilgrims, however, exhibit a decided preference for the new-made wine over the miraculous water, and for one-and-twenty days something like a carnival of inebriety prevails at limoux. blanquette de limoux derives its name from the species of grape it is produced from, and which we believe to be identical with the malvoisie, or malmsey. its long-shaped berries grow in huge bunches, and dry readily on the stalks. the fruit is gathered as tenderly as possible, care being taken that it shall not be in the slightest degree bruised, and is then spread out upon a floor to admit of whatever sugar it contains becoming perfect. the bad grapes having been carefully picked out, and the seeds extracted from the remaining fruit, the latter is now trodden, and the must, after being filtered through a strainer, is placed in casks, where it remains fermenting for about a week, during which time any overflow is daily replenished by other must reserved for the purpose. the wine is again clarified, and placed in fresh casks with the bungholes only lightly closed until all sensible fermentation has ceased, when they are securely fastened up. the bottling takes place in the month of march, and the wine is subsequently treated much after the same fashion as sparkling saint-péray, excepting that it is generally found necessary to repeat the operation of _dégorgement_ three, if not as many as four, times. blanquette de limoux is a pale white wine, the saccharine properties of which have become completely transformed into carbonic acid gas and alcohol. it is consequently both dry and spirituous, deficient in delicacy, and altogether proves a great disappointment. at its best it may, perhaps, rank with sparkling saint-péray, but unquestionably not with an average champagne. [illustration: preparing the champagne liqueur.] iii. /facts and notes respecting sparkling wines./ dry and sweet champagnes--their sparkling properties--form of champagne glasses--style of sparkling wines consumed in different countries--the colour and alcoholic strength of champagne--champagne approved of by the faculty--its use in nervous derangements--the icing of champagne--scarcity of grand vintages in the champagne--the quality of the wine has little influence on the price--prices realised by the ay and verzenay crus in grand years--suggestions for laying down champagnes of grand vintages--the improvement they develop after a few years--the wine of --the proper kind of cellar in which to lay down champagne--advantages of burrow's patent slider wine-bins--increase in the consumption of champagne--tabular statement of stocks, exports, and home consumption from - to - --when to serve champagne at a dinner-party--charles dickens's dictum that its proper place is at a ball--advantageous effect of champagne at an ordinary british dinner-party. [illustration] in selecting a sparkling wine, one fact should be borne in mind--that just as, according to sam weller, it is the seasoning which makes the pie mutton, beef, or veal, so it is the liqueur which renders the wine dry or sweet, light or strong. a really palatable dry champagne, emitting the fragrant bouquet which distinguishes all wines of fine quality, free from added spirit, is obliged to be made of the very best _vin brut_, to which necessarily an exceedingly small percentage of liqueur will be added. on the other hand, a sweet champagne can be produced from the most ordinary raw wine--the yankees even claim to have evolved it from petroleum--as the amount of liqueur it receives completely masks its original character and flavour. this excess of syrup, it should be remarked, contributes materially to the wine's explosive force and temporary effervescence; but shortly after the bottle has been uncorked the wine becomes disagreeably flat. a fine dry wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. it continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the glass, owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured. even when its carbonic acid gas is exhausted, a good champagne will preserve its fine flavour, which the effervescence will have assisted to conceal. champagne, it should be noted, sparkles best in tall tapering glasses; still these have their disadvantages, promoting, as they do, an excess of froth when the wine is poured into them, and almost preventing any bouquet which the wine possesses from being recognised. manufacturers of champagne and other sparkling wines prepare them dry or sweet, light or strong, according to the markets for which they are designed. the sweet wines go to russia and germany--the sweet-toothed muscovite regarding m. louis roederer's syrupy product as the _beau-idéal_ of champagne, and the germans demanding wines with twenty or more per cent of liqueur, or nearly quadruple the quantity that is contained in the average champagnes shipped to england. france consumes light and moderately sweet wines; the united states gives a preference to the intermediate qualities; china, india, and other hot countries stipulate for light dry wines; while the very strong ones go to australia, the cape, and other places where gold and diamonds and suchlike trifles are from time to time 'prospected.' not merely the driest, but the very best, wines of the best manufacturers, and commanding of course the highest prices, are invariably reserved for the english market. foreigners cannot understand the marked preference shown in england for exceedingly dry sparkling wines. they do not consider that as a rule they are drunk during dinner with the _plats_, and not at dessert, with all kinds of sweets, fruits, and ices, as is almost invariably the case abroad. good champagne is usually of a pale straw colour, but with nothing of a yellow tinge about it. when its tint is pinkish, this is owing to a portion of the colouring matter having been extracted from the skins of the grapes--a contingency which every pains are taken to avoid, although, since the success achieved by the wine of , slightly pink wines are likely to be the fashion. the positive pink or rose-coloured champagnes, such as were in fashion some thirty years ago, are simply tinted with a small quantity of deep-red wine. the alcoholic strength of the drier wines ranges from eighteen degrees of proof spirit upwards, or slightly above the ordinary bordeaux, and under all the better-class rhine wines. champagnes, when loaded with a highly alcoholised liqueur, will, however, at times mark as many as thirty degrees of proof spirit. the lighter and drier the sparkling wine, the more wholesome it is, the saccharine element in conjunction with alcohol being not only difficult of digestion, but generally detrimental to health. the faculty are agreed that fine dry champagnes, consumed in moderation, are among the safest wines that can be partaken of. any intoxicating effects are rapid but exceedingly transient, and arise from the alcohol suspended in the carbonic acid being applied rapidly and extensively to the surface of the stomach. 'champagne,' said curran, 'simply gives a runaway rap at a man's head.' dr. druitt, equally distinguished by his studies upon wine and his standing as a physician, pronounces good champagne to be 'a true stimulant to body and mind alike--rapid, volatile, transitory, and harmless. amongst the maladies that are benefited by it,' remarks he, 'is the true neuralgia--intermitting fits of excruciating pain running along certain nerves, without inflammation of the affected part, often a consequence of malaria, or of some other low and exhausting causes. to enumerate the cases in which champagne is of service would be to give a whole nosology. who does not know the misery, the helplessness of that abominable ailment influenza, whether a severe cold or the genuine epidemic? let the faculty dispute about the best remedy if they please; but a sensible man with a bottle of champagne will beat them all. moreover, whenever there is pain, with exhaustion and lowness, then dr. champagne should be had up. there is something excitant in the wine--doubly so in the sparkling wine, which, the moment it touches the lips, sends an electric telegram of comfort to every remote nerve. nothing comforts and rests the stomach better, or is a greater antidote to nausea.' champagne of fine quality should never be mixed with ice or iced water; neither should it be iced to the extent champagnes ordinarily are; for, in the first place, the natural lightness of the wine is such as not to admit of its being diluted without utterly spoiling it, and in the next, excessive cold destroys alike the fragrant bouquet of the wine and its delicate vinous flavour. really good champagne should not be iced below a temperature of fifty degrees fahr.; whereas exceedingly sweet wines will bear icing down almost to freezing point, and be rendered more palatable by the process. the above remarks apply to all sorts of sparkling wine. in the champagne, what may be termed a really grand vintage commonly occurs only once, and never more than twice, in ten years. during the same period, however, there will generally be one or two other tolerably good vintages. in grand years the crop, besides being of superior quality, is usually abundant, and as a consequence the price of the raw wine is scarcely higher than usual. apparently from this circumstance the sparkling wine of grand vintages does not command an enhanced value, as is the case with other fine wines. it is only when speculators recklessly outbid each other for the grapes or the _vin brut_, or when stocks are low and the _vin brut_ is really scarce, that the price of champagne appears to rise. that superior quality does not involve enhanced price is proved by the amounts paid for the ay and verzenay crus in years of grand vintages. during the present century these appear to have been , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , and ' --that is, thirteen grand vintages in eighty years. other good vintages, although not equal to the foregoing, occurred in the years , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , ' , and ' . confining ourselves to the grand years, we find that the ay wine of , owing to the crop being plentiful as well as good, only realised from to francs the pièce of gallons, although for two years previously this had fetched them to francs. in the price ranged from to francs, whereas the vastly inferior wine of the year before had commanded from to francs. in , the crop being a small one, the price of the wine rose, and in the pièce fetched as much as from to francs; still this was merely a trifle higher than it had realised the two preceding years. in the price was to francs, and in about the same, whereas the indifferent vintages of , ' , and ' --the latter eventually proved to be of execrable quality--realised from to francs the pièce. it was very similar with the wine of verzenay. in the price of the pièce ranged from to francs, or about the average of the three preceding years. in , the crop being scarce, the price rose considerably; while in , when the crop was plentiful, it fell to francs, or from to per cent below that of the two previous years, when the yield was both inferior and less abundant. in the price rose per cent above that of the year before; still, although verzenay wine of and fetched from to francs the pièce, and that of as much as francs, the greatly inferior vintages of - commanded and francs the pièce. subsequently the price of the wine fell to and francs the pièce, to rise again, however, in to francs, which was followed by a fall the following year to francs. in , when the yield was no more than the quarter of an average one, and the quality was as yet undetermined, the ay and verzenay wines commanded the high price of francs and upwards the pièce. exceptionally high prices were also realised for the wines of the neighbouring localities. consumers of champagne, if wise, would profit by the circumstance that quality has not the effect of causing a rise in prices, and if they were bent upon drinking their favourite wine in perfection, as one meets with it at the dinner-tables of the principal manufacturers, who only put old wine of grand vintages before their guests, they would lay down champagnes of good years in the same way as the choicer vintages of port, burgundy, and bordeaux are laid down. the champagne of was a wine of this description, with all its finer vinous qualities well developed, and consequently needing age to attain not merely the roundness, but the refinement, of flavour pertaining to a high-class sparkling wine. instead of being drunk a few months after it was shipped in the spring and summer of , as was the fate of much of the wine in question, it needed being kept for three years at the very least to become even moderately round and perfect. in the champagne one had many opportunities of tasting the grander vintages that had arrived at ten, twelve, or fifteen years of age, and had thereby attained supreme excellence. it is true their effervescence had moderated materially, but their bouquet and flavour were perfect, and their softness and delicacy something marvellous. a great wine like that of will go on improving for ten years, providing it is only laid down under proper conditions. these are, first, an exceedingly cool but perfectly dry cellar, the temperature of which should be as low as from ° to ° fahr., or even lower if this is practicable. the cellar, too, should be neither over dark nor light, scrupulously clean, and sufficiently well ventilated for the air to be continuously pure. it is requisite that the bottles should rest on their sides, to prevent the corks shrinking, and thus allowing both the carbonic acid and the wine itself to escape. for laying down champagne or any kind of sparkling wine, an iron wine-bin is by far the best; and the patent 'slider' bins made by messrs. w. & j. burrow, of malvern, are better adapted to the purpose than any other. in these the bottles rest on horizontal parallel bars of wrought-iron, securely riveted into strong wrought-iron uprights, both at the back and in front. they are especially adapted for laying down champagne, as they admit of the air circulating freely around the bottles, thus conducing to the preservation of the metal foil round their necks, and keeping the temperature of the wine both cool and equable. from the subjoined table it will be seen that the consumption of champagne has more than quadrupled since the year - , a period of six-and-thirty years. a curious fact to note is the immense increase in the exports of the wine during the three years following the franco-german war, during which contest both the exports and home consumption of champagne naturally fell off very considerably. no reliable information is available as to the actual quantity of champagne consumed yearly in england, but this may be taken in round numbers at about four millions of bottles. the consumption of the wine in the united states varies from rather more than a million and a half to nearly two million bottles annually. official return by the chamber of commerce at reims of the trade in champagne wines from april to april . +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ |years--from| | number of | number of | total | | april |manufacturers'| bottles |bottles sold | number of | | to april. | stocks. | exported. | in france. |bottles sold.| +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | | - | , , | , , | , , | , , | +-----------+--------------+------------+-------------+-------------+ distinguished gourmets are scarcely agreed as to the proper moment when champagne should be introduced at the dinner-table. dyspeptic mr. walker, of 'the original,' laid it down that champagne ought to be introduced very early at the banquet, without any regard whatever to the viands it may chance to accompany. 'give champagne,' he says, 'at the beginning of dinner, as its exhilarating qualities serve to start the guests, after which they will seldom flag. no other wine produces an equal effect in increasing the success of a party--it invariably turns the balance to the favourable side. when champagne goes rightly, nothing can well go wrong.' these precepts are sound enough; still all dinner-parties are not necessarily glacial, and the guests are not invariably mutes. before champagne can be properly introduced at a formal dinner, the conventional glass of sherry or madeira should supplement the soup, a white french or a rhine wine accompany the fish, and a single glass of bordeaux prepare the way with the first _entrée_ for the sparkling wine, which, for the first round or two, should be served briskly and liberally. a wine introduced thus early at the repast should of course be dry, or, at any rate, moderately so. we certainly do not approve of mr. charles dickens's dictum that champagne's proper place is not at the dinner-table, but solely at a ball. 'a cavalier,' he said, 'may appropriately offer at propitious intervals a glass now and then to his danceress. there it takes its fitting rank and position amongst feathers, gauzes, lace, embroidery, ribbons, white-satin shoes, and eau-de-cologne, for champagne is simply one of the elegant extras of life.' this is all very well; still the advantageous effect of sparkling wine at an ordinary british dinner-party, composed as it frequently is of people brought indiscriminately together in accordance with the exigencies of the hostess's visiting-list, cannot be gainsaid. after the preliminary glowering at each other, _more britannico_, in the drawing-room, everybody regards it as a relief to be summoned to the repast, which, however, commences as chillily as the soup and as stolidly as the salmon. the soul of the hostess is heavy with the anxiety of prospective dishes, the brow of the host is clouded with the reflection that our rulers are bent upon adding an extra penny to the income-tax. placed between a young lady just out and a dowager of grimly gorgonesque aspect, you hesitate how to open a conversation. your first attempts are singularly ineffectual, only eliciting a dropping fire of monosyllables. you envy the placidly languid young gentleman opposite, limp as his fast-fading camellia, and seated next to belle breloques, who is certain, in racing parlance, to make the running for him. but even that damsel seems preoccupied with her fan, and, despite her _aplomb_, hesitates to break the icy silence. the two city friends of the host are lost in mute speculation as to the future price of indigo or ionian bank shares, while their wives seem to be mentally summarising the exact cost of each other's toilettes. their daughters, or somebody else's daughters, are desperately jerking out monosyllabic responses to feeble remarks concerning the weather, the theatres, operatic _débutantes_, the people in the row, æstheticism, and kindred topics from a couple of f.o. men. little snapshot, the wit, on the other side of the gorgon, has tried to lead up to a story, but has found himself, as it were, frozen in the bud. when lo! the butler softly sibillates in your ear the magic word 'champagne,' and as it flows, creaming and frothing, into your glass, a change comes over the spirit of your vision. the hostess brightens, the host coruscates. the young lady on your right suddenly develops into a charming girl, with becoming appreciation of your pet topics and an astounding aptness for repartee. the gorgon thaws, and implores mr. snapshot, whose jests are popping as briskly as the corks, not to be so dreadfully funny, or he will positively kill her. belle breloques can always talk, and now her tongue rattles faster then ever, till the languid one arouses himself like a giant refreshed, and gives her as good as he gets. the city men expatiate in cabalistic language on the merits of some mysterious speculation, the prospective returns from which increase with each fresh bottle. one of their wives is discussing church decoration with a hitherto silent curate, and the other is jabbering botany to a red-faced warrior. the juniors are in full swing, and ripples of silvery laughter rise in accompaniment to the beaded bubbles all round the table. gradually, as people drift off from generalities to their own particular line--gastronomy, politics, art, sport, fashion, literature, church matters, theatricals, speculation, scandal, dress, and the like--the scraps of sentences that the ear catches flying about the table present a mosaic somewhat resembling the following: 'forster should have sent him to kilmainham--to see that dear delightful mr. irving in--ten-inch armour-plating, but could not steer in a sea-way, so--sat down in the saddle and rammed his spurs into--petsy prettitoes and half a dozen girls from the cruralia, who were--ordained last week by the bishop of london, when his lordship--said there was no doubt who best deserved the vacant garter, and declared--a dividend of seven per cent for the--comet year with a bouquet--of sunflowers and lilies on satin, which you should--cover with a light crust--of stiff clay, with a rasper on the further side as--the third story of the hotel overlooking--the euphrates valley railway, which would lead to--the loveliest bit of landscape in the academy--with the finest hair in the world, and eyes like--a boiled cod's head and shoulders--cut low at the neck, with a gold shoulder-strap, and--nothing else to speak of before the house except the bill for--her photographs, which are in all the shop-windows, beside mrs. langtry's--who never ought to have allowed bismarck to--assist at the consecration of--the henley course--so the duke started at once for aldershot, and reviewed--the two best novels of the season--cut up with tomatoes and a dash of garlic--and was positive he saw them dining together at richmond on--fourteen brace of birds and five hares in--the loveliest set of embroidered vestments and an altar-cloth worked for--a conservative majority, which will drive the government to--take a couple of stalls at her majesty's to hear _carmen_--who gave him the last galop, but he--blundered at his first fence and fell--to seventy-two and a half, whilst the preference shares were--all ordered on foreign service and--heard nothing from the irish members but--oscar wilde's poems bound in red morocco--with a white-satin train and--plenty of body and a good colour--all through riding every morning in--a private box on the upper tier--and that is why gladstone at once gave orders--for them to be actually shut up together--in the strong room of the bank of england, with a reserve fund of bullion--from the music in the first act of _patience_--equal to that of job when he said--well, only half a glass, then, since you are so pressing.' and all this is due to champagne, that great unloosener not merely of tongues, but, better still, of purse-strings, as is well known to the secretaries of those charitable institutions which set the exhilarating wine flowing earliest at their anniversary dinners. [illustration] [illustration] appendix. the principal champagne and other french sparkling wine brands. [asterism] in this list, whenever a manufacturer has various qualities, the higher qualities are always placed first. the lowest qualities are omitted altogether. champagnes. firms and wholesale brands. qualities. on side of corks. agents. ayala & co., [illustration] extra (dry) extra. /ay/ first (dry) première. ayala & co., & [illustration] second. great tower-street, london runk & unger, park-place, new york binet fils & co., [illustration] dry elite dry elite. /reims/ first first quality. rutherford & browne, water-lane, london bollinger, j., [illustration] very dry extra very dry extra /ay/ quality. l. mentzendorf, dry extra dry extra idol-lane, quality. london e. & j. burke, beaver-street, new york bruch-foucher & co., [illustration] carte d'or. /mareuil/ first. l. ehrmann, great second. tower-street, london clicquot-ponsardin, [illustration] dry england. /vve., reims/ rich " (werle & co.) fenwick, parrot, & co., fenchurch-street, london schmidt bros., new york de cazanove, c., [illustration] vin monarque extra. /avise/ first. j. r. hunter & co., second. fenchurch-street, london deutz & geldermann, [illustration] gold lack gold lack. /ay/ (extra dry j. r. parkington & and dry) co., crutched cabinet (extra cabinet. friars, london dry and dry) duchatel-ohaus, [illustration] carte blanche /reims/ (dry and woellworth & co., rich). mark-lane, verzenay (do.). london sillery (do.). duminy & co., [illustration] extra maison fondée en /ay/ . fickus, courtenay, & [illustration] first " co., st. dunstan's-buildings, st. dunstan's-hill, london anthony oechs, warren-street, new york ernest irroy, [illustration] carte d'or, carte d'or, sec. /reims/ dry cuddeford & smith, carte d'or carte d'or. mark-lane, london f. o. de luze & co., south william-street, new york farre, charles, [illustration] cabinet (grand cabinet (grand /reims/. vin) vin). hornblower & co., [illustration] carte blanche carte blanche. mark-lane, carte noire carte noire. london gilmor & gibson, baltimore mel & sons, san francisco hogg, robinson, & co., melbourne fisse, thirion, & [illustration] cachet d'or cachet d'or. co., /reims/ (extra dry stallard & smith, and medium philpot-lane, dry) london carte blanche carte blanche. (dry, medium dry, and rich) carte noire carte noire. (dry and medium dry) gÉ-dufaut & co., [illustration] vin de réserve. /pierry/ vin de cabinet. l. rosenheim & sons, bouzy, ^{er} union-court, cru. old broad-street, fleur de london sillery. gibert, gustave, [illustration] vin du roi /reims/ (extra dry, cock, russell, & co., dry, or rood-lane, rich). london hays & co., [illustration] extra (extra day-street, dry, dry, new york or rich). giesler & co., [illustration] extra extra. /avize/ superior f. giesler & co., india india. fenchurch-street, first. london purdy & nicholas, [illustration] beaver-street second. new york heidsieck & co., [illustration] dry monopole. /reims/. monopole (rich). theodor satow & co., dry vin fenchurch-street, royal. london grand vin schmidt & peters, royal (rich). beaver-street, new york krug & co., [illustration] carte carte blanche, /reims/ blanche england. inglis & cunningham, private private cuvée, mark-lane, cuvée england. london a. rocherau & co., new york max. sutaine & co., [illustration] creaming sillery /reims/ (extra dry). (veuve morelle & co.) h. schultz, great creaming sillery. tower-st., london knoepfel & co., bouzy (dry). liberty-street, sparkling sillery. new york moËt & chandon, [illustration] brut imperial, england. /epernay/ impérial simon & dale, creaming creaming, " old trinity house, water-lane, extra extra london, agents for superior superior, " gt. britain and extra dry white dry, " the colonies sillery renauld, françois, white dry " " , " & co., sillery beaver-street, first england. new york j. hope & co., [illustration] second. montreal montebello, duc de, [illustration] cuvée extra cuvée extra. /mareuil/ carte reserve. john hopkins & co., blanche crutched friars, london coyle & turner, lower ormond quay, dublin mumm (g. h.) & co., [illustration] vin brut /reims/ extra. w. j. & t. welch, carte carte blanche. corn exchange blanche chambers, extra dry extra dry. seething-lane, extra extra quality. london f. de bary & co., warren-street, new york mumm, jules, & co., [illustration] extra dry. /reims/ dry. j. mumm & co., mark-lane, london pÉrinet & fils, [illustration] cuvée réservée cuvée /reims/ (extra dry) réservée. j. barnett & son, white dry white dry mark-lane, sillery sillery. london wood, pollard, & co., boston, u.s. hooper & donaldson, san francisco perrier-jouËt & co., [illustration] cuvée de réserve extra. /epernay/. pale dry a. boursot & co., creaming. hart-st., first. crutched friars, london pfungst frÈres [illustration] carte d'or carte d'or. & cie., /ay/, (dry, extra /epernay/ dry, & brut). j. l. pfungst & co., sillery crêmant sillery crutched (extra dry and crêmant friars, london brut) carte noire carte noire. (dry, extra dry, and brut) cordon blanc cordon blanc. (full, dry, & extra dry) piper (h.) & co., [illustration] très-sec kunkelmann /reims/ (extra dry) & co. (kunkelmann & co.) sec (very " " newton & rivière, dry) great carte blanche " " tower-street, (rich) london john osborn, son, & co., new york pol roger & co., [illustration] vin réservé. /epernay/ reuss, lauteren & co., crutched friars, london pommery, veuve, [illustration] extra sec veuve pommery. /reims/ (vin brut) (pommery & greno) a. hubinet, mark-lane, london charles graef, [illustration] sec. broad-street, new york roederer, louis, [illustration] carte blanche reims, carte /reims/ blanche, gt. grainger & son, britain. fenchurch-street, london roederer, thÉophile, [illustration] crystal special & co. (maison champagne, cuvée. fondée en ), special cuvée /reims/ extra reserve reserve cuvée. j. ashburner, cuvée biart, & co., carte blanche, carte blanche. fenchurch-street, ex. london carte noire, carte noire. first verzenay verzenay. roper frÈres & co., [illustration] vin brut, vin brut. /rilly-la-montagne/ or natural crutched champagne friars, london first (extra dry) extra dry. do. (medium dry) medium dry. second. crême de bouzy. ruinart, pÈre [illustration] carte anglaise. et fils, dry pale crêmant. /reims/ ex. dry ruinart, père sparkling. et fils, st. carte blanche, swithin's-lane, first. london de saint-marceaux [illustration] vin brut vin brut. & co., /reims/ carte d'or very dry. (c. arnould (extra dry) & heidelberger) bouzy nonpareil vin sec. groves & co., (dry) mark-lane, carte blanche london (medium). hermann bätjer & _for america bro., only_. new york [illustration] dry royal dry. extra dry extra dry. second (medium) saumur and sauternes. _firms and wholesale _brands._ _qualities._ _on side of corks._ agents._ ackerman-laurance, [illustration] carte d'or carte d'or. /st. florent, carte rose carte rose. saumur/ carte bleue carte bleue. j. n. bishop, carte noire carte noire. crutched friars, london d. mcdougall jun. & co., st. george's-place, glasgow duvau, louis, [illustration] carte d'or, /aîné, château ex. sup. de varrains,/ carte d'argent, near /saumur/ ex. jolivet & canney, carte blanche, idol-lane, sup. london carte rose, ord. lorrain, jules, [illustration] carte d'or. /château carte blanche. de la côte, carte rose. varrains/, carte bleue. near /saumur/ j. lorrain, great tower-st., london rousteaux, a., [illustration] extra. /st. florent, saumur/ cock, russell, & co., great tower-street, london i. h. smith's sons, [illustration] first. peck slip, new york normandin (e.) [illustration] sparkling sauternes & co., (extra dry and dry). /châteauneuf-sur-charente/ p. a. maignen, great tower-street, london burgundies. _firms and wholesale _brands._ _qualities._ _on side of corks._ agents._ andrÉ & voillot, [illustration] romanée (white). /beaune/ nuits (do.). cock, russell, volnay (do.). & co., saint-péray. great pink and tower-street, red wines. london p. w. engs & sons, front-street, new york latour, louis, [illustration] romanée (white). /beaune/ nuits (white reuss, lauteren, and red). & co., volnay (do.). crutched saint-péray friars, london (white). chambertin (red). liger-belair, [illustration] carte d'or comte, (white). /nuits & carte vôsne/ verte (do.). fenwick, parrot, carte noire & co., (red and fenchurch-street, white). london carte blanche (red). moËt and chandon's brut impÉrial dry champagne. facsimile of label. [illustration] brand on cork. [illustration] also extra superior white dry sillery and first quality champagnes. champagne. pÉrinet & fils, reims. [illustration: sectional view of a portion of the caves in the rue st. hilaire.] deutz & geldermann's 'gold lack.' ================ morning post. 'a wine for princes and senators. the district of ay has become probably the most celebrated in the ancient province of champagne for its grapes, and among the noted brands of that famed region not one has gained a greater popularity in this country than that of deutz & geldermann. the wine of this well-known firm is invariably met with on every important occasion; and it is noticed that deutz & geldermann's "gold lack" was specially selected for the banquet given by the royal naval club at portsmouth to h.r.h. the prince of wales; and some proof of its excellence may be gathered from the fact that this brand was drunk on a former visit of the prince to the club two years since. deutz & geldermann's "gold lack" was one of the champagnes supplied at the late ministerial whitebait dinner at the trafalgar.' world. 'deutz & geldermann's "gold lack" is now being preferred by many connoisseurs, and we can bear testimony to its excellence of quality.' --------------- deutz & geldermann's 'gold lack' champagne is shipped brut, extra dry, and medium dry; and may be obtained of all wine merchants. --------------- /wholesale agents/: j. r. parkington & co. crutched friars, london, e.c. champagne. deux mÉdailles d'or. [illustration: pro fide fides] ch^{es.} de cazanove, avize (/champagne/). ================ vin monarque. facsimiles of medallion [illustration: ch de cazanove avize marne vin monarque] and label of extra quality. [illustration: pro fide fides ch^{es.} de cazanove avize, (champagne.) _wholesale agents for the united kingdom, j. r. hunter & co., fenchurch street, london._] roper frÈres & co.'s champagne. --------------- first quality, extra dry at /- first quality, medium dry at /- --------------- _for luncheons and wedding breakfasts, regimental messes and ball suppers._ --------------- morning post. 'the great feature of all entertainments, public banquets, &c., is ~champagne~; but the high prices of really good wine naturally deter many a householder of moderate means from indulging in this luxury. /roper frères & co/. are shipping ~a first quality champagne at = s.= per dozen~. at this price, it cannot be denied that the acme of cheapness is arrived at.' --------------- special notice. _all wine merchants can, ~if requested~, supply roper frÈres & co.'s champagne at the above prices; and the public are therefore cautioned not to allow other brands at similar prices to be substituted._ in vols. square vo, price s. in handsome binding, america revisited. _from the bay of new york to the gulf of mexico, and from lake michigan to the pacific._ by george augustus sala, author of 'twice round the clock,' 'paris herself again,' &c. illustrated with nearly engravings, many of them from sketches by the author. --------------- in crown vo, cloth gilt, side-lights on english society; or _sketches from life, social & satirical_. by the late e. c. grenville murray. illustrated with engravings. --------------- in crown vo, price s. elegantly bound, the third edition, revised and enlarged, of the story of the diamond necklace, told in detail for the first time. by henry vizetelly. illustrated with two engravings on steel. --------------- in large crown vo, pages, price s. handsomely bound, the sixth edition of paris herself again. by george augustus sala. with characteristic illustrations. --------------- in crown vo, handsomely printed and bound, price s. the amusing adventures of guzman of alfaraque: _a spanish novel_. translated by edward lowdell. illustrated with highly-finished engravings on steel, from designs by /stahl/. --------------- s. each, in stiffened covers; or s. d. tastefully bound in cloth; two volumes bound in one, s. popular french novels. --------------- 'novel-readers owe the publishers a deep debt of gratitude for providing an entirely new and harmless source of literary enjoyment--a fountain flowing with the milk and honey of culture, sparkling with wit and humour, having the flavour of real life and the colour of romance.'--_illustrated london news._ --------------- /fromont the younger and risler the elder./ by a. daudet. /samuel brohl and partner./ by v. cherbuliez. /drama of the rue de la paix./ by a. belot. /maugars junior./ by a. theuriet. /wayward dosia, and the generous diplomatist./ by h. gréville. /a new lease of life, and saving a daughter's dowry./ by e. about. /colomba, and carmen./ by p. mérimée. /a woman's diary, and the little countess./ by o. feuillet. /the tower of percemont./ by george sand. /blue-eyed meta holdenis./ by v. cherbuliez. /the godson of a marquis./ by a. theuriet. /the low-born lover's revenge./ by v. cherbuliez. /the notary's nose, and other stories./ by e. about. /dr. claude/; or love rendered desperate. by hector malot. vols. /the three red knights./ by paul féval. &c. &c. &c. --------------- the sensational novels of emile gaboriau, _the favourite reading of prince bismarck_. price s. each, in ornamental covers. in peril of his life. the lerouge case. lecoq the detective. vols. other people's money. dossier no. . the mystery of orcival. other volumes are in progress. --------------- _london: vizetelly & co., catherine street, strand._ mr. henry vizetelly's popular books on wine. =============== 'mr. vizetelly discourses brightly and discriminatingly on crus and bouquets and the different european vineyards, most of which he has evidently visited.'--_times_. 'mr. henry vizetelly's books about different wines have an importance and a value far greater than will be assigned them by those who look merely at the price at which they are published.'--_sunday times_. --------------- price s. d. ornamental cover; or s. d. in elegant cloth binding, facts about port and madeira, with notes on the wines vintaged around lisbon, and the wines of teneriffe, gleaned during a tour in the autumn of . by henry vizetelly, /wine juror for great britain at the vienna and paris exhibitions of and /. _with one hundred illustrations from original sketches and photographs._ --------------- also by the same author, price s. d. ornamental cover; or s. d. in elegant cloth binding, facts about champagne, and other sparkling wines, collected during numerous visits to the champagne and other viticultural districts of france, and the principal remaining wine-producing countries of europe. _with one hundred and twelve engravings from original sketches and photographs._ --------------- price s. ornamental cover; or s. d. cloth gilt, facts about sherry, gleaned in the vineyards and bodegas of the jerez, seville, moguer, and montilla districts. _illustrated with numerous engravings from original sketches._ --------------- price s. ornamental cover; or s. d. cloth gilt, the wines of the world, characterised and classed; /with some particulars respecting the beers of europe/. --------------- _london: vizetelly & co., catherine street, strand._ footnotes: [footnote : diodorus.] [footnote : idem.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : this arch is said to have been called after the god of war from the circumstance of a temple dedicated to mars being in the immediate neighbourhood. the sculptures still remaining under the arcades have reference to the months of the year, to romulus and remus, and to jupiter and leda. reims formerly abounded with monuments of the roman domination. according to m. brunette, an architect of the city, who made its roman remains his especial study, a vast and magnificent palace formerly stood nigh the spot now known as the trois piliers; while on the right of the road leading to the town were the arenas, together with a temple, among the ruins of which various sculptures, vases, and medals were found, and almost immediately opposite, on the site of the present cemetery, an immense theatre, circus, and xystos for athletic exercises. then came a vast circular space, in the centre of which arose a grand triumphal arch giving entrance into the city. the road led straight to the forum,--the place des marchés of to-day,--and along it were a basilica, a market, and an exedra, now replaced by the hôtel de ville. the forum, bordered by monumental buildings, was of gigantic proportions, extending on the one side from half way down the rue colbert to the place royale, and on the other from near the marché à la laine, parallel with the rue de vesle, up to the middle of the rue des elus, where it terminated in a vast amphitheatre used for public competitions. other buildings of less importance were situated here and there: the thermæ along the rue du cloître; a palace or a temple on the site of the archiepiscopal palace; another temple at the extremity of the rue vauthier le noir, in the ruins of which a bas-relief and some small antique statues were discovered; a third temple in the rue du couchant, in which a votive altar was found. four triumphal arches were erected at the four gates of the town: one dedicated to mars; another to ceres, on the same site as the gate of to-day; a third to bacchus, in the present rue de l'université, in front of the lycée; and the fourth to venus, in the rue de vesle. outside the walls, following the rue du barbâtre, the road was dotted with numerous graves according to the roman custom; while on the site of the church of st. remi there arose a temple and a palace, and on that of st. nicaise a vast edifice which m. brunette supposed to be the palace of the consul jovinus.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : gibbon's _decline and fall of the roman empire_.] [footnote : gibbon's _decline and fall of the roman empire_.] [footnote : according to this document, published in marlot's _histoire de reims_, he leaves to bishop lupus the vineyard cultivated by the vine-dresser enias; to his nephew agricola, the vineyard planted by mellaricus at laon, and also the one cultivated by bebrimodus; to his nephew agathimerus, a vineyard he had himself planted at vindonisæ, and kept up by the labour of his own episcopal hands; to hilaire the deaconess, the vines adjoining her own vineyard, cultivated by catusio, and also those at talpusciaco; and to the priests and deacons of reims, his vineyard in the suburbs of that city, and the vine-dresser melanius who cultivated it. the will is also noteworthy for its mention of a locality destined to attain a high celebrity in connection with the wine of champagne, namely, the town of sparnacus or epernay, which a lord named eulogius, condemned to death for high treason in and saved at the bishop's intercession, had bestowed upon his benefactor, and which the latter left in turn to the church of reims. to this church he also left estates in the vosges and beyond the rhine, on condition of furnishing pitch every year to the religious houses founded by himself or his predecessors to mend their wine-vessels, a trace of the old roman custom of pitching vessels used for storing wine.] [footnote : marlot's _histoire de reims_.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : bertin du rocheret's _mélanges_.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : 'bien met l'argent qui en bon vin l'emploie.' _poems of colin musset_, to .] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : j. gondry du jardinet's _agréable visite aux grands crûs de france_.] [footnote : 'chanter me fait bon vin et rejouir.'] [footnote : 'le vin en tonel, froit et fort et finandel, pour boivre à la grant chaleur.'] [footnote : legrand d'aussy's _vie privée des français_.] [footnote : 'espernai dist et auviler, argenteuil, trop veus aviler très-tos les vins de ceste table. par dieu, trop t'es fait conestable. nous passons chaalons et reims, nous ostons la goûte des reins, nous estaignons totes les rois.' ] [footnote : 'espernai, trop es desloiaus; tu n'as droit de parler en cour.' ] [footnote : the 'vin d'ausois,' or 'vin d'aussai' (for it is spelt both ways in the poem), is not, as might be supposed, the wine of auxois, an ancient district of burgundy now comprised in the arrondissements of sémur (côte d'or) and avallon (yonne), and still enjoying a reputation for its viticultural products. mm. j. b. b. de roquefort and gigault de la bedollière, in their notes on henri d'andelys' poem, have clearly identified it with the wine of alsace, that province having been known under the names in question during the middle ages. this explains its connection in the present instance with the moselle.] [footnote : an incidental proof that the english taste for strong wine was an early one. as late as the close of the sixteenth century the bordeaux wines are described in the _maison rustique_ as 'thick, black, and strong.'] [footnote : probably either aquila in the abruzzi, or aquiliea near friuli.] [footnote : the 'rouage' was a duty of sous on each cart and sous on each wagon laden with wine purchased by foreign merchants and taken out of the town. it was only one of many dues.] [footnote : the old livre was about equal to the present franc; the sol was the twentieth part of a livre; and the denier the twelfth part of a sol, or about / _d._ english.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : the beaune cost livres the tun of two queues; the st. pourçain, a wine of the bourbonnais, very highly esteemed in the middle ages, livres the queue; and the wine of the district, white and red, to livres the queue of two poinçons. a poinçon, or demi-queue, of reims was about old english, or imperial, gallons; while the demi-queue of burgundy was over imperial gallons.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : a few examples of the retail price of wine throughout the century at reims may here be noted. for instance, a judgment of provided that all tavern-keepers selling wine at a higher rate than six deniers, or about a farthing per lot, the rate fixed by ancient custom, were to pay a fine of twenty-two sous. the lot or pot, for the two terms are indifferently used, was about the third of an old english gallon, four pots making a septier, and thirty-six septiers a poinçon or demi-queue, equal to about forty-eight gallons. the queue was therefore about ninety-six gallons at reims, but at epernay not more than eighty-five gallons. not only had every district its separate measures,--those of paris, for instance, differing widely from those of reims,--but there were actually different measures used in the various lay and ecclesiastical jurisdictions into which reims was divided. in the accounts of the echevinage, wine, chiefly for presents to persons of distinction, makes a continual appearance. in it is noted that 'the presents of this year were made in wine at deniers and deniers the pot,' or about - / _d._ english per gallon. in - prices ranged from / _d._ to - / _d._ english per gallon, showing a variety in quality; and in large quantities were purchased at the first-mentioned rate, five quarts of white wine fetching _d._ english. in from a _d._ to - / _d._ was paid per gallon, and five crowns for two queues. in the citizens, a hot-headed turbulent lot, who were always squabbling with their spiritual and temporal superior and assailing his officers, when not assaulting each other or pulling their neighbours' houses down, successfully resisted the pretensions of the archbishop to regulate the price of wine when the cheapest was worth deniers per pot, or - / _d._ per gallon. the dispute continued, and in a royal commission was issued to the bailli of vermandois, the king's representative, to inquire into the right of the burghers to sell wine by retail at deniers, as they desired. the report of the bailli was that a queue of old french wine being worth about livres, or _s._ _d._, and wine of beaune and other better and stronger wines being sold in the town at higher rates, french wine might be sold as high as - / d. english per gallon, and beaune at - / _d._ the great increase in production, and consequent fall in price, is shown by the wine found in archbishop richard pique's cellar in being valued, on an average, at only _s._ _d._ per queue.] [footnote : froissart's _chronicles_.] [footnote : idem.] [footnote : idem.] [footnote : what with one kind of assessment being adopted for wine sold wholesale and another for that disposed of by retail, with one class of dues being levied on wine for export and another on that for home consumption, and with the fact of certain duties being in some cases payable by the buyer and in others by the seller, any attempt to summarise this section of the story of the wines of reims would be impossible. the difficulty is increased when it is remembered that in the middle ages reims was divided into districts, under the separate jurisdictions of the eschevins, the archbishop, the chapter of the cathedral, the abbeys of st. remi and st. nicaise, and the priory of st. maurice, in several of which widely varying measures were employed down to the sixteenth century, and between which there were continual squabbles as to the rights of vinage, rouage, tonnieu, &c.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : froissart's _chronicles_.] [footnote : baron taylor's _reims; la ville de sacres_.] [footnote : amongst the better known are chamery, where the archbishop had a house, vineyard, and garden, let for _s._ per annum, about five _jours_ of vineyard and two _jours_ of very good vineland; mareuil, whence he drew ten hogsheads of wine annually; rilly, verzenay, sillery, attigny, &c. the _jour_ cost from to livres per annum for cultivation, and the stakes for the vines sols, or _d._, a hundred.] [footnote : the chapter of the cathedral, the church of notre dame, the abbeys of st. remi and st. nicaise, had vineyards or 'droits de vin' at hermonville, rounay les reims, montigny, serzy, villers aleran, maineux devant reims, mersy, sapiecourt, sacy en la montagne, flory en la montagne, prouilly, germigny, saulx, bremont, merfaud, trois pins, joucheri sur vesle, villers aux neux, &c.; the last named also possessing a piece of 'vingne gonesse' at 'a place called mont valoys in the territory of reims.'] [footnote : at his château at the porte mars were forty-four queues of red and white wine, nineteen of new red and white wine, and four of old wine, valued, on an average, at sols or _s._ _d._ the queue; at courville there were fifty queues of new wine (valued at sols the queue), twenty of old wine (worth nothing), and four 'cuves' for wine-making; and at viellarcy, eighteen tuns of new wine, valued at sols or _s._ _d._ per tun. to take charge of all these, jehan le breton, the defunct prelate's assistant butler, was retained by the executors for half a year, at the wages of sols or _s._ _d._ at the funeral feast there were consumed three queues of the best wine in the cellars, valued at _s._ - / _d._ per queue, three others at _s._ _d._, and five pots of beaune at - / _d._ english per pot, showing it to have been four times as valuable as native growths.] [footnote : 'en picardie sont li bourdeur, et en champagne li buveur.... telz n'a vaillant un angevin qui chascun jor viant boire vin.' ] [footnote : 'champagne est la forme de tout bien de blé, de vin, de foin, et de litière.' ] [footnote : mss. de rogier, max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_, &c.] [footnote : this wine, no doubt, came from a considerable distance round, for we find p. de la place, a mercer of reims, seeking in to recover the value of five queues and two poinçons 'of wine from the cru of the town of espernay, on the river of esparnay,' delivered at reims to j. crohin of hainault, the origin of the same being certified by s. de laval, a sworn wine-broker, 'who knows and understands the wines of the country around reims.'] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_. the hôtel de la maison rouge occupies to-day the site of the old hostelry at which the parents of jeanne darc were housed.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : the cost of the wine thus presented seems to have averaged from - / _d._ to _d._ per gallon. in a queue of old wine was valued at no less than _s._] [footnote : the twelve peers of france first appear at the coronation of philip augustus. there were six lay peers and six ecclesiastical peers: duke of burgundy. " normandy. " guienne or aquitaine. count of toulouse. " flanders. " champagne. archbishop duke of reims. bishop duke of laon. " " langres. bishop count of beauvais. " " chalons. " " noyon. as the titles of the lay peers grew extinct, and their fiefs lapsed to the crown, it became customary for them to be represented by some great nobles at the coronations of the kings of france.] [footnote : the following is the full text of this singular sentence. the injunction at the end, respecting the payment of tithes without fraud, shows that even in a matter like this the church did not lose sight of its own interests. 'in the name of the lord, amen. having seen the prayer or petition on behalf of the inhabitants of villenauxe, of the diocese of troyes, made before us, official of troyes, sitting in judgment upon the _bruhecs_ or _éruches_, or other similar animals, which, according to the evidence of persons worthy of belief and as confirmed by public rumour, have ravaged for a certain number of years, and this year also, the fruit of the vines of this locality, to the great loss of those who inhabit it and of the persons of the neighbourhood,--petition that we warn the above-named animals, and that, using the means at the church's disposition, we force them to retire from the territory of the said place. having seen and attentively examined the motives of the prayer or petition above mentioned, and also the answers and allegations furnished in favour of the said _éruches_ or other animals by the councillors chosen by us for that purpose; having heard also on the whole our promoter, and seeing the particular report, furnished at our command by a notary of the said court of troyes, on the damage caused by the said animals amongst the vines of the locality of villenauxe already named; though it would seem that to such damage one can bring no remedy except through the aid of god; however, taking into consideration the humble, frequent, and pressing complaint of the above-mentioned inhabitants; having regard, especially, to the ardour with which, to efface their past great faults, they lately gave, at our invitation, the edifying spectacle of solemn prayers; considering that, as the mercy of god does not drive away the sinners who return to him with humility, neither should his church refuse, to those who run to her, succour or consolation,--we, the official above named, no matter how novel the case may be, yielding to the earnestness of these prayers, following in the footsteps of our predecessors presiding at our tribunal, having god before our eyes and full of belief in his mercy and love, after having taken counsel in the proper quarter, we deliver sentence in the following terms: 'in the name and in virtue of the omnipotence of god, of the father, the son, and the holy ghost; of the blessed mary, mother of our lord jesus christ; of the authority of the holy apostles peter and paul; and of that with which we ourselves are invested in this affair, we charge by this act the above-named animals--_bruches_, _éruches_, or of any other name by which they may be called--to retire (under penalty of malediction and anathema, within the six days which follow this warning and in accordance with our sentence) from the vines and from the said locality of villenauxe, and never more to cause, in time to come, any damage, either in this spot or in any other part of the diocese of troyes; that if, the six days passed, the said animals have not fully obeyed our command, the seventh day, in virtue of the power and authority above mentioned, we pronounce against them by this writing anathema and malediction! ordering, however, and formally directing the said inhabitants of villenauxe, no matter of what rank, class, or condition they may be, so as to merit the better from god, all-powerful dispensator of all good and deliverer from all evil, to be released from such a great plague; ordering and directing them to deliver themselves up in concert to good works and pious prayers; to pay, moreover, the tithe without fraud and according to the custom recognised in the locality; and to abstain with care from blaspheming and all other sins, especially from public scandals.--signed, /n. hupperoye/, secretary.'] [footnote : it has been asserted that the champagne, and notably the town of troyes, enjoyed the dubious honour of furnishing fools to the court of france. there is certainly a letter of charles v. to the notables of troyes, asking them, 'according to custom,' for a fool to replace one named grand jehan de troyes, whom he had had buried in the church of st. germain l'auxerrois, and who has been immortalised by rabelais. but brusquet was a provençal; triboulet, his predecessor, immortalised by victor hugo in the 'roi s'amuse,' a native of blois; chicot the jester, the fool of henry iii., and the favourite hero of dumas, a gascon; and guillaume, his successor, a norman.] [footnote : the wine of reims provided at the coronation of francis ii., in , cost from _s._ _d._ to _s._ _d._ per queue of ninety-six gallons, and the burgundy _s._ _d._ per queue, which, allowing for the cost of transport, would put them about on an equality. at the coronation of charles ix., in , reims wine cost from _s._ _d._ to _s._ _ d._; and at that of henry iii., in , from _s._ to _s._ _d._ per queue,--a sufficient proof of the rapidly-increasing estimation in which the wine was held.] [footnote : paulmier's treatise _de vino et pomaceo_ (paris, ).] [footnote : jehan pussot's _mémorial du temps_.] [footnote : ibid. many details respecting the yield of the vines and vineyards of the mountain and the river are preserved in this _mémorial_, which extends from to , and the author of which was a celebrated builder of reims. during the last thirty years of the century the vines seem to have suffered greatly from frost and wet. sometimes the wine was so bad that it was sold, as towards the end of , at _s._ _d._ the queue; at others it was so scarce that it rose, as at the vintage of , to _s._ _d._ the queue. at the vintage of the grapes froze on the vines, and were carried to the press in sacks. at the commencement of the vintage the new wine fetched from _s._ to _s._ the queue, but it turned out so bad that by christmas it was sold at _s._ _d._] [footnote : _maison rustique_ ( ).] [footnote : jehan pussot's _mémorial du temps_.] [footnote : during the first twenty-five years of the century pussot shows the new wine to have averaged from about _s._ to _s._ the queue, according to quality. in and it was as low as _s._, and in fetched from merely _s._ to _s._ on the other hand, in , it fetched from _s._ to _s._, and in from _s._ to _s._] [footnote : feillet's _la misère aux temps de la fronde_.] [footnote : dom guillaume marlot's _histoire de reims_.] [footnote : pluche's _spectacle de la nature_.] [footnote : st. simon's _mémoires_.] [footnote : _mémoire sur la manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en champagne._] [footnote : lavardin, bishop of le mans, and himself a great _gourmet_, was one day at dinner with st. evremond, and began to rally the latter on the delicacy of himself and his friends the marquis de bois dauphin and the comte d'olonne. 'these gentlemen,' said the prelate, 'in seeking refinement in everything carry it to extremes. they can only eat normandy veal; their partridges must come from auvergne, and their rabbits from la roche guyon, or from versin; they are not less particular as to fruit; and as to wine, they can only drink that of the good _coteaux_ of ay, hautvillers, and avenay.' st. evremond having repeated the story, he, the marquis, and the count were nicknamed 'the three coteaux.' hence boileau, in one of his satires, describes an epicurean guest as 'profès dans l'ordre des coteaux.'] [footnote : st. evremond's works (london, ).] [footnote : _l'art de bien traiter ... mis en lumière_, par l. s. r. (paris, ).] [footnote : brossette's notes to boileau's works ( ). bertin du rocheret, in correcting this error in the _mercure_ of january , points out that neither the family of colbert nor that of le tellier ever owned a single vinestock of the river, and that their holdings on the mountain were very insignificant.] [footnote : 'il n'est cité que je préfère à reims, c'est l'ornement et l'honneur de la france; car sans conter l'ampoule et les bons vins, charmants objets y sont en abondance.' _les rémois._ ] [footnote : 'sur quelle vigne à reims nous avons hypothèque; vingt muids, rangés chez moi, font ma bibliothèque.' _le lutrin_, chant iv. .] [footnote : st. simon's _mémoires_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_, .] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : _Æneid_, i. .] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : --------'petars de chaalons, qui le ventre enfle et les talons.' ] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_, .] [footnote : _de naturali vinorum historiâ._ rome, .] [footnote : _l'art de bien traiter_, &c.] [footnote : _maison rustique_, .] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : pluche's _spectacle de la nature_.] [footnote : idem and _maison rustique_, . m. louis perrier, in his _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_, says that the ay wines yield but little _mousse_.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : st. evremond's letter to the comte d'olonne, already noticed. in another epistle to lord galloway, dated th august , he observes: 'as to m. de puisieux (roger brulart, marquis de puisieux et de sillery and governor of epernay), in my opinion he acts very wisely in falling in with the bad taste now in fashion as regards champagne wine, in order the better to sell his own. i could never have thought that the wines of reims could have been changed into wines of anjou, from their colour and their harshness (_verdeur_). there ought to be a harshness (_vert_) in the wine of reims, but a harshness with a colour, which turns into a sprightly tartness (_sêve_) when it is ripe; ... and it is not to be drunk till the end of july.... the wines of sillery and roncières used to be kept two years, and they were admirable, but for the first four months they were nothing but verjuice. let m. de puisieux make a little barrel (_cuve_) after the fashion in which it was made forty years ago, before this depravity of taste, and send it to you.' st. evremond's works, english edition of .] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : dom guillaume harlot's _histoire de reims_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : letter of dom grossart to m. dherbès of ay. the measurement of the arpent varied from an acre to an acre and a half.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : pluche's _spectacle de la nature_.] [footnote : letter of dom grossart to m. dherbès of ay.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : bertall's _la vigne_. paris, .] [footnote : _mémoire sur la manière de cultiver la vigne et de faire le vin en champagne._ this work is believed to have been written by jean godinot, a canon of reims, born in . godinot was at the same time a conscientious churchman, a skilled viticulturist, and a clever merchant, who enriched himself by disposing of the wine from his vineyards at bouzy, taissy, and verzenay, and distributed his gains amongst the poor. he died in , after publishing an enlarged edition of the _mémoire_ in , in which the phrase 'for the last three years' becomes 'the last seven or eight years.' godinot's friend pluche used the _mémoire_ as the basis for the section 'wine' in his _spectacle de la nature_.] [footnote : letter of dom grossart to m. dherbès of ay.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : letter of m. le pescheur, .] [footnote : pluche's _spectacle de la nature_.] [footnote : in brossette's notes to his edition of boileau's works of .] [footnote : the inscription above given is an exact transcript from the black-marble slab, and any errors in orthography are due either to the original author or to the mason who incised it.] [footnote : the following account of dom perignon and his discoveries is contained in a letter dated th october , and addressed from montier-en-der, haute marne, to m. dherbès of ay, by dom grossart, the last procureur of the abbey of hautvillers. dom grossart, who had fled from france during the troublous times of the revolution, was at the date of the letter in his seventy-fourth year. 'you know, sir, that it was the famous dom perignon, who was procureur of hautvillers for forty-seven years, and who died in , who discovered the secret of making sparkling and non-sparkling white wine, and the means of clearing it without being obliged to _dépoter_ the bottles, as is done by our great wine-merchants rather twice than once, and by us never. before his time one only knew how to make straw-coloured or gray wine. in bottling wine, instead of corks of cork-wood, only tow was made use of, and this species of stopper was saturated with oil. it was in the marriage of our wines that their goodness consisted; and this dom perignon towards the end of his days became blind. he had instructed in his secret of fining the wines (_de coller les vins_) a certain brother philip, who was for fifty years at the head of the wines of hautvillers, and who was held in such consideration by m. le tellier, archbishop of reims, that when this brother went to reims he made him come and sit at table with him. when the vintage drew near, he (dom perignon) said to this brother, "go and bring me some grapes from the prières, the côtes-à-bras, the barillets, the quartiers, the clos sainte hélène," &c. without being told from which vineyard these grapes came, he mentioned it, and added, "the wine of such a vineyard must be married with that of such another," and never made a mistake. to this brother philip succeeded a brother andré lemaire, who was for nearly forty years at the head of the cellars of hautvillers, that is to say, until the revolution.... this brother being very ill, and believing himself on the point of death, confided to me the secret of clarifying the wines, for neither prior nor procureur nor monk ever knew it. i declare to you, sir, that we never did put sugar in our wines; you can attest this when you find yourself in company where it is spoken of. monsieur moët, who has become one of the _gros bonnets_ of champagne since , when i used to sell him plenty of little baskets, will not tell you that i put sugar in our wines. i make use of it at present upon some white wines which are vintaged in certain _crûs_ of our wine district. this may have led to the error. 'as it costs much to _dépoter_, i am greatly surprised that no wine-merchant has as yet taken steps to learn the secret of clearing the wine without having to _dépoter_ the bottles when once the wine has been put into them.'] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : _mémoire_ of .] [footnote : ibid. pluche, in his _spectacle de la nature_, , also says: 'if the wine be drawn off towards the end of march, when the sap begins to rise in the vine, it will froth to such a degree as to whiten like milk, to the very bottom of the glass, the moment it is poured out. wine will sometimes acquire this quality if it be drawn off during the ascent of the sap in august, which makes it evident that the froth is occasioned by the operation of the air and sap, which then act with vigour in the wood of the vine, and likewise in the liquor it produced. this violent ebulition, which is so agreeable to some persons, is thought by connoisseurs to be inconsistent with the goodness of the wine, since the greenest may be made to whiten into a froth, and the most perfect wines seldom discover this quality.' in an article in the _journal de verdun_ of november , the following passage occurs: 'a wine merchant of anjou having written some time back to a celebrated magistrate in champagne, bertin du rocheret, begging him to forward the secret of making _vin mousseux_ during the vintage, the magistrate answered, "that _vin mousseux_ was not made during the vintage; that there was no special soil for it; that the anjou wines were suitable, since poor wine froths as well as the most excellent, frothing being a property of thin poor wine. that to make wine froth, it was necessary to draw it off as clear as could be done from the lees, if it had not been already racked; to bottle it on a fine clear day in january or february, or in march at the latest; three or four months afterwards the wine will be found effervescent, especially if it has some tartness and a little strength. when the wine works (like the vine) your wine will effervesce more than usual; a taste of vintage and of fermentation will be found in it." the excellent wines of ay and our good champagne wines do not froth, or very slightly; they content themselves with sparkling in the glass.'] [footnote : st. simon's _mémoires_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : _mémoire_ of .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : antony réal's _ce qu'il y a dans une bouteille de vin_.] [footnote : legrand d'aussy's _vie privée des français_.] [footnote : 'là le nombre et l'éclat de cent verres bien nets répare par les yeux la disette des mets; et la mousse petillante d'un vin délicat et frais d'une fortune brillante cache à mon souvenir les fragiles attraits.' ] [footnote : 'quant à la muse de st. maur que moins de douceur accompagne. il lui faut du vin de champagne pour lui faire prendre l'essor.' ] [footnote : 'alors, grand' merveille, sera de voir flûter vin de champagne.' ] [footnote : 'sur ce rivage emaillé, où neuillé borde la seine, reviens au vin d'hautvillé mêler les eaux d'hypocrène.' ] [footnote : 'phébus adonc va se désabuser de son amour pour la docte fontaine, et connoîtra que pour bon vers puiser vin champenois vaut mieux qu'eau d'hippocrène.' ] [footnote : the father, adam bertin du rocheret, was born in , and died in ; his son, philippe valentin, the _lieutenant criminel_ at epernay, was born in , and died in . both owned vineyards at epernay, ay, and pierry, and were engaged in the wine-trade, and both left a voluminous mass of correspondence, &c., extracts from which have been given by m. louis perrier in his _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_. the marshal was an old customer. at the foot of a letter of his of the th december , asking for 'two quartaux of the most excellent vin de champagne, and a pièce of good for ordinary drinking,' bertin has written, 'i will send you, as soon as the river, which is strongly flooded, becomes navigable, the wine you ask for, and you will be pleased with it; but as the best new wine is not of a quality to be drunk in all its goodness by the spring, i should think that fifty flasks of old wine, the most exquisite in the kingdom that i can furnish you with, together with fifty other good ones, will suit you instead of one of the two caques.'] [footnote : _tocane_ was a light wine obtained, like the best tokay, from the juice allowed to drain from grapes slightly trodden, but not pressed. it had a flavour of _verdeur_, which was regarded as one of its chief merits, and would not keep more than six months. though at one time very popular, and largely produced in champagne, it is now no longer made. the wine of ay enjoyed a high reputation as _tocane_.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : letter of dom grossart.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : ample details of the systems of viticulture and wine-making pursued in the champagne at the commencement of the eighteenth century are to be found in the anonymous _mémoire_ published in . these are reproduced to a great extent in the _spectacle de la nature_ of noel antoine pluche, a native of reims, who composed this work (published in ) for the benefit of the son of lord stafford, to whom he was tutor. the abbé pluche, after being professor of humanity and rhetoric at the university of reims, was about to enter into holy orders, but being denounced as an opponent of the bull unigenitus, abandoned all ideas of preferment, and devoted himself to private tuition and the composition of his great work, the _spectacle de la nature_. this last is a perfect encyclopædia, in the form of a series of dialogues, recalling those in mrs. barbauld's _evenings at home_, the interlocutors being the count, the countess, the chevalier, and the prior; and the style may be best judged from the following extracts from the contemporary translation of mr. samuel humphries. in dialogue xiii. on 'vines,' the count remarks that, after studying the methods of viticulture followed in different provinces, he 'could not discover any to be ranked in competition with those precautions that have been taken by the inhabitants of champaign' in the production of their wine. by 'a long course of experience' they had 'acquired the proper method of tinging it with the complexion of a cherry, or the eye of a partridge. they could likewise brighten it into the whitest hue, or deepen it into a perfect red.' in the succeeding dialogue on 'wines,' the count states that 'vines vary in their qualities. some are planted in a very light and strong soil, and they yield a bright and fragrant wine; others are placed in a more nourishing tract of land, and they produce a wine of a greater body. the reasonable combination of these different fruits will produce an exquisite liquor, that will have all the advantages of a sufficient body, a delicacy of flavour, a fragrancy of scent, and a liveliness of colour, and which may be kept for several years without the least alteration. it was the knowledge of those effects that result from intermixing the grapes of three or four vines of different qualities, which improved the celebrated wines of sillery, ai, and hautvillers to the perfection they have now acquired. father parignon, a benedictine of hautvillers on the marne, was the first who made any successful attempt to intermix the grapes of the different vines in this manner, and the wine of perignon d'hautvillers bore the greatest estimation amongst us till the practise of this method became more extensive.' the count notes that white wines from white grapes being deficient in strength, and apt to grow yellow and degenerate before the next return of summer, had gone out of repute, except for some medicinal prescriptions, whilst 'the grey wine, which has so bright an eye and resembles the complexion of crystal, is produced by the blackest grapes.' 'the wine of a black grape may be tinged with any colour we think proper; those who desire to have it perfectly white have recourse to the following method. the people employed in the vintage begin their labours at an early hour in the morning; and when they have selected the finest grapes, they lay them gently in their baskets, in order to be carried out of the vineyard; or they place them in large panniers, without pressing them in the least or wiping off the dewy moisture or the azure dye that covers them. dews and exhaling mists greatly contribute to the whiteness of the wine. 'tis customary to cover the baskets with wet cloths in a hot sunshine, because the liquor will be apt to assume a red tincture if the grapes should happen to be heated. these baskets are then placed on the backs of such animals as are of a gentle nature, and carry their burdens with an easy motion to the cellar, where the grapes continue covered in a cool air. when the warmth of the sun proves moderate, the labours of the vintage are not discontinued till eleven in the morning; but a glowing heat makes it necessary for them to cease at nine.' yet even these precautions were liable to fail, since 'the heat of the sun and the shocks of the carriages are sometimes so violent, and produce such strong effects upon the exterior coat of the grapes, that the fluids contained in that coat, and which are then in motion, mix themselves with the juice of the pulp at the first pressing; in consequence of which, the extraction of a wine perfectly white is rendered impracticable, and its colour will resemble the eye of a partridge, or perhaps some deeper hue. the quality of the wine is still the same; but it must be either entirely white or red, in order to prove agreeable to the taste and mode which now prevail.' the count describes the two pressings and five cuttings, the latter term derived from the squaring of the mass of grapes with the cutting peel, and the system of 'glewing' this wine, 'the weight of an _ecu d'or_' of 'fish glew, which the dutch import amongst us from archangel,' being added to each _pièce_, with the addition sometimes of a pint of spirits of wine or brandy. he then explains the method practised of drawing off the wine without disturbing the barrels, by the aid of a tube and a gigantic pair of bellows. the vessels were connected by the former, and the wine then driven from one to the other by the pressure of air pumped in by means of the latter. a sulphur-match was burnt in the empty vessels, so that it might 'receive a steam of spirits capable of promoting the natural fire and bright complexion of the liquor.' noting that the wines should be again 'glewed' eight days before they are bottled, pluche says: 'the month of march is the usual season for glewing the most tender wines, such as those of ai, epernai, hautvilliers, and pieri, whose chief consumption is in france; but this operation should not be performed on such strong wines as those of sillery, verzenai, and other mountain wines of reims, till they are twelve months old, at which time they are capable of supporting themselves for several years. when these wines are bottled off before they have exhaled their impetuous particles, they burst a number of bottles, and are less perfect in their qualities. the proper method of bottling wine consists in leaving the space of a finger's breadth between the cork and the liquor, and in binding the cork down with packthread; it will also be proper to seal the mouths of the bottles with wax, to prevent mistakes and impositions. the bottles should likewise be reclined on one side, because if they are placed in an upright position, the corks will grow dry in a few months for want of moisture, and shrink from their first dimensions. in consequence of which a passage will be opened to the external air, which will then impart an acidity to the wine, and form a white flower on the surface, which will be an evidence of its corruption.' the _mémoire_ of also points out the necessity of leaving a space between the cork and the wine, saying that without this, when the wine began to work at the different seasons of the year, it would break a large number of bottles; and that even despite this precaution large numbers are broken, especially when the wine is a little green. the ordinary bottles for champagne, styled _flacons_, or flasks, held 'a _pinte de paris_, less half a glass,' and cost from to francs the hundred; and as wood abounded in the province, several glass-works were established there for their manufacture. as the bottling of the wine, especially in the early years, was mostly to order, many customers had their flasks stamped with their arms, at a cost of about per cent more. the corks--'solid, even, and not worm-eaten'--cost from to sols per hundred. wire was as yet quite unknown. the cost of bottling a poinçon of wine in was: for bottles, livres; corks, livres; baskets and packing, livres; bottling, string, and sealing, livres; total, livres, or say shillings. it would appear from the _mémoire_ that the pernicious practice of icing still champagne, already noticed, continued in vogue as regards sparkling wine. the wine was recommended to be taken out of the cellar half an hour before it was intended it should be drunk, and put into a bucket of water with two or three pounds of ice. the bottle had to be previously uncorked, and the cork lightly replaced, otherwise it was believed there was danger of the bottle breaking. a short half an hour in the ice was said to bring out the goodness of the wine. bertin du rocheret counselled the use of ice to develop the real merits of a vinous wine of ay.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : _mémoires_ of and .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : _mémoire_ of . the perils to which it was exposed during this transit are pointed at in a letter to the elder bertin from a customer in paris in : 'i thought it better to wait before giving you any news of the wine you sent me until it was fit to drink. i tapped it yesterday, and found it poor. i can hardly believe but that the boatmen did not fall-to upon it whenever they had need, and took great care to fill it up again, for it could not have been fuller than they delivered it.'] [footnote : pluche's _spectacle de la nature_, .] [footnote : _mémoire_ of .] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_. in the _mémoire_ of , ay, epernay, hautvillers, and cumières are alone classed as _vins de rivière_; pierry, fleury, damery, and venteuil being reckoned only as _petite rivière_; and there being no mention of avize and the neighbouring vineyards.] [footnote : as at vertus, where the red wine, so highly esteemed by william iii. of england, was replaced by sparkling wine.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : _ergo vinum belnense potuum est suavissimus, ita et saluberrimus._] [footnote : _an vinum remense sit omnium saluberrimum._] [footnote : of ay, avenay, and hautvillers (note of tallemant's editor).] [footnote : tallemant des réaux's _historiettes_.] [footnote : champagne has been accused of producing not only gout, but stone, gravel, and rheumatism. as to the first-named complaint, bertin du rocheret disposes of it by noting, in a list compiled by him of all the deaths of any moment at epernay, from downwards, the decease, at the age of seventy-five, on january , , of jeanne maillard, 'the only person in the district ever attacked by the gout.' his brother-in-law, dr. jacques de reims, in a letter to helvetius in , asserts that this complaint is only known by name in the champagne; and that, as regards the stone, not more than ten people were affected therewith within a radius of ten leagues. he maintained that the _non-mousseux_ white wine of the champagne, drunk at maturity and tempered with water, was the best of all beverages for preserving general health; and the eminent dr. camille falconnet held the same opinion. arthur young, moreover, furnishes spontaneous testimony with regard to rheumatism. extolling the sparkling wine of reims in , he says, 'i suppose fixed air is good for the rheumatism; i had some writhes of it before i entered champagne, but the _vin mousseux_ has absolutely banished it;' and on reaching ove, he regrets that 'the _vin de champagne_, which is forty sous at reims, is three livres here, and execrably bad; so there is an end of my physic for the rheumatism' (_travels in france in - _).] [footnote : _an vinum remense burgundico suavius et salubrius._] [footnote : in his ode entitled _vinum burgundum_, the passage aspersing the wines of reims runs as follows: 'nam suum rhemi licet usque bacchum jactitent: æstu petulans jocoso hic quidam fervet cyathis, et aura limpidus acri. vellicat nares avidas; venenum at latet: multos facies fefellit, hic tamen spargat modico secundam munere mensam.' the french version, by m. de bellechaume, entitled an 'ode au vin de bourgogne,' and published in his _recueil des poésies latines et françaises sur les vins de champagne et de bourgogne_, paris , is as follows: 'vante, champagne ambitieuse, l'odeur et l'éclat de ton vin, dont la sève pernicieuse dans ce brillant cache un venin, tu dois toute ta gloire en france, a cette agréable apparence, qui nous attire et nous séduit; qu'à beaune ta liqueur soumise dans les repas ne soit admise, que sagement avec le fruit.' m. de la monnoye, himself a burgundian, has rendered this passage somewhat differently in an edition published the same year at dijon: 'jusqu'aux cieux le champagne élève de son vin pétillant la riante liqueur, on sait qu'il brille aux yeux, qu'il chatouille le c[oe]ur, qu'il pique l'odorat d'une agréable sève. mais craignons un poison couvert, l'aspic est sous les fleurs, que seulement par grâce; quand beaune aura primé, reims occupant la place, vienne légèrement amuser le dessert.' ] [footnote : _campania vindicata; sive laus vini remensis a poeta burgundo eleganter quidam, sed immerito culpati._ offerebat civitati remensi carolus coffin. anno domini /mdccxii/.] [footnote : 'quantum superbas vitis, humi licet prorepat, anteit fructibus arbores tantum, orbe quæ toto premuntur vina super generosiora remense surgit. cedite, massica cantata flacco silleriis; neque chio remixtum certet audax collibus aïacis falernum. cernis micanti concolor ut vitro latex in auras, gemmeus aspici, scintellet exultim; utque dulces naribus illecebras propinet. succi latentis proditor halitus ut spuma motu lactea turbido crystallinum lætis referre mox oculis properet nitorem.' la monnoye renders this as follows: 'autant que, sans porter sa tête dans les cieux, la vigne par son fruit est au-dessus du chêne; autant, sans affecter une gloire trop vaine, reims surpasse les vins les plus délicieux. qu'horace du falerne entonne les louanges que de son vieux massique il vante les attraits; tous ces vins fameux n'égaleront jamais du charmant silleri les heureux vendanges. aussi pur que la verre ou la main l'a versé, les yeux les plus perçants l'en distinguent à peine; qu'il est doux de sentir l'ambre de son haleine et de prévoir le goût par l'odeur annoncé, d'abord à petits bonds une mousse argentine etincelle, petille et bout de toutes parts, un éclat plus tranquille offre ensuite aux regards d'un liquide miroir la glace cristalline.' ] [footnote : 'non hæc malignus quidlibet obstrepat livor; nocentes dissimulant dolos leni veneno. vina certant inguenuos retinere gentis campana mores. non stomacho movent Ægro tumultum; non gravidum caput fulagine infestant opacâ.' bellechaume renders these lines in the recueil as follows: 'il n'a point, quoiqu'on insinue de poison parmi ses douceurs, et de sa province ingénue la champagne a gardé les m[oe]urs. il n'excite point de tempête dans les estomacs languissants; son feu léger monte à la tête, eveille et réjouit les sens.' la monnoye gives them thus: 'taisez-vous envieux dont la langue cruelle veut qu'ici sous les fleurs se cache le venin; connaissez la champagne, et respectez un vin qui des m[oe]urs du climat est l'image fidèle. non, ce jus qu'à grand tort vous osez outrager de images fâcheux ne trouble point la tête, jamais dans l'estomac n'excite de tempête; il est tendre, il est net, délicat et léger.' ] [footnote : 'ergo ut secundis (parcere nam decet karo liquori) se comitem addidit mensis renidens testa; frontem, arbitra lætitiæ, resolvit austeriorum. tune cyathos juvat siccare molles: tunc hilaris jocos conviva fundit liberales; tunc procul alterius valere.' bellechaume has rendered this: 'sitôt que sur de riches tables de ce nectar avec le fruit on sert les coupes délectables, de joie il s'élève un doux bruit; on voit, même sur le visage du plus sévère et du plus sage, un air joyeux et plus serein: le ris, l'entretien se reveille; il n'est plus de liqueur pareille a cet élixir souverain.' la monnoye's version is as follows: 'vers la fin du repas, à l'approche du fruit, (car on doit ménager une liqueur si fine), aussitôt que parait la bouteille divine, des grâces à l'instant l'aimable ch[oe]ur la suit parmi les conviés, s'élève un doux murmure; le plus stoïque alors se deride le front.' ] [footnote : that of utrecht, concluded the following year, .] [footnote : _ad clarissimum virum guidonem-crescentium fagon regi a secretoribus consiliis, archiatrorum comitem; ut suam burgundo vino prestantiam adversus campanum vinum asserat._] [footnote : the original lines and the translation, published by bellechaume the same year in his _recueil_, prove, as do the extracts already quoted from coffin, that a sparkling wine was meant. the former run thus-- 'hinc inversa scyphis tumet, fremitque; spumasque agglomerat furore mixtas Æstuans, levis, inquies proterva;' bellechaume's translation is as above-- 'enflés du même orgueil tous ses vins bondissants n'élèvent que des flots écumeux frémissants leur liqueur furieuse, inconstante et légère etincelle, petille, et bout dans la fougère.' ] [footnote : these epigrams and their translation are given anonymously, as follows, in bellechaume's _recueil_: 'quid medicos testa implores burgunda? laboras nemo velit medicam poscere sanus opem. cur fugis ad doctum, burgundica testa, fagonem? arte valet multa, sed nimis ægra jaces.' 'a ce que je me persuade sur la qualité des bons vins, grenan, ta cause est bien malade, tu consultes les médecins. quand on s'adresse au médecin c'est qu'on éprouve une souffrance; bourgogne, vous n'êtes pas sain puisqu'il vous faut une ordonnance.' ] [footnote : _decretum medica apud insulam coon facultatis super poetica lite campanum inter et burgundum vinum ortâ post editum a poeta burgundo libellum supplicem._ by several writers this poem has been ascribed to grenan; but m. philibert milsaud, in his _procés poétique touchant les vins de bourgogne et de champagne_ (paris, ), clearly shows that, although in favour of burgundy, the judgment is an ironical one, and that the signature c. c. r. stands for carolus coffin remensis.] [footnote : _ode à messieurs coffin et grenan, professeurs de belles lettres, sur leurs combats poétiques au sujet des vins de bourgogne et de champagne_, in bellechaume's _recueil_.] [footnote : 'pour connaître la différence du nectar de beaune et de reims, il faut mettre votre science a bien goûter de ces deux vins.' ] [footnote : in an anonymous letter addressed to grenan on february , and published in the _recueil_.] [footnote : 'un franc bourguignon se fait gloire d'être avec un remois à boire; ils sont tous deux bons connaisseurs, et ne sont pas moins bons buveurs.' ] [footnote : _les célébrités du vin de champagne._ epernay, . maucroix died in his ninetieth year in .] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : in the _journal des savants_.] [footnote : 'vieux bourguignon, jeune champagne font l'agrément de nos festins.' from _la critique_, an opera of panard's, produced in . ] [footnote : 'with what vivacity,' he exclaims, with a strange blending of poetry and science, 'does this divine liquid burst forth in sparkling foam-bells! and what an agreeable impression it produces upon the olfactory organs! what a delicious sensation it creates upon the delicate fibres of the palate! ... it is fixed air which, by its impetuous motion, forms and raises up that foam, the whiteness of which, rivalling that of milk, soon offers to our astonished eye the lustre of the most transparent crystal. it is this same air that, by its expansion and the effervescence it produces, develops the action of the vinous spirit of which it is the vehicle, in order that the _papillæ_ of the nerves may more promptly receive the delicious impression.... vainly calumny spreads the report on all sides that the sparkle of our wines is injurious; vainly it asserts that they have only a hurtful fire and a worthless flavour. incapable of hiding under an insidious appearance a perfidious venom, they will always present a faithful image of the ingenuousness of their native province.'] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_. pluche, in his _spectacle de la nature_, notices the controversy regarding the respective merits of the wines of the marne and the côte d'or in the following terms: _'count_: if we will be determined by the finest palates, the champaign wine is much preferable to burgundy. _prior_: it is a sufficient honour for champaign to be admitted to the same degree of estimation with burgundy; and it may very well dispense with the priority. i always thought burgundy had some similitude with a solid understanding, which affects us with lasting impressions, and that champaign resembles a lively wit, which glitters more upon the imagination, but which is not always serviceable to its possessor. _count_: if you had made the froth of some champaign wines and the sallies of a sprightly wit your parallel, i should have thought it unexceptionable; and several pleasant remarks might be made on this sprightliness without solidity. but such a champaign wine as that of sillery unites all the vigour of burgundy, with an agreeable flavour peculiar to itself. _prior_: i prefer useful qualities to those that are merely agreeable. burgundy seems to be a more salutary wine than champaign, and will always be triumphant for that reason. its colour alone declares it to be a wine of a good body, and i must confess i am apt to be diffident of all dazzling appearances. _count_: people believe that this deep colour, so esteemed in burgundy wines, is an indication of their wholesomeness; but it is observable in the grossest wines, and results from an intermixture of the husky parts of the grape. wine, in proportion to the quantity of these particles blended with it, will be less qualified for digestion. the gout, therefore, and the stone, with which the inhabitants of wine-countries are so frequently afflicted, are distempers hardly known either at reims or on the banks of the marne, where the wines are very moderately coloured.... wines may be made almost as white in burgundy as they are in champaign, though not so good; and, on the other hand, the champenois press a wine as red as the burgundy growth, and the merchants sell it either as the best species of burgundy to the wine-conners, who are the first people that are deceived in it, or as red champaign to the connoisseurs, who prefer it to any other wine. if we may judge of the merit of wines by the price, we shall certainly assign the preference to champaign, since the finest species of this wine is sold in the vaults of sillery and epernai for six, seven, or eight hundred livres, when the same quality of the best burgundy may be purchased for three hundred. _countess_: let me entreat you, gentlemen, to leave this controversy undecided. the equal pretensions that are formed by these two great provinces promote an emulation which is advantageous to us. the partisans for burgundy and champaign form two factions in the state; but their contests are very entertaining, and their encounters not at all dangerous. it is very usual to see the zealots of one party maintaining a correspondence with those of the other; they frequently associate together without any reserve, and those who were advocates for burgundy at the beginning of the entertainment are generally reconciled to champaign before the appearance of the dessert.'] [footnote : _letters, &c._ hamburg and paris, . the translator adds, as a note, 'people do not any longer get drunk on champagne.'] [footnote : _mémoires du duc de st. simon._] [footnote : _journal de barbier._] [footnote : a curious proof of the popularity of sparkling champagne, and of the singular system of provincial government into which france was broken up during the reign of louis xv., is found in a decree of the council of state, dated may , . the decree in question begins by setting forth that, by the _ordonnance des aides de normandie_, wine was forbidden to be brought into rouen or its suburbs in bottles, jugs, or any less vessels than hogsheads and barrels--with the exception of _vin de liqueur_ packed in boxes--under pain of confiscation and one hundred livres' fine, and that carriers were prohibited from conveying wine in bottles in the province without leave from the _fermier des aides_. nevertheless, petitions had been presented by the _maire_ and _échevins_ of reims, stating 'that the trade in the gray wines of champagne had considerably increased for some years past, through the precautions taken at the place of production to bottle them during the first moon of the month of march following the vintage, in order to render them _mousseux_; that those who make use of the gray wine of champagne prefer that which is _mousseux_ to that which is not; and that this gray wine cannot be transported in casks into the interior of the kingdom or to foreign countries without totally losing its qualities,'--a statement probably intentionally overdrawn, since bertin du rocheret used to export it in casks to england. yet the _fermiers des aides de normandie_ claimed to prohibit the transport of wines in bottle; and if their pretension held good, the trade in the gray wine of champagne would be destroyed. 'shifting the cause, as a lawyer knows how,' the decree recapitulates the plea of the _fermiers_ that the transport of wine in bottles offered facilities for defrauding the revenue, since a carrier with a load could easily leave some of it _en route_ with innkeepers, and these in turn could hide bottles holding a _pinte de paris_ from the officers in chests, cupboards, &c., and sell them subsequently, to the detriment of the _droits de détail_. the foregoing duly rehearsed, there follows the decree permitting 'to be sent in bottles into the province of normandy, for the consumption of the said province, gray wine of champagne in baskets, which must not hold less than one hundred bottles,' but prohibiting the introduction in bottles of any other growth or quality, under the penalty of confiscation and one hundred livres' fine. permission is also given to pass gray and red wine of champagne, or of any other _cru_ or quality, in baskets of fifty or one hundred bottles for conveyance into other provinces, or for shipment to foreign parts by the ports of rouen, caen, dieppe, and havre. the wagoners, however, in all cases are to have certificates signed and countersigned by all manner of authorities, and are only to enter the province by certain specified routes. all wine, too, is to pay the _droit de détail_, except in the case of people not continuously residing in the province, who may be going to their estates, or those bound for the eaux de forges, a celebrated watering-place, both of whom may take a certain quantity in bottle with them for their own consumption free of duty.] [footnote : 'to be drunk as _nouveau_ or bottled,' says m. louis perrier in his _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : d'argenson's _mémoires_.] [footnote : bois-jourdain's _mélanges historiques_. the editor of the _journal de barbier_ observes in a note to a passage referring to the king's suppers at la muette with madame de mailly, under the date of november : 'these suppers were drinking bouts. it was there that the king acquired a taste for champagne.'] [footnote : clauteau's _relation de ce qui s'est passé au passage du roi_. reims, .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : louis paris' _histoire de l'abbaye d'avenay_.] [footnote : amongst these may be cited the abbé bignon, who, in a letter to bertin du rocheret dated january , says: 'the less the wine is _mousseux_ and glittering, and the more, on the contrary, it shows at the outset of what you style _liqueur_, and i, in chemical terms, should rather call balsamic parts, the better i shall think of it.'] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : 'chloris, eglé me versent de leur main d'un vin d'ay dont la mousse pressée, de la bouteille avec force élancée, comme un éclair fait voler son bouchon. il part, on rit; il frappe le plafond: de ce vin frais l'écume pétillante de nos français est l'image brillante.' ] [footnote : 'de ce vin blanc délicieux qui mousse et brille dans le verre, dont les mortels ne boivent guères; et qu'on ne sert jamais qu'à la table des dieux ou des grands, pour en parler mieux, qui sont les seuls dieux de la terre.' ] [footnote : desaulx, a canon of reims cathedral, rendered lebatteux's ode as follows: 'ce n'est point sur les monts de rhodope et de thrace que j'irai t'invoquer; ces monts couverts de glace, sont-ils propres à tes faveurs? non, reims te voit régner bien plus sur ses collines; là je t'offre mes v[oe]ux; de nos côtes voisines embrases moi de tes ardeurs. soit que d'un lait mousseux l'écume pétillante, soit qu'un rouge vermeil, par sa couleur brillante, t'annonce à mes regards surpris, viens, anime mes vers; ma muse impatiente veut devoir en ce jour les accords qu'elle enfante a la force de tes esprits.' ] [footnote : 'non, telles gens ne boivent pas de cette sève délectable, l'âme et l'amour de nos repas, aussi bienfaisante qu'aimable. leur palais corrompu, gâté, ne veut que du vin frelaté, de ce poison vert, apprêté, pour des cervelles frénétiques. si, tenons-nous pour hérétiques ceux qui rejettent la bonté de ces _corpusculs balsamiques_ que jadis horace a chantés. non, telles gens ne boivent pas de cette sève délectable, l'âme et l'honneur de nos repas, aussi bienfaisante qu'aimable. de ce vin blanc délicieux, qui désarme la plus sévère; qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux mieux qu'il ne brille dans mon verre. buvons, buvons à qui mieux mieux, je vous livre une douce guerre; buvons, buvons de ce vin vieux, de ce nectar délicieux, qui pétille dans vos beaux yeux mieux qu'il ne brille dans mon verre.' the above was set to music by m. dormel, organist of st. geneviève.] [footnote : marmontel's _mémoires d'un père pour l'instruction de ses enfants_. m. louis paris, in his _histoire de l'abbaye d'avenay_, identifies this spot as one known indifferently as le fay or feuilly. he furnishes some interesting details respecting mademoiselle de navarre, who, after being the mistress of marshal saxe, married the chevalier de mirabeau, brother to the _ami des hommes_ and uncle of the celebrated orator, and then goes on to say: 'in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the wines of avenay shared with those of hautvillers the glory of rivalling the best of ay. "_avenay, les bons raisins_," was the popular saying inscribed on the banner of its _chevaliers de l'arquebuse_ (a corps of local sharpshooters). la bruyère, st. evremond, boileau himself, coulanges, l'atteignant, and many others had celebrated the tender and delicate wines of our vineyards; and that of madame l'abbesse especially had acquired such a reputation, that several great families, strangers to the locality, thought it the right thing to have a _vendangeoir_ at avenay, and to pass part of the autumn in the renowned val d'or.'] [footnote : 'vois ce nectar charmant sauter sous ces beaux doigts; et partir à l'instant; je crois bien que l'amour en ferait tout autant. et quoi sous ces beaux doigts bouchon a donc sauté pour la première fois? croyez-vous que l'amour leur fit un pareil tour?' ] [footnote : 'le jus que verse ganimède a jupiter dans ses repas a ce vin de champagne cède, et nous sommes mieux ici bas.' from the edition of his _poesies_ published in . ] [footnote : 'et quand je décoiffe un flacon le liège qui pette me fait entendre un plus beau son que tambour et trompette.' panard's _[oe]uvres_, paris, . ] [footnote : 'diaphorus au marchand de vin vend bien cher un extrait de rivière; le marchand vend au médecin du champagne arrivé de nanterre, ce qui prouve encor ce refrain-ci a trompeur, trompeur et demi.' ] [footnote : 'pour jouir d'un destin plus tranquille et plus doux de ce bruyant séjour, amis, éloignons nous, allons, dans mon cellier, du champagne et du beaune goûter les doux appas. les plaisirs n'y sont pas troublés par l'embarras, et le funeste ennui qui monte jusqu'au trône dans les caveaux ne descend pas.' ] [footnote : 'c'est alors qu'un joyeux convive, saississant un flacon scellé, qui de reims ou d'ai tient la liqueur captive, fait sauter jusqu'à la solive le liège deficellé; tout le cercle attentif porte un regard avide sur cet objet qui les ravit; ils présentent leur verre vide, le nectar pétillant aussitôt les remplit. on boit, on goûte, on applaudit, on redouble et par l'assemblée la mousse champenoise à plein verre est sablée. de là naissent les ris, les transports éclatans, la sève et tout son feu, jusqu'au cerveau montants, font naître des débats, des querelles polies qui réveillent l'esprit de tous les assistants.' ] [footnote : an allusion to the _vin gris_ of the champagne.] [footnote : 'grâce à la liqueur qui lave mon c[oe]ur, nul souci ne me consume. de ce vin gris que je chéris l'écume, lorsque j'en boi quel feu chez moi s'allume! nectar enchanteur, tu fais mon bonheur; viens, mon cher ami! que j't'hume! champagne divin, du plus noir chagrin tu dissipes l'amertume. tu sais mûrir, tu sais guérir le rhume. quel goût flatteur ta douce odeur parfume! pour tant de bienfaits et pour tant d'attraits; viens, mon cher ami! que j't'hume!' ] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : m. sutaine observes that in a merchant of epernay bottled bottles, and that the importance of this _tirage_ was noted as something remarkable; and this statement has been repeated by every other writer on champagne. yet here is a _tirage_ of bottles taking place thirty-four years previously. the extent of the bottled-wine trade is confirmed by arthur young, who in visited ay, where m. lasnier had , bottles in his cellar, and m. dorsé from , to , . marmontel in mentions henin de navarre's cellars at avenay as containing , bottles of champagne.] [footnote : e. j. maumené's _traité du travail des vins_, .] [footnote : ibid. the _casse_ of has never been forgotten at epernay; and m. perrier, in a letter of august , mentions a recent one at avize amounting to per cent. that of flooded the cellars throughout the champagne. even in m. maumené mentions a _casse_ in a reims cellar which had reached per cent at his visit, and was still continuing.] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_. the abbé bignon confirms this in a letter of december , , to bertin du rocheret, respecting wine received from him. 'the wine sealed with a cipher in red wax,' he observes, 'seemed to me very delicate, but having as yet some _liqueur_ which time may get rid of, though after that i am afraid there will not remain much strength. another, also sealed with red wax, but with a coat-of-arms, seems to have more quality and vinosity, though also very delicate and very light, both _sablant_ perfectly, though they cannot be called _mousseux_. as to that which is sealed with black, the people who esteem foam would bestow the most magnificent eulogies upon it. it would be difficult to find any that carries this beautiful perfection further. three spoonfuls at the bottom of the glass is surmounted with the strongest foam to the very brim; on the other hand, i found in it a furious _vert_, and not much vinosity.'] [footnote : in he speaks of his _mousseux sablant_, and forwards to the marquis de polignac both _mousseux_ and _petillant_. in he offers m. véron de bussy his choice of _demi-mousseux_, _bon mousseux_, and _saute bouchon_; and the following year distinguishes his ay _mousseux_ from his _saute bouchon_.] [footnote : respecting the price of sparkling champagne during the first half of the eighteenth century, a few instances from the correspondence of bertin du rocheret may here he quoted. in he offers marshal d'artagnan bottles at sols, cash down, and taken at epernay. in he offers _flacons blancs mousseux liqueur_ at from to sols, and _ambrés non mousseux, sablant_, at sols. ten years later _saute bouchon_ is quoted by him at and sols, and in at livres, _demi-mousseux_ ranging from to sols, and _bon mousseux_ from to sols. the following year _saute bouchon_ fetched livres sols, and _mousseux_ sols. in he insisted upon his _flacons_ holding a _pinte_; and a royal decree of march , , which regulated the weight and capacity of sparkling-wine bottles, required these to weigh ounces, and to hold a _pinte de paris_, or about . imperial pint. they were, moreover, to be tied crosswise on the top of the cork, with a string of three strands well twisted. their cost was livres per hundred in and , and from to livres in .] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : it would appear from bidet that the wines of the mountain had not been transformed into _vin mousseux_ as late as , as, in his book on wine published during that year, he only includes in the list of places producing sparkling wine ay, avenay, mareuil, dizy, hautvillers, epernay, pierry, cramant, avize, and le mesnil.] [footnote : 'votre palais, usé, perclus par liqueur inflammable, préfère de mousseux verjus au nectar véritable.' ] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_. in the thesis in favour of champagne, written by dr. xavier of reims in , the acidulous character of the wine is confirmed by the author, who naïvely remarks that it is as efficacious in preventing putrefaction as are other acids. he also compares it to acidulated waters.] [footnote : legrand d'aussy's _vie privée des français_, .] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_. the pretended secret of dom perignon, quoted from the _mémoire_ of , and mentioning the addition of sugar to the wine of hautvillers, is flatly contradicted by dom grossart's letter to m. dherbès (see page _ante_). but it is probable that the suggestion thus made public was acted upon, though at first only timidly.] [footnote : chaptal's _art de faire du vin_. as minister of the interior, he forwarded the results of his experiments to the _préfets_, with the recommendation to spread them throughout their departments.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : letter of m. nicolas perrier to m. cadet-devaux, dated august .] [footnote : as _bourru_, _tocane_, and _en nouveau_.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : the letter in which he mentions this is extant, but the secret which was enclosed in it is missing.] [footnote : dom grossart, who had retired to montier-en-der in , was unacquainted with this plan when he wrote to m. dherbès in , although it had been practised for twenty years past.] [footnote : in a /ms./ quoted in varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : the gifts presented by the municipality on this occasion included flowers, pears, and gingerbread, reims being as famed for the latter as for its wines. the guild of gingerbread-makers at reims was established in the sixteenth century, and from that time forward was engaged in continual squabbles with the bakers and pastrycooks of the city, who could not be brought to understand that they had not the right to make gingerbread. countless reams of paper were scribbled over by the lawyers of the two contending interests; but though the bailli of reims on several occasions pronounced a formal verdict, to the effect that no one but a sworn and accepted gingerbread-maker should have act or part in the making of the indigestible delicacy, the contumacious bakers continued to treat his edicts as naught. eventually a royal edict of , which suppressed the privileges of the majority of the guilds in france, deprived the reims gingerbread-makers for ever of the right of figuring with swords by their sides and three-cornered hats on their heads at all local ceremonies, civil or religious, and threw their trade open to all. it was at the close of louis xiv.'s reign that the _pain d'épice_ of reims reached the summit of its renown. at the coronation of his successor, the _échevins_ of reims presented the monarch with several baskets of it; and when maria leczinska passed through reims in january , the notables offered her twelve wicker baskets, covered with damask and ornamented with ribbons, containing fresh and dried pears, conserves, preserved lemons, almond-cakes, and a new kind of gingerbread, which received the name of _nonnette à la reine_.] [footnote : this escutcheon shows the arms of reims, which at first consisted of _rinçeaux_ or branches; subsequently a cross and a crozier, placed saltire-wise, and a sainte ampoule, were added. when the government of the city passed from the archbishop, the entwined olive-branches and chief strewn with fleurs de lis were adopted, the old motto, 'dieu en soit garde,' being retained. the iron gates of the porte de paris were removed to their present position in , to allow of the passage of the canal.] [footnote : from the days of charles viii. to those of louis xiv., it was customary on these occasions for the keys to be presented by a young girl styled the pucelle de reims; and j. m. c. leber, in his work _des cérémonies du sacre_, is of opinion that this custom arose in some way from the visit of joan of arc. louis xv. was the first who received them from the lieutenant.] [footnote : baron taylor's _reims, la ville de sacres_.] [footnote : n. menin's _traité du sacre et couronnement des rois_.] [footnote : p. tarbé's _reims, ses rues et ses monuments_.] [footnote : h. taine's _l'ancien régime_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in - _.] [footnote : ibid. another grievance alleged against the monasteries was the presence of the innumerable fishponds belonging to them scattered throughout the country. the _cahier des plaintes, doléances, et remontrances du tiers etat du baillage de reims_, on the assembly of the states general under louis xvi., ask that 'all fishponds situate outside woods and, above all, those which lie close to vineyards, may be suppressed, as hurtful to agriculture.'] [footnote : h. taine's _l'ancien régime_.] [footnote : instructions of local _directeurs des aides_, quoted from the _archives nationales_ by taine.] [footnote : h. taine's _l'ancien régime_.] [footnote : _les célébrités du vin de champagne_, epernay, .] [footnote : h. taine's _l'ancien régime_. at rethel a poinçon of the _jauge de reims_ paid to francs for the _droit de détail_ alone.] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in - _.] [footnote : h. taine's _l'ancien régime_.] [footnote : crebillon the younger's _les bijoux indiscrets_.] [footnote : a /ms./ account of the wine culture of poligny in the jura states that in attempts were made to imitate the gray and pink wines of the champagne, then selling at livres sous the bottle.] [footnote : erckmann-chatrian's _histoire d'un paysan_.] [footnote : 'suppose champagne flowing,' says carlyle, when describing this banquet in his _french revolution_.] [footnote : carlyle's _french revolution_.] [footnote : the date 'an ^{er} de la liberté' may possibly refer to the 'year one' of the republican calendar ( ), in which mirabeau fell in a duel at fribourg. but an earlier edition of the same caricature seems to have been published, according to de goncourt in the _journal de la mode et du goût_, in may .] [footnote : 'malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons, je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,' are the lines assigned to him in _le vicomte de barjoleau, ou le souper des noirs_, a two-act comedy of the epoch.] [footnote : [illustration: le gourmand: an incident of louis xvi.'s flight from paris (from a caricature of the period).] this caricature, which is neither signed nor dated, is simply entitled 'le gourmand;' though jaime, in his _histoire de la caricature_, states that it represents louis xvi. at varennes. according to carlyle, however, the king reached varennes at eleven o'clock at night, was at once arrested in his carriage, and taken to procureur sausse's house. here he 'demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread-and-cheese, with a bottle of burgundy, and remarks that it is the best burgundy he ever drunk.' at six o'clock the following morning he left varennes, escorted by ten thousand national guards. very likely there may have been a story current at the time to the effect that the arrest was due to the king's halting to gratify his appetite. or the caricature may represent some incident that occurred, during his return to paris, as he passed through the champagne district, and halted at the hôtel de rohan at epernay.] [footnote : de goncourt's _société française pendant la révolution_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : st. aubin's _expédition de don quichotte_.] [footnote : _aux voleurs! aux voleurs!_ quoted by de goncourt.] [footnote : _lettres du père duchêne_, quoted by de goncourt.] [footnote : _les célébrités du vin de champagne_, epernay, .] [footnote : _journal de ce qui s'est passé d'intéressant à reims en ._] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : g. a. sala's _paris herself again_.] [footnote : gronow's _celebrities of london and paris_, .] [footnote : gronow's _reminiscences_, .] [footnote : 'j'aime mieux les turcs en campagne que de voir nos vins de champagne profanés par des allemands.' béranger's _chansons_. ] [footnote : 'rôtis sur la haute montagne tout flamme et miel, le médéah, le mascara, le milianah feront pâlir le gai champagne.' _poésies_ de j. boese, de blidah. ] [footnote : 'il a conduit pomponnette chez vachette, dans le cabinet vingt-deux; et là, même avant la bisque, il se risque a lui déclarer ses feux. elle demeure accoudée, obsédée, résolue à résister, inexorable et charmante dans sa mante, qu'elle ne veut pas quitter. un troisième personnage, a la nage dans un seau d'argent orné, se soulève sur la hanche, tête blanche, cou de glace environné. c'est le champagne; il susurre: "chose sûre! quand mon bouchon partira, tout à l'heure, cette belle si rebelle mollement s'apaisera. bientôt tu verras, te dis-je, ce prodige cesse d'invoquer l'enfer; ton courroux est trop facile; imbécile, arrache mon fil de fer! car je suis maître champagne, qu'accompagne le délire aux cent couplets; je dompte les plus sévères. a moi, verres, coupes, flûtes et cornets!" aussi dit le vin superbe, moins acerbe, la femme se sent capter. c'est une cause que gagne le champagne; son bouchon vient de sauter.' _le parfait vigneron_, paris, .] [footnote : titi livii foro-juliensis _vita henrici quinti_. the author was a _protégé_ of duke humphrey of gloucester.] [footnote : francisque michel's _histoire du commerce et de la navigation à bordeaux_. it was not till the marriage of henry iii. with eleanor of aquitaine that we began to import guienne wine from bordeaux.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : victor fiévet's _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : francisque michel's _histoire du commerce et de la navigation à bordeaux_.] [footnote : published in .] [footnote : that of . surflet's translation appeared in .] [footnote : venner's _via recta ad longam vitam_, .] [footnote : writing to sir walter mildmay in , the earl of shrewsbury, who had charge of the royal prisoner, complains that his regular allowance of wine duty free is not enough. 'the expenses i have to bear this year on account of the queen of the scots are so considerable as to compel me to beg you will kindly consider them. in fact, two butts of wine a month hardly serve for our ordinary use; and besides this, i have to supply what is required by the princess for her baths and similar uses.'] [footnote : clarendon's _memoirs_.] [footnote : letter of guy patin, .] [footnote : otway's _soldier's fortune_, act iv. sc. , .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : redding's _history and description of modern wines_.] [footnote : otway's _friendship in fashion_, .] [footnote : 'nous parler toujours des vins d'ay, d'avenet, et de reims.' _[oe]uvres de saint-evremond._ ] [footnote : 'perdre le goût de l'huitre et du vin de champagne pour revoir la leur d'un débile soleil et l'humide beauté d'une verte campagne, n'est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil, la faveur de la marne, hélas, est terminée, et notre montagne de reims, qui fournit tant d'excellens vins, a peu favorisé nostre goût cette année. o triste et pitoyable sort! faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la loire, ou pour le mieux au fameux port, dont chapelle nous fait l'histoire! faut-il se contenter de boire comme tous les peuples du nord? non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle! monsieur de bonrepaus arrive, il est icy, le champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle, fuyez, loire, bordeaux! fuyez, cahors, aussy!' _[oe]uvres de saint-evremond: sur la verdure qu'on met aux cheminées en angleterre._ in these verses we trace the custom, elsewhere spoken of, of drinking the marne wines when new. st. evremond himself, in a passage of his prose works, says that the wines of ay should not be kept too long, or those of reims drunk too soon.] [footnote : sparkling is not used here in the modern sense of effervescing: see page .] [footnote : sir george etherege's _man of the mode, or sir fopling flutter_, act iv. sc. , .] [footnote : otway's _friendship in fashion_, act ii. sc. , .] [footnote : etherege's _she wou'd if she cou'd_, act iv. sc. , .] [footnote : sir charles sedley's _mulberry garden_, act ii. sc. , .] [footnote : otway's _friendship in fashion_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : shadwell's _virtuoso_, act ii. sc. , .] [footnote : by dr. charleton, and published as late as .] [footnote : oldham's _paraphrases from horace_, book i. ode xxxi., .] [footnote : oldham's _works_, &c., .] [footnote : butler's _hudibras_, part ii. canto i., . stum is unfermented wine; and the term brisk applied to champagne is here employed not to denote effervescence, but to indicate the contrast between the thick immature fluid and the clear carefully-made wines of the champagne.] [footnote : butler's _hudibras_, part iii. canto iii., .] [footnote : sedley's _the doctor and his patients_. no date, but sedley died in .] [footnote : thomson's poems.] [footnote : cyrus redding's evidence before the parliamentary committee on the wine-duties, .] [footnote : redding's _french wines_.] [footnote : varin's _archives administratives de reims_.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : st. simon's _mémoires_.] [footnote : redding's _french wines_.] [footnote : farquhar's _love and a bottle_, act ii. sc. , .] [footnote : an evident allusion to its effervescence; whilst the words 'straw doublet' most likely refer to the covering of the flask.] [footnote : cibber's _love makes a man_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : farquhar's _the inconstant, or the way to win him_, act i. scene , .] [footnote : epilogue to the _constant couple, or a trip to the jubilee_ of farquhar, spoken by wilks in . locket's tavern, which stood on the site now occupied by drummond's bank at charing cross, was especially famous for its champagne. in the _quack vintners_, a satire against brooke and hilliers, published in , we read: 'may locket still his ancient fame maintain for ortland dainties and for rich champaign, where new-made lords their native clay refine, and into noble blood turn noble wine.' ] [footnote : farquhar's _twin rivals_, act v. sc. , .] [footnote : several other writers, who speak of 'bottles' of other wines, use the word 'flask' when referring to champagne.] [footnote : farquhar's _beaux' stratagem_, act iii. sc. , .] [footnote : _memoir_, prefixed to leigh hunt's edition of congreve's works.] [footnote : cunninghame's _history of britain from the revolution to the hanover succession_.] [footnote : farquhar's _the constant couple, or a trip to the jubilee_, act v. sc. , . m. francisque michel, in his _histoire du commerce et de la navigation à bordeaux_, clearly establishes that from the beginning to the middle of the eighteenth century all the best growths of the médoc were bought and shipped for england. it was not until after that any went to paris.] [footnote : 'vos, ô britanni (f[oe]dera nam sinunt inc[oe]pta pacis) dissociabilem tranate pontum. quid cruento perdere opes juvat usque marte. lætis remensam quam satius fuit stipare bacchum navibus; et domum anferre funestis trophæis exuvias pretiosiores!' coffin's _campania vindicata_, . the force of the reference to england is better understood when it is mentioned that no other nation is alluded to as purchasing the wines of the champagne.] [footnote : a practice not lost sight of at a later date, to judge from borachio's observation, 'i turn alicant into burgundy and sour cider into champagne of the first growth of france.' jephson's _two strings to your bow_, act i. sc. .] [footnote : _the tatler_, no. , feb. , .] [footnote : mrs. centlivre's _a bold stroke for a wife_, act v. sc. , .] [footnote : gay's poem _on wine_, published in .] [footnote : gay's _welcome from greece_.] [footnote : prior's _alma, or the progress of the mind_.] [footnote : prior's _alma, or the progress of the mind_.] [footnote : prior's _bibo and charon_.] [footnote : shenstone's _verses written at a tavern at henley_.] [footnote : vanbrugh's _journey to london_, act i. sc. . left unfinished at his death in .] [footnote : swift's _journal to stella_, march , - .] [footnote : ibid. feb. , - .] [footnote : ibid. april , .] [footnote : ibid. march , .] [footnote : ibid. march , - .] [footnote : ibid. dec. , .] [footnote : ibid. april , .] [footnote : letter to mr. congreve, april , .] [footnote : mrs. centlivre's _a bold stroke for a wife_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : fielding's _the miser_, .] [footnote : _the rake's progress, or the humours of drury lane_: a poem published in , to accompany a set of prints pirated from hogarth's.] [footnote : blunt's _geneva_: a poem dedicated to sir r. walpole, .] [footnote : hoadley's _suspicious husband_, act iv. sc. , .] [footnote : this wine, though sometimes sent by way of dunkirk, was usually forwarded _viâ_ calais, by the intermediary of a sieur labertauche, a commission-agent at that port, the cost of transport from epernay to calais being from to livres per queue. a _bobillon_ of wine was sent with each lot of casks for filling up. moreover, from bertin annually despatches a certain quantity of cream of tartar, destined to cure the ropiness to which all white wines were especially subject before the discovery that tannin destroys the principle engendering this disease.] [footnote : chabane appears to have been fully cognisant of the method of _collage_ and _soutirage_ (fining and racking) practised in the champagne; and bertin, in one of his letters dated july , mentions the enclosure of a receipt for a kind of _collage_, by following which all necessity to _dépoter_ the bottles is obviated. this enclosure is unfortunately lost.] [footnote : ms. correspondence of bertin du rocheret, quoted by m. louis perrier in his _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_. m. perrier states that the prohibition was removed by an act of the st nov. ; and a letter of bertin to chabane, the following year, bears this out. it is therefore singular to find the following entry in bubb doddington's _diary_, under the date of feb. , : 'went to the house to vote for liberty to import champaign in bottles. lord hillsborough moved it; mr. fox seconded it. we lost the motion. ayes, ; noes, .'] [footnote : letter to sir horace mann, june , .] [footnote : jesse's _selwyn and his contemporaries_. it is very probable that the name printed as prissieux is really puissieux, a title of the sillery family.] [footnote : lady mary wortley montague's _letter from arthur grey, the footman, to mrs. murray_. written in the autumn of .] [footnote : lady m. w. montague's _the lover_. this is generally designated 'a ballad to mr. congreve,' but is headed in lady mary's note-book, 'to molly,' and, as mr. moy thomas has suggested, was probably addressed to lord hervey, pope's 'lord fanny.'] [footnote : note to his _letter on bowles_.] [footnote : _westminster magazine_, .] [footnote : grainger's _the sugar cane_, .] [footnote : coleman and garrick's _clandestine marriage_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : garrick's _bon ton, or high life above stairs_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid. act ii. sc. .] [footnote : townley's _high life below stairs_, act ii. sc. , .] [footnote : so in mrs. cowley's _which is the man?_ burgundy is extolled and 'vile port' denounced; and in cumberland's _the fashionable lover_ ( ) a sneer is levelled at a 'paltry port-drinking club.' burgundy, too, is in favour in holcroft's _the road to ruin_, .] [footnote : foote's _the lame lover_, act iii. sc. , .] [footnote : garrick's _the country girl_, act v. sc. .] [footnote : foote's _the fair maid of bath_, act i. sc. , .] [footnote : holcroft's _the road to ruin_, act iv. sc. , .] [footnote : sir edward barry's _observations, historical, critical, and medical, on the wines of the ancients, and the analogy between them and modern wines_, .] [footnote : tickell's _poems_.] [footnote : timbs' _clubs and club life_.] [footnote : in the _encyclopédie méthodique_.] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in the years - _.] [footnote : sheen's _wine and other fermented liquors_.] [footnote : amongst other english customers of the firm in , , and were 'milords' farnham and findlater, the latter of whom was supplied with bottles of the vintage of ; manning, of the st. alban's tavern, london, who ordered bottles of vin de champagne, at livres or _s._ the bottle, to be delivered in the autumn by m. caurette; messrs. felix calvert & sylvin, who took two sample bottles at _s._; and mr. lockhart, banker, of pall mall, who in paid _s._ per bottle for bottles of the vintage of . the high rate of exchange in our favour is shown by the _l._ covering this transaction being taken as livres sols deniers, or about livres per pound sterling.] [footnote : walker's _the original_.] [footnote : 'the fair of britain's isle' (_convivial songster_, ).] [footnote : _diary of mrs. colonel st. george, written during her sojourn amongst the german courts in and ._] [footnote : moore's _the twopenny post-bag_, .] [footnote : moore's _parody of a celebrated letter_.] [footnote : the compound known as 'the regent's punch' was made out of bottles of champagne, of madeira, of hock, of curaçoa, quart of brandy, pint of rum, and bottles of seltzer-water, flavoured with lbs. bloom raisins, seville oranges, lemons, white sugar-candy, and diluted with iced green tea instead of water (tovey's _british and foreign spirits_).] [footnote : captain gronow's _reminiscences_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : prince puckler muskau's _letters_.] [footnote : miss burney's _memoirs_.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_, . henderson, who appears to have visited the champagne in , remarks of the remaining _crûs_ of the province: 'the wines of the neighbouring territories of mareuil and dizy are of similar quality to those of ay, and are often sold as such. those of hautvillers, on the other hand, which formerly equalled, if not surpassed, the growths just named, have been declining in repute since the suppression of the monastery, to which the principal vineyard belonged.'] [footnote : moore's _the fudge family abroad_, .] [footnote : moore's _the sceptic_.] [footnote : moore's _illustration of a bore_.] [footnote : moore's _the summer fête_, .] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : moore's _diary_, june .] [footnote : lockhart's _life of sir walter scott_.] [footnote : scott's _diary_, november , .] [footnote : byron's _english bards and scotch reviewers_, .] [footnote : byron's _don juan_, canto xv. stanza lxv., .] [footnote : ibid. canto xvi. stanza ix.] [footnote : ibid. canto xiii. stanzas xxxvii., xxxviii.] [footnote : according to recent statistics issued by the chamber of commerce of reims, the department of the marne contains , hectares of vineyards ( , acres), of which hectares are situated in the district of vitry-le-françois; hectares in that of châlons; in that of sainte menehould; in that of reims; and in the epernay district, where the finest qualities of champagne are grown. the value of the wine produced annually in these districts exceeds , , francs (nearly - / millions sterling). during the last thirty years, the value of these vineyards has increased fourfold. the 'population vigneronne' of the department is , inhabitants.] [footnote : in the year .] [footnote : the blending of black and white grapes together, although its advantages had been recognised in the _maison rustique_ of , appears not to have been successfully carried out at ay till the days of dom perignon. 'formerly,' remarks pluche, 'it was very difficult to preserve the wine of ay longer than one year. when the juice of the white grapes, whose quantity was very great in that vineyard, began to assume a yellowish hue, it became predominant, and created a change in all the wine; but ever since the white grapes have been disused, the marne wines may be easily kept for the space of four or five years' (_spectacle de la nature_, ).] [footnote : from time immemorial the vineyards of ay and dizy paid tithes to the abbey of hautvillers, the former a sixtieth and the latter an eleventh of their produce. these dues were, by a decree of , levied at the gate of ay. in , tirant de flavigny, a large wine-grower, who farmed, amongst other vineyards, 'les quartiers' at hautvillers, insisted on leaving the tithe of grapes at the foot of the vine for collection by the abbey tithe-collectors. the abbot alexandre ange de talleyrand périgord refused to accept them, and insisted in turn that the whole of the grapes should either be brought to the gate of hautvillers or converted into wine in the vineyard, and the eleventh part of this wine handed to his representative. from a _procès verbal_ drawn up by the mayor of ay, it seems that the inhabitants were willing to pay a monetary commutation, as was the prevailing custom, or to leave the abbot's share of grapes in the vineyards; but objected to the tithe being taken, usually with considerable delay, on each basket, whereby the remaining grapes were bruised, and the possibility of bright white wine being made from them rendered exceedingly doubtful. it was not till that it was finally settled that the tithes should be paid in money at the rate of so much per arpent, and it is plain that the abbot's chief object was to throw as much difficulty as he could in the way of rival makers of fine wines.] [footnote : this curse is alluded to in the following verse from a sixteenth-century ballad written against the men of ay: 'tu n'auras ni chien ni chat pour te chanter _libera_, et tu mourras mau-chrétien, toi qu'a maudit saint trézain.' the fountain of st. tresain, which enjoys the reputation of curing diseases, and in the water of which it is pretended stolen food cannot be cooked, still exists at mareuil.] [footnote : the yield from the ay vineyards averages five pièces, or gallons per acre. arthur young, writing in , estimated that the arpent (rather more than the acre) produced from two to six pièces of wine, or an average of four pièces, two of which sold for livres, one for livres, and one for livres. he valued the arpent of vines at from to livres. henderson, in his _history of ancient and modern wines_, says that in there were a thousand arpents on the hill immediately behind the village of ay valued at from , to , francs the arpent, and that one plot had shortly before fetched , francs per arpent.] [footnote : in , two years later, the price mounted as high as francs; while in , owing to the yield being far below an average one and the quality promising to be exceedingly good, the wine was bought up before the grapes were pressed at prices ranging from to francs the pièce.] [footnote : in one of these, dated , mention is made of the 'vinea parva' belonging to the abbey of avenay, and of the 'vineam warneri in loco qui dicetur monswarins,' perhaps the existing clos warigny. in another of philip the fair, dated , and confirming the abbey in the possession of property purchased from jeanne de sapigneul, we read of 'unam vineam dictam la grant vigne domine aelidis sitam en perrelles' and 'unam vineam dictam a la perriere.' in charters of the fourteenth century vineyards are mentioned at avenay and mutigny, under the titles of les perches, haut-bonnet, praëlles, les foissets, fond de bonnet, berard, chassant, &c. one sold to the abbey in by guillaume de valenciennes was at a spot then, as now, styled plantelles. in the justices at château-thierry confirmed the abbess, madame clémence, in the 'droit de ban vin'--that is, the right of selling her wine before any one else in the territory of avenay. this was again confirmed in by the bailly of sézanne, who held that she alone had the right of selling during the month after christmas, the month after easter, and the month after pentecost. amongst other records is one noting the condemnation of perresson legris, clerk, of avenay, who was sentenced in by the bailly of epernay to a fine of sols, for selling his wine during the month after christmas without permission of the dames d'avenay. the charters of the fifteenth century also abound in references to vineyards, or 'droits de vinage,' appertaining to the abbey at les coutures, champ bernard, auches, bois de brousse, thonnay, &c., in the territory of avenay, and les charmières, torchamp, saussaye, &c., at mutigny.] [footnote : in , an epoch at which the wines of avenay had acquired a high reputation, the abbey owned arpents of vineland at avenay, mutigny, and mareuil, yielding the preceding year poinçons of wine, the sale of which produced livres. it also had pressoirs banaux, which were farmed for poinçons of wine, and tithes of wine at mareuil amounting to poinçons and livres in money, and at ambonnay amounting to poinçons, the total of poinçons fetching livres. the valet who looked after the vines had livres per annum, and the cooper who looked after the wines, livres. the total cost of stakes, manure, culture, pruning, wine-making, and casks was livres per annum. ten pièces of wine 'of the best of the abbey, and worth livres,' were annually given away in caques and bottles to 'persons of quality and friends of the house, and travellers of condition who pass;' whilst poinçons, valued at livres, were consumed at the abbey itself. the abbey was partially destroyed by fire in ; and its destruction was completed during the revolution, at which epoch its vineyards yielded a net revenue of livres.] [footnote : in addition to madame de la marck, who was connected, by the marriage of one of her brothers to a princess of the house of bourbon, with henri quatre, and to whose influence with that monarch the execution of the 'traité des vendanges' was mainly due, the roll of the abbesses of avenay comprises several illustrious personages, amongst them st. bertha; bertha ii., daughter of the emperor lothaire; the ex-empress teutberga; bénédicte de gonzague, daughter of the duke de nevers, and sister of the princess palatine, who took such an active part during the troubles of the fronde; and ladies of the illustrious families of saulx tavannes, craon, levis, beauvillers, brulart de sillery, boufflers, &c. m. louis paris, in his _histoire de l'abbaye d'avenay_, gives some curious instances of the exercise of the 'haut et basse justice' possessed by these ladies. in , under the rule of madame de la marck, we find the bailly of avenay, acting as 'first magistrate of madame l'abbesse,' sentencing one man and four women 'to be hung, strangled, and burnt, and the goods belonging to them confiscated to the profit of the lady justiciary,' for the crime of sorcery. in we find a 'sentence of the bailly of avenay against simeon delacoste, accused and convicted of the crime of homicide committed upon the person of jean bernier, and for this condemned to be hung and strangled by the executioner on a gallows erected in the public market-place, with confiscation of livres, to be levied on his goods, to the profit of the lady justiciary.' when the criminal could not be caught, as was the case with nicholas thimot, vine-grower at avenay in , the sentence ran that he should 'be hung in effigy, and his goods confiscated to the profit of madame.'] [footnote : the following lines, quoted by m. philibert milsand in his _procès poétique touchant les vins de bourgogne et de champagne_, may be taken as referring either to the wine or the scenery: 'si quis in hoc mundo vult vivere corde jocoso, vadat cumerias sumere delicias.' ] [footnote : in arthur young's time ( - ) an arpent of vineyard at hautvillers, valued at livres, yielded from two to four pièces, or hogsheads, of wine, which sold from to livres the queue (two pièces). this is more than the wine would ordinarily realise to-day, although in years of scarcity it has fetched francs the pièce, and in as much as francs.] [footnote : cazotte, ex-commissary-general of the navy and author of the _diable amoureux_, who was guillotined as a royalist in , had a magnificently fitted mansion at pierry. he distinguished himself by his opposition to the pretensions of the abbey of hautvillers, which in claimed the right of taking tithes at pierry not only in the vineyards, but on the wine in the cellars. cazotte argued that unless the monks chose to take their due proportion of grapes left for them at the foot of each vine, all they were entitled to was a monetary commutation of the tithe; for the wine being usually made of grapes from a dozen different sources, many of them beyond their domain, it would be impossible to ascertain the proportion that was their due. the parliament of paris decided, however, that the abbey might take the fortieth of the wine a month after it was barrelled, unless the vine-growers preferred to give them the fortieth part of all the grapes brought to the press. the fact was that the monks really wished to check the practice of mixing grapes from different districts at the press, for fear wine equal to their own should result from this plan, first satisfactorily put in practice by dom perignon. arthur young mentions that an arpent of vines at pierry was valued at livres, half the price the same extent commanded at hautvillers.] [footnote : m. armand bourgeois, in his work on _le sourdon et sa vallée_, mentions a local tradition to the effect that saint remi, who from his will is shown to have owned vinelands of some extent in a part of this district still known as the evêché, installed a hermit in this said grotto of the pierre de saint mamert to supervise his vineyards.] [footnote : bertin du rocheret writes thus in , and adds that the aspect of avize had at that epoch become entirely changed by the numerous fine 'maisons de vendange' erected there.] [footnote : in gilbert belon conferred an annual gift on the abbey of st. martin of seven hogsheads of _vinage_ derived from the vineyards of oger.] [footnote : 'je fus jadis de terre vertueuse nez de virtuz, pais renommé, où il avait ville très gracieuse, dont li bon vin sont en maints lieux nommés.' eustache deschamps' poem on the burning of vertus. ] [footnote : 'quant vient de si noble racine come du droit plan de beaune, qui ne porte pas couleur jaune mais vermeille, franche, plaisant, qui fait tout autre odeur taisant, quand elle est aportée en place.' deschamps' _la charte des bons enfans de vertus_. ] [footnote : 'si vous alez au benefice mieulx vous vauldra que ung clistère.'--ibid. ] [footnote : in the vertus wine realised the remarkably high price of from to francs the pièce.] [footnote : st. evremond's _letters_ (london, ).] [footnote : st. simon's _mémoires_.] [footnote : bertin du rocheret's /ms./ extracts from the _registre des assemblées du peuple de la ville d'epernay_.] [footnote : henderson's _history of ancient and modern wines_.] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in - - _.] [footnote : anonymous _journal de ce qui s'est passé d'intéressant à reims en _.] [footnote : dom chatelain, in his /ms./ notes on the _history of reims_, relates that henri quatre, being one day at sully's, asked the minister for some breakfast, and after drinking a glass or two of wine, exclaimed, 'ventre saint gris, this is a grand wine; it beats mine of ay and all others. i should like to know where it comes from.' ''tis my friend taissy,' answered sully, 'who sends it to me.' 'then i must be introduced to him,' said the king; which was accordingly done. the wines of taissy had a high reputation as late as the eighteenth century. they were classed by st. evremond and brossette, the commentator of boileau, amongst the best vintages of the champagne, and their reputation was maintained by the care bestowed by the abbé godinot on the vineyards which he owned here.] [footnote : 'qu'horace du falerne entonne les louanges, que de son vieux massique il vante les attraits; tous ces vins si fameux n'égaleront jamais du charmant sillery les heureuses vendanges!' translation by le monnoye in the _recueil des poésies latines et françaises_, &c., paris, .] [footnote : the wine of verzenay, like that of bouzy, owes much of its reputation to the example set in the eighteenth century by the abbé godinot, author of the _mémoire_ on the cultivation of the grape and the manufacture of wine in the champagne, published in . he owned extensive vineyards at verzenay and bouzy, and his prolonged investigations as to the species of vines and composts best suited to the district led to a complete revolution in the system of culture and mode of pressing the fruit. bertin du rocheret praises 'the excellent wine of verzenay' served at the banquets celebrating the conclusion of the assembly of the etats de vitry, held at châlons in .] [footnote : the value in of a hectare of vines, equivalent to nearly two and a half acres, was as follows: at verzy, verzenay, and sillery, to , francs. " bouzy and ambonnay, " , " " ay and dizy, " , " " hautvillers, " , " " pierry, , " " cramant and avize, " , " " le mesnil, " , " ] [footnote : this was far from being the first appearance of the pest in this district. from to similar ravages drove the vignerons to despair; but the weather during the last-named year suddenly turning wet and cold, just at the epoch of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalids, the evil disappeared as though by enchantment, an event duly acknowledged by parochial rejoicings and religious processions. in similar ravages took place; and from to the pyrale also caused great devastation. in the year , jehan pussot, the local chronicler of reims, notes that a large proportion of the vines were destroyed by 'a great concourse of worms,' which attacked those plants which the frost had spared. this would establish that either the pyrale or the cochylis was known to the champenois viticulturists at the commencement of the seventeenth century.] [footnote : in , in all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a quarter per kilogramme ( _d._ per lb.) were paid, being more than treble the average price. and yet the vintage was a most unsatisfactory one, owing to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. the market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant prices by the _spéculateurs_ who supply the _vin brut_ to the champagne manufacturers. in the grapes of the mountain sold from at to francs the caque, according to the crus; and those of the côte d'avize at from f. c. to f. per kilogramme. in , on the other hand, grapes could be obtained at verzenay, verzy, ambonnay, and bouzy at from to francs the caque; and at vertus, le mesnil, oger, grauves, cramant, and avize, at from to centimes the kilogramme. by far the highest price secured by the growers for their grapes was in , when the produce of the grand crus of the mountain fetched as much as f. the caque, equal to nearly f. c. the kilogramme, or about _s._ _d._ per lb. it was, as usual, scarcity rather than quality that caused this unprecedented rise in price.] [footnote : m. mauméné relates in his _traité du travail des vins_ that on one occasion, when, as an experiment, first-class bottles, which had already been used, were employed anew, only fifteen or sixteen of the whole number resisted the pressure. moreover, if much broken glass is remelted down and used in the manufacture, the bottles do not turn out well, the second fusion of silicates never having the same cohesion as the first. the glass-works of sèvres and bercy, which melt down most of the broken glass collected in paris, have never been able to supply bottles strong enough for sparkling wines.] [footnote : loivre is about seven miles from reims on the road to laon.] [footnote : it is calculated that wine, the grape sugar in which yields ten per cent of alcohol, according to the average in champagne, would, if bottled immediately after pressing, produce enough carbonic acid gas to develop a pressure of thirty-two atmospheres. but such a pressure is never developed, as the wine is not bottled directly it leaves the press; besides which no bottle could stand it. from four to six atmospheres insure a lively explosion and a brisk creamy foam. it is necessary, therefore, that fermentation should have been carried on till at least three-fourths of the sugar have been converted into alcohol and carbonic acid gas before the wine is drawn off for bottling, for even the very best bottles burst under a pressure of eight atmospheres. a few words on the origin and development of the effervescent properties of champagne will not be out of place here. these are due, as already explained, to the presence of a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, the evolution of which has been prevented by the bottling of the wine prior to the end of the alcoholic fermentation. the source of carbonic acid gas exists in all wines, and they may be all rendered sparkling by the same method of treatment. still, no effervescent wine can compare with the finest growths of the champagne, for these possess the especial property of retaining a large portion of their sugar during, and even after, fermentation; besides which, the soil imparts a native bouquet that no other wine can match. carbonic acid gas is one of the two products of the fermentation of grape sugar, the other being alcohol. in wine fermented in casks it rises to the surface, and escapes through the bunghole left open for the purpose. the case is different with wine fermenting in bottles tightly secured by corks. part of the gas developed rises into the chamber or vacant space left in the bottle, where, mingling with the atmospheric air, it exercises a constantly increasing pressure on the surface of the wine. this pressure at length becomes so strong as to keep all the gas subsequently formed dissolved in the wine itself, which it saturates, as it were, and thereby converts into sparkling wine. upon the bottle being opened, the gas accumulated in the chamber rushes into the air, producing a slight explosion, or pop, and freeing from pressure the gas which had remained dissolved in the wine, and which in turn escapes in the shape of numberless tiny bubbles, forming the foam so pleasing to the eye on rising to the surface. sometimes on opening a bottle of champagne the pop is loud, but the effervescence feeble and transitory; and, on the other hand, there is merely a slight explosion, and yet the wine froths and sparkles vigorously and continuously. the two bottles may contain the same quantity of gas, but in the one there is more in the chamber and less dissolved in the wine, and hence the loud pop and slight sparkle; while in the other the pressure is low, and the explosion consequently slighter, but there is more gas in the wine itself, and the effervescence is proportionately greater and more lasting. in the former case the wine has received the addition of, or has contained from the outset, some matter calculated to diminish its power of dissolving carbonic acid gas, and is unsuitable for making good sparkling wine. the nature of the effervescence is one of the best tests of the quality of the wine. gas naturally dissolved does not all escape at once on the removal of the pressure, but, on the contrary, about two-thirds of it are retained by the viscidity of the wine. the better and more natural the wine, the more intimately the carbonic acid gas remains dissolved in it, and the finer its bubbles. the form of the glass out of which champagne is drunk has an influence on its effervescence. the wine sparkles far better in a glass terminating in a point, like the old-fashioned _flûte_, or the modern goblet or patera, with a hollow stem, than in one with a rounded bottom. the reason is that any point formed around the liquid, as instanced in the pointed bottoms of these glasses, or in the liquid, as may be proved by putting the end of a pointed glass rod into the wine, favours the disengagement of the gas. powder of any kind presents a number of tiny points, and hence the dropping of a little powdered sugar into champagne excites effervescence. porous bodies like bread-crumbs produce the same effect. even dust has a similar action; and the wine will froth better in a badly-wiped glass than in one perfectly clean, though it would hardly do to put forward such an excuse as this for using dirty goblets. the lively pop of the cork is less esteemed in england than in certain circles in france, where many hosts would be sadly disappointed if the wine they put before their guests did not go off with a loud bang, causing the ladies to scream and the gentlemen to laugh. a brisk foam, too, is absolutely necessary for the prestige of the wine, and 'grand mousseux' is a quality much sought after by the general public on the other side of the channel. it is not rare to meet with wines of a high class in which the removal of the cork produces a loud explosion; but unfortunately the brisk report and sharp but transitory rush of foam are features easily imparted by artificial means. the ordinary white wines of lorraine and other provinces receive a certain addition of spirit and liqueur, and are then artificially charged with carbonic acid gas obtained from carbonate of lime, chalk, and similar materials, after the fashion in which soda-water is made. these wines, sold as champagne, eject their corks with a loud pop, but three-fourths of the carbonic acid gas escape at the same time, and the wine soon becomes flat and dead; whereas a naturally sparkling wine of good quality left open for three hours and then recorked will be found fresh and drinkable the next day. both the explosion and the subsequent effervescence are aided by a high temperature, which assists the development of the gas. cold has the opposite effect, and iced wine neither pops nor sparkles. it, however, retains, if genuine, the whole of the carbonic acid gas held dissolved, which is not the case with the imitations spoken of. were it not that the question has been seriously started on more than one occasion, and only solved to the satisfaction of the questioner by a chemico-anatomical explanation, it would hardly be worth while touching upon the supposed hurtfulness of the carbonic acid gas contained in sparkling wines. the fact of accidents frequently occurring in breweries, distilleries, wine-presses, &c., from the accumulation of this gas, to breathe which for a few seconds is mortal, has led some people to wonder how champagne, whilst containing so large a proportion of it, can be swallowed with impunity. the gas, however, which produces fatal results when inhaled into the lungs, by depriving the blood of the oxygen which it should find there, has in the stomach a beneficial effect, serving to promote digestion. in drinking champagne it is conveyed direct to this latter region, so that no danger whatever exists, any more than in the mineral waters.--mainly condensed from e. j. mauméné's _traité du travail des vins_.] [footnote : for a long time the most erroneous ideas as to the cause of such breakage and the means of preventing it prevailed. tasting, which was most relied on for ascertaining how far fermentation had gone, could not be depended upon with accuracy, though the rule of thumb laid down by some makers was that the time to bottle with the least risk of breakage was when the sweet taste had disappeared, and vinous flavour developed itself. the aerometers subsequently introduced failed to answer the purpose, because the saccharine matter was not the only thing capable of influencing them. the result usually was either the bottling of a must so full of effervescence as to break the bottles, or of wine already completely fermented and incapable of effervescing at all.] [footnote : in some establishments tables made after the same fashion replace the racks, whilst another plan of coaxing the sediment down towards the cork is to stack the bottles at the outset in double rows, with their necks inclining downwards, laths placed between each layer maintaining them in their position. this method effects a great economy of time and space, the bottles requiring on an average only a few days on the racks prior to shipment to thoroughly complete the operation.] [footnote : as the real origin of this system is a matter which has excited no small amount of controversy, and as several claimants to the honour of its discovery have had their names put forward by different writers, the following extracts from a letter from m. alfred werlé, of the house founded by madame clicquot, may serve to render honour where it is really due: 'already, in (i am unable to speak of an earlier period with absolute certainty), the bottles were placed on tables, like to-day, with their heads downwards; each bottle being taken out of its hole, raised in the air, and shaken with the hand, so as to cause the cream of tartar and the deposit it contained to fall upon the cork, the holes being round, and the bottles placed straight downwards. this lasted till , when a man named müller, an employé of madame clicquot, suggested to her that the bottles should be left in the table whilst being shaken, and that the holes should be cut obliquely, so that the bottles might remain inclined. he maintained that one would thus obtain a wine of far greater limpidity. the trial was made, and every day, with a view of keeping this new process a secret, müller and madame clicquot shut themselves up alone in the cellars, and shook the bottles unperceived. in müller was assisted by a workman named mathieu binder; and in or , madame clicquot having purchased from m. morizet a _cuvée_ of wine which was shaken and prepared in this merchant's cellars, one of his employés named thomassin became acquainted with the new method, and resolved to practise it; since when it gradually spread, and eventually was generally adopted. m. werlé senior recollects perfectly well that when he arrived at madame clicquot's in it was only at her establishment that the bottles were shaken in this manner. the practice of shaking the bottles was a very old one, and no more invented by müller than by thomassin; but the former certainly effected great improvements by employing the system of oblique holes, and shaking the bottles in the table and not in the air.'] [footnote : m. mauméné has pointed out that if a solution of tannin or alum has been added to the _cuvée_ at the time of fining, the deposit is certain to be granular and non-adherent. but he justly remarks that these solutions, especially the latter, though doing good to the wine, have a precisely opposite effect upon the human stomach that consumes it.] [footnote : the regiment de champagne was one of the most famous of the _vieux corps_, and claimed to be the second oldest regiment in the french army.] [footnote : the system of dosing the wine does not appear to have been practised prior to the present century.] [footnote : the high favour in which sugar-candy is held for mixing with this champagne liqueur dates from the latter part of the last century, when there was a perfect mania for everything in a crystallised form, as being the height of condensation and purity. the competition between the first houses of reims and epernay to secure the largest and finest crystals was very keen, and it was considered disgraceful for any firm of standing to make use of sugar-candy of a yellow tinge or in small crystals. latterly it has been demonstrated that these expensive crystals contain more water and less saccharine matter than an equal weight of loaf-sugar, and that they sometimes contain a glutinous element capable of imparting an insipid flavour to the wine.--mauméné's _traité du travail des vins_.] [footnote : instances have been known of additions of and even per cent of liqueur, though the average may be taken to be for germany and france, to per cent; america, to per cent; england, to per cent.] [footnote : the corrosive action of rust upon the wire has led to several attempts to replace it, and some champagne houses have adopted more or less ingenious appliances of metal, &c. tinned iron wire has been found to resist rust, but is too expensive; whilst an experiment with galvanised wire resulted in serious illness amongst the workmen handling it, owing to the poisonous fumes evolved by the zinc when acted upon by the acids of the wine.] [footnote : m. viollet-le-duc, _dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture du vme au xvime siècle_.] [footnote : an engraving of this tower, removed while the present work was passing through the press, will be found on p. .] [footnote : see the engraving on p. .] [footnote : read before the academy of reims in february , printed by them in their transactions, and subsequently republished in volume form.] [footnote : it is generally supposed that the gate took its name from a hospital standing a short distance without the walls, and destined for the reception either of lepers or of pilgrims arriving after nightfall. the prevalent opinion is that it bore the inscription _dei merito_, translated as dieu le mérite, which became corrupted into dieu-lumière. under louis xi. it certainly figures as di merito.] [footnote : a curious old engraving copied from an ancient tapestry represents the entry of the royal procession into reims through the porte dieu-lumière. joan of arc, beside the king and in company with the dukes of bourbon and alençon, bears the banner of france; whilst her father and mother are seen arriving with the king's baggage by another road.] [footnote : /a.d./ .] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : m. a. nicaise's _epernay et l'abbaye de st. martin_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_. in december , when the eschevins fixed the 'vinage,' the queue of wine was valued at eight to nine livres.] [footnote : the partiality of charles v. for the wine of ay has been elsewhere spoken of. the vendangeoir mentioned was in existence in .] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : m. a. nicaise's _epernay et l'abbaye de st. martin_.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : the thoroughfare at epernay known as the rempart de la tour biron commemorates the above event.] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : 'ce diable à quatre a le triple talent de boire et de battre, et d'être vert-galant.' ] [footnote : 'on lui verse le vin de la côte voisine, pétillant, savoureux qui soudain l'illumine d'étincelants rayons de joie et de gaîté; redevenant poëte, il chante la beauté qui l'aide à conquérir doucement la champagne.' m. camille blondiot's _henri iv. au siège d'epernay_. ] [footnote : 'viens aurore, je t'implore, je suis gai quand je te voi; la bergère qui m'est chère est vermeille comme toi. elle est blonde, sans seconde, elle a la taille à la main; sa prunelle etincelle comme l'astre du matin. de rosée, arrosée, la rose a moins de fraîcheur; une hermine est moins fine, le lis a moins de blancheur. d'ambroisie, bien choisie, dupuis se nourrit à part; et sa bouche quand j'y touche me parfume de nectar.' ] [footnote : from the _extrait du registre et papiers des assemblés du peuple de la ville d'epernay_, preserved in the /mss./ of bertin du rocheret.] [footnote : bertin du rocheret's /mss./] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : _mémoire concernant la ville d'epernay_, by maître françois stapart, notaire au bailliage, published in .] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in the years - - _.] [footnote : victor fievet's _histoire d'epernay_. in the list of expenses incurred on the passage of louis xvi. and his family, four hundred livres are set down to 'the sieur memmie cousin, innkeeper and merchant at epernay, for the dinner of the king, the queen, and the royal family, as well as for an indemnity for the furniture broken at the said cousin's.' as regards the price of the wines of the river during the revolutionary epoch, an old account-book of messrs. moët & chandon shows that in the firm paid for the white wine of epernay and avize francs, for that of chouilly francs, and for that of pierry and cramant francs per pièce; whilst that of ay cost from to francs the queue. bottles in only cost livres sols the hundred.] [footnote : the clos st. pierre is now the property of m. charles porquet, and the ancient seignorial residence of the monks of st. pierre, at pierry, is occupied by m. papelart. both these gentlemen are wine-merchants.] [footnote : cazotte, writing in october , speaks of the village as peopled with 'gros propriétaires;' and in november, that it had 'thirty-two households of well-to-do people.' amongst its inhabitants were the marquis tirant de flavigny, dubois de livry, quatresols de la motte, de lastre d'aubigny, de lantage, &c., most of whose residences are still extant. in october several accusations were made against soldiers for picking and eating grapes in the vineyards of pierry and moussy, belonging to cazotte, de la motte, de lantage, d'aubigny, &c.] [footnote : part of it now serves as the 'maison communale' and school-house of the village.] [footnote : arrested at pierry in august , in consequence of the discovery, on the sacking of the tuileries, of a new plan of escape for the royal family, sent by him to his friend ponteau, secretary of the civil list, cazotte was brought to paris and immured, in company with his daughter elizabeth, in the prison of the abbaye. arraigned before the self-constituted tribunal presided over by the butcher maillard, on the night of the d september, the fatal words 'to la force,' equivalent to a sentence of death, were pronounced; and cazotte was about to fall beneath the sabres already raised against him, when elizabeth covered his body with her own, and by her heroic appeals induced the assassins to forego their prey. she even had the courage to drink with them to the republic, and with her father was escorted home in triumph. a few days later, however, he was rearrested, condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal, and on the th september ascended the scaffold, from whence he cried with a firm voice to the multitude, 'i die as i have lived, faithful to god and my king.' under date of the prairial an ii. ( ), the citizen bourbon was appointed by the municipality of pierry to cultivate the vineyards 'du gillotiné (_sic_) cazotte.'] [footnote : in the abbot of hautvillers, as _décimateur_ of pierry, claimed to take tithe of a fortieth of all wines in the cellars of the village. this claim being rejected by the baillage of epernay in , he appealed to the parliament of paris. cazotte undertook the case of his fellow-proprietors, pleading that the abbey, which, according to strict law, was bound to take the tithe in the shape of grapes left at the foot of each vine, had long since replaced this by a monetary commutation; and that the inhabitants of pierry, like the other wine-growers of the champagne, being 'obliged, in order to obtain perfection in their wines, to mix the grapes of several crus and different tithings, it would be impossible to tithe the wine itself.' he also argued that the question had been settled by a decision on the same point in favour of the inhabitants of ay and dizy. however, the monks obtained a decree from parliament authorising them to take the fortieth of the vintage a month after the wines had been barrelled, unless the wine-growers preferred 'to pay the tithe at the wine-press, in form of the fortieth load of grapes free from all mixture.' the inhabitants appealed in , pleading the impossibility of this plan of tithing at the press, on account of the expense and of the difficulty of sorting out the grapes from those brought from moussy, vinay, monthelon, cuis, epernay, and other districts in which they had also vineyards. the revolution cut the gordian knot of this affair, which really arose from the wish of the monks to hinder as much as possible that plan of mixing grapes from different sources, to which the perfection of their own wine was due.] [footnote : in january the inhabitants of pierry unanimously elected cazotte their first mayor under the new _régime_. a decree signed by him in this capacity, and dated april , , fixes the price for a day's work in the vineyards at sols. in the municipality of the adjoining district of moussy fixed the day's hire of the vintager at sous, of horses employed in the vintage at livres sous, and of asses at livres. as regards the price of the local cru, amongst the items of the accounts of the syndic of moussy for the years - is the following: 'for thirteen bottles of stringed wine (vin fisselé) sent to paris to the procureur of the community (failly lawsuit), livres.' the community were then engaged in a lawsuit with the count de failly respecting a wood. during the revolutionary epoch it was decreed by the municipality of pierry that a vineyard known as les rennes should, on account of the resemblance to les reines, be in future styled les sans-culottes. it has since resumed its old name.] [footnote : the story of cazotte prophesying not only his own fate, but that of the king and queen, condorcet, bailly, malesherbes, nicolai, the duchess de grammont, and others who perished during the terror, at a dinner given at an academician's in , has been proved to be a mere invention on the part of la harpe. nevertheless there seems but little doubt that he distinctly foresaw many coming evils; and a native of pierry, m. armand bourgeois, asserts that his maternal grandfather was one day at cazotte's house in the village, when the entire company were completely upset by their host's prophecies of a coming revolution.] [footnote : p. jannet's _recueil des poésies françaises des me et me siècles_.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : st. evremond's _letters_, &c. (london, ).] [footnote : max sutaine's _essai sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : bertin du rocheret's /mss./ _histoire d'epernay_.] [footnote : 'ay produit les meilleurs vins-- j'en prends à témoin tout le monde; mais vous préférez ceux de reims, ay produit les meilleurs vins. ce sont les premiers, les plus fins, et saint evremont me seconde. ay produit les meilleurs vins-- j'en prends à témoin tout le monde. charles quint s'y connoissoit bien il en faisoit la différence; et mieux que son maître adrien, charles quint s'y connoissoit bien, pour en boire, il ne tint a rien qu'il ne vînt demeurer en france. charles quint s'y connoissoit bien il en faisoit la différence. pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger, et que sa table fût complète, lui même faisoit vendanger, pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger. léon craignant même danger, d'un pressoir d'ay fit emplète, pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger, et que sa table fût complète.' the adrien mentioned in the second verse was pope adrian vi., who had been the emperor's preceptor, and who by his influence obtained the tiara on the death of leo x. unlike his predecessor, he was very simple in his habits.] [footnote : _maison rustique_, edition of .] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : an allusion to the curse pronounced by st. tresain against the men of ay.] [footnote : _maison rustique_ ( ), translated by richard surflet (london, ).] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : ibid.] [footnote : paulmier's treatise, _de vino et pomaceo_ ( ).] [footnote : _maison rustique_ ( ).] [footnote : legrand d'aussy's _vie privée des français_.] [footnote : louis perrier's _mémoire sur le vin de champagne_.] [footnote : _recueil des poésies latines et françaises sur le vin de champagne_ (paris, ). gonesse, a village of the department of seine-et-oise, about ten miles to the north of paris, had a high reputation for its bread for several centuries.] [footnote : 'notre bon roi, le grand henry, en régaloit sa belle hôtesse, quand il couchoit à damery, notre bon roi, le grand henry, c'étoit-là son jus favori; et son pain, celui de gonesse, notre bon roi, le grand henry, en régaloit sa belle hôtesse.' published in the _mercure_ of january . henry was accustomed to speak of the présidente as his 'belle hôtesse.'] [footnote : circa .] [footnote : _théâtre de l'agriculture et mesnage des champs_ ( ).] [footnote : published at orleans, . as regards the price of the newly-made wine of ay at this epoch, jehan pussot says that, in , it fetched from to livres; in , from livres upwards; and in , from to livres, at the epoch of the vintage.] [footnote : chaulieu says that st. evremond 'ne chante dans ses vers heureux que l'inconstance et la tocane'-- tocane being usually made of the wine of ay.] [footnote : st. evremond's _works_ (london, ).] [footnote : chaulieu extols the tocane of ay, and some verses of voltaire have been quoted on p. .] [footnote : arthur young's _travels in france in the years - - _.] [footnote : champagne. less for thy grace and glory, land of ours, than for thy dolour, dear, let the grief go; and here-- here's to thy skies, thy women, and thy flowers! france, take the toast, thy women and thy roses; france, to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store! and let the lips a grievous memory closes smile their proud smile once more! swarthy falernian, massica the red, were ye the nectars poured at the great gods' broad board? no, poor old wines, all but in name long dead, nectar's champagne--the sparkling soul of mirth, that, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, and like our flag goes proudly round the earth. 'i am the blood burgundian sunshine makes; a fine old feudal knight, of bluff and boisterous might, whose casque feels--ah, so heavy when one wakes!' 'and i, the dainty bordeaux, violets' perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize; my subtile savour gets in partridge wings its daintiest allies.' ah, potent chiefs, bordeaux and burgundy, if we must answer make, this sober counsel take: messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily, for 'tis champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth, that, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, and like our flag goes proudly round the earth. ay, 'tis the true, the typic wine of france; ay, 'tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes, and higher beats for every dire mischance. it was the wit that made our fathers wise, that made their valour gallant, gay, when plumes were stirred by winds of waving swords, and chivalry's defiance spoke the words: 'a vous, messieurs les anglais, les premiers!' let the dull beer-apostle till he's hoarse vent his small spleen and spite-- fate fill his sleepless night with nightmares of invincible remorse! we sing champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth, that, bubbling o'er with laughing gas, flashes gay sunbeams in the glass, and like our flag goes proudly round the earth. ] transcribers note: original spellings, including inconsistencies, left in this e-text. [illustration: sir kenelm digby knight. after the painting by sir anthony vandyke in his majesty's collection at windsor castle] the closet of sir kenelm digby knight opened: newly edited, with introduction, notes, and glossary, by anne macdonell london: philip lee warner albemarle street, w. the design on the front binding of this volume reproduces a contemporary binding (possibly by le gascon?) from the library of the author, whose arms it embodies. contents page introduction ix the closet of sir kenelm digby opened: title page of the first edition to the reader receipts for mead, metheglin, and other drinks cookery receipts the table appendix i. some additional receipts ii. the powder of sympathy iii. list of the herbs, flowers, &c., referred to in the text notes glossary index of receipts _the frontispiece is a reproduction in photogravure after the portrait of sir kenelm digby by sir anthony vandyke in his majesty's collection at windsor castle, by permission._ introduction with the waning of sir kenelm digby's philosophic reputation his name has not become obscure. it stands, vaguely perhaps, but permanently, for something versatile and brilliant and romantic. he remains a perpetual type of the hero of romance, the double hero, in the field of action and the realm of the spirit. had he lived in an earlier age he would now be a mythological personage; and even without the looming exaggeration and glamour of myth he still imposes. the men of to-day seem all of little stature, and less consequence, beside the gigantic creature who made his way with equal address and audacity in courts and councils, laboratories and ladies' bowers. so when, in a seventeenth-century bookseller's advertisement, i lighted on a reference to the curious compilation of receipts entitled _the closet of sir kenelm digby opened_, having the usual idea of him as a great gentleman, romantic royalist, and somewhat out-of-date philosopher, i was enough astonished at seeing his name attached to what seemed to me, in my ignorance, outside even his wide fields of interest, to hunt for the book without delay, examine its contents, and inquire as to its authenticity. of course i found it was not unknown. though the _dictionary of national biography_ omits any reference to it, and its name does not occur in mr. carew hazlitt's _old cookery books_, dr. murray quotes it in his great dictionary, and it is mentioned and discussed in _the life of digby by one of his descendants_. but mr. longueville treats it therein with too scant deference. one of a large and interesting series of contemporary books of the kind, its own individual interest is not small; and i commend it with confidence to students of seventeenth-century domestic manners. to apologise for it, to treat it as if it were some freak, some unowned sin of digby's, would be the greatest mistake. on the contrary, its connection with his life and career is of the closest; and i make bold to assert that of all his works, with the doubtful exception of his _memoirs_, it is the one best worth reprinting. it is in no spirit of irony that i say of him who in his own day was looked on almost as bacon's equal, who was the friend of bacon, galileo, descartes, harvey, ben jonson, cromwell, and all the great spirits of his time, the intimate of kings, and the special friend of queens, that his memory should be revived for his skill in making drinks, and his interest in his own and other folks' kitchens. if to the magnificent and protean sir kenelm must now be added still another side, if he must appear not only as gorgeous cavalier, inmate of courts, controversialist, man of science, occultist, privateer, conspirator, lover and wit, but as _bon viveur_ too, he is not the ordinary _bon viveur_, who feasts at banquets prepared by far away and unconsidered menials. his interest in cookery--say, rather, his passion for it--was in truth an integral part of his philosophy, and quite as serious as his laboratory practice at gresham college and paris. but to prove what may seem an outrageous exaggeration, we must first run over the varied story of his career; and then _the closet opened_ will be seen to fall into its due and important place. kenelm digby owed a good deal to circumstances, but he owed most of all to his own rich nature. his family was ancient and honourable. tiltons originally, they took their later name in henry iii's time, on the acquisition of some property in lincolnshire, though in warwickshire and rutland most of them were settled. three lancastrian digby brothers fell at towton, seven on bosworth field. to his grandfather, sir everard the philosopher, he was mentally very much akin, much more so than to his father, another of the many sir everards, and the most notorious one. save for his handsome person and the memory of a fervent devotion to the catholic faith, which was to work strongly in him after he came to mature years, he owed little or nothing to that most unhappy young man, surely the foolishest youth who ever blundered out of the ways of private virtue into conspiracy and crime. kenelm, his elder son, born july , , was barely three years old when his father, the most guileless and the most obstinate of the gunpowder plotters, died on the scaffold. the main part of the family wealth, as the family mansion gothurst--now gayhurst--in buckinghamshire, came from sir everard's wife, mary mulsho; and probably that is one reason why james i acceded to the doomed man's appeal that his widow and children should not be reduced to beggary. kenelm, in fact, entered on his active career with an income of £ a year; but even its value in those days did not furnish a youth of such varied ambitions and such magnificent exterior over handsomely for his journey through the world. his childhood was spent under a cloud. he was bred by a mother whose life was broken and darkened, and whose faith, barely tolerated, would naturally keep her apart from the more favoured persons of the kingdom. kenelm might have seemed destined to obscurity; but there was that about the youth that roused interest; and even the timid king james was attracted by him into a magnanimous forgetfulness of his father's offence. nevertheless, he could never have had the easy destiny of other young men of his class, unless he had been content to be a simple country gentleman; and from the first his circumstances and his restless mind dictated his career, which had always something in it of the brilliant adventurer. another branch of the digbies rose as the buckinghamshire family fell. it was a john digby, afterwards earl of bristol, who carried the news of the conspirators' design on the princess elizabeth. king james's gratitude was a ladder of promotion, which would have been firmer had not this protestant digby incurred the dislike of the royal favourite buckingham. but in sir john was english ambassador in madrid; and it may have been to get the boy away from the influence of his mother and her catholic friends that this kinsman, always well disposed towards him, and anxious for his advancement, took him off to spain when he was fourteen, and kept him there for a year. nor was his mother's influence unmeddled with otherwise. during some of the years of his minority at least, laud, then dean of gloucester, was his tutor. tossed to and fro between the rival faiths, he seems to have regarded them both impartially, or indifferently, with an occasional adherence to the one that for the moment had the better exponent. his education was that of a dilettante. a year in spain, in court and diplomatic circles, was followed by a year at oxford, where thomas allen, the mathematician and occultist, looked after his studies. allen "quickly discerned the natural strength of his faculties, and that spirit of penetration which is so seldom met with in persons of his age." he felt he had under his care a young pico di mirandola. it may have been now he made his boyish translation of the _pastor fido_, and his unpublished version of virgil's _eclogues_. as to the latter, the quite unimportant fact that he made one at all i offer to future compilers of digby biographies. allen till his death remained his friend and admirer, and bequeathed to him his valuable library. the mss. part of it digby presented to the bodleian. a portion of the rest he seems to have kept; and though it is said his english library was burnt by the parliamentarians, it seems not unlikely that some of allen's books were among his collection at paris sold after his death by the king of france. but kenelm was restlessly longing to taste life outside academic circles, and already he was hotly in love with his old playmate, now grown into great beauty, venetia anastasia stanley, daughter of edward stanley of tonge, in shropshire, and granddaughter of the earl of northumberland. if i could connect the beautiful venetia with this cookery book, i should willingly linger over the tale of her striking and brief career. but though the elder lady digby contributed something to _the closet opened_, there is no suggestion that it owes a single receipt to the younger. above kenelm in station as she was, he could hardly have aspired to her save for her curiously forlorn situation. mother-less, and her father a recluse, she was left to bring herself up, and to bestow her affections where she might. to kenelm's ardour she responded readily; and he philandered about her for a year or two. but his mother would hear nothing of the match; and at seventeen he was sent out on the grand tour, the object of which, we learn from his _memoirs_, was "to banish admiration, which for the most part accompanieth home-bred minds, and is daughter of ignorance." kenelm proved better than the ideal set before him; and the more he travelled the more he admired. into this tale of love and adventure i must break with the disturbing intelligence that the handsome and romantic and spirited youth was in all probability already procuring material for the compilation on _physick and chirurgery_, which hartman, his steward, published after his death. it was not as a middle-aged _bon viveur_, nor as an elderly hypochondriac, that he began his medical studies, but in the heyday of youth, and quite seriously, too. the explanation brings with it light on some other of his interests as well. when he set out on the grand tour, his head full of love and the prospects of adventure, he found the spare energy to write from london to a good friend of his, the rev. mr. sandy, parson of great lindford. in this letter--the original is in the ashmolean--kenelm asks for the good parson's prayers, and sends him "a manuscript of elections of divers good authors." mr. longueville, who gives the letter, has strangely failed to identify sandy with the famous richard napier, parson, physician, and astrologer, of the well-known family of napier of merchistoun. his father, alexander napier, was often known as "sandy"; and the son held the alternative names also. great lindford is two and a half miles from gothurst; and it is possible that protestant friends, perhaps laud himself, urged on the good parson the duty of looking after the young catholic gentleman. sandy (napier) was also probably his mother's medical adviser: he certainly acted as such to some members of her family. a man of fervent piety--his "knees were horny with frequent praying," says aubrey--he was, besides, a zealous student of alchemy and astrology, a friend of dee, of lilly, and of booker. very likely kenelm had been entrusted to allen's care at oxford on the recommendation of sandy; for allen, one of his intimates, was a serious occultist, who, according to his servant's account, "used to meet the spirits on the stairs like swarms of bees." with these occupations napier combined a large medical practice in the midlands, the proceeds of which he gave to the poor, living ascetically himself. his favourite nephew, richard napier the younger, his pupil in all these arts and sciences, was about the same age as kenelm, and spent his holidays at great lindford. the correspondence went on. digby continued his medical observations abroad; and after his return we find him writing to sandy, communicating "some receipts," and asking for pills that had been ordered. thus we have arrived at the early influences which drew the young catholic squire towards the art of healing and the occult sciences. the latter he dabbled in all his life. in the former his interest was serious and steadfast. he remained out of england three years. from paris the plague drove him to angers, where the appearance of the handsome english youth caused such commotion in the heart of the queen mother, marie de médicis, that she evidently lost her head. his narrative of her behaviour had to be expurgated when his _memoirs_ were published in . he fled these royal attentions; spread a report of his death, and made his way to italy. his two years in florence were not all spent about the grand-ducal court. his mind, keen and of infinite curiosity, was hungering after the universal knowledge he aspired to; and galileo, then writing his dialogues in his retirement at bellosguardo, could not have been left unvisited by the eager young student. in after years, digby used to say that it was in florence he met the carmelite friar who brought from the east the secret of the powder of sympathy, which cured wounds without contact. the friar who had refused to divulge the secret to the grand duke confided it to him--of which more hereafter. from florence he passed to spain; and his arrival was happily timed--probably by his ever anxious kinsman; for a few days later prince charles and buckingham landed, on the spanish marriage business; and so agreeable was young digby that, in spite of buckingham's dislike of his name, he became part of the prince's household, and returned with the party in october, . court favours seemed now to open out a career for him. king james knighted him, in what might have proved a fatal ceremony; for so tremblingly nervous of the naked steel was the royal hand, that buckingham had to turn the sword aside from doing damage instead of honour. he was also made gentleman of the bedchamber to prince charles. but no other signal favours followed these. for all his agreeableness he was not of the stuff courtiers are made of--though james had a kindness for him, and was entertained by his eagerness and ingenuity. bacon, too, just before his death, had come across this zealous young student of the experimental methods, and had meant, digby said, to include an account of the powder of sympathy in an appendix to his _natural history_. in spain, kenelm had flirted with some spanish ladies, notably with the beautiful donna anna maria manrique, urged thereto by gibes at his coldness; but venetia was still the lady of his heart. her amorous adventures, in the meanwhile, had been more serious and much more notorious. his letters had miscarried, and had been kept back by his mother. venetia pleaded her belief in his death. aubrey's account of her is a mass of picturesque scandal. "she was a most beautiful desirable creature.... the young eagles had espied her, and she was sanguine and tractable, and of much suavity (which to abuse was great pittie)." making all allowance for gossip, the truth seems to be that in kenelm's absence she had been at least the mistress of sir edward sackville, afterwards the fourth earl of dorset; that dorset tired of her; and on digby's return she was more than willing to return to her old love. but, alas! sackville had her picture, which seemed to her compromising. digby, therefore, having accepted her apologies and extenuations, challenged sackville to a duel; whereupon the faithless one proved at least magnanimous; refused to fight, gave up the picture, and swore that venetia was blameless as she was fair. a private marriage followed; and it was only on the birth of his second son john that sir kenelm acknowledged it to the world. to read nearly all his _memoirs_ is to receive the impression that he looked on his wife as a wronged innocent. to read the whole is to feel he knew the truth and took the risk, which was not very great after all; for the lady of the many suitors and several adventures settled down to the mildest domesticity. they say he was jealous; but no one has said she gave him cause. the tale runs that dorset visited them once a year, and "only kissed her hand, sir kenelm being by." but digby was a good lover. all the absurd rhodomontade of his strange _memoirs_ notwithstanding, there are gleams of rare beauty in the story of his passion, which raise him to the level of the great lovers. his _memoirs_ were designed to tell "the beginning, progress, and consummation of that excellent love, which only makes me believe that our pilgrimage in this world is not indifferently laid upon all persons for a curse." and here is a very memorable thing. "understanding and love are the natural operation of a reasonable creature; and this last, which is a gift that of his own nature must always be bestowed, _being the only thing that is really in his power to bestow_, it is the worthiest and noblest that can be given." but, as he naïvely says, "the relations that follow marriage are ... a clog to an active mind"; and his kinsman bristol was ever urging him to show his worth "by some generous action." the result of this urging was scanderoon. his object, plainly stated, was to ruin venetian trade in the levant, to the advantage of english commerce. the aid and rescue of algerian slaves were afterthoughts. king james promised him a commission; but buckingham's secretary, on behalf of his master absent in the ile de ré, thought his privileges were being infringed, and the king drew back. digby acted throughout as if he had a "publike charge," but he was really little other than a pirate. he sailed from deal in december, , his ships the "eagle" and the "george and elizabeth." it was six months before the decisive fight took place; but on the way he had captured some french and spanish ships near gibraltar; and what with skirmishes and sickness, his voyage did not want for risk and episode at any time. digby the landsman maintained discipline, reconciled quarrels, doctored his men, ducked them for disorderliness, and directed the naval and military operations like any old veteran. at scanderoon [now alexandretta in the levant] the french and venetians, annoyed by his presence, fired on his ships. he answered with such pluck and decision that, after a three hours' fight, the enemy was completely at his mercy, and the venetians "quitted to him the signiority of the roade." in his journal of the voyage you may read a sober account, considering who was the teller of the tale, of a brilliant exploit. he does not disguise the fact that he was acting in defiance of his own countrymen in the levant. the vice-consul at scanderoon kept telling him that "our nation" at aleppo "fared much the worse for his abode there." he was setting the merchants in the levant by the ears, and when he turned his face homewards, the english were the most relieved of all. his exploit "in that drowsy and inactive time ... was looked upon with general estimation," says clarendon. the king gave him a good welcome, but could not follow it up with any special favour; for there were many complaints over the business, and scanderoon had to be repudiated. but digby could not be merely privateer, and in the scanderoon expedition we are privileged to look on the pirate as a man of taste. his stay in florence had given him an interest in the fine arts; and at milo and delphos he contrived to make some healthy exercise for his men serve the avidity of the collector. modern excavators will read with horror of his methods. "i went with most of my shippes to delphos, a desert island, where staying till the rest were readie, because idlenesse should not fixe their mindes upon any untoward fansies (as is usuall among seamen), and together to avayle myselfe of the convenience of carrying away some antiquities there, i busied them in rolling of stones doune to the see side, which they did with such eagernesse as though it had been the earnestest business that they had come out for, and they mastered prodigious massie weightes; but one stone, the greatest and fairest of all, containing four statues, they gave over after they had been, men, a whole day about it.... but the next day i contrived a way with mastes of shippes and another shippe to ride over against it, that brought it doune with much ease and speede"! what became of this treasure so heroically acquired? so much for art. literature was to have its turn with the versatile pirate ere he reached his native shores. during a time of forced inaction at milo, he began to write his _memoirs_. a great commander was expected during a truce, it appears, to pay lavish attentions to the native ladies. neglect of this gallantry was construed almost as a national insult. sir kenelm, faithful to his venetia, excused himself on the plea of much business. but he had little or no business; and he used his retirement to pen the amazing account of his early life and his love story, where he appears as theagenes and his wife as stelliana, as strange a mixture of rhodomontade and real romance as exists among the autobiographies of the world. of course it does not represent digby at his maturity. among his mss. the _memoirs_ were found with the title of _loose fantasies_, and they were not printed till . it was quite a minor post in the navy he received in recognition of scanderoon, and one wonders why he took it. perhaps to gain experience, of which he was always greedy. or scanderoon may have emptied his treasuries. after the restoration he had a hard struggle to get repaid for his ransom of slaves on the algerian coast. at any rate, as naval commissioner he earned the reputation of a hard-working public servant. if his constantly-changing life can be said to have had a turning-point, it occurred in , when his wife died suddenly. the death of the lovely venetia was the signal for a great outburst of vile poetry on her beauty and merits. ben jonson, her loyal friend and kenelm's, wrote several elegies, one of them the worst. vandyck painted her several times; and so the memory of her loveliness is secure. as to her virtues, amiability seems to have been of their number. "unmatcht for beauty, chaster than the ayre," wrote one poet. when they opened her head it was discovered she had little brain; and gossip attributed the fact to her having drunk viper-wine--by her husband's advice--for her complexion. this sounds absurd only to those who have not perused the _receipts in physick and chirurgery_. little brain or not, her husband praised her wits. ben jonson wrote with devotion of her "who was my muse, and life of all i did." digby imitated his father-in-law who, in similar circumstances, gave himself up to solitude and recollection. his place of retirement was gresham college. do its present students remember it once housed a hermit who "wore a long mourning cloake, a high crowned hat, his beard unshorne ... as signes of sorrowe for his beloved wife"? there "he diverted himself with chymistry and the professor's good conversation." he had "a fair and large laboratory ... erected under the lodgings of the divinity reader." hans hunneades the hungarian was his operator. but another influence was at work. for the first time his mind turned seriously to religion. romanist friends were persuading him to his father's faith. his old tutor laud and other protestants were doing their best to settle him on their side. out of the struggle of choice he came, in , a fervent and convinced catholic. he was to prove his devotion over and over again; but i fear that catholics of to-day would view with suspicion his views on ecclesiastical authority. in his dedication of his _treatise on the soul_ to his son kenelm, there is a spirited defence of the right, of the intelligent to private judgment in matters of doctrine. nevertheless, his catholicism, though rationalist, was sincere, and he spent much energy in propaganda among his friends--witness his rather dull little brochure, the _conference with a lady about choice of religion_ ( ), and his correspondence with his kinsman, lord digby, who did, indeed, later, come over to the older faith. ere long he earned the reputation of being "not only an open but a busy papist," though "an eager enemy to the jesuits." from this time dates his close friendship with the queen, henrietta maria, and her catholic friends, sir tobie matthew, endymion porter, and walter montague. he and montague were specially chosen by the queen to appeal to the english catholics for aid towards charles's campaign in scotland. digby was certainly a hot inciter of the king to foolish activity; but in the light of his after history, it would seem always with a view to the complete freedom of the catholic religion. a prominent king's man, nay, a queen's man, which was held to be something extremer, he played, however, an individual part in the struggle. he was well fitted for the cavalier rôle by the magnificence of his person, by his splendid hospitality, his contempt for sects, his aristocratic instincts, and his manner of the great world. but if he liked good cheer and a great way of living, he is never to be imagined as clinking cans with a "hey for cavaliers! ho for cavaliers!" he never fought for the king's cause--though he fought a duel in paris with a french lord who took charles's name in vain, and killed his man too. his rôle was always the intellectual one. he conspired for the cause--chiefly, i think, out of personal friendship, and because he held it to be the cause of his church. he was not a virulent politician; and on the question of divine right the orthodox cavaliers must have felt him to be very unsound indeed. the era of parliaments had now come, and digby was to feel it. he was summoned to the bar of the house as a popish recusant. charles was ordered to banish him and montague from his councils and his presence; and their examination continued at intervals till the middle of . the queen interceded for digby with much warmth, but she was a dangerous friend; and in the same year montague and he were sent to prison. i have heard a tradition that crosby hall was for a time his comfortable jail, but can find no corroboration of this. the serjeant-at-arms confined him for a brief space at the three tuns, near charing cross, "where his conversation made the prison a place of delight" to his fellows. later, at winchester house, southwark, where he remained in honourable confinement for two years, he was busy with writing and experimenting--to preserve him from "a languishing and rusting leisure." two pamphlets, both of them hasty improvisations, one a philosophic commentary on a certain stanza of the _faërie queen_, the other, his well-known _observations on the 'religio medici'_, are but mere bubbles of this seething activity, given over mostly to the preparation of his _two treatises_, "of the body," and "of the soul," published later in paris, and to experiments on glass-making. many efforts were made for his release, the most efficacious by the queen of france. it should have been the dowager marie de médicis, in memory of her hot flame for him when he was a youth; but though she may have initiated the appeal, she died before his release, which he seems to have owed to anne of austria's good services. freedom meant banishment, but this sentence he did not take very seriously. in these years he was continually going and coming between france and england, now warned by parliament, now tolerated, now banished, again daring return, and escaping from the net. "i can compare him to nothing but to a great fish that we catch and let go again; but still he will come to the bait," said selden of him in his _table-talk_. exile in paris provided fresh opportunity for scientific study, though his connection with the english catholic malcontents, and his services to the queen henrietta maria, who now made him her chancellor, absorbed much of his time. when the cause needed him, the cavalier broke away from philosophy; and in he set out for rome, at the bidding of the queen, to beg money for her schemes. with all his address, diplomacy was not among the chief of his talents. with high personages he took a high tone. innocent x gave , crowns to the cause; but they quarrelled; and the pope went so far as to accuse digby of misappropriation of the money. digby, a man of clean hands, seems to have taken up the queen's quarrel. she would have nothing to do with rinuccini's irish expedition, which his holiness was supporting; and her chancellor naturally insisted on disbursing the funds at her commands rather than at the pope's. moreover, he was now renewing his friendship with thomas white, a heretic catholic priest, of several _aliases_, some of whose work had been placed on the index. white was a philosophic thinker of considerable power and subtlety, and he and digby acted and reacted on each other strongly--though digby's debt is perhaps the greater. their respective parts in the _two treatises_ and in the _institutionum peripateticorum libri quinque_, published under white's name, but for which sir kenelm is given the main credit, can hardly now be sifted. white, at all events, was not a prudent friend for an envoy to the holy see. digby "grew high and hectored with his holinesse, and gave him the lye. the pope said he was mad." thus aubrey. henrietta maria sent him once more on the same errand; but the roman curia continued to look on him as a "useless and restless man, with scanty wisdom." before returning, however, he paid a round of visits to italian courts, making everywhere a profound impression by his handsome person and his liveliness. he had to hasten back to england on his own business. his fortunes were desperate; and he desired to compound for his estates. a week or so after the king's death he is proved by his correspondence to be in france, having fled after one more pronouncement of him as a dangerous man. he went into exile this time with a sad heart; and it was not only the loyalist in him that cried out. the life of an english country gentleman would never have satisfied him; yet he longed for it now it had become impossible. he writes from calais to a friend: "those innocent recreations you mention of tabors and pipes, and dancing ladies, and convenient country houses, shady walks and close arbours, make one sigh to be again a spectator of them, and to be again in little england, where time slides more gently away than in any part of the world. _quando sia mai ch'a rividerti io torno_?" he went this time knowing better than his fellow royalists the meaning of events. he was still a rank, but at least an intelligent, conspirator. english correspondents at rouen and caen report him in the company of one watson, an independent; and that he is proposing "to join the interests of all the english papists with the bloody party that murdered the king." dr. winsted, an english doctor in rouen, asked him with indignation how he could meditate going back to england, "considering the abomination of that country." digby replied that he was forced to it. "if he went not now he must starve." he plainly saw who was the real and only force in england; and he was going to make a bargain with the strong man for himself and his co-religionists. as a matter of fact there is no trace of his return at this moment. not merely was his property in danger, but his head as well. yet he never repented of his policy, and he carried it out, so far as might be, in his dealings with cromwell a few years later. and henrietta maria bore him no grudge on this score. exile in paris meant friendly intercourse with, and consolation of the queen, but also scientific research. in evelyn was visiting him there, and being stirred by his enthusiasm into attending fébur's chemistry lectures along with him. before that must have taken place his pilgrimage to descartes, who died in . apparently sir kenelm had gone to egmont as an unknown stranger; and it throws light on his wide reputation as a man of ideas and a conversationalist, that into his torrent of questions and speculation descartes broke with, "you can be none other than digby." the english scientist's practical mind--for he had always a practical end in view, however fantastic his methods--showed itself in his counsel to the author of the _discours sur la méthode_. why all this labour for mere abstract speculation? why not apply his genius to the one great subject, the prolongation of human life? descartes, it appears, did not need the advice. he said the subject was engaging his mind; and though he "dared not look forward to man being rendered immortal, he was quite certain his length of life could be made equal to the patriarch's." in fact, he was composing at the time an _abrégé de médecine_, and popular report said he believed men could live four or five hundred years. he died prematurely of too much faith in his own medical theories. in permission was given to digby to return, on condition he would not meddle with royalist plots. he had been in communication with cromwell, and had done some diplomatic business for him in paris. on his return in , and for the next few years, he was in the closest relations with the protector, thereby carrying out the principle he had probably adopted from white, of a "universal passive obedience to any species of government that had obtained an establishment." his royalist friends made an outcry, and so did the puritans; but digby was confident of obtaining from cromwell great advantages for the english catholics, and the protector, it seems, fully trusted the intentions and the abilities of this strange and fascinating personality who came to him out of the enemy's camp. delicate business was given into his hands, that of preventing an alliance between france and spain. prynne, in his _true and perfect narrative_, bitterly denounced cromwell in "that sir kenelme digby was his particular favourite, and lodged at whitehall; that maurice conry, provincial of the franciscans in england, and other priests, had his protections under hand and seal." of digby's feelings towards cromwell there is clear evidence. it seems his loyalty had been questioned in his absence; and he writes from paris, in march, , to secretary thurloe: "whatsoever may be disliked by my lord protector and the council of state must be detested by me. my obligations to his highness are so great, etc." and again, "how passionate i am for his service and for his honour and interest, even to exposing my life for him." the intimacy, begun on both sides in mere policy, had evidently grown to friendship and mutual admiration. the illness of which he died had already attacked him, and it was for his health he went to montpelier in . his stay in that seat of learning was made memorable by his reading to a company of eminent persons his _discourse on the powder of sympathy_, which has brought him more fame and more ridicule than anything else. i have already referred to the secret confided to him as a youth in florence by the carmelite friar from the east. when he came back to england he spoke of the great discovery, and had occasion to use it. howell--of the _familiar letters_--was, according to sir kenelm's account, wounded while trying to part two friends who were fighting a duel. his wounds were hastily tied up with his garter, and digby was sent for. digby asked for the garter-bandage, and steeped it in a basin in which he had dissolved his secret powder (of vitriol). immediately howell felt a "pleasing kind of freshnesse, as it were a wet cold napkin did spread over my hand." "take off all the plasters and wrappings," said digby. "keep the wound clean, and neither too hot nor too cold." afterwards he took the bandage from the water, and hung it before a great fire to dry; whereupon howell's servant came running to say his master was much worse, and in a burning fever. the bandage plunged once more in the dissolved powder, soothed the patient at a distance; and in a few days the wound was healed. digby declared that james and buckingham were interested witnesses of the cure; and the king "drolled with him about it (which he could do with a very good grace)." he said he divulged the secret to the duke of mayenne. after the duke's death his surgeon sold it so that "now there is scarce any country barber but knows it." why did not digby try it on his wounded men at scanderoon? his _discourse_ to the learned assembly is a curious medley of subtle observation and old wives' tales, set out in sober, orderly, one might almost say scientific, fashion. roughly, the substance of it may be summed up as "like to like." the secret powder is a medium whereby the atoms in the bandage are drawn back to their proper place in the body! after digby's death you could buy the powder at hartman's shop for sixpence. at the restoration he returned to england. he was still henrietta maria's chancellor. his relations with cromwell had never broken their friendship; and probably he still made possets for her at somerset house as he had done in the old days. but by charles ii there was no special favour shown him, beyond repayment for his ransom of english slaves during the scanderoon voyage; and in he was forbidden the court. the reason is not definitely known. charles may have only gradually, but at last grimly, resented, the more he learnt of it, digby's recognition of the usurper. he found happiness in science, in books, in conversation, in medicine, stilling and cookery. in he had lectured at gresham college on _the vegetation of plants_. when the royal society was inaugurated, in , he was one of the council. his house became a kind of academy, where wits, experimentalists, occultists, philosophers, and men of letters worked and talked. this was the house in covent garden. an earlier one is also noted by aubrey. "the faire howses in holbourne between king's street and southampton street (which brake-off the continuance of them) were, about , built by sir kenelme; where he lived before the civill warres. since the restauration of charles ii he lived in the last faire house westward in the north portico of covent garden, where my lord denzill hollis lived since. he had a laboratory there." this latter house, which can be seen in its eighteenth-century guise in hogarth's print of "morning," in _the four hours of the day_ set, is now the quarters of the national sporting club. there he worked and talked and entertained, made his metheglin and _aqua vitæ_ and other messes, till his last illness in . paris as ever attracted him; and in france were good doctors for his disease, the stone. he had himself borne on a litter to the coast; but feeling death's hand on him, he turned his face homeward again, and died in covent garden, june , . in his will he desired to be buried by his beautiful venetia in christ church, newgate, and that no mention should be made of him on the tomb, where he had engraved four latin inscriptions to her memory. but ferrar wrote an epitaph for him:-- "under this tomb the matchless digby lies, digby the great, the valiant, and the wise," etc. the great fire destroyed the tomb, and scattered their ashes. he had died poor; and his surviving son john, with whom he had been on bad terms, declared that all the property that came to him was his father's sumptuously compiled history of the digby family. apparently john regained some part of the estates later, which perhaps had only been left away from him to pay off debts. a great library of sir kenelm's was still in paris; and after his death it was claimed by the french king, and sold for , crowns. his kinsman, the second earl of bristol, bought it, and joined it to his own; and the catalogue of the combined collection, sold in london in , is an interesting and too little tapped source for digby's mental history. of his five children, three were already dead. kenelm, his eldest son, had fallen at st. neot's, in , fighting for the king. it was his remaining son john who sanctioned the publication of his father's receipts. * * * * * sir kenelm digby has been recognised as the type of the great amateur, but always with a shaking of the head. why this scorn of accomplished amateurs? rather may their tribe increase, let us pray. our world languisheth now for lack of them. he was fitted by nature to play the rôle superbly, to force his circumstances, never over pliant, to serve not his material interests, but his fame, his craving for universal knowledge and attainments. says wood: "his person was handsome and gigantick, and nothing was wanting to make him a compleat cavalier. he had so graceful elocution and noble address that had he been dropped out of the clouds into any part of the world, he would have made himself respected; but the jesuits who cared not for him, spoke spitefully, and said it was true, but then he must not stay there above six weeks. he had a great faculty, which proceeded from abundance of wit and invention, of proposing and reporting matters to the virtuosi." women adored him; and he took great pains to please them--though in spite of the importunities of marie de médicis, the long friendship with henrietta maria, his early flirtation with the lovely spaniard, his earnest and impolitic championship of the notorious lady purbeck--romish convert and adventuress--venetia, it seems, remained his only love. he was never the mere gallant. he treated women as his intellectual equals, but as equals who had to be splendidly entertained and amused. his conversation was "ingeniose and innocent." lloyd speaks of "the grace wherewith he could relate _magnarum rerum minutias_, the little circumstances of great matters." but men were at his feet as well; and on his tour among italian courts, one of the grandees said that, "having no children, he was very willing his wife should bring him a prince by sir kenelme, whom he imagined the just measure of perfection." a first-rate swordsman, yet was he "not apt in the least to give offence." his strength was that of a giant. bristol related that one day at sherborne he took up "a midling man," chair and all, with one arm. but there was nothing of the swashbuckler about him, and his endless vitality was matched by his courtesy. true, he hustled a pope; but he addressed the short parliament in such reverential terms as no roundhead could have found. one who had been courtier, exile, naval commander, student, prisoner, and diplomatist, who had associated with all sorts of persons, from kings to alchemists and cooks, had learnt resourcefulness. but he was never too hard put to it perhaps, seeing that "if he had not fourpence, wherever he came he would find respect and credit." "no man knew better how to abound, and to be abased, and either was indifferent to him." he had his detractors. one who plays so many parts incites envy and ridicule; and he laid himself particularly open to both. fantasy was in the digby blood; and that agility of mind and nerve that turns now here, now there, to satisfy an unquenchable curiosity, that exuberance of mental spirits that forces to rapid and continuous expression, has ever been suspect of the english mind. he was "highly caressed in france." to evelyn sir kenelm was a "teller of strange things," and again the diarist called him "an errant mountebank"--though evelyn sought his society, and was grateful for its stimulus. lady fanshawe, who met him at calais, at the governor's table, says he "enlarged somewhat more in extraordinary stories than might be averred.... that was his infirmity, though otherwise a person of most excellent parts, and a very fine bred gentleman." "a certain eccentricity and unsteadiness perhaps inseparable from a mind of such vanity," is lodge's criticism. "the pliny of our age for lying," quoth stubbes. but digby's extraordinary stories were by no means all false. he may have talked sometimes to _épater le bourgeois;_ but his serious statements were often judged as were the wonders of evolution by country audiences in the seventies. his offence was he must always be talking. his ideas he must share, expound, illustrate, whether or no they were ripe. it is the sign-manual of the sincere amateur. his books are probably but the lees of his conversation. he was not, in the first place, a literary person. his _memoirs_ are good reading for those with a touch of the fantastic in themselves; but the average literary critic will dub them rhodomontade. his scientific and controversial treatises, not at all unreadable, and full of strange old lore, survive as curiosities never to be reprinted. nevertheless, his temper was distinctly scientific, and if his exact discoveries be limited to observing the effect of oxygen on plant-life, and his actual invention to a particular kind of glass bottle, yet he was an eager student and populariser of the work of bacon, galileo, and harvey; and his laboratories were the nursing grounds of the new experimental philosophy. with a distinctly rationalistic temper, he was yet a faithful, if independent, son of the roman church. he speaks sometimes as if he regarded the church as the great storehouse of necessary authority for the intellectually feeble; but he accepted the main dogmas himself, being satisfied of them by intuition and reason. protestantism, he held, was not for the ordinary person, considering "the natural imbecility of man's wits and understandings." his piety was a thing apart, a matter of heredity perhaps, and of his poetic temperament. i have heard him called by that abused name, "mystic." he was nothing of the sort, and he said so in memorable words. as an act of devotion he translated the _adhering to god_ of albertus magnus. in the dedication to his mother he compares himself, as the translator of this mystic treatise, to certain travellers who "speak upon hearsay of countries they were never in." "the various course in the world that i have runne myself out of breath in, hath afforded me little means for solid recollection." yet was he now and then upon the threshold. with streaks of the quack and adventurer in him, he gave out deep notes. says lloyd: "his soul [was] one of those few souls that understand themselves." with an itch to use his pen as well as his tongue, he had none of the patience, the hankering after perfection of form, of the professional man of letters. his account of his scanderoon exploit, a sea-log, a little written-up later, was perhaps not meant for publication. it did not see the light till . his _memoirs_ were written, he says, "for my own recreation, and then continued and since preserved only for my own private content--to please myself in looking back upon my past and sweet errors." he even begs those who may come upon the ms. "to convert these blotted sheets into a clear flame." his commentary on the _faëry queen_ stanza was thrown off in a hurry. "the same discourse i made upon it the first half quarter of an hour that i saw it, i send you there, without having reduced it to any better form, or added anything at all to it." and so for the better-known and interesting _observations on 'religio medici.'_ browne reproached him for his review of a pirated edition. digby replied he had never authorised its publication, written as it was in twenty-four hours, which included his procuring and reading the book--a truly marvellous _tour de force_; for the thing is still worth perusal. he was always the improvisor--ready, brilliant, vivid, imperfect. he must give vent to the ideas that came upon him in gusts. "the impressions which creatures make upon me," he says, "are like boisterous winds." he fully recognised his own limitations. "i pretend not to learning," he declares, with exaggerated modesty. amateur and improviser of genius, let us praise him as such. the spacious, generous minds that can find room for all the ideas and culture of an epoch are never numerous enough. there is no one like such amateurs for bridging two ages; and digby, with one hand in lilly's and the other in bacon's, joins the mediæval to the modern world. nor is a universal amateur a genius who has squandered his powers; but a man exercising his many talents in the only way possible to himself, and generally with much entertainment and stimulus to others. it was ben jonson, too great a man to be one of his detractors on this score, who wrote of him: "he is built like some imperial room for that[ ] to dwell in, and be still at home. his breast is a brave palace, a broad street, where all heroic ample thoughts do meet; where nature such a large survey hath ta'en as other souls to his, dwelt in a lane." [footnote : all virtue.] there was nothing singular in his interest in astrology and alchemy. lilly and booker, both of them among his acquaintances, were ordered to attend the parliamentary army at the siege of colchester, "to encourage the soldiers with predictions of speedy victory." still--though he believed in greater absurdities--his attitude towards such matters was that of his chosen motto, _vacate et videte._ "to rely too far upon that vaine art i judge to be rather folly than impiety." as with regard to spirits and witches, he says, "i only reserve my assent." that he was not altogether absorbed in the transmutation of metals in his laboratory practice, and yet that he dabbled in it, makes him historically interesting. in him better than in newton do we realise the temper of the early members of the royal society. in this tale of his other activities i have not forgotten _the closet opened_. of all digby's many interests the most constant and permanent was medicine. how to enlarge the span of man's life was a problem much meditated on in his age. we have seen how descartes's mind ran on it; and in bacon's _natural history_ there is reference to a 'book of the prolongation of life.' in spite of what is written on his janssen hermit portrait--_saber morir la mayor hazanza_--digby loved life. his whole exuberant career is a pæan to life, for itself and its great chances, and because "it giveth the leave to vent and boyle away the unquietnesses and turbulences that follow our passions." to prolong life, fortify it, clarify it, was a noble pursuit, and he set out on it as a youth under the tuition of the 'good parson of lindford. his _physick and chirurgery_ receipts, published by hartman, are many of them incredible absurdities, not unfrequently repulsive; but when we compare them with other like books of the time, they fit into a natural and not too fantastic place. sir thomas browne was laughing at digby, but not at digby alone, in the passage in _vulgar errors_--"when for our warts we rub our hands before the moon, or commit any maculated part unto the touch of the dead." sir kenelm gathered his receipts on all his roads through europe, noted them down, made them up with his own hands, and administered them to his friends. in hartman's _family physician_ is given "an experienced remedy against the falling sicknes, wherewith sir k. digby cur'd a minister's son at franckfort in germany, in the year ." it begins, "take the skull of a man that died of a violent death." (hartman says he helped to prepare the ghastly concoction.) i have already noted how he doctored his beautiful wife's complexion; and how he was called in to cure howell's wound. in a poetic tribute he is referred to as: "hee, that all med'cines can exactly make, and freely give them." evelyn records how digby "advised me to try and digest a little better, and gave me a water which he said was only raine water of the autumnal equinox exceedingly rectified, and smelt like _aqua fortis_." here, at last, we have come to the end of sir kenelm the amateur. if he was an empiric, so were all the doctors of his time; and he may be described as a professional unpaid physician who carried on a frequently interrupted practice. that he did not publish his receipts himself does not reflect on his own idea of their importance. they had a wide circulation among his friends. and, as i have pointed out, he never showed great eagerness to publish. such works as appeared in his lifetime were evidently printed at the request of learned societies, or by friends to whom they were dedicated, or by white. the distance between the healer and the cook has grown to be immense in recent times. the college of physicians and mary jane in the kitchen are not on nodding terms--though one sees faint signs of an effort to bridge the wide gap. but in the seventeenth century the gap can hardly be said to have existed at all. at the back of the doctor is plainly seen the figure of the herbalist and simpler, who appear again prominently in the still-room and the kitchen, by the side of great ladies and great gentlemen, bent on making the best and the most of the pleasures of the table no doubt, but quite as much on the maintenance of health as of hospitality. simpler, herbalist, doctor, distiller, cook--digby was all of them, and all of them with the utmost seriousness; nor in this was he in the least singular. the great bacon was deeply concerned with such cares, though in certain of his recommendations, such as: "to provide always an apt break-fast," to take this every morning, not to forget to take that twice a month, one may read more of the valetudinarian than in digby. _the closet opened_ is but one of an interesting series of books of the kind, which have been too much neglected by students of seventeenth-century manners and lore and language. did not w.j. issue the countess of kent's _choice manual of physic and chirurgey_, with directions for preserving and candying? patrick, lord ruthven's _ladies' cabinet opened_ appeared in and . nor was it only the _cuisine_ of the nobles that roused interest. one of the curiosities of the time is _the court and kitchen of elizabeth, commonly called joan cromwell, the wife of the late usurper truly described and represented and now made publick for general satisfaction,_ . the preface is scurrilous beyond belief. compiled from the gossip of servants, it is meant to cast ridicule on the housekeeping of the protector's establishment. but the second part is a sober collection of by no means very penurious recipes from joan's own kitchen books. hartman, his steward, made an excellent thing out of digby's receipts--though the publishing of _the closet opened_ was not his doing, i think. his _choice and experimented receipts in physick and chirurgery_ had already appeared in , which suggested to some other hanger-on of the digby household that john digby's consent might be obtained for printing sir kenelm's culinary as well as his medical note-books. hartman followed up this new track with persistence and profit to himself. as a mild example of the "choice and experimented," i transcribe "an approved remedy for biting of a mad dog": "take a quart of ale, and a dram of treacle, a handful of rue, a spoonful of shavings or filings of tin. boil all these together, till half be consumed. take of this two spoonfuls in the morning, and at night cold. it is excellent for man or beast." i need not continue. the receipts are there for curious searchers. they were applied to aristocratic patients; and they are no more absurd or loathsome than those of other books of the time and kind. even bacon is fantastic enough with his "grains of youth" and "methusalem water." in , george hartman published, "for the publike good," _the true preserver and restorer of health_. it is dedicated to the countess of sunderland, and is described as "the collection for the most part (which i had hitherto reserved) of your incomparable kinsman and my truly honourable master, sir kenelm digby, whom i had the honour to serve for many years beyond the seas, as well as in england; and so continued with him till his dying day, and of whose generosity and bounty i have sufficiently tasted, and no less of your illustrious fathers, both before and after my glorious masters decease." of this book he says, "the world hath not yet seen such another piece." commend me to the forthright methods of seventeenth century advertisement! in the second part, "excellent directions for cookery," _the closet opened_ was largely drawn on. in appeared _the family physician_, by george hartman, phylo-chymist ... who liv'd and travell'd with the honourable sir kenelm digby in several parts of europe, the space of seven years till he died. this other choice compilation owes much to the "incomparable" one, and is described as "the marrow of collections." but hartman is not the only witness to digby's connoisseurship in the joint mysteries. better to my mind than even hartman's are the style and the spirit of master may. in appeared _the accomplisht cook,_ or the art and mystery of cookery ... approved by the fifty years experience and industry of robert may, in his attendance on several persons of honour. it is dedicated to lord lumley, lord lovelace, sir wm. paston, sir kenelme digby, and sir frederick cornwallis, "so well known to the nation for their admired hospitalities," and generally to "the race of those that for the gusto stand, whose tables a whole ark command of nature's plentie." "he is an alien, a meer stranger in england that hath not been acquainted with your generous housekeeping; for my own part, my more particular tyes of service to you, my honoured lords, have built me up to the height of this experience." his preface is a heartrending cry of regret for the good old times before usurping parliaments banished splendidly extravagant gentlemen across the seas, "those golden days of peace and hospitality, when you enjoy'd your own, so as to entertain and relieve others ... those golden days wherein were practised the triumphs and trophies of cookery, then was hospitality esteemed and neighbourhood preserved, the poor cherished and god honoured; then was religion less talk't on and more practis't, then was atheism and schisme less in fashion, and then did men strive to be good rather than to seem so." high-souled were the _chefs_ of the seventeenth century! the edition of _the closet opened_ is evidently the first. the interleaved example mentioned in the catalogue of the digby library is of the same date. whoever prepared it for the press and wrote the egregious preface "to the reader"--hartman, or as i think, another--gave it the title; but it was a borrowed one. some years earlier, in , had appeared _the queen's closet opened, incomparable secrets which were presented unto the queen by the most experienced persons of the times, many wherof were had in esteem when she pleased to descend to private recreation_. the queen, of course, is henrietta maria, and chief among the "experienced persons" referred to was certainly her chancellor, digby. possibly he may even have suggested the printing of the collection. like titles are met with again and again. _nature's cabinet opened_, a medical work, was attributed to browne, though he repudiated it. ruthven's book i have already alluded to. _the queen-like closet_, a rich cabinet, by hannah wolly, came out in . of the two books, the queen's and her chancellor's, digby's has afforded me by far the most delight. though many of the receipts are evidently given as sent in, the stamp of his personality is on the whole; and he is the poet of all these culinary artists. but on the score of usefulness to the housewife i forbear all judgment. the recipes may be thought extravagant in these late hard times--though epicurism has changed rather than vanished. lord bacon's receipt for making "manus christi for the stomach" begins, "take of the best pearls very finely pulverised one drachm"; and a health resolution runs, "to take once during supper wine in which gold is quenched." costly ingredients such as pearls and leaf gold appear only once among digby's receipts. the modern housewife may be aghast at the thought of more than a hundred ways of making mead and metheglin. mead recalls to her perhaps her first history-book, wherein she learnt of it as a drink of the primitive anglo-saxons. if she doubt the usefulness of the collection in her own kitchen, let her take the little volume to her boudoir, and read it there as gossiping notes of the _beau monde_ in the days when james i and the charleses ruled the land. she will find herself in lofty company, and on intimate terms with them. they come down to our level, without any show of condescension. lords and ladies who were personages of a solemn state pageant, are now human neighbourly creatures, owning to likes and dislikes, and letting us into the secrets of their daily habits. it pleases me to think of henrietta maria, in her exile, busying herself in her still-room, and forgetting her dangers and sorrows in simpling and stilling and kitchen messes; and of her devoted sir kenelm, in the moments when he is neither abeting her royalist plots, nor diverting her mind to matters of high science, or the mysteries of the faith, but bringing to her such lowlier consolations as are hinted in "hydromel as i made it weak for the queen mother." we are not waiting in a chill ante-chamber when we read, "the queen's ordinary bouillon de santé in a morning was thus," or of the pressis which she "used to take at nights--of great yet temperate nourishment--instead of a supper." and who can hint at court scandals in the face of such evidence of domesticity as "the queen useth to baste meat with yolks of fresh eggs, &c." or "the way that the countess de penalva makes the portuguese eggs for the queen is this"? we cannot help being interested in the habits of lady hungerford, who "useth to make her mead at the end of summer, when she takes up her honey, and begins to drink it in lent." my lady gower and her husband were of independent tastes. each had their own receipts. it must be remembered that dr. johnson said no woman could write a cookery-book; and he threatened to write one himself. and sir kenelm had many serious rivals among his own sex. in such an _embarras de choix_ as given by all these drink receipts, we may be in doubt whether to try "my lord gorge's meath," or "the countess of newport's" cherry wine, or "the sweet drink of my lady stuart," or of lady windebanke, or "sir paul neile's way of making cider," or "my lord carlisle's sack posset"; but one is strongly influenced by such a note as "sir edward bainton's receipt which my lord of portland (who gave it me) saith, was the best he ever drank." i had thought of saint-evremond as warrior and wit, delightful satirist and letter-writer. but here is a streak of new light upon him: "monsieur st. euvremont makes thus his potage de santé of boiled meat for dinner being very valetudinary.... when he is in pretty good health, that he may venture upon more savoury hotter things, &c." the most rigorous protestants will relax to hear how "to make a pan cotto as the cardinals use in rome." and if "my lord lumley's pease pottage" sounds homely, be it known, on the word of the eloquent robert may, that his lordship "wanted no knowledge in the discerning this mystery." what fastidious simplicity in the taste of the great is suggested by "my lord d'aubigny eats red-herrings thus boiled"! but if sir kenelm consorted only with the great, it was with the great of all social ranks. it was not merely on high questions of science he discoursed with the discoverer of the circulation of the blood--witness "dr. harvey's pleasant water cider." then there was that "chief burgomaster of antwerpe," with whom he must have been on pretty intimate terms, to learn that he "used for many years to drink no other drink but this [mead]; at meals and all times, even for pledging of healths. and though he was an old man, he was of an extraordinary vigor every way, and had every year a child, had always a great appetite, and good digestion; and yet was not fat." digby was too great a gentleman to be above exchanging receipts with the professors of the "mystery," such as the muscovian ambassador's steward; and when "master webbe who maketh the king's meath," on the st of september, , came to his house to make some for him, sir kenelm stood by, a little suspicious lest the other great artist was bamboozling him. he had an eye for all--though it may have been one of his correspondents who says of the remnants of a dish that it "will make good water-gruel for the servants." the seriousness of the business is tremendous; and to ignore the fine shades in the receipts for mead and metheglin would have been a frivolity unknown in digby's circle. there is care; there is conscience; there is rivalry. the ingredients are mingled with a nice discrimination between the rights of the palate and the maintenance of health. "use only morello cherries (i think) for pleasure, and black ones for health." you may not wait your own convenience in such serious business. "it is best made by taking all the canicular days into your fermentation." now and again other methods of calculating than ours are used; but "whiles you can say the miserere psalm very leisurely" is as easily computed as "while your pulse beateth stroaks." quantities are a more difficult affair. how is one to know how much smallage was got for a penny in mid-seventeenth century? the great connoisseur lord lumley is very lax, and owns that his are "set down by guess." it is a curious old world we get glimpses of, at once barbarous, simple, and extravagant, when great ladies were expected to see to the milking of their cows, as closely as joan cromwell supervised her milch-kine in st. james's park, and to the cleanliness of their servants' arms and hands, and when huntsmen rode at the bidding of the cook; for in order that venison be in good condition, "before the deer be killed he ought to be hunted and chased as much as possible." the perusal of the section, "to feed chickens," will shock our poultry-breeders. "to make them prodigiously fat in about twelve days," "my lady fanshawe gives them strong ale. they will be very drunk and sleep; then eat again. let a candle stand all night over the coop, and then they will eat much all the night." "lord denbigh's almond marchpane," and the 'current wine' of which it is said "you may drink safely long draughts of it," will appeal perhaps only to the schoolboy of our weaker generation. yet there are receipts, doubtless gathered in sir kenelm's later years, that have the cautious invalid in view. of these are the "pleasant cordial tablets, which are very comforting and strengthen nature much," and the liquor which is called "smoothing." "in health you may dash the potage with a little juyce of orange" is in the same low key. the gruels are so many that we must wish mr. woodhouse had known of the book. if the admixture of "wood-sorrel and currens" had seemed to him fraught with peril, he could have fallen back on the "oatmeal pap of sir john colladon." where are all the old dishes vanished to? who has ever known "a smoothening quiddany of quinces?" who can tell the composition of a tansy? these are tame days when we have forgotten how to make cock-ale. they drank 'sack with clove-gilly-flowers' at the "mermaid," i am sure. what is bragot? what is stepony? and what slipp-coat cheese? ask the baker for a manchet. the old names call for a _ballade. où sont les mets d'antan?_ and, cooks, with all your exactness about pounds and ounces and minutes of the clock, can you better directions like these? watch for "a pale colour with an eye of green." "let it stand till you may see your shadow in it"; or "till it begin to blink." your liquid may boil "simpringly," or "in a great ebullition, in great galloping waves." "make a liaison a moment, about an ave maria while." and all the significance of the times and seasons we have lost in our neglect to kill male hogs "in the wane of the moon!" for there is a lingering of astrology in all this kitchen lore. the irascible culpeper, digby's contemporary, poured scorn on such doctors as knew not the high science, "physick without astronomy being like a lamp without oil." as for the poetry i promised--well, i have been quoting it, have i not? but there is more, and better. surely it was a romantic folk that kept in its store-rooms the "best blew raisins of the sun," or "plumpsome raisins of the sun," and made its mead with dew, and eagerly exchanged with each other recipes for "conserve of red roses." and now we come to an essential feature of the whole. it is a _cuisine_ that does not reek of shops and co-operative stores, but of the wood, the garden, the field and meadow. like culpeper's pharmacopeia, it is made for the most part of "such things only as grow in england, they being most fit for english bodies." is it any wonder that the metheglin should be called the "liquor of life," which has these among its ingredients: bugloss, borage, hyssop, organ, sweet-marjoram, rosemary, french cowslip, coltsfoot, thyme, burnet, self-heal, sanicle, betony, blew-button, harts-tongue, meadowsweet, liverwort, bistort, st. john's wort, yellow saunders, balm, bugle, agrimony, tormentilla, comfrey, fennel, clown's allheal, maidenhair, wall-rue, spleen-wort, sweet oak, paul's betony, and mouse-ear? the housewife of to-day buys unrecognisable dried herbs in packets or bottles. in those days she gathered them in their season out of doors. the companions to _the closet opened_ should be the hasty and entertaining culpeper, the genial gerard, and coles of the delightful _adam in eden_, all the old herbals that were on digby's bookshelves, so full of absurdities, so full of pretty wisdom. they will tell you how to mix in your liquor eglantine for coolness, borage, rosemary, and sweet-marjoram for vigour, and by which planet each herb or flower is governed. has our sentiment for the flowers of the field increased now we no longer drink their essence, or use them in our dishes? i doubt it. it is surely a pardonable grossness that we should desire the sweet fresh things to become part of us--like children, who do indeed love flowers, and eat them. in the appendix i have transcribed a list of the plants referred to. most cooks would be unable to tell one from another; and even modern herbalists have let many fall out of use, while only a few are on the lists of the english pharmacopeia. to go simpling once more by field and wood and hedgerow would be a pleasant duty for country housewives to impose upon themselves; and as to the herbalists' observations on their virtues, we may say with old coles, "most of them i am confident are true, and if there be any that are not so, yet they are pleasant." there is an air of flippancy about that reflexion of coles you will never find in sir kenelm. of the virtues of each plant and flower he used he was fully convinced; and when he tells of their powers, as in his "aqua mirabilis," the tale is like a solemn litany, and we are reminded of clarendon's testimony to "the gravity of his motion." and so, his closet once more open, he stands at the door, his majesty not greatly lessened; for the book contains a reminiscence of his rolling eloquence, something of his romance, and not a little of his poetry. anne macdonell. _chelsea_, . the closet of the eminently learned sir _kenelme digbie_ k^{t}. opened: whereby is discovered several ways for making of _metheglin, sider, cherry-wine, &c._ _together with_ excellent directions for cookery: as also for _preserving, conserving, candying, &c._ * * * * * published by his son's consent. * * * * * _london_, printed by _e.c._ for _h. brome_, at the star in _little britain_. . [_facsimile of the original title-page._] to the reader this collection full of pleasing variety, and of such usefulness in the generality of it, to the publique, coming to my hands, i should, had i forborn the publication thereof, have trespassed in a very considerable concern upon my countrey-men, the like having not in every particular appeared in print in the english tongue. there needs no rhetoricating floscules to set it off. the authour, as is well known, having been a person of eminency for his learning, and of exquisite curiosity in his researches, even that incomparable sir kenelme digbie knight, fellow of the royal society and chancellour to the queen mother, (et omen in nomine) his name does sufficiently auspicate the work. i shall only therefore add, that there is herein (as by the table hereunto affix'd will evidently to thee appear) a sufficiency of solids as well as liquids for the sating the curiosities of each or the nicest palate; and according to that old saw in the regiment of health, incipe cum liquido, &c. the liquids premitted to the solids. these being so excellent in their kinde, so beneficial and so well ordered, i think it unhandsome, if not injurious, by the trouble of any further discourse, to detain thee any longer from falling to; fall to therefore, and much good may it do thee, fare-well. a receipt to make metheglin as it is made at liege, communicated by mr. masillon take one measure of honey, and three measures of water, and let it boil till one measure be boiled away, so that there be left three measures in all; as for example, take to one pot of honey, three pots of water, and let it boil so long, till it come to three pots. during which time you must skim it very well as soon as any scum riseth; which you are to continue till there rise no scum more. you may, if you please, put to it some spice, to wit, cloves and ginger; the quantity of which is to be proportioned according as you will have your meath, strong or weak. but this you do before it begin to boil. there are some that put either yeast of beer, or leaven of bread into it, to make it work. but this is not necessary at all; and much less to set it into the sun. mr. masillon doth neither the one nor the other. afterwards for to tun it, you must let it grow luke-warm, for to advance it. and if you do intend to keep your meathe a long time, you may put into it some hopps on this fashion. take to every barrel of meathe a pound of hops without leaves, that is, of ordinary hops used for beer, but well cleansed, taking only the flowers, without the green-leaves and stalks. boil this pound of hops in a pot and half of fair water, till it come to one pot, and this quantity is sufficient for a barrel of meathe. a barrel at liege holdeth ninety pots, and a pot is as much as a wine quart in england. (i have since been informed from liege, that a pot of that countrey holdeth ounces of apothecary's measure; which i judge to be a pottle according to london measure, or two wine-quarts.) when you tun your meath, you must not fill your barrel by half a foot, that so it may have room to work. then let it stand six weeks slightly stopped; which being expired, if the meath do not work, stop it up very close. yet must you not fill up the barrel to the very brim. after six months you draw off the clear into another barrel, or strong bottles, leaving the dregs, and filling up your new barrel, or bottels, and stopping it or them very close. the meath that is made this way, (_viz._ in the spring, in the month of april or may, which is the proper time for making of it,) will keep many a year. white metheglin of my lady hungerford: which is exceedingly praised take your honey, and mix it with fair water, until the honey be quite dissolved. if it will bear an egge to be above the liquor, the breadth of a groat, it is strong enough; if not, put more honey to it, till it be so strong; then boil it, till it be clearly and well skimmed; then put in one good handful of strawberry-leaves, and half a handful of violet leaves; and half as much sorrel: a douzen tops of rosemary; four or five tops of baulme-leaves: a handful of harts-tongue, and a handful of liver-worth; a little thyme, and a little red-sage; let it boil about an hour; then put it into a woodden vessel, where let it stand, till it be quite cold; then put it into the barrel; then take half an ounce of cloves, as much nutmeg; four or five races of ginger; bruise it, and put it into a fine bag, with a stone to make it sink, that it may hang below the middle: then stop it very close. the herbs and spices are in proportion for six gallons. since my lady hungerford sent me this receipt, she sent me word, that she now useth (and liketh better) to make the decoction of herbs before you put the honey to it, this proportion of herbs is to make six gallons of decoction, so that you may take eight or nine gallons of water. when you have drawn out into your water, all the vertue of the herbs, throw them away, and take the clear decoction (leaving the settlings) and when it is lukewarm, dissolve your proportion of honey in it. after it is well dissolved and laved with strong arms or woodden instruments, like battle-doors or scoops, boil it gently; till you have taken away all the scum; then make an end of well boyling it, about an hour in all. then pour it into a wooden vessel, and let it stand till it be cold. then pour the clear through a sieve of hair, ceasing pouring when you come to the foul thick settling. tun the clear into your vessel (without barm) and stop it up close, with the spices in it, till you perceive by the hissing that it begins to work. then give it some little vent, else the barrel would break. when it is at the end of the working, stop it up close. she useth to make it at the end of summer, when she takes up her honey, and begins to drink it in lent. but it will be better if you defer piercing it till next winter. when part of the barrel is drunk, she botteleth the rest, which maketh it quicker and better. you clear the decoction from the herbs by a hair-sieve. some notes about honey the honey of dry open countries, where there is much wild-thyme, rosemary, and flowers, is best. it is of three sorts, virgin-honey, life-honey, and stock-honey. the first is the best. the life-honey next. the virgin-honey is of bees, that swarmed the spring before, and are taken up in autumn; and is made best by chusing the whitest combs of the hive, and then letting the honey run out of them lying upon a sieve without pressing it, or breaking of the combs. the life-honey is of the same combs broken after the virgin-honey is run from it; the merchants of honey do use to mingle all the sorts together. the first of a swarm is called virgin-honey. that of the next year, after the swarm was hatched, is life-honey. and ever after, it is honey of old-stocks. honey that is forced out of the combs, will always taste of wax. hampshire honey is most esteemed at london. about bisleter there is excellent good. some account norfolk honey the best. mr. corsellises antwerp meath to make good meath, good white and thick marsilian or provence-honey is best; and of that, to four holland pints (the holland pint is very little bigger then the english wine-pint:) of water, you must put two pound of honey; the honey must be stirred in water, till it be all melted; if it be stirred about in warm water, it will melt so much the sooner. when all is dissolved, it must be so strong that an egge may swim in it with the end upwards. and if it be too sweet or too strong, because there is too much honey; then you must put more water to it; yet so, that, as above, an hens egge may swim with the point upwards: and then that newly added water must be likewise well stirred about, so that it may be mingled all alike. if the eggs sink (which is a token that there is not honey enough) then you must put more honey to it, and stir about, till it be all dissolved, and the eggs swim, as abovesaid. this being done, it must be hanged over the fire, and as it beginneth to seeth, the scum, that doth arise upon it, both before and after, must be clean skimed off. when it is first set upon the fire, you must measure it first with a stick, how deep the kettel is, or how much liquor there be in it; and then it must boil so long, till one third part of it be boiled away. when it is thus boiled, it must be poured out into a cooler, or open vessel, before it be tunned in the barrel; but the bung-hole must be left open, that it may have vent. a vessel, which hath served for sack is best. to make excellent meathe to every quart of honey, take four quarts of water. put your water in a clean kettle over the fire, and with a stick take the just measure, how high the water cometh, making a notch, where the superficies toucheth the stick. as soon as the water is warm, put in your honey, and let it boil, skiming it always, till it be very clean; then put to every gallon of water, one pound of the best blew-raisins of the sun, first clean picked from the stalks, and clean washed. let them remain in the boiling liquor, till they be throughly swollen and soft; then take them out, and put them into a hair-bag, and strain all the juice and pulp and substance from them in an apothecaries press; which put back into your liquor, and let it boil, till it be consumed just to the notch you took at first, for the measure of your water alone. then let your liquor run through a hair-strainer into an empty woodden-fat, which must stand endwise, with the head of the upper-end out; and there let it remain till the next day, that the liquor be quite cold. then tun it up into a good barrel, not filled quite full, but within three or four fingers breadth; (where sack hath been, is the best) and let the bung remain open for six weeks with a double bolter-cloth lying upon it, to keep out any foulness from falling in. then stop it up close, and drink not of it till after nine months. this meathe is singularly good for a consumption, stone, gravel, weak-sight, and many more things. a chief burgomaster of antwerpe, used for many years to drink no other drink but this; at meals and all times, even for pledging of healths. and though he were an old man, he was of an extraordinary vigor every way, and had every year a child, had always a great appetite, and good digestion; and yet was not fat. a weaker, but very pleasant, meathe to every quart of honey take six of water; boil it till / be consumed, skiming it well all the while. then pour it into an open fat, and let it cool. when the heat is well slakened, break into a bowl-full of this warm liquor, a new-laid-egge, beating the yolk and white well with it; then put it into the fat to all the rest of the liquor, and stir it well together, and it will become very clear. then pour it into a fit very clean barrel, and put to it some mother of wine, that is in it's best fermentation or working, and this will make the liquor work also. this will be ready to drink in three or four months, or sooner. an excellent white meathe take one gallon of honey, and four of water; boil and scum them till there rise no more scum; then put in your spice a little bruised, which is most of cinnamon, a little ginger, a little mace, and a very little cloves. boil it with the spice in it, till it bear an egge. then take it from the fire, and let it cool in a woodden vessel, till it be but lukewarm; which this quantity will be in four or five or six hours. then put into it a hot tost of white-bread, spread over on both sides, pretty thick with fresh barm; that will make it presently work. let it work twelve hours, close covered with cloves. then tun it into a runlet wherein sack hath been, that is somewhat too big for that quantity of liquor; for example, that it fill it not by a gallon; you may then put a little limon-pill in with it. after it hath remained in the vessel a week or ten days, draw it into bottles. you may begin to drink it after two or three months: but it will be better after a year. it will be very spritely and quick and pleasant and pure white. a receipt to make a tun of metheglin take two handfuls of dock (_alias_ wild carrot) a reasonable burthen of saxifrage, wild-sage, blew-button, scabious, bettony, agrimony, wild-marjoram, of each a reasonable burthen; wild-thyme a peck, roots and all. all these are to be gathered in the fields, between the two lady days in harvest. the garden-herbs are these; bay-leaves, and rosemary, of each two handfuls; a sieveful of avens, and as much violet-leaves: a handful of sage; three handfuls of sweet-marjoram, three roots of young borrage, leaves and all, that hath not born seed; two handfuls of parsley-roots, and all that hath not born seed. two roots of elecampane that have not seeded: two handfuls of fennel that hath not seeded: a peck of thyme; wash and pick all your herbs from filth and grass: then put your field herbs first into the bottom of a clean furnace, and lay all your garden-herbs thereon; then fill your furnace with clean water, letting your herbs seeth, till they be so tender, that you may easily slip off the skin of your field-herbs, and that you may break the roots of your garden-herbs between your fingers. then lade forth your liquor, and set it a cooling. then fill your furnace again with clear water to these herbs, and let them boil a quarter of an hour. then put it to your first liquor, filling the furnace, until you have sufficient to fill your tun. then as your liquor begins to cool, and is almost cold, set your servants to temper honey and wax in it, combs and all, and let them temper it well together, breaking the combes very small; let their hands and nails be very clean; and when you have tempered it very well together, cleanse it through a cleansing sieve into another clean vessel; the more honey you have in your liquor, the stronger it will be. therefore to know, when it is strong enough, take two new-laid eggs, when you begin to cleanse, and put them in whole into the bottome of your cleansed liquor; and if it be strong enough, it will cause the egge to ascend upward, and to be on the top as broad as sixpence; if they do not swim on the top; put more. the countess of bullingbrook's white metheglin take eight gallons of conduit-water, and boil it very well; then put as much honey in it, as will bear an egge, and stir it well together. then set it upon the fire, and put in the whites of four eggs to clarifie it; and as the scum riseth, take it off clean: then put in a pretty quantity of rosemary, and let it boil, till it tasteth a little of it: then with a scummer take out the rosemary, as fast as you can, and let it boil half a quarter of an hour; put it into earthen pans to cool; next morning put it into a barrel, and put into it a little barm, and an ounce of ginger scraped and sliced; and let it stand a month or six weeks. then bottle it up close; you must be sure not to let it stand at all in brass. mr. webbes meath master webbe, who maketh the kings meathe, ordereth it thus. take as much of hyde-park water as will make a hogshead of meathe: boil in it about two ounces of the best hopp's for about half an hour. by that time, the water will have drawn out the strength of the hopp's. then skim them clean off, and all the froth, or whatever riseth of the water. then dissolve in it warm, about one part of honey to six of water: lave and beat it, till all the honey be perfectly dissolved; then boil it, beginning gently, till all the scum be risen, and scummed away. it must boil in all about two hours. half an hour, before you end your boiling, put into it some rosemary-tops, thyme, sweet-marjorame, one sprig of minth, in all about half a handful, and as much sweet-bryar-leaves as all these; in all, about a handful of herbs, and two ounces of sliced ginger, and one ounce of bruised cinamon. he did use to put in a few cloves and mace; but the king did not care for them. let all these boil about half an hour, then scum them clean away; and presently let the liquor run through a strainer-cloth into a kiver of wood, to cool and settle. when you see it is very clear and settled, lade out the liquor into another kiver, carefully, not to raise the settlings from the bottom. as soon as you see any dregs begin to rise, stay your hand, and let it remain unstirred, till all be settled down. then lade out the liquor again, as before; and if need be, change it again into another kiver: all which is done to the end no dregs may go along with the liquor in tunning it into the vessel. when it is cold and perfect clear, tun it into a cask, that hath been used for sack, and stop it up close, having an eye to give it a little vent, if it should work. if it cast out any foul liquor in working, fill it up always presently with some of the same liquor, that you have kept in bottles for that end. when it hath wrought, and is well settled (which may be in about two months or ten weeks) draw it into glass-bottles, as long as it comes clear; and it will be ready to drink in a month or two: but will keep much longer, if you have occasion: and no dregs will be in the bottom of the bottle. he since told me, that to this proportion of honey and water, to make a hogshead of meathe, you should boil half a pound of hopps in the water, and two good handfuls of herbs; and six ounces of spice of all sorts: all which will be mellowed and rotted away quite, (as well as the lushiousness of the honey) in the space of a year or two. for this is to be kept so long before it be drunk. if you would have it sooner ready to drink, you may work it with a little yeast, when it is almost cold in the kiver: and tun it up as soon as it begins to work, doing afterwards as is said before; but leaving a little vent to purge by, till it have done working. or in stead of yeast, you may take the yolks of four new-laid-eggs, and almost half a pint of fine wheat-flower, and some of the liquor you have made: beat them well together, then put them to the liquor in the cask, and stop it up close, till you see it needful, to give it a little vent. note, that yeast of good beer, is better then that of ale. * * * * * the first of septemb. . mr. webb came to my house to make some for me. he took fourty three gallons of water, and fourty two pounds of norfolk honey. as soon as the water boiled, he put into it a slight handful of hops; which after it had boiled a little above a quarter of an hour, he skimed off; then put in the honey to the boyling water, and presently a white scum rose, which he skimed off still as it rose; which skiming was ended in little above a quarter of an hour more. then he put in his herbs and spices, which were these: rose-mary, thyme, winter-savory, sweet-marjoram, sweet-bryar-leaves, seven or eight little parsley-roots: there was most of the savoury, and least of the eglantine, three ounces of ginger, one ounce and a half of cinnamon, five nutmegs (half an ounce of cloves he would have added, but did not,) and these boiled an hour and a quarter longer; in all from the first beginning to boil, somewhat less then two hours: then he presently laded it out of the copper into coolers, letting it run through a hair-sieve: and set the coolers shelving (tilted up) that the liquor might afterwards run the more quietly out of them. after the liquor had stood so about two hours, he poured or laded out of some of the coolers very gently, that the dregs might not rise, into other coolers. and about a pint of very thick dregs remained last in the bottom of every cooler. that which ran out, was very clear: after two hours more settling, (in a shelving situation,) he poured it out again into other coolers; and then very little dregs (or scarce any in some of the coolers) did remain. when the liquor was even almost cold, he took the yolks of three new-laid-eggs, a spoonful of fine white flower, and about half a pint of new fresh barm of good strong beer (you must have care that your barm be very white and clean, not sullied and foul, as is usual among slovenly brewers in london). beat this very well together, with a little of the liquor in a skiming dish, till you see it well incorporated, and that it beginneth to work. then put it to a pailful (of about two gallons and a half) of the liquor, and mingle it well therewith. then leave the skiming dish reversed floating in the middle of the liquor, and so the yest will work up into and under the hollow of the dish, and grow out round about the sides without. he left this well and thick covered all night, from about eleven a clock at night; and the next morning, finding it had wrought very well, he mingled what was in the pail with the whole proportion of the liquor, and so tunned it up into a sack-cask. i am not satisfied, whether he did not put a spoonful of fine white good mustard into his barm, before he brought it hither, (for he took a pretext to look out some pure clean white barm) but he protested, there was nothing mingled with the barm, yet i am in doubt. he confessed to me that in making of sider, he put's in half as much mustard as barm; but never in meathe. the fourth of september in the morning, he bottled up into quart-bottles the two lesser rundlets of this meathe (for he did tun the whole quantity into one large rundlet, and two little ones) whereof the one contained thirty bottles; and the other, twenty two. there remained but little settling or dregs in the bottom's of the barrels, but some there was. the bottles were set into a cool cellar, and he said they would be ready to drink in three weeks. the proportion of herbs and spices is this; that there be so much as to drown the luscious sweetness of the honey; but not so much as to taste of herbs or spice, when you drink the meathe. but that the sweetnes of the honey may kill their taste: and so the meathe have a pleasant taste, but not of herbs, nor spice, nor honey. and therefore you put more or less according to the time you will drink it in. for a great deal will be mellowed away in a year, that would be ungratefully strong in three months. and the honey that will make it keep a year or two, will require a triple proportion of spice and herbs. he commends parsley roots to be in greatest quantity, boiled whole, if young; but quarterred and pithed, if great and old. my own considerations for making of meathe boil what quantity of spring-water you please, three or four walms, and then let it set the twenty four hours, and pour the clear from the settling. take sixteen gallons of the clear, and boil in it ten handfuls of eglantine-leaves, five of liverwort, five of scabious, four of baulm, four of rosemary; two of bay-leaves; one of thyme, and one of sweet-marjoram, and five eringo-roots splitted. when the water hath drawn out the vertue of the herbs (which it will do in half an hours boiling,) let it run through a strainer or sieve, and let it settle so, that you may pour the clear from the dregs. to every three gallons of the clear, take one of honey, and with clean arms stripped up, lade it for two or three hours, to dissolve the honey in the water; lade it twice or thrice that day. the next day boil it very gently to make the scum rise, and scum it all the while, and now and then pour to it a ladle full of cold water, which will make the scum rise more: when it is very clear from scum, you may boil it the more strongly, till it bear an egge very high, that the breadth of a groat be out of the water, and that it boil high with great walms in the middle of the kettle: which boiling with great bubbles in the middle is a sign it is boiled to it's height. then let it cool till it be lukewarm, at which time put some ale yest into it, to make it work, as you would do ale. and then put it up into a fit barrel first seasoned with some good sweet white-wine (as canary-sack) and keep the bung open, till it have done working, filling it up with some such honey-drink warmed, as you find it sink down by working over. when it hath almost done working, put into it a bag of thin stuff (such as bakers use to bolt in) fastened by a cord at the bung, containing two parts of ginger-sliced, and one apiece of cinamon, cloves and nutmegs, with a pebble-stone in it to make it sink; and stop it up close for six months or a year, and then you may draw it into bottles. if you like cardamon-seeds, you may adde some of them to the spices. some do like mint exceedingly to be added to the other herbs. where no yeast is to be had, the liquor will work if you set it some days in the hot sun (with a cover, like the roof of a house over it, to keep wet out, if it chance to rain) but then you must have great care, to fill it up, as it consumeth, and to stop it close a little before it hath done working, and to set it then presently in a cool cellar. i am told that the leaven of bread will make it work as well as yest, but i have not tryed it. if you will not have it so strong, it will be much sooner ready to drink; as if you take six parts of water to one of honey. some do like the drink better without either herbs or spices, and it will be much the whiter. if you will have it stronger, put but four gallons and a half of water to one of honey. you may use what herbs or roots you please, either for their tast or vertue, after the manner here set down. if you make it work with yeast, you must have great care, to draw it into bottles soon after it hath done working, as after a fortnight or three weeks. for that will make it soon grow stale, and it will thence grow sower and dead before you are aware. but if it work singly of itself, and by help of the sun without admixtion of either leaven or yeast, it may be kept long in the barrel, so it be filled up to the top, and kept very close stopp'd. i conceive it will be exceeding good thus: when you have a strong honey-liquor of three parts of water to one of honey, well-boiled and scummed, put into it lukewarm, or better (as soon as you take it from the fire) some clove-gilly-flowers, first wiped, and all the whites clipped off, one good handful or two to every gallon of liquor. let these infuse or hours. then strain it from the flowers, and either work it with yeast, or set it in the sun to work; when it hath almost done working, put into it a bag of like gilly-flowers (and if they are duly dried, i think they are the better) hanging it in at the bung. and if you will put into it some spirit of wine, that hath drawn a high tincture from clove-gilly-flowers (dried i conceive is best) and some other that hath done the like from flowers and tops of rosemary, and some that hath done the like from cinnamon and ginger, i believe it will be much the nobler, and last the longer. i conceive, that bitter and strong herbs, as rosemary, bayes, sweet-marjoram, thyme, and the like, do conserve meathe the better and longer, being as it were in stead of hops. but neither must they, no more than clove-gilly-flowers, be too much boiled: for the volatil pure spirit flies away very quickly. therefore rather infuse them. beware of infusing gillyflower in any vessel of metal, (excepting silver:) for all metals will spoil and dead their colour. glased earth is best. sack with clove-gilly flowers if you will make a cordial liquor of sack with clove-gilly-flowers, you must do thus. prepare your gilly-flowers, as is said before, and put them into great double glass-bottles, that hold two gallons a piece, or more; and put to every gallon of sack, a good half pound of the wiped and cut flowers, putting in the flowers first, and then the sack upon them. stop the glasses exceeding close, and set them in a temperate cellar. let them stand so, till you see that the sack hath drawn out all the principal tincture from them, and that the flowers begin to look palish; (with an eye of pale, or faint in colour) then pour the sack from them, and throw away the exhausted flowers, or distil a spirit from them; for if you let them remain longer in the sack, they will give an earthy tast to them. you may then put the tincted sack into fit bottles for your use, stopping them very close. but if the season of the flowers be not yet past, your sack will be better, if you put it upon new flowers, which i conceive will not be the worse, but peradventure the better, if they be a little dried in the shade. if you drink a glass or two of this sack at a meal, you will find it a great cordial. upon better consideration; i conceive the best way of making hydromel with clove-gilly-flowers, is thus: boil your simple liquor to its full height (with three parts of water to one of honey), take a small parcel out, to make a strong infusion of flowers, pouring it boyling hot upon the flowers in earthen vessels. if you have great quantity, as six to one, of liquor, you will easily draw out the tincture in fourteen or sixteen hours infusion; otherwise you may quicken your liquor with a parcel of sack. in the mean time make the great quantity of liquor work with yest. when it hath almost done fermenting, but not quite, put the infusion to it warm, and let it ferment more if it will. when that is almost done, put to it a bag with flowers to hang in the bung. i conceive that hydromel made with juniper-berries (first broken and bruised) boiled in it, is very good. adde also to it rosemary and bay-leaves. upon tryal of several ways, i conclude (as things yet appear to me) that to keep meath long, it must not be fermented with yest (unless you put hops to it) but put it in the barrel, and let it ferment of it self, keeping a thick plate of lead upon the bung, to lie close upon it, yet so that the working of the liquor may raise it, to purge out the foulness, and have always some new made plain liquor, to fill it up as it sinks, warm whiles it works: but cold during three or four month's after. then stop the bung exceeding close. and when you will make your mead with cherries or morello-cherries, or raspes, or bilberries, or black-cherries, put their juyce to the liquor when you tun it, without ever boiling it therein; about one quart of juyce to every three or four gallons of liquor. you may squeese out the clear juyce, and mingle it with the liquor, and hang the magma in a bag in the bung. i think it is best to break the stones of the cherries, before you put their magma into the bag. since i conceive, that clove-gilly-flowers must never be boiled in the liquor: that evaporateth their spirits, which are very volatile: but make a strong infusion of them, and besides hang a bag of them in the bung. i conceive that it is good to make the liquor pretty strong (not too much, but so as the taste may be gratefull) of some strong herbs, as rosemary, bay-leaves, sweet-marjoram, thyme, broad-thyme, and the like. for they preserve the drink, and make it better for the stomack and head. standing in the sun is the best way of fermentation, when the drink is strong. the root of angelica or elecampane, or eringo, or orris, may be good and pleasant, to be boiled in the liquor. raspes and cherries and bilberies are never to be boiled, but their juyce put into the liquor, when it is tunning. use onely morello-cherries (i think) for pleasure, and black ones for health. i conceive it best to use very little spice of any kind in meathes. metheglin composed by my self out of sundry receipts in sixty gallons of water, boil ten handfuls of sweet-bryar-leaves; eye-bright, liverwort, agrimony, scabious, balme, wood-bettony, strawberry-leaves, burnet, of each four handfuls; of rosemary, three handfuls; of minth, angelica, bayes and wild-thyme, sweet-marjoram, of each two handfuls: six eringo-roots. when the water hath taken out the vertue of the herbs and roots, let it settle, and the next day pour off the clear, and in every three gallons of it boil one of honey, scumming it well, and putting in a little cold water now and then to make the scum rise, as also some whites of eggs. when it is clear scummed, take it _off_, and let it cool; then work it with ale-yest; tun it up, and hang it in a bag, with ginger, cinamom, cloves and cardamom. and as it worketh over, put in some strong honey-drink warmed. when it works no more, stop it up close. in twenty gallons of water boil sweet-bryar-leaves, eye-bright, rosemary, bayes, clove-gilly-flowers of each five handfuls, and four eringo-roots. to every two gallons and a half of this decoction, put one gallon of honey; boil it, &c. when it is tunned up, hang in it a bag containing five handfuls of clove-gilly-flowers, and sufficient quantity of the spices above. in both these receipts, the quantity of the herbs is too great. the strong herbs preserve the drink, and make it nobler. use marjoram and thyme in little quantity in all. my lady cowers white meathe used at salisbury take to four gallons of water, one gallon of virgin-honey; let the water be warm before you put in the honey; and then put in the whites of or eggs well beaten, to make the scum rise. when the honey is throughly melted and ready to boil, put in an egge with the shell softly; and when the egge riseth above the water, to the bigness of a groat in sight, it is strong enough of the honey. the egge will quickly be hard, and so will not rise; therefore you must put in another, if the first do not rise to your sight; you must put in more water and honey proportionable to the first, because of wasting away in the boiling. it must boil near an hour. you may, if you please, boil in it, a little bundle of rosemary, sweet-marjoram, and thyme; and when it tasteth to your liking, take it forth again. many do put sweet-bryar berries in it, which is held very good. when your meath is boiled enough take it off the fire, and put it into a kiver; when it is blood-warm, put in some ale-barm, to make it work, and cover it close with a blancket in the working. the next morning tun it up, and if you please put in a bag with a little ginger and a little nutmeg bruised; and when it hath done working, stop it up close for a moneth, and then bottle it. sir thomas gower's metheglin for health first boil the water and scum it; then to gallons put handfuls of sweet-bryar-leaves, of sweet-marjoram, rosemary, thyme, of each one a handful: flowers of marigold, borrage, bugloss, sage, each two handfuls. boil all together very gently, till a third waste. to eight gallons of this put two gallons of pure honey, and boil them till the liquor bear an egge, the breadth of threepence or a groat, together with such spices as you like (bruised, but not beaten) an ounce of all is sufficient. you must observe carefully. . before you set the liquor to boil, to cause a lusty servant (his arms well washed) to mix the honey and water together, labouring it with his hands at least an hour without intermission. . that when it begins to boil fast, you take away part of the fire, so as it may boil slowly, and the scum and dross go all to one side, the other remaining clear. when you take it off, let none of the liquor go away with the dross. . when you take it from the fire, let it settle well, before it be tunned into the vessel, wherein you mean to keep it: and when it comes near the bottom, let it be taken carefully from the sediment, with a thin dish, so as nothing be put into the vessel, but what is clear. . stop it very close (when it is set in the place, where it must remain) cover it with a cloth, upon which some handfuls of bay-salt and salpeter is laid, and over that lay clay, and a turf. . put into it, when you stop it, some new-laid-eggs in number proportionable to the bigness of the vessel, shell's unbroken. six eggs to about sixteen gallons. the whole egg-shell and all will be entirely consumed. metheglin for taste and colour must be boiled as the other, if you intend to keep it above half a year; but less according to the time, wherein you mean to use it. you must put in no herbs, to avoid bitterness and discolouring; and the proportion of water and honey more or less, as you would drink it sooner or later; (as a gallon of honey to , , or of water.) if to be weak, and to be soon drunk, you must when it is tunned, put in a tost of bread (hard tosted) upon which half a score drops of spirit of yest or barm is dropped; for want of it, spread it with purest barm beaten with a few drops of oyl of cinnamon. if you intend to give it the taste of raspes, then adde more barm, to make it work well, and during that time of working, put in your raspes (or their syrup) but the fruit gives a delicate colour, and syrup a duller tincture. drink not that made after the first manner, till six moneths, and it will endure drawing better then wine; but bottleled, it is more spirited then any drink. the spirit of barm is made by putting store of water to the barm; then distill the spirit, as you do other spirits; at last an oyl will come, which is not for this use. sir thomas gower maketh his ordinary drink thus: make very small well brewed ale. to eight gallons of this put one gallon of honey; when it is well dissolved and clarified, tun up the liquor, making it work in due manner with barm. when it hath done working, stop it up close, and in three months it will be fit to drink. he makes metheglin thus. make a good decoct of eglantine-leaves, cowslip flowers, a little sweet-marjoram, and some rosemary and bay-leaves, betony, and scabious, and a little thyme. after the sediment hath settled, put / or / or / or / part of honey, (according as you would have it strong, and soon ready) to the clear severed from the settlement, and stir it exceeding well with stripped arms or hours, till it be perfectly incorporated. then boil and scum it; let it then cool and tun it up, &c. after it hath cooled, lade the clean from the settlement, so that it may not trouble it, and run up the clear thus severed from the settlings. much of the perfection consisteth in stirring it long with stripped arms before you boil it. then to boil it very leisurely till all the scum be off. and order your fire so, that the scum may rise and drive all to one side. this will be exceeding pale clear and pleasant metheglin. he useth to every gallon of water, a good handful of eglantine-leaves, and as much cowslip flowers; but onely a pugil of thyme or marjoram. an excellent way of making white metheglin take of sweet-bryar berries, of rosemary, broad thyme, of each a handful. boil them in a quantity of fair water for half an hour; then cleanse the water from the herbs, and let it stand hours, until it be thorough cold. then put your hony into it (hony which floweth from the combs of it self in a warm place is best) make it so strong of the honey that it bear an egge (if you will have it strong) the breadth of a groat above the liquor. this being done, lave and bounce it very well and often, that the honey and water may incorporate and work well together. after this boil it softly over a gentle fire, and scum it. then beat the whites of eggs with their shells, and put into it to clarifie it. after this, put some of it into a vessel, and take the whites of two eggs, and a little barm, and a small quantity of fine flower; beat them well together, and put it into the vessel close covered, that it may work. then pour the rest into it by degrees, as you do beer. at last take a quantity of cinamon, or races of ginger, and two nutmegs (for more will alter the colour of it.) hang these in a little bag in the vessel. thus made, it will be as white as any white-wine. another way of making white metheglin to three gallons of spring-water take three quarts of honey, and set it over the fire, till the scum rises pretty thick. then take off the scum, and put in thyme, rosemary, hyssop and maiden-hair, of each one handful; and two handfuls of eglantine leaves, and half a handful of organ. the spices, ginger, nutmegs, cinamon and a little mace, and boil all these together near half an hour. then take it from the fire, and let it stand till it be cold, and then strain it, and so tun it up, and stop it close. the longer you keep it, the better it will be. another way take two gallons of water; one gallon of honey: parietary one handful; sage, thyme, one pugil; of hyssop half a pugil. six parsley-roots; one fennel-root, the pith taken out: red-nettles one pugil. six leaves of hearts-tongue. boil this together one hour. then put in the honey, and nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinamon of each one ounce; of ginger three ounces. boil all these together, till the scum be boiled in, not scumming it. then take it off, and set it to cool. when it is cold, put in it six spoonfuls of barm, and when it is ripe, it will hiss in the pail. you must take out the herbs, when you put in the honey. if you put in these herbs following, it will be far better; sanicle, bugloss, avens, and ladies-mantle, of each one handful. to make white metheglin take of sweet-bryar a great handful: of violet-flowers, sweet-marjoram, strawberry-leaves, violet-leaves, _ana_, one handful, agrimony, bugloss, borrage, _ana_, half a handful. rosemary four branches, gilly-flowers, no. (the yellow-wall-flowers, with great tops) anniseeds, fennel, and caraway, of each a spoonful, two large mace. boil all these in twelve gallons of water for the space of an hour; then strain it, and let it stand until it be milk-warm then put in as much honey, as will carry an egge to the breadth of sixpence, at least. then boil it again, and scum it clean; then let it stand, until it be cold; then put a pint of ale-barm into it, and ripen it as you do beer, and tun it. then hang in the midst of the vessel a little bag with a nutmeg quartered, a race of ginger sliced, a little cinamon, and mace whole, and three grains of musk in a cloth put into the bag amongst the rest of the spices. put a stone in the bag, to keep it in the midst of the liquor. this quantity took up three gallons of honey; therefore be sure to have four in readiness. strong mead take one measure of honey, and dissolve it in four of water, beating it long up and down with clean woodden ladels. the next day boil it gently, scumming it all the while till no more scum riseth; and if you will clarifie the liquor with a few beaten whites of eggs, it will be the clearer. the rule of it's being boiled enough is, when it yieldeth no more scum, and beareth an egge, so that the breadth of a groat is out of the water. then pour it out of the kettle into woodden vessels, and let it remain there till it be almost cold. then tun it into a vessel, where sack hath been. a receipt for making of meath take a quart of honey, and mix it with a gallon of fountain-water, and work it well four days together, four times a day; the fifth day put it over the fire, and let it boil an hour, and scum it well. then take the whites of two eggs, and beat them to a froth, and put it into the liquor; stirring it well, till the whites of eggs have raised a froth of scum; then take it off, scumming the liquor clean. then take a handful of strawberry-leaves and violet-leaves together, with a little sprig of rosemary and two or three little sprigs of spike; and so boil it again (with these herbs in it) a quarter of an hour. then take it off the fire, and when it is cold, put it into a little barrel, and put into it half a spoonful of ale-yest, and let it work; which done, take one nutmeg sliced, and twice as much ginger sliced, six cloves bruised, and a little stick of cinamon, and sow these spices in a little bag, and stop it well; and it will be fit for use within a fortnight, and will last half a year. if you will have your metheglin stronger, put into it a greater quantity of honey. my lord hollis hydromel in four parts of springwater dissolve one part of honey, or so much as the liquor will bear an egge to the breadth of a groat. then boil it very well, and that all the scum be taken away. he addeth nothing to it but a small proportion of ginger sliced: of which he putteth half to boil in the liquor, after all the scum is gone; and the other half he putteth into a bag, and hangeth in the bung, when it is tunned. the ginger must be very little, not so much as to make the liquor taste strongly of it, but to quicken it. i should like to adde a little proportion of rosemary, and a greater of sweet-bryar leaves, in the boiling. as also, to put into the barrel a tost of white bread with mustard, to make it work. he puts nothing to it; but his own strength in time makes it work of it self. it is good to drink after a year. a receipt for white metheglin take to every quart of honey, , , or , quarts of water; boil it on a good quick fire as long as any scum riseth; as it boils, put about half a pint of water at a time very often, and scum it very well as it riseth; and be sure to keep it up to the same height and quantity as at the first: put into it a little rosemary, according to the quantity that you make, and boil it half a quarter of an hour; scum it very well. you may put a little ginger into it, onely to give it a taste thereof, and let it have a little walm of heat after it. then take and put it into a woodden vessel, (which must be well scalded, least it taste of any thing) let it stand all night, and the next morning strain it through a sieve of hair. then if you please, you may boil up your grounds that are in the bottome of the vessel with three or four quarts of water; and when it is cold, strain it, to the rest, and put to it a little good light barm. that which you make in the winter, you must let it stand three days and three nights covered up, before you bottle it up; and two nights in summer, and then bottle it up. but be sure, you scum off the barm before the bottling up. your vessel, which you intend to boil your meath in, must stand in scalding water, whilst you boil your meath; it will drink up the less of your meath. four spoonfuls of good new ale-barm will serve for five quarts of honey. as you desire your metheglin in strength, so take at the first either of the quantities of water. five quarts is reasonable. hydromel as i made it weak for the queen mother take quarts of spring-water, and one quart of honey; when the water is warm, put the honey into it. when it boileth up, skim it very well, and continue skimming it, as long as any scum will rise. then put in one race of ginger (sliced in thin slices,) four cloves, and a little sprig of green rosemary. let these boil in the liquor so long, till in all it have boiled one hour. then set it to cool, till it be blood-warm; and then put to it a spoonful of ale-yest. when it is worked up, put it into a vessel of a fit size; and after two or three days, bottle it up. you may drink it after six weeks, or two moneths. thus was the hydromel made that i gave the queen, which was exceedingly liked by everybody. several ways of making metheglin take such quantity as you judge convenient of spring, or pure rain water, and make it boil well half an hour. then pour it out into a woodden fat, and let it settle hours. then power off the clear, leaving the sediment in the bottome. let such water be the liquor for all the several honey-drinks, you will make. . warm sixteen gallons of this water (lukewarm) and put two gallons of honey to it, in a half tub or other fit woodden vessel. lave it very well with a clean arm, or woodden battle-door for two or three hours, dissolving the honey very well in the water. let it stand thus two or three days in wood, laving it thrice a day, a pretty while each time. then put it back into your copper and boil it gently, till you have scummed away all the foulness that will rise; and clarifie it with whites of eggs: then put into it a little handful of cleansed and sliced white ginger, and a little mace; when they have boiled enough, put in a few cloves bruised, and a stick of cinamon, and a little limmon-peel, and after a walm or two, pour the liquor into a woodden half tub, with the spices in it. cover it close with a cloth and blanquet, and let it stand so two days. then let the liquor run through a bolter, to sever the spice, stopping before any settlings come. then pour this clear liquor into pottle-bottles of glass, not filling them by a fingers breadth or more. stop them close with cork tied in, and set them in a cool place for , or weeks. . in fourty gallons of the first boiled and settled water, boil five handfuls of sweet-bryar tops, as much of cowslip-flowers, as much of primrose-flowers, as much of rosemary-flowers, as much of sage-flowers, as many of borage-flowers, as many of bugloss-flowers; two handfuls of the tops of betony, four handfuls of agrimony, and as many of scabious, one handful of thyme, as much of sweet-marjoram, and two ounces of mustard-seed bruised. when this hath boiled so long, that you judge the water hath drawn out all the vertue of the herbs (which may be in half an hour) pour out all into a vatte to cool and settle. scum away the herbs, and pour the clear from the sediment, and to every four gallons of liquor (luke-warm) put one gallon of honey, and lave it to dissolve the honey, letting it stand two or three days, laving it well thrice every day. then boil it till it will bear an egge high, then clarifie it with whites and shells of eggs, and pour it into a vatte to cool, which it will do in a days space or better. whilst it is yet luke-warm, put ale-yest to it, (no more then is necessary) to make it work, and then tun it into a rundlet of a fit size, that hath been seasoned with sack; and hang in it a boulter bag containing half a pound of white ginger cleansed and sliced, three ounces of cloves and as much of cinamon bruised, as much coriander seed prepared, and as much elder-flowers. as it purgeth and consumeth by running over the bung, put in fresh honey-liquor warmed, that you keep or make on purpose for that end. when the working is even almost at an end, stop it up close with clay and sand, and have great care to keep it always close stopped. after a year draw in into pottle glass-bottles stopped with ground stoppels of glass, and keep them in a cool place, till they are ready to drink, if they as yet be not so. have a care, that never any liquor stay in copper longer then whilst it is to boil. . in gallons of the first boiled and settled water, boil six handfuls of sweet-bryar-leaves, as many of cowslip flowers, as many of primrose-flowers, and as many of rosemary-flowers; and half a handful of wild thyme, during the space of a quarter or half an hour. then take the clear, and dissolve in it a sixth part of honey, doing as above for the boiling and clarifying it. but boil it not to bear an egge, but onely till it be well scummed and clarified. then pour it into a woodden tub, and tun it with ale-yest, when it is in due temper of coolness, as you would do ale-wort; and let it work (close covered) sufficiently. then tun it up into a seasoned firkin, and put into it a tost of white-bread spread with quick mustard, and hang it in a boulter bag containing loosly some ginger, cloves and cinamon bruised, and a little limon-peel and elder-flowers, with a pebble-stone at the bottome, to make it sink towards the bottom, and fastned by a string coming out of the bung to hinder it from falling quite to the bottome. stop the bung very close, and after six weeks or two moneths draw it into bottles. . in gallons of boiled and settled water, boil a quarter of an hour ten handfuls of sweet bryar-leaves, and as many of cowslips. then let it cool and settle in wood, and take the clear; and to every four gallons of liquor, put one of honey, dissolving it as the others formerly set down. boil it, till no more scum rise, and that a fourth part be consumed. then clarifie it with whites of eggs and their shells, and make it work with yest. after sufficient working tun it up, hanging it in a bag with ginger, cloves, cinamon and limon-peel. stop it very close, and after two or three moneths, draw it into bottles. my lady morices meath boil first your water with your herbs. those she likes best, are, angelica, balm, borage, and a little rosemary (not half so much as of any of the rest) a handful of all together, to two or gallons of water. after about half an hours boiling, let the water run through a strainer (to sever the herbs from it) into woodden or earthen vessels, and let it cool and settle. to three parts of the clear, put one or more of honey, and boil it till it bear an egge, leaving as broad as a shilling out of the water, skiming it very well. then power it out into vessels, as before; and next day, when it is almost quite cold, power it into a sack-cask, wherein you have first put a little fresh ale-yest, about two spoonfuls to ten gallons. hang it in a bag with a little sliced ginger, but almost a porengerfull of cloves. cover the bung lightly, till it have done working; then stop it up close. you may tap and draw it a year or two after. it is excellent good. my lady morice her sister makes her's thus: dissolve your honey in the water till it bear an egge higher or lower, according to the strength you will have it of. then put into it some sea-wormwood and a little rosemary, and a little sage; about too good handfuls of all together, to ten gallons. when it hath boiled enough to take the vertue of the herbs, skim them out, and strew a handful or two of fine wheat-flower upon the boyling liquor. this will draw all the dregs to it, and swim at the top, so that you may skim all off together. and this she holdeth the best way of clarifying the liquor, and making it look pale. then pour it into vessels as above to cool. let it stand three days; then tun it up into a sack cask without yest or spice, and keep it stopped till it work. then let it be open, till it have done working, filling it up still with other honey-drink. then stop it up close for a year or two. you may at first stop it so, that the strong working may throw out the stopple, and yet keep it close, till it work strongly. she saith, that such a small proportion of wormwood giveth it a fine quick tast, and a pale colour with an eye of green. the wormwood must not be so much, as to discern any the least bitterness in the taste; but that the composition of it with the honey may give a quickness. the rosemary and sage must be a great deal less then the wormwood. sometimes she stoppeth it up close as soon as she hath tunned it, and lets it remain so for three moneths. then pierce it and draw it into bottles, which stop well, and tie down the stoppels. this will keep so a long time. she useth this way most. it makes the mead drink exceeding quick and pleasant. when you pierce the cask, it will flie out with exceeding force, and be ready to throw out the stopper and spigot. to make white meath take rosemary, thyme, sweet-bryar, penyroyal, bayes, of each one handful; steep them hours in a bowl of fair cold water covered close; next day boil them very well in another water, till the colour be very high; then take another water, and boil the same herbs in it, till it look green; and so boil them in several waters, till they do but just change the colour of the water. the first waters are thrown away. the last water must stand hours with the herbs in it. the liquor being strained from them, you must put in as much fine honey till it will bear an egge; you must work and labour the honey with the liquor a whole day, till the honey be consumed; then let it stand a night a clearing. in the morning put your liquor a boiling for a quarter of an hour, with the whites and shells of six eggs. so strain it through a bag, and let it stand a day a cooling; so tun it up, and put into the vessel in a linnen bag, cloves, mace, cinamon and nutmegs bruised altogether. if you will have it to drink presently, take the whites of two or three eggs, of barm a spoonful, and as much of wheaten-flower. then let it work before you stop it, afterwards stop it well with clay and salt. a quart of honey to a gallon of liquor, and so proportionably for these herbs. sir william paston's meathe take ten gallons of spring-water, and put therein ten pints of the best honey. let this boil half an hour, and scum it very well; then put in one handful of rosemary, and as much of bay-leaves; with a little limon-peel. boil this half an hour longer, then take it off the fire, and put it into a clean tub; and when it is cool, work it up with yest, as you do beer. when it is wrought, put it into your vessel, and stop it very close. within three days you may bottle it, and in ten days after it will be fit to drink. another pleasant meathe of sir william paston's to a gallon of water put a quart of honey, about ten sprigs of sweet-majoram; half so many tops of bays. boil these very well together, and when it is cold, bottle it up. it will be ten days before it be ready to drink. another way of making meath boil sweet bryar, sweet marjoram, cloves and mace in spring-water, till the water taste of them. to four gallons of water put one gallon of honey, and boil it a little to skim and clarifie it. when you are ready to take it from the fire, put in a little limon-peel, and pour it into a woodden vessel, and let it stand till it is almost cold. then put in some ale-yest, and stir it altogether. so let it stand till next day. then put a few stoned raisins of the sun into every bottle, and pour the meath upon them. stop the bottles close, and in a week the meath will be ready to drink. sir baynam throckmorton's meathe. take four quarts of honey, good measure; put to it four gallons of water, let it stand all night, but stir it well, when you put it together. the next day boil it, and put to it nutmegs, cloves, mace and ginger, of each half an ounce. let these boil with the honey and water till it will bear an egge at the top without sinking; and then it is enough, if you see the egge the breadth of a sixpence. the next day put it in your vessel, and put thereto two or three spoonfuls of barm; and when it hath done working, you may (if you like it) put in a little ambergreece in a clout with a stone to it to make it sink. this should be kept a whole year before it be drunk; it will drink much the better, free from any tast of the honey, and then it will look as clear as sack. make it not till michaelmas, and set it in a cool place. you may drink it a quarter old, but it will not taste so pleasant then, as when it is old. to make white metheglin take a gallon of honey; put to it four gallons of water; stir them well together, and boil them in a kettle, till a gallon be wasted with boiling and scumming. then put it into a vessel to cool. when it is almost as cold as ale-wort, then clear it out into another vessel: then put barm upon it, as you do to your ale, and so let it work. and then tun it up into a vessel, and put into it a bag with ginger, cloves, and cinamon bruised a little, and so hang the bag in the vessel, and stop it up very close; and when it hath stood a month or six weeks, bottle it up and so drink it. you may put in a little limmon-peel into some of your metheglin, for those that like that taste; which most persons do very much. a receipt for making of meath mistress hebden telleth me, that the way of making honey-drink in russia, is thus; take for example, gallons of spring water, boil it a little; then let it stand hours to cool, and much sediment will fall to the bottom; from which pour the clear, and warm it, and put or gallons of pure honey to it, and lade it a long time with a great woodden battle-dore, till it be well dissolved. the next day boil it gently, till you have skimed off all the scum that will rise, and that it beareth an egge boyant. and in this liquor you must put, in the due time, a little quantity of hops, about two handfuls, which must boil sufficiently in the liquor. put this into the cooling fat to cool two or three days. when it is about milk-warm, take white-bread and cut it into tosts, upon which, (when they are hot) spread moderately thick some fresh sweet ale-yest; and cover the superficies of the liquor with such tosts; then cover the tub or fat with a double course sheet, and a blancket or two, which tye fast about it. this will make your liquor work up highly. when you find it is near it's height of working, and that the liquor is risen to the top of the tub (of which it wanted or inches at first,) skim off the tosts and yest, and tun it up in a hogshead: which stop close; but after hours draw it into another barrel: for it will leave a great deal of sediment. it will work again in this second barrel. after other hours draw it into another barrel, and then it will be clear and pale like white-wine. stop it up close, hanging a bag of bruised spice in the bung; and after five or six months, it will be fit to drink. if you would have your meath taste of raspes, or cherries (morello, sharp cherries, are the best) prepare the water first with them; by putting five or six gallons of either of these fruits, or more, into this proportion of water; in which bruise them to have all their juyce: but strain the liquor from the grains or seeds, or stones. and then proceed with this tincted water, as is said above. you may make your liquor as strong, as you like, of the fruit. cardamon-seeds mingled with the suspended spices, adde much to the pleasantness of the drink. limon-peel, as also elder-flowers. my lady bellassises meath the way of making is thus. she boileth the honey with spring-water, as i do, till it be cleer scumed; then to every gallon of honey, put in a pound or two of good raisins of the sun; boil them well, and till the liquor bear an egge. then pour it into a cowl or tub to cool. in about hours it will be cool enough to put the yest to it, being onely lukewarm: which do thus: spread yest upon a large hot tost, and lay it upon the top of the liquor, and cover the tub well, first with a sheet, then with coverlets, that it may work well. when it is wrought up to it's height, before it begin to sink, put it into your barrel, letting it run through a loose open strainer, to sever the raisins and dregs from it. stop it up close, and after it hath been thus eight or ten days, draw it into bottles, and into every bottle put a cod of cardamoms, having first a little bruised them as they lie in the cod; and opening the cod a little, that the liquor may search into it. stop your bottles close, and after three or four moneths you may drink, and it will be very pleasant and quick, and look like white wine. another metheglin in every three gallons of water, boil rosemary, liverwort, balm, _ana_, half a handful, and cowslips two handfuls. when the water hath sufficiently drawn out the vertue of the herbs, pour all into a tub, and let it stand all night. then strain it. and to every three gallons of the clear liquor (or - / , if you will have your drink stronger) put one gallon of honey, and boil it, till it bear an egge, scuming it till no more scum will rise: which to make rise the better, put in now and then a porrenger full of cold water. then pour it into a tub, and let it stand to cool, till it be blood warm, and then put by degrees a pint of ale-yest to it, to make it work. so let it stand three days very close covered. then skim off the yest, and put it into a seasoned barrel; but stop it not up close, till it have done hissing. then either stop it very close, if you will keep it in the barrel, or draw it into bottles. put into this proportion, ginger sliced, nutmegs broken, _ana_, one ounce, cinamon bruised half an ounce in a bag, which hang in the bung with a stone in it to make it sink. you may add, if you please, to this proportion of water, or one gallon more, two handfuls of sweet-bryar-leaves, and one of betony. mr. pierce's excellent white metheglin in a copper, that holdeth conveniently three hogsheads, or near so much, boil the best water, (as full as is fitting). as soon as it boileth well and high, put to it four handfuls of sweet-bryar-leaves, as much of eye-bright: two handfuls of rosemary, as much of sweet-marjoram, and one of broad-thyme. let them boil a quarter of an hour (he letteth them boil no longer, to preserve the colour of the metheglin pale) then scum away the herbs, scuming also the water clear. then lade out the water, (letting it run through a ranch-sieve) into a wide open vessel, or large vat to cool, leaving the settlement and dregs. (he often leaves out the eye-bright and thyme, when he provideth chiefly for the pure tast; though the eye-bright hurts it but little.) when it is blood-warm, put the honey to it, about one part, to four of water; but because this doth not determine the proportions exactly (for some honey will make it stronger then other) you must do that by bearing up an egge. but first, lave and scoop your mixture exceedingly, (at least an hour) that the honey be not onely perfectly dissolved, but uniformly mixed throughout the water. then take out some of it in a great woodden bowl or pail, and put a good number, (ten or twelve) new-laid-eggs into it, and as round ones as may be; for long ones will deceive you in the swiming; and stale ones, being lighter then new, will emerge out of the liquor, the breadth of a sixpence, when new ones will not a groats-breadth. therefore you take many, that you make a medium of their several emergings; unless you be certain, that they which you use, are immediately then laid and very round. the rule is, that a groats-breadth (or rather but a threepence) of the egg-shel must swim above the liquor; which then put again into your copper to boil. it will be some while, before it boil, (peradventure a goodquarter of an hour) but all that while scum will rise, which skim away still as it riseth; and it should be clear scummed by then it boileth: which as soon as it doth, turn up an hour glass, and let it boil well a good hour. a good quarter before the hour is out, put to it a pound of white-ginger beaten exceedingly small and searsed (which will sever all the skins and course parts from the fine) which having boiled a quarter of an hour, so to make up the whole hour of boiling, pour out the liquor into wide open vats to cool. when it is quite cold, put a pottle of new-ale-barm into a pipe or butt, standing endwise with his head out, and pour upon it a pail-full of your cool liquor out of one of the vats; which falling from high upon it with force, will break and dissipate the barm into atoms, and mix it with the liquor. pour immediately another pail-ful to that, continuing to do so, till all the liquor be in. which by this time and this course will be uniformly mixed with the barm, and begin to work. yet scoop and lade it well a while, to make the mixtion more perfect, and set the working well on foot. then cover your but-head with a sheet onely in summer, but blankets in winter; and let your liquor work about hours or more. the measure of that is, till the barm (which is raised to a great head) beginneth a little to fall. then presently scum of the thick head of the barm, but take not all away so scrupulously, but that there may remain a little white froth upon the face of the liquor. which scoop and lade strongly, mingling all to the bottom, that this little remaining barm may by this agitation be mixed a new with the whole. then immediately tun this liquor into two hogsheads that have served for spanish-wine (be sure to fill them quite full) and there let it work two or three days; that is to say, till you see that all the feculent substance is wrought out, and that what runneth out, beginneth to be clear, though a little whitish or frothy on the upperside of the stream that runs down along the outside of the hogshead. (if there should be a little more then to fill two hogsheads, put it in a rundlet by it self.) then take some very strong firm paper, and wet it on one side with some of the barm that works out, and lay that side over the bung to cover it close. the barm will make it stick fast to the hogshead. this covering will serve for a moneth or two. then stop it close with strong cork fitted to the hole, with a linnen about it, to press it fast in: but let a little vent with a peg in it be made in hogshead, in some fit place above. this may be fit to broach in five or six moneths; but three weeks or a moneth before you do so, put into each hogshead half an ounce of cinnamon; and two ounces of cloves beaten into most subtile powder. (sometimes he leaves out the cloves) which will give it a most pleasant flavor; and they (as the ginger did) sink down to the bottome and never trouble the liquor. if they be put in long before (much more if they be boiled) they loose all their taste and spirits entirely. this will last very well half a year drawing. but if you stay broaching it a year, and then draw it into bottles, it will keep admirable good three or four years, growing to be much better, then when broached at six months end. it will be purer, if you first boil the water by it self, then let it settle hours; and pour the clear from the earthy sediment, which will be great, and dissolve your honey in that. you may aromatise it with ambergreece or musk, or both (if you like them) by dissolving a very few pastils in a runlet of this liquor, when you draw it into little vessels, (as he useth to do after five or six moneths) or with a few drops of the extract of them. this metheglin is a great balsom and strengthener of the _viscera_; is excellent in colds and coughs and consumptions. for which last they use to burn it (like wine) or rather onely heat it. then dissolve the yolk of an egge or two in a pint of it, and some fresh butter, and drink it warm in the morning fasting. as it comes from the barrel or bottle, it is used to be drunk a large draught (without any alteration or admixtion, with a toste early in the morning (eating the toste) when they intend to dine late. consider of making metheglin thus with purified rain water (of the _Æquinoxe_) or dew. the handfuls of herbs, are natural large handfuls (as much as you can take up in your hand) not apothecaries handfuls, which are much less. if a pottle of barm do not make it work enough to your mind, you may put in a little more. discretion and experience must regulate that. you may make small meathe the same way, putting but half the proportion of honey or less. but then after three weeks or a months barrelling, you must bottle it. an excellent way to make metheglin, called the liquor of life, with these following ingredients take bugloss, borage, hyssop, organ, sweet-marjoram, rosemary, french-cowslip, coltsfoot, thyme, burnet, self-heal, sanicle a little, betony, blew-buttons, harts-tongue, meadssweet, liverwort, coriander two ounces, bistort, saint john's wort, liquorish, two ounces of carraways, two ounces of yellow-saunders, balm, bugle, half a pound of ginger, and one ounce of cloves, agrimony, tormentil-roots, cumfrey, fennel-root's, clowns-all-heal, maiden-hair, wall-rew, spleen-wort, sweet-oak, pauls-betony, mouse ear. for two hogsheads of metheglin, you take two handfuls a piece of each herb, excepting sanicle; of which you take but half a handful. you make it in all things as the white meathe of mr. pierce's is made, excepting as followeth. for in that you boil the herbs but a quarter of an hour, that the colour may be pale: but in this, where the deepness of the colour is not regarded, you boil them a good hour, that you may get all the vertue out of them. next for the strength of it; whereas in that, an egge is to emerge out of the liquor but the breadth of a three pence; in this it is to emerge a large groats-breadth. then in this you take but half a pound of ginger, and one ounce of cloves. whereas the white hath one pound of ginger, and two ounces of cloves. to this you use three quarts, or rather more of ale-yest (fresh and new) and when all your liquor is in a high slender tall pipe with the narrowest circumference that may be (which makes it work better then a broad one, where the spirits loose themselves) you have the yest in a large noggin with a handle, or pail, and put some of the liquor to it, and make that work; then pour it from pretty high unto the whole quantity in the pipe, and lade it strongly with that noggin five or six, or eight times, pouring it every time from high, and working it well together, that so every atome of the yest maybe mingled with every atome of the liquor. and this course (in this particular) you may also use in the white. it is best not to broach this, till a year be over after the making it. to make good metheglin take to every gallon of honey, three gallons of water, and put them both together, and set them over so soft a fire, that you may endure to melt and break the honey with your hands. when the honey is all melted, put in an egge, and let it fall gently to the bottome, and if the egge rise up to the top again of the liquor, then is it strong enough of the honey; but if it lie at the bottome, you must put in more honey, stirring of it till it do rise. if your honey be very good, it will bear half a gallon of water more to a gallon of honey. then take sweet-bryar, rose-mary, bayes, thyme, marjoram, savory, of each a good handful, which must be tyed up all together in a bundle. this proportion of herbs will be sufficient for gallons of metheglin; and according to the quantity you make of metheglin, you must add of your herbs or take away. when you have put these things together set it upon a quick fire, and let it boil as fast as you can for half an hour, or better, skiming of it very clean, which you must clarifie with two or three whites of eggs. then take it off from the fire, and put it presently into some clean covers, and let it stand till the next morning; then pour the clear from the bottom and tun it up; putting in a little bag of such spice as you like, whereof ginger must be the most. after it hath stood some three or four days, you may put in some two or three spoonfuls of good-ale-yest; it will make it ready the sooner to drink, if you let it work together, before you stop it up. the older the honey is, the whiter coloured the metheglin will be. to make white metheglin of sir john fortescue take twelve gallons of water, one handful of each of these herbs, eglantine, rosemary, parsley, strawberry-leaves, wild-thyme, balm, liver-wort, betony, scabious; when your water begins to boil, cast in your herbs, and let them boil a quarter of an hour. then strain it from the herbs. when it is almost cold, then put in as much of the best honey, as will make it bear an egge, to the breadth of two pence; and stir it till all the honey be melted. then boil it well half an hour at the least, and put into it the whites of six eggs beaten to a froth to clarifie it; and when it hath drawn all the scum to the top, strain it into woodden vessels. when it is almost cold, put barm to it, and when it worketh well, tun it into a well-seasoned vessel, where neither ale nor beer hath been, for marring the colour; and when it hath done working, take a good quantity of nutmegs, mace, cinnamon, cloves and ginger bruised, and put it into a boulter bag, and hang it in the barrel. if you will have it taste much of the spice, let it boil or walms in it, after you have put in the honey. but that will make it have a deep colour. a receipt for meathe to seven quarts of water, take two quarts of honey, and mix it well together; then set it on the fire to boil, and take three or four parsley-roots, and as many fennel-roots, and shave them clean, and slice them, and put them into the liquor, and boil altogether, and skim it very well all the while it is a boyling; and when there will no more scum rise, then is it boiled enough: but be careful that none of the scum do boil into it. then take it off, and let it cool till the next day. then put it up in a close vessel, and put thereto half a pint of new good barm, and a very few cloves pounded and put in a linnen-cloth, and tie it in the vessel, and stop it up close; and within a fortnight, it will be ready to drink: but if it stay longer, it will be the better. my lord gorge his meathe take a sufficient quantity of rain-water, and boil in it the tops of rose-mary, eglantine, betony, strawberry-leaves, wall-flowers, borage and bugloss, of each one handful; one sprig of bays; and two or three of sage. then take it off the fire, and put a whole raw egge into it, and pour so much honey to it, till the egge rise up to the top; then boil it again, skiming it very well, and so let it cool. then tun it up, and put barm to it, that it may ferment well. then stop it up, and hang in it such spices, as you like best. it will not be right to drink under three or four moneths. the lady vernon's white metheglin take three gallons of water (rain water is best) boil in it broad thyme, rose-mary, peny-royal, of each three handfuls. then put it into a stone pan to cool, and strain away the herbs; and when it is cold, put in one quart of honey, and mix it very well; then put to it one nutmeg, a little cinnamon; cloves and ginger; some orange and limon-peels. then boil and scum it very well, while any scum will rise. then put in your spices, and try with a new-laid-egg; and the stronger it is, the longer you may keep it; and if you will drink it presently, put it up in bottles, and rub the corks with yest, that it may touch it, and it will be ready in three or four days to drink. and if you make it in the spring put no spices, but cloves and cinnamon, and add violets, cowslips, marigolds, and gilly-flowers; and be sure to stop your vessel close with cork; and to this put no yest, for the clove-gilly-flowers will set it to work. several sorts of meath, small and strong . small. take ten gallons of water, and five quarts of honey, with a little rosemary, more sweet-bryar, some balme, burnet, cloves, less ginger, limon peel. tun it with a little barm; let it remain a week in the barrel with a bag of elder-flowers; then bottle it. . _small_. take ten quarts of water, and one of honey, balm a little; minth, cloves, limon-peel, elder-flowers, a little ginger; wrought with a little yest, bottle it after a night working. . _strong_. take ten gallons of water; thirteen quarts of honey, with angelica, borrage and bugloss, rosemary, balm and sweet-bryar; pour it into a barrel, upon three spoonfuls of yest; hang in a bag cloves, elder-flowers, and a little ginger. . _very strong_. take ten gallons of water, and four of honey, with sea-worm-wood, a little sage, rosemary; put it in a barrel, after three days cooling. put no yest to it. stop it close, and bottle it after three or four months. . _very strong_. to ten gallons of water take four of honey. clarifie it with flower; and put into it angelica, rosemary, bay-leaves, balm. barrel it without yest. hang in a bag cloves, elder-flowers, a little ginger. . _very strong_. take ten gallons of water, and four of honey. boil nothing in it. barrel it when cold, without yest. hang in it a bag with cloves, elder-flowers, a little ginger and limon peel; which throw away, when it hath done working, and stop it close. you may make also strong and small by putting into it orris-roots; or with rose-mary, betony, eye-bright and wood-sorrel; or adding to it the tops of hypericon with the flowers of it; sweet-bryar, lilly of the valley. to make meath take three gallons of water, a quart of honey; if it be not strong enough, you may adde more. boil it apace an hour, and scum it very clean. then take it off, and set it a working at such heat as you set beer, with good yest. then put it in a runlet, and at three days end, draw it out in stone-bottles; into everyone put a piece of limon-peel and two cloves. it is only put into the runlet, whilest it worketh, to avoid the breaking of the bottles. sir john arundel's white meath take three gallons of honey, and twelve gallons of water: mix the honey and water very well together, till the honey is dissolved; so let it stand twelve hours. then put in a new-laid-egg; if the liquor beareth the egg, that you see the breadth of a groat upon the egg dry, you may set it over the fire: if it doth not bear the egg, then you must adde a quart or three pints more to the rest; and then set it over the fire, and let it boil gently, till you have skimed it very clean, and clarified it, as you would do suggar, with the whites of three new-laid-eggs. when it is thus made clear from all scum, let it boil a full hour or more, till the fourth part of it is wasted; then take it off the fire; and let it stand till the next day. then put it into a vessel. when it hath been in the barrel five or six days, make a white tost, and dip it into new yeast, and put the tost into the barrel, and let it work. when it hath done working, stop it up very close. this keep three quarters of a year. you may drink it within half a year, if you please. you may adde in the boiling, of what herbs you like the taste, or what is physical. to make metheglin take eight gallons of water, and set it over a clear fire in a kettle; and when it is warm, put into it sixteen pounds of very good honey; stir it well together, till it be all mixed; and when it boileth, take off the scum, and put in two large nutmegs cut into quarters, and so let it boil at least an hour. then take it off, and put into it two good handfuls of grinded malt, and with a white staff keep beating it together, till it be almost cold; then strain it through a hair sieve into a tub, and put to it a wine pint of ale-yest, and stir it very well together; and when it is cold, you may, if you please, tun it up presently in a vessel fit for it, or else let it stand, and work a day: and when it hath done working in your vessel, stop it up very close. it will be three weeks or a month, before it will be ready to drink. to make white meath take six gallons of water, and put in six quarts of honey, stirring it till the honey be throughly melted; then set it over the fire, and when it is ready to boil, skim it very clean. then put in a quarter of ounce of mace, so much ginger, half an ounce of nutmegs, sweet-marjoram, broad-thyme, and sweet-bryar, of altogether a handful; and boil them well therein; then set it by, till it be through cold, and then barrel it up, and keep it till it be ripe. to make a meath good for the liver and lungs take of the roots of coltsfoot, fennel and fearn each four ounces. of succory-roots, sorrel-roots, strawberry-roots, bitter-sweet-roots, each two ounces, of scabious-roots and elecampane-roots, each an ounce and a half. ground-ivy, hore-hound, oak of jerusalem, lung-wort, liver-wort, maiden-hair, harts-tongue of each two good-handfulls. licorish four ounces. jujubes, raisins of the sun and currents, of each two ounces; let the roots be sliced, and the herbs be broken a little with your hands; and boil all these in twenty quarts of fair running water, or, if you have it, in rain water, with five pints of good white honey, until one third part be boiled away; then pour the liquor through a jelly bag often upon a little coriander-seeds, and cinnamon; and when it runneth very clear, put it into bottles well stopped, and set it cool for your use, and drink every morning a good draught of it, and at five in the afternoone. to make white metheglin put to three gallons of spring-water, one of honey. first let it gently melt; then boil for an hour, continually skiming it; then put it into an earthen or a woodden vessel, and when it is a little more than blood-warm, set it with ale-yest, and so let it stand twelve hours. then take off the yest, and bottle it up. put into it limon-peel and cloves, or what best pleaseth your taste of spice or herbs. eringo-roots put into it, when it is boiling, maketh it much better. note, that if you make hydromel by fermentation in the hot sun (which will last about fourty days, and requireth the greater heat) you must take it thence, before it be quite ended working; and stop it up very close, and set it in a cold cellar, and not pierce it in two months, at the soonest. it will be very good this way, if you make it so strong, as to bear an egge very boyant. it is best made by taking all the canicular days into your fermentation. a very good meath put three parts of water to one of honey. when the honey is dissolved, it is to bear an egge boyant. boil it and skim it perfectly clear. you may boil in it pellitory of the wall, agrimony, or what herbs you please. to every ten gallons of water, take ginger, cinnamon, _ana_, one ounce, nutmegs half an ounce. divide this quantity (sliced and bruised) into two parts. boil the one in the meath, severing it from the liquor, when it is boiled, by running through a strainer; and hang the other parcel in the barrel by the bung in a bag with a bullet in it. when it is cold, tun it. and then you may work it with barm if you please; but it is most commended without. to make white metheglin take the honey-combs, that the honey is run out from them, and lay them in water over night; next day strain them, and put the liquor a boiling; then take the whites of two or three eggs, and clarifie the liquor. when you have so done, skim it clean. then take a handful of peny-royal; four handfuls of angelica; a handful of rosemary; a handful of borrage; a handful of maidenhair, a handful of harts-tongue; of liverwort, of water-cresses, of scurvy-grass, _ana_, a handful; of the roots of marshmallows, parsley, fennel, _ana_, one ounce. let all these boil together in the liquor, the space of a quarter of an hour. then strain the liquor from them, and let it cool, till it be blood-warm. put in so much honey, until an egge swim on it; and when your honey is melted, then put it into the barrel. when it is almost cold, put a little ale barm to it; and when it hath done working, put into your barrel a bag of spice of nutmegs, ginger, cloves and mace, and grains good store; and if you will, put into a lawn-bag two grains of ambergreece and two grains of musk, and fasten it in the mouth of your barrel, and so let it hang in the liquor. a most excellent metheglin take one part of honey, to eight parts of rain or river-water; let it boil gently together, in a fit vessel, till a third part be wasted, skiming it very well. the sign of being boiled enough is, when a new-laid-egg swims upon it. cleanse it afterwards by letting it run through a clean linnen-cloth, and put it into a woodden runlet, where there hath been wine in, and hang in it a bag with mustard-seeds by the bung, that so you may take it out, when you please. this being done, put your runlet into the hot sun, especially during the dog-days, (which is the onely time to prepare it) and your metheglin will boil like must; after which boiling take out your mustard-seeds, and put your vessel well stopped into a cellar. if you will have it the taste of wine, put to thirty measures of hydromel, one measure of the juyce of hops, and it will begin to boil without any heat. then fill up your vessel, and presently after this ebullition you will have a very strong metheglin. to make white metheglin of the countess of dorset take rosemary, thyme, sweet-bryar, peny-royal, bays, water-cresses, agrimony, marshmallow leaves, liver-wort, maiden-hair, betony, eye-bright, scabious, the bark of the ash-tree, eringo-roots, green-wild-angelica, ribwort, sanicle, roman-worm-wood, tamarisk, mother-thyme, sassafras, philipendula, of each of these herbs a like proportion; or of as many of them as you please to put in. but you must put in all but four handfuls of herbs, which you must steep one night, and one day, in a little bowl of water, being close covered; the next day take another quantity of fresh water, and boil the same herbs in it, till the colour be very high; then take another quantity of water, and boil the same herbs in it, until they look green; and so let it boil three or four times in several waters, as long as the liquor looketh any thing green. then let it stand with these herbs in it a day and night. remember the last water you boil it in to this proportion of herbs, must be twelve gallons of water, and when it hath stood a day and a night, with these herbs in it, after the last boiling, then strain the liquor from the herbs, and put as much of the finest and best honey into the liquor, as will make it bear an egg. you must work and labour the honey and liquor together one whole day, until the honey be consumed. then let it stand a whole night, and then let it be well laboured again, and let it stand again a clearing, and so boil it again a quarter of an hour, with the whites of six new-laid-eggs with the shells, the yolks being taken out; so scum it very clean, and let it stand a day a cooling. then put it into a barrel, and take cloves, mace, cinamon, and nutmegs, as much as will please your taste, and beat them altogether; put them into a linnen bag, and hang it with a thread in the barrel. take heed you put not too much spice in; a little will serve. take the whites of two or three new-laid-eggs, a spoonful of barm, and a spoonful of wheat-flower, and beat them altogether, and put it into your liquor into the barrel, and let it work, before you stop it. then afterwards stop it well, and close it well with clay and salt tempered together, and let it be set in a close place; and when it hath been settled some six weeks, draw it into bottles, and stop it very close, and drink it not a month after: but it will keep well half a year, and more. another way to make white metheglin take ten gallons of water; then take six handfuls of sweet-bryar; as much of sweet-marjoram; and as much of muscovy. three handfuls of the best broad-thyme. boil these together half an hour; then strain them. then take two gallons of english-honey, and dissolve it in this hot liquor, and brew it well together; then set it over the fire to boil again, and skim it very clean; then take the whites of thirty eggs wel beaten, and put them into the liquor, and let it boil an hour; then strain it through a jelly bag, and let it stand hours cooling: then put it up in a vessel. then take six nutmegs, six fair races of ginger, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, half an ounce of cinamon; bruise all these together, and put them into a linnen-bag, with a little pebble-stone to make it sink. then hang it in the vessel. you may adde to it, if you please, two grains of ambergreece, and one grain of musk. stop the vessel with a cork, but not too close, for six days; then taste it: and if it taste enough of the spice, then take out the bag; if not, let the bag hang in it, and stop it very close, and meddle with it no more. it will be ready to drink in nine or ten weeks. a receipt to make good meath take as many gallons of water, as you intend to make of meath; and to every gallon put a quart of honey, and let it boil till it bear an egg. to every gallon you allow the white of an egg, which white you must remove and break with your hands, and put into the kettle, before you put it over the fire. before it boileth, there will arise a skum, which must be taken off very clean, as it riseth. put to every gallon two nutmegs sliced, and when it hath boiled enough, take it off, and set it a cooling in clean wort-vessels: and when it is as cold as wort, put in a little barm, and work it like beer, and when it hath done working, stop it up, and let it stand two months. another to make meath to every quart of honey allow six wine-quarts of water; half an ounce of nutmegs, and the peel of a limon, and the meat of two or three, as you make the quantity. boil these together, till the scum rise no more; it must stand till it be quite cold, and when you tun it, you squeese into it the juyce of some limons, and this will make it ripen quickly. it will be ready in less then a month. another recipe take twelve gallons of water, a handful of muscovy (which is an herb, that smelleth like musk), a handful of sweet-marjoram, and as much of sweet-bryar. boil all these in the water, till all the strength be out. then take it off and strain it out, and being almost cold, sweeten it with honey very strong, more then to bear an egg, (the meaning of this is, that when there is honey enough to bear an egg, which will be done by one part of honey to three or four quarts of water: then you add to it a pretty deal of honey more, at least / or / of what you did put in at first to make it bear an egg: then it is to be boiled and scummed: when it is thus strong, you may keep it four years before you drink it. but at the end of two years you may draw it out into bottles) just above it, else it will not keep very long: for the more honey the better. then set it over the fire till it boils, and scum it very clean. then take it from the fire, and let it stand, till it be cold: then put it into your vessel. take mace, cloves, nutmegs, ginger, of each a quarter of an ounce: beat them small, and hang them in your vessel (being stopped close) in a little bag. note, when any meath or metheglin grows hard or sower with keeping too long, dissolve in it a good quantity of fresh honey, to make it pleasantly sweet; (but boil it no more, after it hath once fermented, as it did at the first tunning) and with that it will ferment again, and become very good and pleasant and quick. to make metheglin take of rosemary three handfuls, of winter-savory a peck by measure, organ and thyme, as much, white-wort two handfuls, blood-wort half a peck, hyssop two handfuls, marygolds, borage, fennil, of each two handfuls; straw-berries and violet-leaves, of each one handful; of harts-tongue, liverwort a peck; ribwort half a peck, of eglantine with the roots, a good quantity; wormwood as much as you can gripe in two hands; and of sorrel, mead-sutt bettony with the roots, blew-bottles with the roots, the like quantity; of eye-bright two handfuls, wood-bind one handful. take all these herbs, and order them so, as that the hot herbs may be mastered with the cool. then take the small herbs, and put them into the furnace, and lay the long herbs upon them. then take a weight or stone of lead, having a ring, whereunto fasten a stick to keep down the herbs into the furnace; then boil your water and herbs three or four hours, and as the water doth boil away, adde more. then take the water out of the furnace seething hot, and strain it through a range-sieve; then put in the honey, and mash it well together: then take your sweet-wort, and strain it through a range. then try it with a new-laid-egg. it must be so strong as to bear an egg the breadth of a groat above the liquor: and if it doth not, then put in more honey, till it will bear the egg. then take the liquor, and boil it again; and as soon as it doth boil, skim the froth very clean from it: then set it a cooling, and when it is cold, then put it into a kive, and put barm thereto, and let it work the space of a week; then tun it up: but be careful when it is tunned, that the vessels be not stopp'd up, till it hath done hissing. another sort of metheglin take to one part of honey, three parts of water: and put them into clean vessels, mixing them very well together, and breaking the honey with stripped arms, till it be well dissolved. then pour out your liquor into a large kettle, and let it boil for two hours and a half, over a good fire, skiming it all the while very carefully as long as any scum riseth. when it is boiled enough, pour out your liquor into clean vessels, and set it to cool for hours. afterwards put it into some runlets, and cover the bung with a piece of lead: have a care to fill it up always with the same boiled liquor for three or four months and during the time of working. this meath the older it is, the better it is. but if you will have your meath red, then take twenty pound of black currants, and put them into a vessel, and pour your liquor on them. of this honey-liquor you cannot drink till after nine months, or a year. my lord herbert's meath take ten gallons of water; and to every gallon of water a quart of honey, a handful and a half of rosemary, one ounce of mace, one ounce and a half of nutmegs, as much cinamon, half an ounce of cloves, a quarter of a pound of ginger scraped and cut in pieces. put all these into the water, and let it boil half an hour, then take it off the fire, and let it stand, till you may see your shadow in it. then put in the honey, and set it upon the fire again. then take the shells and whites of a dozen of eggs, and beat them both very well together: and when it is ready to boil up, put in your eggs, and stir it; then skim it clean, and take it off the fire, and put it into vessels to cool, as you do wort. when it is cold, set it together with some barm, as you do beer. when it is put together leave the settlings behind in the bottom; as soon as it is white over, tun it up in a vessel, and when it hath done working, stop it up as you do beer. when it is three weeks old, it will be fit to bottle or drink. another white meath take three pound of white-honey, or the best hampshire-honey, and dissolve it in a gallon of water, and then boil it; and when it beginneth first to boil, put into it half a quarter of an ounce of ginger a little bruised; and a very little cloves and mace bruised, and a small quantity of agrimony. let all this boil together a full hour, and keep it constantly skimmed, as long as any scum will rise upon it. then strain it forth into some clean kiver or other vessel, and let stand a cooling; and when it is cold, let it stand, till it be all creamed over with a blackish cream, and that it make a kind of hissing noise; then put it up into your vessel, and in two or three months time it will be fit to drink. look how much you intend to make, the same quantities must be allowed to every gallon of water. to make metheglin take fair water, and the best honey; beat them well together, but not in a woodden vessel, for wood drinketh up the honey, put it together in a kettle, and try it with a new-laid-egg, which will swim at top, if it be very strong; but if it bob up and sink again, it will be too weak. boil it an hour, and put into it a bundle of herbs, what sort you like best; and a little bag of spice, nutmegs, ginger, cloves, mace and cinamon; and skim it well all the while it boileth: when it hath boiled an hour, take it off, and put it into earthen pans, and so let it stand till next day. then pour off all the clear into a good vessel, that hath had sack in it, or white-wine. hang the bag of spice in it, and so let it stand very close stopp'd and well filled for a month, or longer. then if you desire to drink it quickly, you may bottle it up. if it be strong of the honey, you may keep it a year or two. if weak, drink it in two or three months. one quart of honey, will make one gallon of water very strong. a sprig or two of rose-mary, thyme and sweet-marjoram, are the herbs that should go into it. to make small metheglin take to every quart of white-honey, six quarts of fair-water. let it boil, until a third part be boiled away; skiming it as it riseth: then put into it a small quantity of ginger largely sliced; then put it out into earthen pans, till it be luke-warm, and so put it up into an earthen stand, with a tap in it. then put to it about half a porenger-ful of the best ale-yest, so beat it well together; then cover it with a cloth, and it will be twelve hours before it work; and afterwards let it stand two days, and then draw it out into stone bottles, and it will be ready to drink in five or six days after. this proportion of yest (which is about six good spoonfuls) is enough for three or four gallons of liquor. the yest must be of good ale, and very new. you may mingle the yest first with a little of the luke-warm-liquor; then beat it, till it be well incorporated, and begins to work; then adde a little more liquor to it, and beat that. continue so adding the liquor by little and little, till a good deal of it be incorporated with the yest; then put that to all the rest of the quantity, and beat it altogether very well; then cover it close, and keep it warm for two or three days. before you bottle it, scum away all the barm and ginger (whereof a spoonful or two is enough for three or four gallons) then bottle up the clear, leaving the dregs. if you will, you may tun it into a barrel, (if you make a greater quantity) when the barm is well incorporated with the liquor, in the same manner as you do beer or ale, and so let it work in the barrel as long as it will; then stop it up close for a few days more, that so it may clear it self well, and separate and precipitate the dregs. then draw the clear into bottles. this will make it less windy, but also a little less quick, though more wholesome. you may also boil a little handful of tops of rosemary in the liquor, which giveth it a fine taste: but all other herbs, and particularly sweet-marjoram and thyme, give it a physical taste. a little limon-peel giveth it a very fine taste. if you tun it in a barrel, to work there, you may hang the ginger and limon-peel in it in a bag, till you bottle it, or till it have done working. then you may put two or three stoned and sliced raisins, and a lump of fine sugar into every bottle to make it quick. to make metheglin take five gallons of water, and one gallon of good white-honey; set it on the fire together, and boil it very well, and skim it very clean; then take it off the fire, and set it by. take six ounces of good ginger, and two ounces of cinamon, one ounce of nutmegs; bruise all these grosly, and put them into your hot liquor, and cover it close, and so let it stand, till it be cold. then put as much ale-barm to it, as will make it work; then keep it in a warm place, as you do ale; and when it hath wrought well, tun it up, as you do ale or beer: and when it is a week old, drink of it at your pleasure. an excellent metheglin take spring-water, and boil it with rose-mary, sage, sweet-marjoram, balm and sassafras, until it hath boiled three or four hours: the quantity of the herbs is a handful of them all, of each a like proportion, to a gallon of water. and when it is boiled, set it to cool and to settle until the next day: then strain your water, and mix it with honey, until it will bear an egg the breadth of a groat. then set it over the fire to boil. take the whites of twenty or thirty eggs, and beat them mightily, and when it boileth, pour them in at twice; stir it well together, and then let it stand, until it boileth a pace before you scum it, and then scum it well. then take it off the fire, and pour it in earthen things to cool: and when it is cold, put to it five or six spoonfuls of the best yest of ale you can get: stir it together, and then every day scum it with a bundle of feathers till it hath done working: then tun it up in a sack-cask and to every six gallons of metheglin put one pint of _aquavitæ_, or a quart of sack; and a quarter of a pound of ginger sliced, with the pills of two or three limons and orenges in a bag to hang in it. the whites of eggs above named, is a fit proportion for or gallons of the liquor. to make white meathe take six gallons of water, and put in six quarts of honey, stirring it till the honey be throughly melted; then set it over the fire, and when it is ready to boil, skim it clean; then put in a quarter of an ounce of mace; so much ginger; half an ounce of nutmegs; sweet-marjoram, broad-thyme and sweet-bryar, of all together a handful, and boil them well therein. then set it by, till it be throughly cold, and barrel it up, and keep it till it be ripe. another to make meathe to every gallon of water, take a quart of honey, to every five gallons, a handful of sweet-marjoram, half a handful of sliced-ginger; boil all these moderately three quarters of an hour; then let it stand and cool: and being lukewarm, put to every five gallons, about three quarts of yest, and let it work a night and a day. then take off the yest and strain it into a runlet; and when it hath done working: then stop it up, and so let it remain a month: then drawing out into bottles, put into every bottle two or three stoned raisins, and a lump of loaf-sugar. it may be drunk in two months. another very good white meath take to every gallon of water a quart of honey: boil in it a little rose-mary and sweet-marjoram: but a large quantity of sweet-bryar-leaves, and a reasonable proportion of ginger: boil these in the liquor, when it is skimed; and work it in due time with a little barm. then tun it in a vessel; and draw it into bottles, after it is sufficiently settled. whites of eggs with the shells beaten together, do clarifie meath best. if you will have your meath cooling, use violet and straw-berry-leaves, agrimony, eglantine and the like: adding borage and bugloss, and a little rosemary and sweet-marjoram to give it vigor. tartar makes it work well. to make white metheglin take to three gallons of spring-water, one of honey; first let it gently melt, then boil for an hour, continually skiming it; then put it into an earthen or woodden vessel, and when it is little more then blood-warm, set it with ale-yest, and so let it stand twelve hours; then take off the yest, and bottle it. put in it limon-peel and cloves, or what best pleaseth your taste of herbs or spices. eringo-roots put into it, when it is a boiling, maketh it much better. so do clove-gilly-flowers; a quantity of which make the meath look like claret-wine. i observe that meath requireth some strong herbs to make it quick and smart upon the palate; as rose-mary, bay-leaves, sage, thyme, marjoram, winter-savory, and such like, which would be too strong and bitter in ale or beer. to make white meath take rose-mary, thyme, sweet-bryar, peny-royal, and bays, water-cresses, agrimony, marsh-mallows, leaves and flowers: liver-wort, wood-betony, eye-bright, scabious, of each alike quantity; of the bark of ash-tree, of eringo-roots-green, of each a proportion to the herbs; of wild angelica, ribwort, sanicle, roman-worm-wood, of each a proportion, which is, to every handful of the herbs above named, a sixteenth part of a handful of these latter; steep them a night and a day, in a woodden boul of water covered; the next day boil them very well in another water, till the colour be very high; then take another quantity of water, and boil the herbs in it, till it look green, and so let it boil three or four times, or as long as the liquor looketh any thing green; then let it stand with these herbs in it a day and a night. to every gallon of this water, put a quart of pure clear honey, the liquor being first strained from the herbs. your liquor if it be strong enough will bear an egg, the breadth of a three pence above water. when you have put the honey into the liquor, you must work and labour it together a whole day, until the honey be consumed. then let it stand a whole night again a clearing. then put it into a kettle, and let it boil a quarter of an hour, with the whites and shells of six eggs; then strain it clean, and so let it stand a cooling. then put it into a barrel, and take cloves, mace, cinamon, nutmegs, and beat them together: put them into a linnen bag, hang it with a thread into the barrel. if you would have it work, that you may drink of it presently, take the whites of two or three eggs, a spoonful of barm, a spoonful of wheat-flower; beat all these together: let it work, before you stop it up. then afterwards stop it well with clay and salt tempered together, to keep it moist. to make metheglin if your honey be tryed, take six gallons of milk-warm-water, to one of honey, and stir it well together ever and anon, and so let it stand for a day and night, or half a day may serve; then boil it with a gentle fire, for the space of half an hour or thereabouts, and skim it, still as the skum ariseth. after it is scummed once or twice, you may put in your herbs, and spice grosly beaten, one half loose; the other in a bag, which afterwards may be fastned with a string to the tap-hole, as pepper, cloves, mace, ginger and the like; when it is thus boiled, let it stand in the vessel until it be cooled; then tun it up into your barrel, and let it work two or three days, or more before you stop the bung-hole; but in putting up the boiled liquor into the barrel, reserve the thick grounds back, which will be settled in the pan or kettle. if you would have it to drink within two or three months, let it be no stronger then to bear an egg to the top of the water. if you would have it keep six months, or longer, before you drink it, let it bear up the egg the breadth of two pence above the water. this is the surer way to proportion your honey then by measure. and the time of the tryal of the strength is, when you incorporate the honey and water together, before the boiling of it. another sort of meath take thirty six gallons of fountain water (first boiled, &c.) and dissolve twelve gallons of honey in it. keep them boiling an hour and a half after they begin to boil, skimming well all the while. it will be an hour upon the fire before it boil. when it is clear and enough boiled, pour it out into woodden vessels to cool. when you are ready to tun it, have four gallons of black-currants, bruise them in a stone mortar, that they may the more easily part with their juyce to the liquor. put them and their juyce into the barrel, and pour the cool liquor upon them, so as the vessel be quite full. cover the bung with a plate of lead lying loose on, that the working of the liquor may lift it up, as it needeth to cast out the filth. and still as it worketh over, fill it up with fresh liquor, made in the same proportion of honey and water. a moneth after it works no longer, stop up the bung very close. to make very good metheglin take of all sorts of herbs, that you think are good and wholesome, as balm, minth, fennel, rosemary, angelica, wild-thyme, hyssop, agrimony, burnet, and such other as you may like; as also some field herbs; but you must not put in too many, especially rose-mary or any strong herb. less then half a handfull will serve of every sort. boil your herbs, and strain them out, and let the liquor stand till the morrow, and settle; then take of the clearest of the liquor two gallons and a half to one gallon of honey; and in that proportion take as much of them as you will make, and let it boil an hour, and in the boiling scum it very clean. then set it a cooling as you do beer; and when it is cold, take some very good ale-barm, and put it into the bottom of the tub you mean the metheglin shall work in, which pour into the tub by little and little, as they do beer, keeping back the thick settling, which lieth in the bottome of the vessels, wherein it is cooled. and when all is put together, cover it with a cloth, and let it work very near three days. and when you mean to put it up, scum off all the barm clean, and put it up into your barrel or firkin, which you must not stop very close in four or five days, but let it have a little vent, for it will work; and when it is close stopped, you must look to it very often, and have a peg in the top, to give it vent, when you hear it make a noise (as it will do) or else it will break the barrel. you may also, if you please, make a bag, and put in good store of sliced ginger, and some cloves and cinnamon, and boil it in, or put it into the barrel and never boil it. both ways are good. if you will make small metheglin, you may put five or six gallons of water to one of honey. put in a little cinnamon and cloves and boil it well. and when it is cold, put it up in bottles very close stopped, and the stopples well tyed on. this will not keep above five or six weeks, but it is very fine drink. make your metheglin as soon as ever you take your bees; for if you wash your combs in the water you boil your herbs in, when it is cold, it will sweeten much. but you must afterwards strain it through a cloth, or else there will be much wax. to make meath if you will have it to keep a year or two, take six parts of water, and one of honey; but if you will have it to keep longer, take but four parts of water to one of honey. dissolve the honey very well in the water, then boil it gently, skimming it all the while as the scum riseth, till no more scum riseth. then pour it out of the copper into a fit vessel or vessels to cool. then tun it up in a strong and sweet cask, and let it stand in some place, where there is some little warmth; (it will do as well without warmth, but be longer growing ripe) this will make it work. at first a course foul matter will work over; to which purpose it must be kept always full with fresh liquor of the same, as it worketh over. when it begins to work more gently, and that which riseth at the top, is no more foul, but is a white froth; then fill and stop it up close, and set it in a cool cellar, where it is to stand continually. after half a year or a year, you may draw it off from the lees into a clean vessel, or let it remain untouched. it is not fit to be drunk for it's perfection till the sweetness be quite worn off, yet not to be sower, but vinous. you may drink it at meals instead of wine, and is wholesomer and better then wine. to small meath, that is to be drunk presently, you may put a little ginger to give it life, and work it with a little barm. if the meath work not at all, it will nevertheless be good, and peradventure better than that which worketh; but it will be longer first, and the dregs will fall down to the bottom, though it work not. small meath of eight or nine parts of water to one of honey, will be very good, though it never work, but be barrell'd up as soon as it is cold, and stopped close: and after two or three months drunk from the barrel without botteling. this is good for meals. to make white meath take to every three gallons of water, one gallon of honey and set the water over the fire, and let the honey melt, before the water be too hot; then put in a new-laid-egg, and feel with your hand; if it comes half way the water, it is strong enough; then put into it these herbs, thyme, sweet-marjoram, winter-savoury, sweet-bryar, and bay-leaves, in all a good great handful; which a proportion for ten gallons; then with a quick-fire boil it very fast half an hour, and no longer; and then take it from the fire, and let it cool in two or three woodden vessels; and let it stand without stirring twenty four hours. then softly drain it out, leaving all the dregs behind. put the clear into your vessel; and if you like any spice, take ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and cloves, and bruise them a little, and put them in a bag, and let them hang in your vessel. before you put your meath into the vessel, try if it will bear an egg as broad as a peny; if it do, then it is very well; and if it be made with the best white-honey, it usually is just so. but if it should prove too strong, that it bears the egge broader; then boil a little more honey and water very small, and put to it, when it is cold: and then put it into the vessel. it is best to be made at michaelmas, and not drunk of till lent. to make small white meath take of the best white honey six quarts; of springwater sixteen gallons; set it on a gentle fire at first, tell it is melted, and clean skimmed; then make it boil apace, until the third part be consumed. then take it from the fire, and put it in a cooler, and when it is cold, tun it up, and let it stand eight months, before you drink it. when you take it from the fire, slice in three orris-roots, and let it remain in the liquor, when you tun it up. a receipt to make metheglin take four gallons of water, two quarts of honey, two ounces of ginger, one ounce of nutmegs, a good handful of rose-mary tops, and as much of bay-leaves, two ounces of dried orange-peel. boil all these till it be so strong as will bear an egg, and not sink; when it is milk warm, work it up with barm, during twenty four hours, and then barrel it up. and after three months you may bottle it up at your pleasure. as you desire a greater quantity of the drink, you must augment the ingredients, according to the proportions above recited. to make metheglin take four gallons of water and one of honey; boil and skim it: then put into it, liverwort, harts-tongue, wild-carrot, and yarrow, a little rosemary and bays, one parsly-root, and a fennel-root; let them boil an hour altogether. you may, if you please, hang a little bag of spice in it. when it is cold, put a little barm to it, and let it work like beer. the roots must be scraped, and the pith taken out. meath from the muscovian ambassadour's steward take three times as much water as honey; then let the tubs, that the honey must be wrought in, be cleansed very clean with scalding water, so that it may not prove sowre; also when you mix them together, take half-warm-water, and half cold, and squeese them well together; afterwards when you think the honey is well melted, then let it run through a sieve; and see your kettle of copper or iron (but copper is better than iron) be very clean; then put in your spice, as, nutmegs, ginger, cloves, cardamome, anisseeds, orange peel; put these in according to the quantity you make, and let them all be bruised, except the orange peel, which leave whole. the meath must boil an hour by the clock; after put it into tubs to cool, and when it is cold, take three or four slices of white-bread, tost them very hard, and spread very good yest on both sides of the tosts; then put them into the tubs. if it be warm weather, let the tubs be uncovered; but if it be cold, cover them. this being done, you will find it worked enough by the black that cometh up by the sides of the tubs; then take a sieve and take off the yest and bread. afterwards draw it off at a tap in the tub into the cask you intend to keep it in; then take a quantity of spice as before, well-bruised, and put it into a bag, and make it fast at the bung, with a string, and if it begins to work, after it is in the cask, be sure to give it vent, or else you will loose all. to make meath to every quart of honey put four quarts of springwater; temper the honey in the water, being a little warmed; then put it on the fire again, with fennel, rose-mary, thyme, agrimony, parsley or the like. let them boil half an hour, and upwards; and as it boileth, scum the froth; then take it off, and strain it, and let it cool as you do your wort. then put a little barm into it, then take off the froath again, and stir it well together. then take two quarts of ale, boiled with cloves. mace, cinnamon, ginger and liquorice; and put it to the meath and tun it up. a receipt to make white meath take rose-mary, thyme, sweet-bryar, peny-royal, bays, water-cresses, agrimony, marsh-mallow-leaves and flowers, liver-wort, maiden-hair, betony, eye-bright, scabious, the bark of an ash-tree, young eringo-roots, wild-angelica, ribwort, sinacle, roman-worm-wood, tamarisk, mother-thyme, saxafrage, philipendula, of each of these herbs a like proportion; or of as many as you please to put in. you must put in all but four handfuls of herbs, which you must steep a night and a day, in a little bowl of water, being close covered. the next day take another fresh quantity of water, and boil the same herbs in it, till the colour be very high; then take another quantity of water, and boil the same herbs in it, untill it look green; and so let them boil three or four times in several waters, as long as the liquor looketh anything green. then let it stand with these herbs in it a day and a night. remember the last water you boil it in, to this proportion of herbs, must be eighteen gallons. and when it hath stood a day and a night with these herbs in it after the last boiling, then strain the liquor from the herbs; and put as much of the finest and best honey into the liquor, as will bear an egg; you must work the honey and liquor together a whole day, until the honey be consumed; then let it stand one whole night; then let it be well laboured again, and set it a clearing; and so boil it again with the whites of six new-laid-eggs with the shells; skim it very clean; and let it stand a day a cooling; then put it into a barrel, and take cloves, mace, cinnamon and nutmegs as much as will please your taste, and beat them all together, and put them in a linnen bag, and hang it with a thread into the barrel. then take the whites of two or three new-laid-eggs, a spoonful of barm, a spoonful of wheat-flower, and beat them all together, and put it into your liquor in the barrel, and let it work before you stop it; then afterwards stop it well, and set it in a cold place, and when it hath been settled some six weeks: draw it into bottles, and stop it very close, and drink not of it in a month after. to make metheglin take eight gallons of water, set it over a clear fire in a kettle; and when it is warm, put it to sixteen pounds of very good honey, and stir it well together; take off the scum, and put two large nutmegs cut in quarters, and so let it boil at least an hour; then take it off the fire, and put to it two good handfulls of grinded malt, and with a white staff keep beating it together till it be almost cold; then strain it through a hair-sieve into a tub, and put to it a wine-pint of ale-yest, and stir it very well together; and when it is cold, you may if you please, tun it up presently into a vessel fit for it, or else let it stand, and work a day, and when it hath done working in your vessel, stop it up very close. it will be three weeks or a month before it be ready to drink. to make honey drink to two quarts of water take one pound of honey. when it boileth, skim it clean as long as any scum ariseth; boil it a pretty while; then take it off the fire, and put it in an earthen pot, and let it stand till the next day; then put it into clean bottles, that are throughly dry, rinsing first every bottle with a little of the liquor; fill them not too full, and put into every bottle four or five cloves, and four or five slices of ginger: and stop it very close, and set it in sand; and within ten or twelve days it will be ready to drink. some, when they take their bees, put the honey-combs into fair-water, and make it so strong of the honey that it will bear an egg; and then boil it with some spice, and put it into a barrel: but i think it not so good, as that which is made of pure honey. the earl of denbigh's metheglin take twenty gallons of spring-water; boil it a quarter of an hour, and let it stand, until it be all most cold; then beat in so much honey, as will make it so strong as to bear an egg, so that on the top, you may see the breadth of a hasel-nut swimming above; the next day boil it up with six small handfuls of rosemary; a pound and a half of ginger, being scraped and bruised; then take the whites of twenty eggs shells and all; beat them very well, and put them in to clarifie it; skim it very clean, then take it off the fire and strain: but put the rosemary and ginger in again: then let it remain till it be all most cold: then tun it up, and take some new-ale-yest; the whites of two eggs, a spoonful of flower, and beat them well together, and put them into the barrel; when it hath wrought very well, stop it very close for three weeks or a month: then bottle it, and a week after you may drink it. to make meath take to every gallon of water, a quart of honey, and set it over a clear fire, and when it is ready to boil, skim it very clear. then take two handfulls of sweet-marjoram, as much rose-mary, and as much baulm: and two handful of fennel-roots, as much of parsley-roots, and as many esparages-roots: slice them in the middle, and take out the pith, wash and scrape them very clean, and put them with your herbs into your liquor. then take two ounces of ginger, one ounce of nutmegs, half an ounce of mace: bruise them and put them in: and let it boil till it be so strong that it will bear an egg: then let it cool: and being cold, put in or spoon fulls of new-ale yest: and so skim it well, and put it into a runlet, and it will work like ale: and having done working, stop it up close, as you do new-beer: and lay salt upon it. to make metheglin take four gallons of running water, and boil it a quarter of an hour, and put it in an earthen vessel, and let it stand all night. the next day take only the water, and leave the settling at the bottom: so put the honey in a thin bag, and work it in the water, till all the honey is dissolved. take to four gallons of water, one gallon of honey: then put in an egg, if it be strong enough of the honey, the egg will part of it appear on the top of the liquor: if it do not, put more honey to it, till it do. then take out the egg, and let the liquor stand till next morning. then take two ounces of ginger, and slice it and pare it: some rose-mary washed and stripped from the stalk: dry it very well. the next day put the rose-mary and ginger into the drink, and so set it on the fire: when it is all most ready to boil, take the whites of three eggs well beaten with the shells, and put all into the liquor: and stir it about, and skim it well till it be clear. be sure you skim not off the rose-mary and ginger: then take it off the fire, and let it run through a hair sieve: and when you have strained it, pick out the rose-mary and ginger out of the strainer, and put it into the drink, and throw away the eggshells, and so let it stand all night. the next day tun it up in a barrel: be sure the barrel be not too big: then take a little flower and a little bran, and the white of an egg, and beat them well together, and put them into the barrel on the top of the metheglin, after it is tunned up, and so let it stand till it hath done working; then stop it up as close as is possible: and so let it stand six or seven weeks: then draw it out and bottle it. you must tye down the corks, and set the bottles in sand five or six weeks, and then drink it. another meath take twenty gallons of fair spring-water. boil it a quarter of an hour, then let it stand till the next day. then beat into it so much honey, as will make it so strong as to bear an egg the breadth of a two pence above the water. the next day boil it up with six small handfulls of rosemary, a pound and a half of ginger, (being scraped and bruised) and the whites of twenty eggs together with their shells beaten together, and well mingled with the liquor. clarifie it and skim it very clean, still as the scum riseth, leaving the ginger and rosemary in it. let it stand till the next day, then tun it up, and take some new-ale-yest, the whites of two eggs, a spoonful of flower, beat all these together, and put it on the top of the barrel, when the barrel is full. let it work, and when it hath done working, stop it up close for three weeks, or a month. then you may bottle it, and a few days after, you may drink it. another take three gallons of water, and boil in it a handful of rose-mary (or rather the flowers) cowslips, sage-flowers, agrimony, betony, and thyme, _ana_, one handful. when it hath taken the strength of the herbs, strain it through a hair-sieve, and let it cool twenty hours. then to three gallons of the clear part of this decoction, put one gallon of honey, and mingle it very well with your hand, till it bear an egg the breadth of a groat. then boil it and skim it as long as any scum will rise. afterwards let it cool twenty four hours. then put to it a small quantity of ale-barm, and skim the thin-barm that doth rise on it, morning and evening, with a feather, during four days. and so put it up into your vessel, and hang in it a thin linnen bag with two ounces of good white-ginger bruised therein: and stop it up close for a quarter of a year. then you may drink it. another take a quart of honey to a gallon of water; set the kettle over the fire, and stir it now and then, that the honey may melt; let it boil an hour; you must boil in it, a sprig or two of winter-savory, as much of sweet-marjoram; put it into tubs ready scalded, till the next day towards evening. then tun it up into your vessel, let it work for three days; after which hang a bag in the barrel with what quantity of mace and sliced nutmeg you please. to make it stronger then this, 'tis but adding more hony, to make it bear an egg the breadth of a six pence, or something more. you may bottle it out after a month, when you please. this is the way, which is used in sussex by those who are accounted to make it best. another receipt take to every gallon of fountain-water a good quart of honey. set the water on the fire, till it be pretty warm; then take it off, and put it in your honey, and stir it till it be dissolved. then put into every three gallons, two handfuls of thyme: two good handfuls of strawberry-leaves, one handful of organ; one handful of fennel-roots, the heart being taken out, and one handful of parsley-roots the heart taken out: but as for the herbs, it must be according to the constitution of them, for whom the mead is intended. then set the herbs in it on the fire, to boil for half an hour, still skimming it, as the scum riseth; it must boil but half an hour; then take it off the fire, and presently strain it from the herbs, and let it stand till it be fully cold; then pour it softly off the bottom, and put it in a vessel fit for it, and put a small quantity of barm in it, and mingle it with it, and when it hath wrought up, which will be in three or four days, skim off that barm, and set on fresh: but the second barm must not be mingled with the meath, but onely poured on the top of it. take an ounce of nutmeg sliced: one ounce of ginger sliced: one ounce of cinnamon cut in pieces, and boil them a pretty while in a quart of white-wine or sack: when this is very cold, strain it, and put the spices in a canvas-bag to hang in your meath, and pour in the wine it was boiled in. this meath will be drinkable, when it is a fortnight or three weeks old. to make metheglin that looks like white-wine take to twelve gallons of water, a handful of each of these herbs: parsley, eglantine, rosemary, strawberry-leaves, wild-thyme, baulme, liverwort, betony, scabious: when the water begins to boil, cast in the herbs: let them boil a quarter of an hour: then strain out the herbs; and when it is almost cold, then put in as much of the best honey, you can get, as will bear an egg to the breadth of two pence; that is, till you can see no more of the egge above the water, then a two pence will cover: lave it and stir it till you see all the honey be melted; then boil it well half an hour, at the least: skim it well, and put in the whites of six eggs beaten, to clarifie it: then strain it into some woodden vessels; and when it is almost cold, put some ale-barm into it. and when it worketh well, tun it into some well seasoned vessel, where neither ale nor beer hath been, for marring the colour of it. when it hath done working, if you like it, take a quantity of cloves, nutmegs, mace, cinnamon, ginger, or any of these that you like best, and bruise them, and put them in a boulter bag, and hang it in the vessel. put not too much of the spice, because many do not like the taste of much spice. if you make it at michaelmas, you may tap it at christmas: but if you keep it longer, it will be the better. it will look pure, and drink with as much spirit as can be, and very pleasant. to make white metheglin take sweet-marjoram, sweet-bryar-buds, violet-leaves, strawberry-leaves, of each one handful, and a good handful of violet flowers (the dubble ones are the best) broad thyme, borrage, agrimony, of each half a handful, and two or three branches of rosemary, the seeds of carvi, coriander, and fennel, of each two spoonfuls, and three or four blades of large-mace. boil all these in eight gallons of running-water, three quarters of an hour. then strain it, and when it is but blood-warm, put in as much of the best honey, as will make the liquor bear an egg the breadth of six pence above the water. then boil it again as long as any scum will rise. then set it abroad a cooling; and when it is almost cold, put in half a pint of good ale-barm; and when it hath wrought, till you perceive the barm to fall, then tun it, and let it work in the barrel, till the barm leaveth rising, filling it up every day with some of the same liquor. when you stop it up, put in a bag with one nutmeg sliced, a little whole cloves and mace, a stick of cinnamon broken in pieces, and a grain of good musk. you may make this a little before michaelmas, and it will be fit to drink at lent. this is sir edward bainton's receipt, which my lord of portland (who gave it me) saith, was the best he ever drunk. to make a small metheglin take four gallons of water, and set it over the fire. put into it, when it is warm, eight pounds of honey; as the scum riseth, take it clean off. when it is clear, put into it three nutmegs quartered; three or four races of ginger sliced; then let it boil a whole hour, then take it off the fire, and put to it two handfuls of ground malt; stir it about with a round stick, till it be as cold as wort, when you put yest to it. then strain it out into a pot or tub, that hath a spiggot and faucet, and put to it a pint of very good ale-yest; so let it work for two days; then cover it close for about four or five days, and so draw it out into bottles. it will be ready to drink within three weeks. to make meath take to six quarts of water, a quart of the best honey, and put it on the fire, and stir it, till the honey is melted: and boil it well as long as any scum riseth: and now and then put in a little cold water, for this will make the scum rise: keep your kettle up as full as you did put it on; when it is boiled enough, about half an hour before you take it off, then take a quantity of ginger sliced and well scraped first, and a good quantity of rosemary, and boil both together. of the rosemary and ginger you may put in more or less, for to please your taste: and when you take it off the fire, strain it into your vessel, either a well seasoned-tub, or a great cream pot, and the next morning when it is cold, pour off softly the top from the settlings into another vessel; and then put some little quantity of the best ale-barm to it and cover it with a thin cloth over it, if it be in summer, but in the winter it will be longer a ripening, and therefore must be the warmer covered in a close place, and when you go to bottle it, take with a feather all the barm off, and put it into your bottles, and stop it up close. in ten days you may drink it. if you think six quarts of water be too much, and would have it stronger, then put in a greater quantity of honey. metheglin or sweet drink of my lady stuart take as much water as will fill your firkin: of rosemary, bays, sweet-bryar, broad-thyme, sweet-majoram, of each a handful; set it over the fire, until the herbs have a little coloured the water; then take it off, and when it is cold, put in as much honey, till it will bear an egg; then lave it three days morning and evening. after that boil it again, and skim it very clean, and in the boiling clarifie it with the whites of six eggs, shells and all, well beaten together. then take it off, and put it to cool; and when it is cold, put it into your vessel, and put to it three spoonfuls of yest; stop it close, and keep it, till it be old at least three months. a metheglin for the colick and stone of the same lady take one gallon of honey to seven gallons of water; boil it together, and skim it well; then take pelitory of the wall, saxifrage, betony, parsley, groundsel, of each a handful, of the seeds of parsley, of nettles, fennel and carraway-seeds, anisseeds and grumelseeds, of each two ounces. the roots of parsley, of alexander, of fennel and mallows of each two ounces, being small cut; let all boil, till near three gallons of the liquor is wasted: then take it off the fire, and let it stand till it be cold; then cleanse it from the drugs, and let it be put into a clean vessel well stopped, taking four nutmegs, one ounce and half of ginger, half an ounce of cinnamon, twelve cloves; cut all these small, and hang them in a bag into the vessel, when you stop it up. when it is a fortnight old, you may begin to drink of it; every morning a good draught. a receipt for metheglin of my lady windebanke take four gallons of water; add to it, these herbs and spices following. pellitory of the wall, sage, thyme, of each a quarter of a handful, as much clove gilly-flowers, with half as much borage and bugloss flowers, a little hyssop, five or six eringo-roots, three or four parsley-roots: one fennel-root, the pith taken out, a few red-nettle-roots, and a little harts-tongue. boil these roots and herbs half an hour; then take out the roots and herbs, and put in the spices grosly beaten in a canvass-bag, _viz._ cloves, mace, of each half an ounce, and as much cinnamon, of nutmeg an ounce, with two ounces of ginger, and a gallon of honey: boil all these together half an hour longer, but do not skim it at all: let it boil in, and set it a cooling after you have taken it off the fire. when it is cold, put six spoonfuls of barm to it, and let it work twelve hours at least; then tun it, and put a little limon-peel into it: and then you may bottle it, if you please. another of the same lady to four gallons of water put one gallon of honey; warm the water luke-warm before you put in your honey; when it is dissolved, set it over the fire, and let it boil half an hour with these spices grosly beaten and put in a canvass-bag: namely, half an ounce of ginger, two nutmegs, a few cloves and a little mace; and in the boiling put in a quart of cold water to raise the scum, which you must take clean off in the boiling. if you love herbs, put in a little bundle of rosemary, bays, sweet-marjoram and eglantine. let it stand till it is cold, then put into it half a pint of ale-barm, and let it work twelve hours; then tun it, but take out the bundle of herbs first. to make metheglin take to every gallon of honey, three gallons of water, and put them together and set them over so gentle a fire, as you might endure to break it in the water with your hand. when the honey is all melted, put in an egg, and let it fall gently to the bottom; and if your egg rise up again to the top of the liquor, then it is strong enough of the honey. but if it lie at the bottom, you must put in more honey, and stir it, till it doth rise. if your honey be very good, it will bear half a gallon of water more to a gallon of honey. then take sweet-bryar, bays, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, savoury, of each a good handfull, which you must tye up all together in a bundle. this proportion of herbs will be sufficient for twelve gallons of metheglin; and according to the quantity of metheglin you make, you must add or diminish your herbs. when you have put these things together, set it over a quick fire, and let it boil as fast as you can for half an hour or better, skiming of it very clean and clarifying it with the whites of two or three eggs. then take it from the fire, and put it into some clean vessel or other, and let it stand till the next morning; then pour the clear from the dregs, and tun it up, putting in a little bag of such spice as you like, whereof ginger must be the most. after it hath stood three or four days, you may put in two or three spoon-fulls of good ale-yest, it will make it the sooner ready to drink. it must work before you stop it up. the older your honey is, the whiter your metheglin will be. meath with raisins put forty gallons of water into your caldron, and with a stick take the height of the water, making a notch, where the superficies of the water cometh. then put to the water ten gallons of honey, which dissolve with much laving it; then presently boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till it be free from scum. then put into it a thin bag of boulter-cloth containing forty pound weight of the best blew raisins of the sun, well picked and washed and wiped dry; and let the bag be so large, that the raisins may lie at ease and loosly in it. when you perceive that the raisins are boiled enough to be very soft, that you may strain out all their substance, take out the bag, and strain out all the liquor by a strong press. put it back to the honey-liquor, and boil all together (having thrown away the husks of the raisins with the bag) till your liquor be sunk down to the notch of your stick, which is the sign of due strength. then let it cool in a woodden vessel, and let it run through a strainer to sever it from the settlings, and put it into a strong vessel, that hath had sack or muscadine in it, not filling it to within three fingers breadth of the top (for otherwise it will break the vessel with working) and leave the bung open whiles it worketh, which will be six weeks very strongly, though it be put into a cold cellar. and after nine moneths, you may begin to drink it. morello wine to half an aume of white wine, take twenty pounds of morello cherries, the stalks being first plucked off. bruise the cherries and break the stones. pour into the wine the juyce that comes out from the cherries; but put all the solid substance of them into a long bag of boulter-cloth, and hang it in the wine at the bung, so that it lie not in the bottom, but only reach to touch it, and therefore nail it down at the mouth of the bung. then stop it close. for variety, you may put some clear juyce of cherries alone (but drawn from a larger proportion of cherries) into another parcel of wine. to either of them, if you will aromatise the drink, take to this quantity two ounces of cinnamon grosly broken and bruised, and put it in a little bag at the spiggot, that all the wine you draw may run through the cinnamon. you must be careful in bruising the cherries, and breaking the stones. for if you do all at once, the liquor will sparkle about. but you must first bruise the cherries gently in a mortar, and rub through a sieve all that will pass, and strain the residue hard through your hands. then beat the remaining hard so strongly, as may break all the stones. then put all together, and strain the clean through a subtil strainer, and put the solider substance into the bag to hang in the wine. currants-wine take a pound of the best currants clean picked, and pour upon them in a deep straight mouthed earthen vessel six pounds or pints of hot water, in which you have dissolved three spoonfuls of the purest and newest ale-yest. stop it very close till it ferment, then give such vent as is necessary, and keep it warm for about three days, it will work and ferment. taste it after two days, to see if it be grown to your liking. as soon as you find it so, let it run through a strainer, to leave behind all the exhausted currants and the yest, and so bottle it up. it will be exceeding quick and pleasant, and is admirable good to cool the liver, and cleanse the blood. it will be ready to drink in five or six days after it is bottled; and you may drink safely large draughts of it. scotch ale from my lady holmbey the excellent scotch ale is made thus. heat spring-water; it must not boil, but be ready to boil, which you will know by leaping up in bubbles. then pour it to the malt; but by little and little, stirring them strongly together all the while they are mingling. when all the water is in, it must be so proportioned that it be very thick. then cover the vessel well with a thick mat made on purpose with a hole for the stick, and that with coverlets and blankets to keep in all the heat. after three or four hours, let it run out by the stick (putting new heated water upon the malt, if you please, for small ale or beer) into a hogshead with the head out. there let it stand till it begin to blink, and grow long like thin syrup. if you let it stay too long, and grow too thick, it will be sowre. then put it again into the caldron, and boil it an hour or an hour and a half. then put it into a woodden-vessel to cool, which will require near forty hours for a hogshead. then pour it off gently from the settling. this quantity (of a hogshead) will require better then a quart of the best ale-barm, which you must put to it thus. put it to about three quarts of wort, and stir it, to make it work well. when the barm is risen quick scum it off to put to the rest of the wort by degrees. the remaining liquor (that is the three quarts) will have drawn into it all the heavy dregs of the barm, and you may put it to the ale of the second running, but not to this. put the barm, you have scummed off (which will be at least a quart) to about two gallons of the wort, and stir it to make that rise and work. then put two gallons more to it. doing thus at several times, till all be mingled, which will require a whole day to do. cover it close, and let it work, till it be at it's height, and begin to fall, which may require ten or twelve hours, or more. watch this well, least it sink too much, for then it will be dead. then scum off the thickest part of the barm, and run your ale into the hogshead, leaving all the bung open a day or two. then lay a strong paper upon it, to keep the clay from falling in, that you must then lay upon it, in which you must make a little hole to let it work out. you must have some of the same liquor to fill it up, as it works over. when it hath done working, stop it up very close, and keep it in a very cold cellar. it will be fit to broach after a year; and be very clear and sweet and pleasant, and will continue a year longer drawing; and the last glass full be as pure and as quick as the first. you begin to broach it high. let your cask have served for sweet-wine. to make ale drink quick when small ale hath wrought sufficiently, draw into bottles; but first put into every bottle twelve good raisins of the sun split and stoned; then stop up the bottle close, and set it in sand (gravel) or a cold dry cellar. after a while this will drink exceeding quick and pleasant. likewise take six wheat-corns, and bruise them, and put into a bottle of ale; it will make it exceeding quick and stronger. to make cider take a peck of apples, and slice them, and boil them in a barrel of water, till the third part be wasted; then cool your water as you do for wort, and when it is cold, you must pour the water upon three measures of grown apples. then draw forth the water at a tap three or four times a day, for three days together. then press out the liquor, and tun it up; when it hath done working, then stop it up close. a very pleasant drink of apples take about fifty pippins; quarter and core them, without paring them: for the paring is the cordialest part of them. therefore onely wipe or wash them well, and pick away the black excrescence at the top; and be sure to leave out all the seeds, which are hot. you may cut them (after all the superfluities are taken away) into thinner slices, if you please. put three gallons of fountain water to them in a great pipkin, and let them boil, till the apples become clear and transparent; which is a sign, they are perfectly tender, and will be in a good half hour, or a little more. then with your ladle break them into mash and pulpe, incorporated with the water; letting all boil half an hour longer, that the water may draw into it self all the vertue of the apples. then put to them a pound and a half of pure dubble refined sugar in powder, which will soon dissolve in that hot liquor. then pour it into an hippocras bag, and let it run through it two or three times, to be very clear. then put it up into bottles; and after a little time, it will be a most pleasant, quick, cooling, smoothing drink. excellent in sharp gonorrhoeas. sir paul neale's way of making cider the best apples make the best cider, as pearmains, pippins, golden-pippins, and the like. codlings make the finest cider of all. they must be ripe, when you make cider of them: and is in prime in the summer season, when no other cider is good. but lasteth not long, not beyond autumn. the foundation of making perfect cyder consisteth in not having it work much, scarce ever at all; but at least, no second time; which ordinary cider doth often, upon change of weather, and upon motion: and upon every working it grows harder. do then thus: choose good apples. red streaks are the best for cider to keep; ginet-moils the next, then pippins. let them lie about three weeks, after they are gathered; then stamp and strain them in the ordinary way, into a woodden fat that hath a spigot three or four fingers breadth above the bottom. cover the fat with some hair or sackcloth, to secure it from any thing to fall in, and to keep in some of the spirits, so to preserve it from dying; but not so much as to make it ferment. when the juyce hath been there twelve hours, draw it by the spigot (the fat inclining that way, as if it were a little tilted) into a barrel; which must not be full by about two fingers. leave the bung open for the air to come in, upon a superficies, all along the barrel, to hinder it from fermenting; but not so large a superficies as to endanger dying, by the airs depredating too many spirits from it. the drift in both these settlings is, that the grosser parts consisting of the substance of the apple, may settle to the bottom, and be severed from the liquor; for it is that, which maketh it work again (upon motion or change of weather) and spoils it. after twenty four hours draw of it, to see if it be clear, by the settling of all dregs, above which your spigot must be. if it be not clear enough, draw it from the thick dregs into another vessel, and let it settle there twenty four hours. this vessel must be less then the first, because you draw not all out of the first. if then it should not be clear enough, draw it into a third, yet lesser than the second; but usually it is at the first. when it is clear enough draw it into bottles, filling them within two fingers, which stop close. after two or three days visit them; that if there be a danger of their working (which would break the bottles) you may take out the stopples, and let them stand open for half a quarter of an hour. then stop them close, and they are secure for ever after. in cold freesing weather, set them upon hay, and cover them over with hay or straw. in open weather in winter transpose them to another part of the cellar to stand upon the bare ground or pavement. in hot weather set them in sand. the cider of the apples of the last season, as pippins, not peermains, nor codlings, will last till the summer grow hot. though this never work, 'tis not of the nature of strummed wine; because the naughty dregs are not left in it. doctor harvey's pleasant water-cider, whereof he used to drink much, making it his ordinary drink take one bushel of pippins, cut them into slices with the parings and cores; boil them in twelve gallons of water, till the goodness of them be in the water; and that consumed about three gallons. then put it into an hypocras-bag, made of cotton; and when it is clear run out, and almost cold, sweeten it with five pound of brown-sugar, and put a pint of ale-yest to it, and set it a working two nights and days: then skim off the yest clean, and put it into bottles, and let it stand two or three days, till the yest fall dead at the top: then take it off clean with a knife, and fill it up a little within the neck (that is to say, that a little about a fingers breadth of the neck be empty, between the superficies of the liquor, and the bottom of the stopple) and then stop them up and tye them, or else it will drive out the corks. within a fortnight you may drink of it. it will keep five or six weeks. ale with honey sir thomas gower makes his pleasant and wholesom drink of ale and honey thus. take fourty gallons of small ale, and five gallons of honey. when the ale is ready to tun, and is still warm, take out ten gallons of it; which, whiles it is hot, mingle with it the five gallons of honey, stirring it exceeding well with a clean arm till they be perfectly incorporated. then cover it, and let it cool and stand still. at the same time you begin to dissolve the honey in this parcel, you take the other of thirty gallons also warm, and tun it up with barm, and put it into a vessel capable to hold all the whole quantity of ale and honey, and let it work there; and because the vessel will be so far from being full, that the gross foulness of the ale cannot work over, make holes in the sides of the barrel even with the superficies of the liquor in it, out of which the gross feculence may purge; and these holes must be fast shut, when you put in the rest of the ale with the honey: which you must do, when you see the strong working of the other is over; and that it works but gently, which may be after two or three or four days, according to the warmth of the season. you must warm your solution of honey, when you put it in, to be as warm as ale, when you tun it; and then it will set the whole a working a fresh, and casting out more foulness; which it would do too violently, if you put it in at the first of the tunning it. it is not amiss that some feculence lie thick upon the ale, and work not all out; for that will keep in the spirits. after you have dissolved the honey in the ale, you must boil it a little to skim it; but skim it not, till it have stood a while from the fire to cool; else you will skim away much of the honey, which will still rise as long as it boileth. if you will not make so great a quantity at a time, do it in less in the same proportions. he makes it about michaelmas for lent. when strong beer groweth too hard, and flat for want of spirits, take four or five gallons of it out of a hogshead, and boil five pounds of honey in it, and skim it, and put it warm into the beer; and after it hath done working, stop it up close. this will make it quick, pleasant and stronger. small ale for the stone the ale, that i used to drink constantly of, was made in these proportions. take fourteen gallons of water, and half an ounce of hops; boil them near an hour together. then pour it upon a peck of malt. have a care the malt be not too small ground; for then it will never make clear ale. let it soak so near two hours. then let it run from the malt, and boil it only one walm or two. let it stand cooling till it be cool enough to work with barm, which let be of beer rather than ale, about half a pint. after it hath wrought some hours, when you see it come to it's height, and is near beginning to fall in working, tun it into a barrel of eight gallons; and in four or five days it will be fit to broach to drink. since i have caused the wort to be boiled a good half hour; since again i boil it a good hour, and it is much the better; because the former ale tasted a little raw. now because it consumes in boiling, and would be too strong, if this malt made a less proportion of ale; i have added a gallon of water at the first, taking fifteen gallons instead of fourteen. since i have added half a peck of malt to the former proportions, to make it a little stronger in winter. apple drink with sugar, honey, &c a very pleasant drink is made of apples, thus; boil sliced apples in water, to make the water strong of apples, as when you make to drink it for coolness and pleasure. sweeten it with sugar to your tast, such a quantity of sliced apples, as would make so much water strong enough of apples; and then bottle it up close for three or four months. there will come a thick mother at the top, which being taken off, all the rest will be very clear, and quick and pleasant to the taste, beyond any cider. it will be the better to most taste, if you put a very little rosemary into the liquor, when you boil it, and a little limon-peel into each bottle, when you bottle it up. to make stepponi take a gallon of conduit-water, one pound of blew raisins of the sun stoned, and half a pound of sugar. squeese the juyce of two limons upon the raisins and sugar, and slice the rindes upon them. boil the water, and pour it so hot upon the ingredients in an earthen pot, and stir them well together. so let it stand twenty four hours. then put it into bottles (having first let it run through a strainer) and set them in a cellar or other cool place. weak honey-drink take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure white-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. in all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. about a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rinde of orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the orange boil only one walm in it. then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce luke-warm. then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure ale-yest, and work it together with a ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the liquor, stopping it very close. it will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. it will be from the first very quick and pleasant. mr. webb's ale and bragot five bushels of malt will make two hogsheads. the first running makes one very good hogshead, but not very strong; the second is very weak. to this proportion boil a quarter of a pound of hops in all the water that is to make the two hogsheads; that is, two ounces to each hogshead. you put your water to the malt in the ordinary way. boil it well, when you come to work it with yest, take very good beer-yest, not ale-yest. to make bragot, he takes the first running of such ale, and boils a less proportion of honey in it, then when he makes his ordinary meath; but dubble or triple as much spice and herbs. as for example to twenty gallons of the strong-wort, he puts eight or ten pound, (according as your taste liketh more or less honey) of honey; but at least triple as much herbs, and triple as much spice as would serve such a quantity of small mead as he made me (for to a stronger mead you put a greater proportion of herbs and spice, then to a small; by reason that you must keep it a longer time before you drink it; and the length of time mellows and tames the taste of the herbs and spice). and when it is tunned in the vessel (after working with the barm) you hang in it a bag with bruised spices (rather more then you boiled in it) which is to hang in the barrel all the while you draw it. he makes also mead with the second weak running of the ale; and to this he useth the same proportions of honey, herbs and spice, as for his small mead of pure water; and useth the same manner of boiling, working with yest, and other circumstances, as in making of that. the countess of newport's cherry wine pick the best cherries free from rotten, and pick the stalk from them; put them into an earthen pan. bruise them, by griping and straining them in your hands, and let them stand all night; on the next day strain them out (through a napkin; which if it be a course and thin one, let the juyce run through a hippocras or gelly bag, upon a pound of fine pure sugar in powder, to every gallon of juyce) and to every gallon put a pound of sugar, and put it into a vessel. be sure your vessel be full, or your wine will be spoiled; you must let it stand a month before you bottle it; and in every bottle you must put a lump (a piece as big as a nutmeg) of sugar. the vessel must not be stopt until it hath done working. strawberry wine bruise the strawberries, and put them into a linnen-bag which hath been a little used, that so the liquor may run through more easily. you hang in the bag at the bung into the vessel, before you do put in your strawberries. the quantity of the fruit is left to your discretion; for you will judge to be there enough of them, when the colour of the wine is high enough. during the working, you leave the bung open. the working being over, you stop your vessel. cherry-wine is made after the same fashion. but it is a little more troublesome to break the cherry-stones. but it is necessary, that if your cherries be of the black soure cherries, you put to it a little cinnamon, and a few cloves. to make wine of cherries alone take one hundred pounds weight, or what quantity you please, of ripe, but sound, pure, dry and well gathered cherries. bruise and mash them with your hands to press out all their juyce, which strain through a boulter cloth, into a deep narrow woodden tub, and cover it close with clothes. it will begin to work and ferment within three or four hours, and a thick foul scum will rise to the top. skim it off as it riseth to any good head, and presently cover it again. do this till no more great quantity of scum arise, which will be four or five times, or more. and by this means the liquor will become clear, all the gross muddy parts rising up in scum to the top. when you find that the height of the working is past, and that it begins to go less, tun it into a barrel, letting it run again through a boulter, to keep out all the gross feculent substance. if you should let it stay before you tun it up, till the working were too much deaded, the wine would prove dead. let it remain in the barrel close stopped, a month or five weeks. then draw it into bottles, into each of which put a lump of fine sugar, before you draw the wine into it, and stop them very close, and set them in a cold cellar. you may drink them after three or four months. this wine is exceeding pleasant, strong, spiritful and comfortable. of cookery to make a sack posset boil two wine-quarts of sweet-cream in a possnet; when it hath boiled a little, take it from the fire, and beat the yolks of nine or ten fresh eggs, and the whites of four with it, beginning with two or three spoonfuls, and adding more till all be incorporated; then set it over the fire, to recover a good degree of heat, but not so much as to boil; and always stir it one way, least you break the consistence. in the mean time, let half a pint of sack or white muscadin boil a very little in a bason, upon a chafing-dish of coals, with three quarters of a pound of sugar, and three or four quartered nutmegs, and as many pretty big pieces of sticks of cinnamon. when this is well scummed, and still very hot, take it from the fire, and immediately pour into it the cream, beginning to pour neer it, but raising by degrees your hand so that it may fall down from a good height; and without anymore to be done, it will then be fit to eat. it is very good kept cold as well as eaten hot. it doth very well with it, to put into the sack (immediately before you put in the cream) some ambergreece, or ambered-sugar, or pastils. when it is made, you may put powder of cinnamon and sugar upon it, if you like it. another to two quarts of cream, if it be in the summer, when the cream is thick and best, take but two or three yolks of eggs. but in the winter when it is thin and hungry, take six or seven; but never no whites. and of sack or muscadin, take a good third (scarce half) of a pint; and three quarters of a pound of fine sugar. let the sugar and sack boil well together, that it be almost like a syrup; and just as you take it from the fire, put in your ground amber or pastils, and constantly pour in the cream with which the eggs are incorporated; and do all the rest as is said in the foregoing process. ambered-sugar is made by grinding very well, four grains of ambergreece, and one of musk, with a little fine sugar; or grinding two or three spanish pastils very small. a plain ordinary posset put a pint of good milk to boil; as soon as it doth so, take it from the fire, to let the great heat of it cool a little; for doing so, the curd will be the tenderer, and the whole of a more uniform consistence. when it is prettily cooled, pour it into your pot, wherein is about two spoonfuls of sack, and about four of ale, with sufficient sugar dissolved in them. so let it stand a while near the fire, till you eat it. a sack posset take three pints of cream; boil in it a little cinnamon, a nutmeg quartered, and two spoonfuls of grated bread; then beat the yolks of twelve eggs very well with a little cold cream, and a spoonful of sack. when your cream hath boiled about a quarter of an hour, thicken it up with the eggs, and sweeten it with sugar; and take half a pint of sack and six spoonfuls of ale, and put into the basin or dish, you intend to make it in, with a little ambergreece, if you please. then pour your cream and eggs into it, holding your hand as high as conveniently you can, gently stirring in the basin with the spoon as you pour it; so serve it up. if you please you may strew sugar upon it. you may strew ambred sugar upon it, as you eat it; or sugar-beaten with cinnamon, if you like it. a barley sack posset take half a pound or more of french barley, (not perle-barley) and pour scalding water upon it, and wash it well therein, and strain it from the water, & put it into the corner of a linnen-cloth and tie it up fast there, and strike it a dozen or twenty blows against a firm table or block, to make it tender by such bruising it, as in the countrey is used with wheat to make frumenty. then put it into a large skillet with three pints of good milk. boil this till at least half be consumed, and that it become as thick as hasty pudding, which will require at least two hours; and it must be carefully stirred all the while, least it burn too: which if by some little inadvertence it should do, and that some black burned substance sticketh to the bottom of the skillet, pour all the good matter from it into a fresh skillet (or into a basin whiles you scoure this) and renew boiling till it be very thick; all which is to make the barley very tender and pulpy, and will at least require two or near three hours. then pour to it three pints of good cream, and boil them together a little while, stirring them always. it will be sometime before the cold cream boil, which when it doth, a little will suffice. then take it from the fire, and season it well with sugar. then take a quarter of a pint of sack, and as much rhenish-wine (or more of each) and a little verjuyce, or sharp cider, or juyce of orange, and season it well with sugar (at least half a pound to both) and set it over coals to boil. which when it doth, and the sugar is well melted, pour the cream into it; in which cream the barley will be settled to the bottom by standing still unmoved, after the sugar is well stirred and melted in it, or pour it through a hair-sieve; and you may boil it again, that it be very hot, when you mingle them together; else it may chance not curdle. some of the barley (but little) will go over with it, and will do no hurt. after you have thus made your posset, let it stand warm a while that the curd may thicken: but take heed it boil not, for that would dissolve it again into the consistence of cream. when you serve it up, strew it over with powder of cinnamon and sugar. it will be much the better, if you strew upon it some ambergreece ground with sugar. you may boil bruised sticks of cinnamon in the cream, and in the sack, before you mingle them. you must use clear char-coal-fire under your vessels. the remaining barley will make good barley cream, being boiled with fresh cream and a little cinnamon and mace; to which you may add a little rosemary and sugar, when it is taken from the fire: or butter it as you do wheat. or make a pudding of it, putting to it a pint of cream, which boil; then add four or five yolks, and two whites of eggs, and the marrow of two bones cut small, and of one in lumps: sufficient sugar, and one nutmeg grated. put this either to bake raw, or with puff-past beneath and above it in the dish. a pretty smart heat, as for white manchet, and three quarters of an hour in the oven. you may make the like with great oat-meal scalded (not boiled) in cream, and soaked a night; then made up as the other. my lord of carlile's sack-posset take a pottle of cream, and boil in it a little whole cinnamon, and three or four flakes of mace. to this proportion of cream put in eighteen yolks of eggs, and eight of the whites; a pint of sack; beat your eggs very well, and then mingle them with your sack. put in three quarters of a pound of sugar into the wine and eggs with a nutmeg grated, and a little beaten cinnamon; set the basin on the fire with the wine and eggs, and let it be hot. then put in the cream boyling from the fire, pour it on high, but stir it not; cover it with a dish, and when it is settled, strew on the top a little fine sugar mingled with three grains of ambergreece, and one grain of musk, and serve it up. a syllabub my lady middlesex makes syllabubs for little glasses with spouts, thus. take pints of sweet cream, one of quick white wine (or rhenish), and a good wine glassful (better the / of a pint) of sack: mingle with them about three quarters of a pound of fine sugar in powder. beat all these together with a whisk, till all appeareth converted into froth. then pour it into your little syllabub-glasses, and let them stand all night. the next day the curd will be thick and firm above, and the drink clear under it. i conceive it may do well, to put into each glass (when you pour the liquor into it) a sprig of rosemary a little bruised, or a little limon-peel, or some such thing to quicken the taste; or use amber-sugar, or spirit of cinnamon, or of lignum-cassiæ; or nutmegs, or mace, or cloves, a very little. a good dish of cream boil a quart of good cream with sticks of cinnamon and quartered nutmeg and sugar to your taste. when it is boiled enough to have acquired the taste of the spice, take the whites of six new laid eggs, and beat them very well with a little fresh-cream, then pour them to your boyling cream, and let them boil a walm or two. then let it run through a boulter, and put a little orange flower-water to it, and sliced bread; and so serve it up cold. an excellent spanish cream take two quarts (you must not exceed this proportion in one vessel) of perfectly sweet-cream, that hath not been jogged with carriage; and in a possnet set it upon a clear lighted char-coal-fire, not too hot. when it beginneth to boil, cast into it a piece of double refined hard sugar about as much as two walnuts, and with a spoon stir the cream all one way. after two or three rounds, you will perceive a thick cream rise at the top. scum it off with your spoon, and lay it in another dish. and always stir it the same way, and more cream will rise; which as it doth rise, you put it into your dish, one lare upon an other. and thus almost all the cream will turn into this thick cream, to within two or three spoonfuls. if you would have it sweeter, you may strew some sugar upon the top of it. you must be careful not to have the heat too much; for then it will turn to oyl; as also if the cream have been carried. if you would have it warm, set the dish you lay it in, upon a chafing-dish of coals. another clouted cream milk your cows in the evening about the ordinary hour, and fill with it a little kettle about three quarters full, so that there may be happily two or three gallons of milk. let this stand thus five or six hours. about twelve a clock at night kindle a good fire of charcoal, and set a large trivet over it. when the fire is very clear and quick, and free from all smoak, set your kettle of milk over it upon the trivet, and have in a pot by a quart of good cream ready to put in at the due time; which must be, when you see the milk begin to boil simpringly. then pour in the cream in a little stream and low, upon a place, where you see the milk simper: this will presently deaden the boiling, and then you must pour in no more cream there, but in a fresh place, where it simpreth and bubbeleth a little. continue this pouring in, in new places where the milk boileth, till all your cream is in, watching it carefully to that end. then let it continue upon the fire to boil, till you see all the milk rise up together to the top, and not in little parcels here and there, so that it would run over, if it should stay longer upon the fire. then let two persons take it steadily off, and set it by in a cool-room to stand unmoved, uncovered; but so as no motes may fall in, for the rest of that night, and all the next day and night, and more, if you would have it thicker. then an hour or two before dinner cut the thick cream at the top with a knife into squares as broad as your hand, which will be the thicker the longer it hath stood. then have a thin slice or skimmer of latton, and with that raise up the thick cream, putting your slice under it so nicely, that you take up no milk with it; and have a ladle or spoon in the other hand to help the cream upon the slice, which thereby will become mingled: and lay these parcels of cream in a dish, into which you have first put a little raw cream, or of that (between cream and milk) that is immediately under the clouts. to take the clouts the more conveniently, you hold a back of a ladle or skimming-dish against the further side of the clout, that it may not slide away when the latton slice shuffeth it on the other side to get under it, and so the clout will mingle together or dubble up, which makes it the thicker, and the more graceful. when you have laid a good laire of clouts in the dish, put upon it a little more fresh raw or boiled cream, and then fill it up with the rest of the clouts. and when it is ready to serve in, you may strew a little sugar upon it, if you will you may sprinkle in a little sugar between every flake or clout of cream. if you keep the dish thus laid a day longer before you eat it, the cream will grow the thicker and firmer. but if you keep it, i think it is best to be without sugar or raw cream in it, and put them in, when you are to serve it up. there will be a thin cream swimming upon the milk of the kettle after the clouts are taken away, which is very sweet and pleasant to drink. if you should let your clouts lie longer upon the milk, then i have said, before you skim it off, the milk underneath would grow soure, and spoil the cream above. if you put these clouts into a churn with other cream, it will make very good butter, so as no sugar have been put with it. my lord of s. alban's cresme fouettee put as much as you please to make, of sweet thick cream into a dish, and whip it with a bundle of white hard rushes, (of such as they make whisks to brush cloaks) tyed together, till it come to be very thick, and near a buttery substance. if you whip it too long, it will become butter. about a good hour will serve in winter. in summer it will require an hour and a half. do not put in the dish, you will serve it up in, till it be almost time to set it upon the table. then strew some poudered fine sugar in the bottom of the dish it is to go in, and with a broad spatule lay your cream upon it: when half is laid in, strew some more fine sugar upon it, and then lay in the rest of the cream (leaving behinde some whey that will be in the bottom) and strew more sugar upon that. you should have the sugar-box by you, to strew on sugar from time to time, as you eat off the superficies, that is strewed over with sugar. if you would have your whipped cream light and frothy, that hath but little substance in the eating, make it of onely plain milk; and if you would have it of a consistence between both, mingle cream and milk. to make the cream curds strain your whey, and set it on the fire; make a clear and gentle fire under your kettle; as they rise, put in whey, so continuing till they are ready to skim. then take your skimmer, and put them on the bottom of a hair sieve, so let them drain till they are cold; then take them off, and put them into a basin, and beat them with two or three spoonfuls of cream and sugar. to make clouted cream take two gallons more or less of new milk, set it upon a clear fire; when it is ready to boil, put in a quart of sweet cream, and take it off the fire, and strain it through a hair sieve into earthen pans; let it stand two days and two nights; then take it off with a skimmer; strew sugar on the cream, and serve it to the table. to make a whip syllabub take the whites of two eggs, and a pint of cream, six spoonfuls of sack, as much sugar as will sweeten it; then take a birchen rod and whip it; as it riseth with froth, skim it, and put it into the syllabub pot; so continue it with whipping and skimming, till your syllabub pot be full. to make a plain syllabub take a pint of verjuyce in a bowl; milk the cow to the verjuyce; take off the curd; and take sweet-cream and beat them together with a little sack and sugar; put it into your syllabub pot; then strew sugar on it, and so send it to the table. concerning potages the ground or body of potages must always be very good broth of mutton, veal and volaille. now to give good taste, you vary every month of the year, according to the herbs and roots that are in season. in spring and summer you use cersevil, oseille, borage, bugloss, pourpier, lettice, chicoree and cowcombers quartered, etc. the manner of using them is to boil store of them about half an hour or a quarter, in a pot by it self, with some bouillon taken out off the great pot; half an hour before dinner, take light bread well dryed from all moisture before the fire; then cut in slices, laid in a dish over coals, pour upon it a ladleful of broath, no more then the bread can presently drink up; which when it hath done, put on another ladleful, and stew that, till it be drunk up; repeat this three or four times, a good quarter of an hour in all, till the bread is swelled like a gelly (if it be too long, it will grow glewy and stick to the dish) and strong of broth; then fill it up near full with the same strong broth, which having stewed a while, put on the broth and herbs, and your capon or other meat upon that, and so let it stew a quarter of an hour longer, then turn it up. in winter, boil half an hour a pretty bundle of parsley, and half as much of sives, and a very little thyme, and sweet-marjoram; when they have given their taste to the herbs, throw the bundle away, and do as abovesaid with the bread. deeper in the winter, parsley-roots, and white-chicoree, or navets, or cabbage, which last must be put in at first, as soon as the pot is skimmed; and to colour the bouillon it is good to put into it (sooner or later, according to the coursness or fineness of what you put in) partridges or wild-duck, or a fleshy piece of beef half rosted. green-pease may some of them be boiled a pretty while in the great pot; but others in a pot by themselves, with some bouillon no longer then as if they were to eat buttered, and put upon the dish, containing the whole stock a quarter of an hour after the other hath stewed a quarter of an hour upon the bread. sometimes old-pease boiled in the broth from the first, to thicken it, but no pease to be served in with it. sometimes a piece of the bottom of a venison pasty, put in from the first. also venison bones. plain savoury english potage make it of beef, mutton and veal; at last adding a capon, or pigeons. put in at first a quartered onion or two, some oat-meal, or french barley, some bottome of a venison-pasty-crust, twenty whole grains of pepper: four or five cloves at last, and a little bundle of sweet-herbs, store of marigold-flowers. you may put in parsley or other herbs. or make it with beef, mutton and veal, putting in some oat-meal, and good pot-herbs, as parsley, sorrel, violet-leaves, etc. and a very little thyme and sweet-marjoram, scarce to be tasted: and some marigold leaves, at last. you may begin to boil it overnight, and let it stand warm all night; then make an end of boiling it next morning. it is well to put into the pot, at first, twenty or thirty corns of whole pepper. potage de blanc de chapon make first a very good bouillon, seasoned as you like. put some of it upon the white flesh of a capon or hen a little more than half-rosted. beat them well in a mortar, and strain out all the juyce that will come. you may put more broth upon what remains in the strainer, and beat again, and strain it to the former. whiles this is doing, put some of your first plain broth upon some dryed bread to mittonner well. let there be no more broth, then just to do that. none to swim thin over. when you will serve the potage in, pour the white liquor upon the swelled and gellied-bread, and let them stew together a little upon the coals. when it is through hot, take it off, and squeese some limon or orange into it, and so send it in presently. it mendeth a bouillon much, to boil in it some half-rosted volaille, or other good meat. to make spinage-broth take strong broth, and boil a neck of mutton, and a marrow-bone in it, and skim it very well; then put in half a pound of french barley, and a bundle of sweet herbs, and two or three blades of large-mace. let these boil very well. then mince half a peck of spinage, and two great onions very small, and let it boil one hour or more; season it with salt as you please, and send the mutton and the marrow-bone in a dish with french bread or manchet to the table. ordinary potage take the fleshy and sinewy part of a leg of beef, crag-ends of necks of veal and mutton. put them in a ten quarts pot, and fill it up with water. begin to boil about six a clock in the morning, to have your potage ready by noon. when it is well skimmed, put in two or three large onions in quarters, and half a loaf (in one lump) of light french bread, or so much of the bottom crust of a venison pasty; all which will be at length clean dissolved in the broth. in due time season it with salt, a little pepper, and a very few cloves. likewise at a fit distance, before it be ended boiling, put in store of good herbs, as in summer, borrage, bugloss, purslain, sorel, lettice, endive, and what else you like; in winter, beetes, endive, parsley-roots, cabbage, carrots, whole onions, leeks, and what you can get or like, with a little sweet-marjoram and exceeding little thyme. order it so that the broth be very strong and good. to which end you may after four hours (or three) boil a hen or capon in it; light french-bread sliced, must be taken about noon, and tosted a little before the fire, or crusts of crisp new french-bread; lay it in a dish, and pour some of the broth upon it, and let it stew a while upon a chafing-dish. then pour in more broth, and if you have a fowl, lay it upon the bread in the broth, and fill it up with broth, and lay the herbs and roots all over and about it, and let it stew a little longer, and so serve it up covered, after you have squeesed some juyce of orange or limon, or put some verjuyce into it. or you may beat two or three eggs, with part of the broth, and some verjuyce, or juyce of orange, and then mingle it with the rest of the broth. barley potage take half a pound of french-barley, and wash it in three or four hot-waters; then tye it up in a course linnen-cloth and strike it five or six blows against the table; for this will make it very tender. put it into such a pot full of meat and water, as is said in the ordinary potage, after it is skimmed; and season this with salt, spice, marjoram and thyme, as you did the other. an hour before you take it from the fire, put into it a pound of the best raisins of the sun well washed; at such a distance of time, that they may be well plumped and tender, but not boiled to mash. when the broth is enough boiled and consumed, and very strong, pour some of it upon sliced dry bread in a deep potage-dish, or upon crusts, and let it stew a while. then pour on all the rest of the broth, with the barley and raisins, upon a capon or hen, or piece of mutton or veal; and let it mittonner awhile upon the chafing-dish, then serve it in. stewed broth take a like quantity of water and flesh, as in the others, adding two marrow bones: which tie at the ends with pieces of linnen, that the marrow may not melt out, and make the broth too fat. a while after it is skimmed, put into it a loaf of french bread very thin sliced, (which is better than grated) and this will be all dissolved in the broth. season it in due time with salt, four or five flakes of mace, and five or six cloves; as also with sweet herbs: and an hour, or better, before you take it off, put in raisins of the sun, prunes, and currants, of each one pound, well picked and washed. when it is boiled enough, pour the broth into a bason, that if it be too fat, you may take it off. there season it with a little sugar, and four or five spoonfuls of white-wine or sack. then pour it upon sliced-bread, and stew it a while. then squeese an orange or limon (or both) upon it, and serve it up with the marrow-bones in it. an english potage make a good strong broth of veal and mutton; then take out the meat, and put in a good capon or pullet: but first, if it be very fat, parboil it a little to take away the oyleness of it, and then put it into the broth; and when it hath boiled a little therein, put in some grated bread, a bundle of sweet herbs, two or three blades of mace, and a peeled onion. when it is ready to be dished up take the yolks of six eggs, beat them very well with two or three spoonfuls of white-wine. then take the capon out of the broth, and thicken it up with the eggs, and so dish it up with the capon, and tostes of white-bread or slices, which you please; and have ready boiled the marrow of two or three bones with some tender boiled white endive, and strew it over the capon. another potage a good potage for dinner is thus made: boil beef, mutton, veal, volaille, and a little piece of the lean of a gammon of the best bacon, with some quartered onions, (and a little garlick, if you like it) you need no salt, if you have bacon, but put in a little pepper and cloves. if it be in the winter, put in a bouquet of sweet-herbs, or whole onions, or roots, or cabbage. if season of herbs, boil in a little of the broth apart, some lettice, sorrel, borage, and bugloss, &c. till they be only well mortified. if you put in any gravy, let it boil or stew a while with the broth; put it in due time upon the tosted-bread to mittoner, &c. if you boil some half rosted meat with your broth, it will be the better. portugal broth, as it was made for the queen make very good broth with some lean of veal, beef and mutton, and with a brawny hen or young cock. after it is scummed, put in an onion quartered, (and, if you like it, a clove of garlick,) a little parsley, a sprig of thyme, as much minth, a little balm; some coriander-seeds bruised, and a very little saffron; a little salt, pepper and a clove. when all the substance is boiled out of the meat, and the broth very good, you may drink it so, or, pour a little of it upon tosted sliced-bread, and stew it, till the bread have drunk up all that broth, then add a little more, and stew; so adding by little and little, that the bread may imbibe it and swell: whereas if you drown it at once, the bread will not swell, and grow like gelly: and thus you will have a good potage. you may add parsley-roots or leeks, cabbage or endive in the due time before the broth is ended boiling, and time enough for them to become tender. in the summer you may put in lettice, sorrel, purslane, borage and bugloss, or what other pot-herbs you like. but green herbs do rob the strength and vigor and cream of the potage. the queen's ordinary _bouillon de santé_ in a morning was thus. a hen, a handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, three of spear-minth, a little balm, half a great onion, a little pepper and salt, and a clove, as much water as would cover the hen; and this boiled to less then a pint, for one good porrenger full. nourissant potage de santÉ fill a large earthen pot with water, and make it boil; then take out half the water, and put in beef and mutton (fit pieces) and boil and skim: and as soon as it boils, season it with salt and pepper. after an hour and half, or two hours, put in a capon, and four or five cloves; when it is within a good half hour of being boiled enough, put in such herbs, as you intend, as sorrel, lettice, purslane, borage and bugloss, or green-pease; and in the winter, parsley-roots and white-endive, or navets, &c. so pour the broth upon tosted light bread, and let it stew a while in the dish covered. you should never put in fresh water. and if you should through the consuming of the water by long boiling, it must be boiling hot. the less broth remains, the better is the potage, were it but a porrenger full, so that it would be stiff gelly when it is cold. it is good to put into the water, at the first, a whole onion or two; and if you will, a spoonful of well-beaten _orge mondé_ or bottom crust of bread, or some of the bottom of a venison pasty. potage de santÉ make strong broth with a piece of beef, mutton and veal, adding a piece of the sinews of the leg of beef, seasoning it with two great onions quartered, some cloves, and white-pepper. in due time put in a capon, or take some broth out to boil it in. but before you put in the capon, take out some of the broth, in which boil and stew turneps first prepared thus. fry them in scalding butter, till they be tender; then take them out with a holed skimmer, and lay them in a holed dish warmed, set in another whole dish. when all the butter is quite drained out, stew them in a pipkin in the broth, as is said above. when you will make up your potage, put some ladlefuls of the broth of the great pot (driving away the fat with the ladle) upon slices of scorched bread in a deep dish. let this mittonner a while. then lay the capon upon it, and pour the turneps and broth of them over all. a duck in lieu of a capon will make very good potage. but then it is best, to fry that first, as the turneps, then boil it. potage de santÉ make a good and well-seasoned bouillon with lean beef, mutton and veal, in which boil a capon. boil with it either cabbage, or turneps, or whole onions. the first two you put into the broth all over the dish; but the onions you lay all round about the brim, when you serve it in. whiles the meat is boiling to make the bouillon, you rost a fleshy piece of beef (without fat) of two or three pound; and when it is half rosted, squeese out all the juyce, and put the flesh into the pot with the rest of the meat to boil, which will both colour and strengthen it. when you find your bouillon good, pour it into the dish, where your bread lieth sliced (which must be very light and spungy, and dryed first, after it is sliced) and let it mittonner a little. then pour your gravy of beef upon it, (or of mutton) and lay your capon upon it, and lay in your roots round about it. it is best to boil by themselves in some of the bouillon in a pot a part, the roots or onions. potage de santÉ mounsieur de s. euremont makes thus his potage de santé and boiled meat for dinner, being very valetudinary. put a knuckle of veal and a hen into an earthen pipkin with a gallon of water (about nine of the clock forenoon) and boil it gently till you have skimmed it well. when no more scum riseth (which will be in about a quarter of an hour), take out the hen (which else would be too much boiled,) and continue boiling gently till about half an hour past ten. then put in the hen again, and a handful of white endive uncut at length, which requireth more boiling then tenderer herbs. near half hour after eleven, put in two good handfuls of tender sorrel, borage, bugloss, lettice, purslane (these two come later then the others, therefore are not to be had all the winter) a handful a piece, a little cersevil, and a little beet-leaves. when he is in pretty good health, that he may venture upon more savoury hotter things, he puts in a large onion stuck round with cloves, and sometimes a little bundle of thyme and other hot savoury herbs; which let boil a good half hour or better, and take them out, and throw them away, when you put in the tender herbs. about three quarters after eleven, have your slice dried bread ready in a dish, and pour a ladleful of the broth upon it. let it stew covered upon a chafing-dish. when that is soaked in, put on more. so continue till it be well _mittonée_, and the bread grown spungy, and like a gelly. then fill up the dish with broth, and put the hen and veal upon it, and cover them over with herbs, and so serve it in. he keeps of this broth to drink at night, or make a _pan-cotto_, as also for next morning. i like to adde to this, a rand of tender brisket beef, and the cragg-end of a neck of mutton. but the beef must have six hours boiling. so put it on with all the rest at six a clock. when it is well scummed, take out all the rest. at nine, put in the veal and mutton, and thenceforwards, as is said above. but to so much meat, and for so long boiling, you must have at least three gallons of water. either way you must boil always but leisurely, and the pot covered as much as is convenient, and season it in due time with a little salt, as also with pepper, if you like it; and if you be in vigorous health, you may put a greater store of onions quartered. the beets have no very good taste, peradventure it were best leave them out. in health you may season the potage with a little juyce of orange. in season green pease are good, also cucumbers. in winter, roots, cabbage, poix chiches, vermicelli at any time. you may use yolks of eggs beaten with some of the broth and juyce of oranges or verjuyce, then poured upon the whole quantity. tea with eggs the jesuite that came from china, ann. , told mr. waller, that there they use sometimes in this manner. to near a pint of the infusion, take two yolks of new laid-eggs, and beat them very well with as much fine sugar as is sufficient for this quantity of liquor; when they are very well incorporated, pour your tea upon the eggs and sugar, and stir them well together. so drink it hot. this is when you come home from attending business abroad, and are very hungry, and yet have not conveniency to eat presently a competent meal. this presently discusseth and satisfieth all rawness and indigence of the stomack, flyeth suddainly over the whole body and into the veins, and strengthneth exceedingly, and preserves one a good while from necessity of eating. mr. waller findeth all those effects of it thus with eggs. in these parts, he saith, we let the hot water remain too long soaking upon the tea, which makes it extract into it self the earthy parts of the herb. the water is to remain upon it, no longer that whiles you can say the _miserere_ psalm very leisurely. then pour it upon the sugar, or sugar and eggs. thus you have only the spiritual parts of the tea, which is much more active, penetrative and friendly to nature. you may from this regard take a little more of the herb; about one dragm of tea, will serve for a pint of water; which makes three ordinary draughts. nourishing broth make a very good gelly-broth of mutton, veal, joynt-bones of each, a hen, and some bones (with a little meat upon them) of rosted veal or mutton, breaking the bones that the marrow may boil out. put to boil with these some barley (first boiled in water, that you throw away) some harts-horn rasped, and some stoned raisins of the sun. when the broth is thoroughly well boiled, pour it from the ingredients, and let it cool and harden into a gelly: then take from it the fat on the top, and the dregs in the bottom. to a porrenger full of this melted, put the yolk of a new-laid egg beaten with the juyce of an orange (or less if you like it not so sharp) and a little sugar; and let this stew gently a little while altogether, and so drink it. some flesh of rosted veal or mutton, or capon, besides the rosted-bones, that have marrow in them, doth much amend the broth. the joynts i have mentioned above, are those, which the butchers cut off, and throw to their dogs, from the ends of shoulders, legs, and other bare long parts, and have the sinews sticking to them. good nourishing potage take any bones of rosted or boiled beef, from which the meat is never so clean eaten and picked; as the ribs, the chine-bones, the buckler plate-bone, marrow-bones, or any other, that you would think never so dry and insipid. break them into such convenient pieces, as may lie in your pipkin or pot; also you may bruise them. put with them a good piece of the bloody piece of the throat of the beef, where he is sticked, and store of water to these. boil and scum them, till the first foul scum is risen and taken away; afterwards scum no more, but let the blood boil into the broth. you may put a quartered onion or two to them, if you like them. after four or five hours boyling, put in a good knuckle with some of the leg of veal; and, if you please, a crag-end or two of necks of mutton. let these boil very well with the rest. you may put in what herbs you please, in due time, as lettice, sorrel, borage and bugloss, spinage and endive, purslane, &c. and a bundle of sweet herbs: in winter, cabbage, or turneps, or parsley-roots, or endive, &c. it will be done in two or three hours after the veal and mutton are in. pour out the broth, and boil it a little by it self over a chafing-dish, in some deep vessel, to scum off the superfluous fat. then pour it upon tosted bread (by degrees, if you will, stewing it, to gelly it) to serve it in (after it hath stewed a little,) you must remember to season it with salt, pepper and cloves, in the due time. you will do well to quicken it with some verjuyce, or juyce of orange; or with some yolks of eggs and the juyces, if the broth be not over-strong. green-pease in the season do well with the potage. you may put in, near the beginning, some bottom of a peppered pasty, or of a loaf of bread. wheaten flommery in the west-country, they make a kind of flomery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty and pleasant then that of oat-meal, thus; take half, or a quarter of a bushel of good bran of the best wheat (which containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is used to make starch,) and in a great woodden bowl or pail, let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. then strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a gelly or like starch. which you may season with sugar and rose or orange-flower-water, and let it stand till it be cold, and gellied. then eat it with white or rhenish-wine, or cream, or milk, or ale. pap of oat-meal beat oat-meal small; put a little of it to milk, and let it boil stewingly, till you see that the milk begins to thicken with it. then strain the milk from the oat-meal (this is as when you soak or boil out the substance of oatmeal with water, to make flomery,) then boil up that milk to the height of pap, which sweeten with a little sugar, and put to it some yolks of eggs dissolved in rose or orange-flower-water, and let it mittonner a while upon the chafing-dish, and a little butter, if you like it. you may boil a little mace in the milk. panado beat a couple of new-laid-eggs in good clear broth; heat this a little, stirring it all the while. then pour this upon a panado made thick of the same broth; and keep them a little upon a chafing-dish to incorporate, stirring them all the while. barley pap boil barley in water _usq. ad putrilaginem_, with a flake or two of mace or a quartered nutmeg; and when it is in a manner dissolved in water with long boiling, strain out all the cream or pap, leaving the husks behind. at the same time beat (for one mess) two ounces of blanched almonds with rose-water; and when they are throughly beaten, strain out their milk, (or you may put this to the barley before it is strained, and strain them together) and put it to the barley pap, and let them stew a while together; then sweeten it with sugar to your taste. or when you have boiled the barley in water very tender as above, you may put milk to it, and boil again to fitting thickness; then strain it, adding almonds as above. or if you will, and your stomack will bear it, you may eat it without straining the barley (but the almonds must be strained) and you may put butter to it if you please. you may do the like with oat-meal or rice; or put pine kernels (first well watered) with the almonds. oat-meal pap. sir john colladon put beaten oat-meal to soak an hour or two in milk, as you do in water, when you make flomery. then strain it out into a possnet through a fitting strainer; and if you judge it too thick of the oat-meal for sufficient boiling, add more milk to it. set this to boil, putting then into it a lump of sugar, (about as big as a little wall nut) and stir it well all the while, that it burn not too. about an hours boiling is sufficient, by which time it should be grown pretty thick. put then a good lump of fresh-butter to it, which being well melted and stirred into the pap and incorporated with it, take it from the fire, and put it into a dish, and strew some fine sugar upon it, or mingle some sugar with it to sweeten the whole quantity. you may season it also with rose-water or orange flower-water, or ambergreece, or some yolks of new-laid-eggs. you may put in a very little salt at the first. rice and orge mondÉ boil a quart of milk in a large pipkin; as soon as it boileth, take it from the fire, and instantly put into it five or six good spoonfuls of picked rice, and cover it close, and so let it stand soaking in the chimney-corner two hours. then set in on the fire again, to make it stew or boil simpringly for an hour, or an hour and half more, till it be enough. then put sugar to it, and so serve it in. _orge mondé_ is done in the same manner; only, you let that stand covered and warm all the while, during three, four or five hours, and then you boil it simpringly three or four hours more. the quantity must be more or less, as you desire it thicker or thinner, which after once tryal, you will easily know how to proportion out. the chief care must be, that the rice or barley be well homogeneated with the milk. smallage gruel in a marble mortar beat great oat-meal to meal (which requireth long beating) then boil it three or four hours in spring water. to a possnet full of two or three quarts of water put about half a porrenger full of oat-meal, before it is beaten; for after beating it appeareth more. to this quantity put as much smallage as you buy for a peny, which maketh it strong of the herb, and very green. chop the smallage exceeding small, and put it in a good half hour before you are to take your possnet from the fire. you are to season your gruel with a little salt, at the due time; and you may put in a little nutmeg and mace to it. when you have taken it from the fire, put into it a good proportion of butter, which stir well, to incorporate with the gruel, when it is melted. about water gruel when you set to the fire a big pot of oat-meal, (which must be but once cut, that is, every corn cut once a two) and water, to make water-gruel; let it boil long, till it be almost boiled enough, then make it rise in a great ebullition, in great galloping waves, and skim of all the top, that riseth; which may be a third part of the whole, and is the cream, and hath no gross-visible oat-meal in it. boil that a while longer by it self, with a little mace and nutmeg, and season it with salt. when it is enough, take it off, and put sugar, butter, and a little red rose-water to it, and an egg with a little white-wine, if you like it, and would have it more nourishing. this is by much better, then the part which remaineth below with the body of the oat-meal. yet that will make good water-gruel for the servants. if you boil it more leisurely you must skim off the cream, as it riseth in boiling; else it will quickly sink down again to the rest of the gross oat-meal. and thus you may have a finer cream then with hasty boiling. an excellent and wholesome water-gruel with wood-sorrel and currants into a possnet of two quarts of water, besides the due proportion of beaten oat-meal, put two handfuls of wood-sorrel a little-chopped and bruised, and a good quantity of picked and washed currants, tyed loosly in a thin stuff bag (as a bolter cloth). boil these very well together, seasoning the composition in due time, with salt, nutmeg, mace, or what else you please, as rosemary &c. when it is sufficiently boiled, strain the oat-meal, and press out all the juyce and humidity of the currants and herbs, throwing away the insipid husks; and season it with sugar and butter; and to each porrenger-ful two spoonfuls of rhenish-wine and the yolk of an egg. the queens barley-cream you must make a good barley-water, throwing away the three first waters as soon as they boil; which will take up about three quarters of an hour. then you boil a large quantity of water with the barley (which thus prepared makes the water no more red or russet) during an hours space or more; (that it may be strong of the barley; perle-barley is best,) towards the latter end put in the pullet flead, and the legs cut off; if it should boil too long, the emulsion would taste too fleshy. when it is enough, let the broth run clear from the barley and pullet, and beat the almonds with the broth, and strain them from it. then sweeten it with sugar. this is to make at least two english quarts of emulsion. i should like to put some pulp of barley, boiled by it self, to strain with the almond-milk, and, if you will, some melon seeds. you may put some juyce of limon or orange to it. also season it with cinnamon, and make the broth stronger of the flesh. the queens white potage is made only of the white flesh of capon beaten with good broth and strained, and a little juyce of limon or orange; but no almonds. pressis nourissant the queen mothers _pressis_ was thus made. take _un gigot_ of mutton, a piece of veal, and a capon (or half the quantity of each of these) and put them to rost with convenient fire, till they are above half rosted, or rather, till they be two thirds rosted. then take them off, and squeese out all their juyce in a press with screws, and scum all the fat from it, and put it between two dishes upon a chafing-dish of coals to boil a very little, or rather but to heat well; for by then it is through hot, the juyce will be ripened enough to drink, whereas before it was raw and bloody; then if you perceive any fat to remain and swim upon it, clense it away with a feather. squeese the juyce of an orange (through a holed spoon) into half a porrenger full of this, and add a little salt, and drink it. the queen used this at nights in stead of a supper; for when she took this, she did eat nothing else. it is of great, yet temperate nourishment. if you take a couple of partridges in stead of a capon, it will be of more nourishment, but hotter. great weaknesses and consumptions have been recovered with long use of this, and strength and long life continued notably. it is good to take two or three spoonfuls of it in a good ordinary bouillon. i should like better the boiling the same things in a close flagon _in bulliente balneo_, as my lady kent, and my mother used. broth and potage mounsieur de bourdeaux used to take a mornings a broth, thus made. make a very good broth (so as to gelly, when it is cold), a lean piece of a leg of veal, the crag-end of a neck of mutton, and a pullet, seasoning it with a little salt, cloves and pepper to your mind. beat some of it with a handful of blanched almonds and twenty husked-seeds of citron and strain it to the whole; put sugar to it, and so drink it as an emulsion. otherwhiles he would make a potage of the broth, (made without fruit), boiling and stewing it with some light-bread. pan cotto to make a _pan cotto_, as the cardinals use in rome, take much thinner broth, made of the fleshes as above (or of mutton alone) and boil it three hours, gently and close covered in _una pignata_, with lumps of fine light-bread tosted or dried. _un pan grattato_ is made the same way with fine light-bread grated. season the broth of either lightly with salt, and put in the spice at the last, when the bread is almost boiled or stewed enough. you may use juyce of oranges to any of these. a wholesom course of diet is, to eat one of these, or panada, or cream of oat-meal, or barley, or two new-laid-eggs for break-fast; and dine at four or five a clock, with capon or pullet or partridg, &c. beginning your meal with a little good nourishing potage. two poched eggs with a few fine dry-fryed collops of pure bacon, are not bad for break-fast, or to begin a meal. my lord lumley's pease-porage take two quarts of pease, and put them into an ordinary quantity of water, and when they are almost boiled, take out a pint of the pease whole, and strain all the rest. a little before you take out the pint of pease, when they are all boiling together, put in almost an ounce of coriander-seed beaten very small, one onion, some mint, parsley, winter-savoury, sweet-marjoram, all minced very small; when you have strained the pease, put in the whole pease and the strained again into the pot, and let them boil again, and a little before you take them up, put in half a pound of sweet-butter. you must season them in due time, and in the ordinary proportion with pepper and salt. this is a proportion to make about a gallon of pease-porage. the quantities are set down by guess. the coriander-seeds are as much as you can conveniently take in the hollow of your hand. you may put in a great good onion or two. a pretty deal of parsley, and if you will, and the season afford them, you may add what you like of other porage herbs, such as they use for their porages in france. but if you take the savoury herbs dry, you must crumble or beat them to small powder (as you do the coriander-seed) and if any part of them be too big to pass through the strainer, after they have given their taste to the quantity, in boiling a sufficient while therein, you put them away with the husks of the pease. the pint of pease that you reserve whole, is only to show that it is pease-porage. they must be of the thickness of ordinary pease-porage. for which these proportions will make about a gallon. broth for sick and convalescent persons put a crag-end of a neck of mutton, a knuckle of veal, and a pullet into a pipkin of water, with a spoonful or two of french-barley first scalded in a water or two. the pullet is put in after the other meat is well skimmed, and hath boiled an hour. a good hour after that, put in a large quantity of sorrel, lettice, purslane, borage and bugloss, and boil an hour more at least three hours in all. before you put in the herbs, season the broth with salt, a little pepper and cloves, strain out the broth and drink it. but for potage, put at first a good piece of fleshy young beef with the rest of the meat. and put not in your herbs till half an hour before you take off the pot. when you use not herbs, but carrots and turneps, put in a little peny-royal and a sprig of thyme. vary in the season with green-pease, or cucumber quartered longwise, or green sower verjuyce grapes; always well-seasoned with pepper and salt and cloves. you pour some of the broth upon the sliced-bread by little and little, stewing it, before you put the herbs upon the potage. the best way of ordering your bread in potages, is thus. take light spungy fine white french-bread, cut only the crusts into tosts. tost them exceeding dry before the fire, so that they be yellow. then put them hot into a hot dish, and pour upon them some very good strong broth, boiling hot. cover this, and let them stew together gently, not boil; and feed it with fresh-broth, still as it needeth; this will make the bread swell much, and become like gelly. an excellent posset take half a pint of sack, and as much rhenish wine, sweeten them to your taste with sugar. beat ten yolks of eggs, and eight of whites exceeding well, first taking out the cocks-tread, and if you will the skins of the yolks; sweeten these also, and pour them to the wine, add a stick or two of cinnamon bruised, set this upon a chafing-dish to heat strongly, but not to boil; but it must begin to thicken. in the mean time boil for a quarter of an hour three pints of cream seasoned duly with sugar and some cinnamon in it. then take it off from boiling, but let it stand near the fire, that it may continue scalding-hot whiles the wine is heating. when both are as scalding-hot as they can be without boiling, pour the cream into the wine from as high as you can. when all is in, set it upon the fire to stew for / of an hour. then sprinkle all about the top of it the juyce of a / part of a limon; and if you will, you may strew powder of cinnamon and sugar, or ambergreece upon it. pease of the seedy buds of tulips in the spring (about the beginning of may) the flowry-leaves of tulips do fall away, and there remains within them the end of the stalk, which in time will turn to seed. take that seedy end (then very tender) and pick from it the little excrescencies about it, and cut it into short pieces, and boil them and dress them as you would do pease; and they will taste like pease, and be very savoury. boiled rice dry the manner of boiling rice to eat with butter, is this. in a pipkin pour upon it as much water, as will swim a good fingers breadth over it. boil it gently, till it be tender, and all the water drunk into the rice; which may be in a quarter of an hour or less. stir it often with a woodden spatule or spoon, that it burn not to the bottom: but break it not. when it is enough, pour it into a dish, and stew it with some butter, and season it with sugar and cinnamon. this rice is to appear dry, excepting for the butter, that is melted in it. marrow sops with wine make thin tosts or slices of light french bread, which dry well, or toste a little by the fire, then soak them in canary or old malaga-wine, or fine muscat, and lay a row of them in a deep dish or bason; then a row of lumps of marrow upon that; then strew a little fine sugar mingled with some powder of cinnamon and ambergreece (and nutmeg, if you like it) upon that. then another row of sops, &c. repeating this, till the dish be full: and more sugar, cinnamon and amber at the top, then on the other rows. if you will, you may put a row of stoned raisins of the sun upon every row of marrow. then cover the dish, and put it in an oven to bake for half-an hour; or till the marrow be sufficiently baked. capon in white-broth my lady of monmouth boileth a capon with white broth thus. make reasonable good broth, with the crag-ends of necks of mutton and veal (of which you must have so much as to be at least three quarts of white-broth in the dish with the capon, when all is done, else it will not come high enough upon the capon). beat a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds with three or four spoonfuls of cream, and, if you will, a little rose water; then add some of your broth to it, so to draw out all their substance, mingling it with the rest of your broth. boil your capon in fair-water by it self; and a marrow-bone or two by themselves in other water. likewise some chess-nuts (in stead of which you may use pistaccios, or macerated pine kernels) and in other water some skirrits or endive, or parsley-roots, according to the season. also plumpsome raisins of the sun, and stew some sliced dates with sugar and water. when all is ready to joyn, beat two or three new-laid-eggs (whites and all) with some of the white-broth, that must then be boiling, and mingle it with the rest, and let it boil on: and mingle the other prepared things with it, as also a little sliced oringiado (from which the hard candy-sugar hath been soaked off with warm-water) or a little peel of orange (or some limon pickled with sugar and vinegar, such as serves for salets) which you throw away, after it hath been a while boiled in it: and put a little sack to your broth, and some ambergreece, if you will, and a small portion of sugar; and last of all, put in the marrow in lumps that you have knocked out of the boiled bones. then lay your capon taken hot from the liquor, he is boiled in, upon sippets and slices of tosted light bread, and pour your broth and mixture upon it, and cover it with another dish, and let all stew together a while: then serve it up. you must remember to season your broth in due time with salt and such spices as you like. to butter eggs with cream take to a dozen of eggs a pint of cream; beat them well together, and put three quarters of a pound of butter to them, and so set them on the fire to harden, and stir them, till they are as hard, as you would have them. to make cock-ale take eight gallons of ale; take a cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of raisins of the sun well stoned, two or three nutmegs, three or four flakes of mace, half a pound of dates; beat these all in a mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best sack; and when the ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it. to make plague-water take a pound of rue, of rosemary, sage, sorrel, celandine, mugwort, of the tops of red brambles of pimpernel, wild-dragons, agrimony, balm, angelica of each a pound. put these compounds in a pot, fill it with white-wine above the herbs, so let it stand four days. then still it for your use in a limbeck. another plague-water take rue, agrimony, wormwood, celandine, sage, balm, mugwort, dragons, pimpernel, marygold, fetherfew, burnet, sorrel, and elicampane-roots scraped and sliced small. scabious, wood-betony, brown-mayweed, mints, avence, tormentil, _carduus benedictus_, and rosemary as much as of anything else, and angelica if you will. you must have like weight of all them, except rosemary aforesaid, which you must have twice as much of as of any of the rest; then mingle them altogether and shred them very small; then steep them in the best white-wine you can get, three days and three nights, stirring them once or twice a day, putting no more wine then will cover the herbs well; then still it in a common-still; and take not too much of the first-water, and but a little of the second, according as you feel the strength, else it will be sower. there must be but half so much elicampane as of the rest. to make rasbery-wine take four gallons of deal wine, put it into an earthen jugg; put to it four gallons of rasberries; let them stand so infusing seven days; then press it out gently; then infuse as many more rasberries seven days longer, and so three times if you please; put to it as much fine sugar as will make it pleasant; put it into a runlet close stopped, let it stand till it is fine; and then draw it into bottles, and keep it till it be fine. to keep quince all the year good take all your least and worst quinces, that are found, and cut them in pieces, with all the corings and parings you make; boil them more then an hour; then put the quinces into this boiling liquor, and take them forth presently, not letting them boil, and lay them to cool one by one a part; then take the liquor and strain it; and put for every gallon of liquor half a pint of honey; then boil it and scum it clean; let it be cold; and then put your quinces into a pot or tub, that they be covered with the liquor, and stop it very close with your paste. to make a white-pot take three quarts of cream, and put into it the yolks of twelve eggs; the whites of four, being first very well beaten between three quarters of a pound of sugar, two nutmegs grated, a little salt; half a pound of raisins first plump'd. these being sliced together, cut some thin slices of a stale manchet; dry them in a dish against the fire, and lay them on the top of the cream, and some marrow again upon the bread, and so bake it. to make an hotchpot take a piece of brisket-beef; a piece of mutton; a knuckle of veal; a good colander of pot-herbs; half minced carrots, onions and cabbage a little broken. boil all these together until they be very thick. another hotchpot take a pot of two gallons or more; and take a brisket rand of beef; any piece of mutton, and a piece of veal; put this with sufficient water into the pot, and after it hath boiled, and been skimmed, put in a great colander full of ordinary pot-herbs; a piece of cabbage, all half cut; a good quantity of onions whole, six carrots cut and sliced, and two or three pippins quartered. let this boil three hours until it be almost a gelly, and stir it often, least it burn. to stew beef take good fat beef, slice it very thin into small pieces, and beat it well with the back of a chopping knife. then put it into a pipkin, and cover it with wine and water, and put unto it a handful of good herbs, and an onion, with an anchoves. let it boil two hours; a little before you take it up, put in a few marygold-flowers; and so season it with what spice you please, and serve them up both with sippets. another to stew beef take very good beef, and slice it very thin; and beat it with the back of a knife; put it to the gravy of some meat, and some wine or strong broth, sweet-herbs a quantity, let it stew till it be very tender; season it to your liking; and varnish your dish with marygold-flowers or barberries. to stew a breast of veal take a breast of veal half rosted, and put it a stewing with some wine and gravy; three or four yolks of eggs minced small; a pretty quantity of sweet-herbs with an onion, anchoves or limon; stick it either with thyme or limon-peels, and season it to your liking. sauce of horse radish take roots of horse-radish scraped clean, and lay them to soak in fair-water for an hour. then rasp them upon a grater, and you shall have them all in a tender spungy pap. put vinegar to it, and a very little sugar, not so much as to be tasted, but to quicken (by contrariety) the taste of the other. the queens hotchpot from her escuyer de cuisine, mr. la montague the queen mothers hotchpot of mutton, is thus made. it is exceeding good of fresh beef also, for those whose stomacks can digest it. cut a neck of mutton, crag-end and all into steaks (which you may beat, if you will; but they will be very tender without beating) and in the mean time prepare your water to boil in a possnet, (which must be of a convenient bigness to have water enough, to cover the meat, and serve all the stewing it, without needing to add any more to it; and yet no superfluous water at last.) put your meat into the boiling water, and when you have scummed it clean, put into it a good handful of parsley, and as much of sibboulets (young onions or sives) chopped small, if you like to eat them in substance; otherwise tied up in a bouquet, to throw them away, when they have communicated to the water all their taste; some pepper; three or four cloves, and a little salt, and half a limon first pared. these must stew or boil simpringly, (covered) at least three or four hours (a good deal more, if beef) stirring it often, that it burn not too. a good hour before you intend to take it off, put some quartered turneps to it, or, if you like them, some carrots. a while after, take a good lump of houshold-bread, bigger than your fist, crust and crum, broil it upon a gridiron, that it be throughly rosted; scrape off the black burning on the on side; then soak it throughly in vinegar, and put this lump of tost into your possnet to stew with it; which you take out and throw away after a while. about a quarter of an hour before you serve it up melt a good lump of butter (as much as a great egg) till it grow red; then take it from the fire, and put to it a little fine flower to thicken it (about a couple of spoonfuls) like thick pap. stir them very well together; then set them on the fire again, till it grow-red, stirring it all the while; then put to it a ladleful of the liquor of the pot, and let them stew a while together to incorporate, stirring it always. then pour this to the whole substance in the possnet, to incorporate with all the liquor, and so let them stew a while together. then pour it out of the possnet into your dish, meat and all: for it will be so tender, it will not endure taking up piece by piece with your hand. if you find the taste not quick enough, put into it the juyce of the half limon, you reserved. for i should have said, that when you put in the herbs, you squeese in also the juyce of half a limon (pared from the yellow rinde, which else would make it bitter) and throw the pared and squeesed half (the substance) into it afterwards. the last things (of butter, bread, flower) cause the liaison and thickening of the liquor. if this should not be enough, you may also put a little gravy of mutton into it; stirring it well when it is in, least it curdle in stewing, or you may put the yolk of an egg or two to your liaison of butter, flower, and ladleful of broth. for gravy of mutton. rost a juycy leg of mutton three quarters. then gash it in several places, and press out the juyce by a screw-press. a savoury and nourishing boiled capon del conte di trino, À milano take a fat and fleshy capon, or a like hen; dress it in the ordinary manner, and cleanse it within from the guts, &c. then put in the fat again into the belly, and split the bones of the legs and wings (as far as you may, not to deface the fowl) so as the marrow may distil out of them. add a little fresh butter and marrow to it; season it with salt, pepper, and, what other spice you like, as also savoury herbs. put the capon with all these condiments into a large strong sound bladder of an ox (first well washed and scoured with red-wine) and tie it very close and fast to the top, that nothing may ouse out, nor any water get in (and there must be void space in the bladder, that the flesh may have room to swell and ferment in; therefore it must be a large one). put this to boil for a couple of hours in a kettle of water, or till you find by touching the bladder, that the capon is tender and boiled enough. then serve it up in a dish, in the bladder (dry wiped) which when you cut, you will find a precious and nourishing liquor to eat with bread, and the capon will be short, tender, most savoury and full of juyce, and very nourishing. i conceive, that if you put enough ox-marrow, you need no butter; and that it may do well to add ambergreece, dates-sliced and pithed, raisins, currants, and a little sugar. peradventure this might be done well in a silver-flagon close luted, set in _balneo bulliente_, as i make the nourishing broth or gelly of mutton or chickens, &c. an excellent baked pudding slice thin two peny-roles, or one, of french-bread, the tender part. lay it in a dish or pan. pour upon it a quart of cream, that hath been well boiled. let it stand almost half an hour, till it be almost cold. then stir the bread and cream very well together, till the bread be well broken and incorporated. (if you have no french bread, take stale kingston bread, grated) add to this two spoonfuls of fine wheat-flower, the yolks of four eggs, and the whites of two; a nutmeg--grated small; sugar to your tast; a little salt, and the marrow of two bones a little shreded. stir all these together; then pour it into a dish greased over with butter, and set it uncovered in the oven to bake. about half an hour will serve, and give the top a yellow crispiness. before you put in the marrow, put in a quarter of a pound and a half of raisins of the sun, and as much of currants; ordering them so, that they may not fall to the bottom, but be all about the pudding. my lady of portland's minced pyes take four pounds of beef, veal or neats-tongues, and eight pounds of suet; and mince both the meat and suet very small, befor you put them together. then mingle them well together and mince it very small, and put to it six pounds of currants washed and picked very clean. then take the peel of two limons, and half a score of pippins, and mince them very small. then take above an ounce of nutmegs, and a quarter of an ounce of mace, some cloves and cinnamon, and put them together, and sweeten them with rose-water and sugar. and when you are ready to put them into your paste, take citron and orangiadoe, and slice them very thin, and lay them upon the meat. if you please, put dates upon the top of them. and put amongst the meat an ounce of caraway seeds. be sure you have very fine paste. my lady of portland told me since, that she finds neats-tongues to be the best flesh for pies. parboil them first. for the proportion of the ingredients she likes best to take equal parts of flesh, of suet, of currants and of raisins of the sun. the other things in proportion as is said above. you may either put the raisins in whole, or stone the greatest part, and mince them with the meat. keep some whole ones, to lay a bed of them at the top of the pye, when all is in. you will do well to stick the candid orange-peel, and green citron-peel into the meat. you may put a little sack or greek muscadine into each pye. a little amber-sugar doth well here. a pound of flesh, and proportionably of all things else, is enough for once in a large family. another way of making excellent minced pyes of my lady portlands parboil neats-tongues. then peel and hash them with as much as they weigh of beef-suet, and stoned raisins and picked currants. chop all exceeding small, that it be like pap. employ therein at least an hour more, then ordinarily is used. then mingle a very little sugar with them, and a little wine, and thrust in up and down some thin slices of green candyed citron-peel. and put this into coffins of fine light well reared crust. half an hour baking will be enough. if you strew a few carvi comfits on the top, it will not be amiss. minced pyes my lady lasson makes her finest minced pyes of neats-tongues; but she holdeth the most savoury ones to be of veal and mutton equal parts very small minced. her finest crust is made by sprinkling the flower (as much as it needeth) with cold water, and then working the past with little pieces of raw butter in good quantity. so that she useth neither hot water, nor melted butter in them; and this makes the crust short and light. after all the meat and seasoning, and plums and citron peel, &c. is in the coffin, she puts a little ambered-sugar upon it, thus; grind much two grains of ambergreece and half a one of musk, with a little piece of hard loaf sugar. this will serve six or eight pyes, strewed all over the top. then cover it with the liddle, and set it in the oven. to rost fine meat when the capon, chickens, or fowl, have been long enough before the fire, to be through hot, and that it is time to begin to baste them: baste them once all over very well with fresh butter; then presently powder it all over very thin with flower. this by continuing turning before the fire, will make a thin crust, which will keep in all the juyce of the meat. therefore baste no more, nor do any thing to it, till the meat be enough rosted. then baste it well with butter as before, which will make the crust relent and fall away; which being done, and that the meat is growing brown on the out-side, besprinkle it over with a little ordinary white salt in gross-grains; and continue turning, till the outside be brown enough. the queen useth to baste such meat with yolks of fresh eggs beaten thin, which continue to do all the while it is rosting. savoury collops of veal cut a leg of veal into thin collops, and beat them well with the back of a knife. then lay them in soak a good half hour in the yolks of four eggs, and the whites of two very well beaten, and a little small shreded thyme mingled with it; then lay them in the frying-pan, wherein is boiling butter, and pour upon them the rest of the eggs, that the collops have not imbibed, and carry with them, and fry them very well, turning them in due time. then pour away all the butter, and make them a sauce of gravy seasoned with salt and spice, and juyce of orange at last squeesed upon them. a fricacee of lamb-stones, or sweet-breads, or chicken, or veal, or mutton boil the meat in little pieces (if chicken, flead and beaten) in the pan with a pint of fair-water, with due seasoning. when it is very tender, put some butter to it, and pour upon it a liquor made of four yolks of eggs beaten with a little white wine and some verjuyce; and keep this in motion over the fire, till it be sufficiently thickened. then pour it into a warm dish, and squeese some juyce of orange upon it, and so serve it up. if you would have the meat first made brown and _rissolé_, fry it first with butter, till it be brown on the outside; then pour out all the butter, and put water to it, in which boil it, and do all as before. if you like onions or garlike, you may put some to the water. fresh broth may be used (both ways) instead of water, and maketh it more savoury. a nourishing hachy take good gravy of mutton or veal, or of both, with the fat clean skimmed off. break into it a couple of new-laid eggs, and stir them in it over a chafing-dish of coals; in the mean time, mingle some small cut juycy hashy of rabet, capon or mutton with another parcel of like gravy as above, till it be pretty thin. then put this to the other upon the fire, and stir them well with a spoon, whiles they heat. when all is heated through, it will quicken of a sudden. you may put in at first a little chipping of crusty bread, if you will. season this with white pepper, salt, juyce of orange or verjuyce, of berberies, or onion, or what you like best. a pint of gravy (or less) four or five spoonfulls of hashy, and two eggs, is a convenient proportion for a light supper. such gravy, with an onion split in two, lying in it, whiles it is heating, and a little pepper and salt, and juyce of limon or orange, and a few chippings of light-bread, is very good sauce for partridges or cocks. excellent marrow-spinage-pasties take spinage, and chop it a little; then boil it, till it be tender. in the mean time make the best rich light crust you can, and roul it out, and put a little of your spinage into it, and currants and sugar, and store of lumps of marrow; clap the past over this to make little pasties deep within, and fry them with clarified butter. to pickle capons my lady portland's way take two large fleshy capons, not too fat; when you have draw'd and trussed them, lay them upon a chafing-dish of charcoal to singe them, turning them on all sides, till the hair and down be clean singed off. then take three pounds of good lard, and cut it into larding pieces, about the thickness of a two-peny cord, and lard it well, but first season your bits of lard, with half an ounce of pepper, and a handful of salt, then bind each of them well over with pack-thread, and have ready over the fire about two gallons of beef-broth, and put them in a little before it boileth; when they boil, and are clean skimmed, then put in some six bay-leaves; a little bunch of thyme; two ordinary onions stuck full of cloves, and salt, if it be not salt enough already for pickle; when it hath boiled about half an hour, put in another half ounce of beaten white-pepper, and a little after, put in a quart of white-wine; so let it boil, until it hath boiled in all an hour; and so let it lie in the pickle till you use it; which you may do the next day, or any time within a fortnight; in stead of broth you may use water, which is better; in case you do four or six, which of themselves will make the pickle strong enough. if you will keep them above four days, you must make the pickle sharp with vinegar. very good sauce for partridges or chicken to ordinary sauce of sliced or grated-bread soaked in good bouillon, with butter melted in it, put gravy of mutton, and a cloven-onion or two, to stew with it whiles you put it upon the fire to heat anew. then take out the onion, and put in some limon sliced, or juyce of limon, and some white pepper. you put in his proportion of salt before. to make minced pyes take two neats-tongues, and boil them. shred them with beef-suet, and put in cloves and mace, beaten very small, with raisins, currants and sugar; you must mingle them before you put in your suet. fat double tripes boiled tender, then minced, make very good pyes. to make a french barley posset take two quarts of milk to half a pound of french-barley; boil it, until it is enough; when the milk is almost boiled away, put to it three pintes of good cream. let it boil together a quarter of an hour; then sweeten it; and put in mace, cinnamon in the beginning, when you first put in your cream. when you have done so, take white-wine a pint, or sack and white-wine together, of each half a pint; sweeten it, as you love it, with sugar; pour in all the cream, but leave your barley behind in the skillet. this will make an excellent posset; nothing else but a tender curd to the bottom; let it stand on the coals half a quarter of an hour. to make puff-past take a gill of cold-water; two whites of eggs, and one yolk; to a quart of flower one pound of butter; so rowl it up, but keep out of the flower so much as will rowl it up. to make a pudding with puff-past take a new french peny-loaf, and slice it very thin, and lay it in a dish; and take three pints of cream, and boil it with a little mace and nutmeg grated; sweeten it with a little sugar, and add to it a little salt. then let it stand till it be cold. then take ten yolks of eggs; and beat them very well with two or three spoonfuls of the cream; then put it into the cream, and stir them well together: take the marrow of three bones; lay half the marrow upon the bread in good big lumps, and some citron, and candid limon, and what other sweet meats you like. then pour it all upon the bread; then put the rest of your marrow on the top with citron and candid limon. i forgat to tell you, that you must lay a puff-paste at the bottom of the dish, before you put in the bread, and cover it with the same. to make pear-puddings take a cold turky, capon or cold veal. shred it very small; and put almost as much beef-suet as your meat, and mince it very small. then put salt and nutmeg grated, half a pound of currants; a little grated-bread, and a little flower. then put in three yolks of eggs, and one of the whites, beaten very well. then take so much cream, as will wet them, and make them up as big as a bon-christian pear; and as you make them up, take a little flower in your hand, that they may not cling. then put in little sticks at the bottom like the stems of pears; or make them up in balls. butter the dish very well, and send them up in the same dish you bake them in. they will be baked in about half an hour: i think the dish needeth not to be covered, whiles it baketh. you may make minced pyes thus: and bake them with puff-past in a dish like a florenden, and use marrow instead of suet. marrow-puddings take the pith of beeves; a good spoonful of almonds very small beaten with rose-water: beat the pith, when the skin is taken off very well with a spoon; then mingle it with the almonds, and put in it six yolks of eggs well beaten, and four spoonfuls of cream boiled and cold, it must be very thick; put in a little ambergreece, and as much sugar, as will sweeten them; a little salt, and the marrow of two good bones, cut in little pieces. when your beefs-guts are seasoned, fit them up and boil them. to make red dear take a piece of the buttock of beef, the leanest of it, and beat it with a rowling-pin the space of an hour, till you think you have broken the grain of it, and have made it very open both to receive the sowsing-drink, and also to make it tender. then take a pint of vinegar, and a pint of claret-wine and let it lie therein two nights, and two days. then beat a couple of nutmegs, and put them into the sowsing-drink; then lard it. your lard must be as big as your greatest finger for consuming. then take pepper, cloves, mace and nutmegs, and season it very well in every place, and so bake it in pye-paste, and let it stand in the oven six or seven hours. and when it hath stood three hours in your oven, then put it in your sowsing-drink as is aforesaid; and you may keep it a quarter of a year, if it be kept close. to make a shoulder of mutton like venison save the blood of your sheep, and strain it. take grated bread almost the quantity of a peny loaf, pepper, thyme, chopp'd small; mingle these ingredients with a little of the blood, and stuff the mutton. then wrap up your shoulder of mutton, and lay it in the blood twenty four hours; prick the shoulder with your knife, to let the blood into the flesh, and so serve it with venison sawce. to stew a rump of beef take a rump of beef, and season it with nutmegs grated, and some pepper and salt mingled together, and season the beef on the bony-side; lay it in a pipkin with the flat-side downward. take three pints of elder-wine-vinegar, and as much water, and three great onions, and a bunch of rosemary tyed up together. put them all into a pipkin, and stew them three or four hours together with a soft fire being covered close. then dish it up upon sippets, blowing off the fat from the gravy; and some of the gravy put into the beef, and serve it up. to boil smoaked flesh mounsieur overbec doth tell me, that when he boileth a gambon of bacon, or any salted flesh and hanged in the smoak (as neats-tongues, hung-beef, and hogs-cheeks, &c.), he putteth into the kettle of water to boil with them three or four handfuls of _fleur de foin_, (more or less according to the quantity of flesh and water,) tyed loosly in a bag of course-cloth. this maketh it much tenderer, shorter, mellower, and of a finer colour. a plain but good spanish oglia take a rump of beef, or some of brisket or buttock cut into pieces, a loin of mutton, with the superfluous fat taken off, and a fleshy piece of the leg of veal or a knuckle, a piece of enterlarded bacon, three or onions (or some garlike) and if you will, a capon or two, or three great tame pigeons. first, put into the water the beef and the bacon; after a while, the mutton and veal and onions. but not the capon or pigeons till only so much time remain, as will serve barely to boil them enough. if you have _garavanzas_, put them in at the first, after they have been soaked with ashes all night in heat, and well washed with warm water, after they are taken out; or if you will have cabbage, or roots, or leeks, or whole onions, put them in time enough to be sufficiently boiled. you may at first put in some crusts of bread, or venison pye crust. it must boil in all five or six hours gently, like stewing after it is well boiled. a quarter or half an hour before you intend to take it off, take out a porrenger full of broth, and put to it some pepper and five or six cloves and a nutmeg, and some saffran, and mingle them well in it. then put that into the pot, and let it boil or stew with the rest a while. you may put in a bundle of sweet-herbs. salt must be put in as soon as the water is skimmed. vuova lattate take a quart of good, but fine broth; beat with it very well eight new laid-eggs (whites and all) and put in a little sugar, and if you will a little amber, or some mace, or nutmeg. put all this into a fit pipkin, and set this in a great one, or a kettle of boiling water, till it be stiffened like a custard. vuova spersa when some broth is boiling in a pipkin, pour into it some eggs well beaten, and they will curdle in a lump, when they are enough; take them out with a holed ladle, and lay them upon the bread in the minestra. to make excellent black-puddings take a quart of sheeps blood, and a quart of cream; ten eggs, the yolks and the whites beaten well together; stir all this liquor very well, then thicken it with grated bread, and oat-meal finely beaten, of each a like quantity; beef-suet finely shred and marrow in little lumps: season it with a little nutmeg and cloves and mace mingled with salt, a little sweet-marjoram, thyme and peny-royal shred very well together, and mingle them with the other things: some put in a few currants; then fill them in cleansed guts, and boil them carefully. a receipt to make white puddings take a fillet of veal, and a good fleshy capon; then half rost them both, and take off their skins: which being done, take only the wings and brawns with an equal proportion of veal, which must be shred very small as is done for sassages. to this shred half a pound of the belly part of interlarded bacon, and half a pound of the finest leaf (_la panne_) of hog cleared from the skin; then take the yolks of eighteen or twenty eggs, and the whites of six well beaten with as much milk and cream, as will make it of convenient thickness; and then season it with salt, cloves, nutmeg, mace, pepper, and ginger, if you please. the puddings must be boiled in half milk and half water. you are to use small-guts, such as for white-marrow-puddings, and they are to be cleansed in the ordinary manner; and filled very lankley; for they will swell much in the boiling, and break if they be too full. to make an excellent pudding take of the tripes of veal the whitest and finest you can find; wash them well, and let them lie in fair fountain or river water, till they do not smell like tripes. this done, cut them so small as is necessary to pass through a funnel. take also one or two pounds of pork, that hath not been salted, and cut it as small as the tripes, and mingle them altogether; which season with salt, white-pepper, anis-seeds beaten and coriander-seeds; then make a liaison with a little milk and yolks of eggs; and after all is well mingled and thickned, as it ought to be, you must fill with it the greatest guts of a hog, that may be had, with a funnel of white iron, having first tyed the end of the gut below. do not fill it too full, for fear they should break in the boiling, but leave room enough for the flesh to swell. when you are going to boil them, put them into a kettle with as much milk as will cover and boil them, being boiled, let them lie in the liquor till they are almost cold, then take them out and lay them in a basket upon a clean linnen cloth to cool. if they are well seasoned, they will keep twelve or fifteen days; provided you keep them in a good place, not moist, nor of any bad smell. you must still turn them and remove them from one place to another. scotch collops my lord of bristol's scotch collops are thus made: take a leg of fine sweet-mutton, that, to make it tender, is kept as long as possible may be without stinking. in winter seven or eight days. cut it into slices with a sharp knife as thin as possibly you can. then beat it with the back of a heavy knife, as long as you can, not breaking it in pieces. then sprinkle them with salt, and lay them upon the gridiron over a small charcoal-fire, to broil, till you perceive that side is enough, and before any moisture run out of them upon the fire. then lay the collops into a warm dish close covered, till the gravy be run out of them. then lay their other side upon the gridiron, and make an end of broiling them, and put them again into the dish, where the former gravy run out. add to this more gravy of mutton, heightened with garlike or onions, or eschalots; and let them stew a while together, then serve them in very hot. they are also very good of a rump of tender beef. to rost wild-boar at franckfort, when they rost wild-boar (or robuck or other venison) they lay it to soak, six or eight or ten days (according to the thickness and firmness of the piece and penetrability of it) in good vinegar, wherein is salt and juniper-berries bruised (if you will, you may add bruised garlick or what other _haut-goust_ you like) the vinegar coming up half way the flesh, and turn it twice a day. then if you will, you may lard it. when it is rosted, it will be very mellow and tender. they do the like with a leg or other part of fresh-pork. pyes i made good pyes there with two hares, a good goose and (as much as the goose is) the lean of fresh good pork, all well hashed and seasoned; then larded with great lardons well seasoned (first sprinkled with vinegar and wine) and covered with bay-leaves, and sheets of lard; then laid inpast, and baked. i made also good pyes of red-deer, larding well the lean, then laying under it a thick plastron (or cake of a finger thick) of beef-suet, first chapped small, and seasoned well with pepper and salt, then beaten into a cake fit for the meat. and another such cake upon the deers-flesh, and so well baked in strong crust, and soaked two or three hours in the oven after it was baked enough, which required six good hours. if you use no suet, put in butter enough; as also, put in enough to fill the paste, after it is baked and half cold, by a hole made in the top, when it is near half baked. baked venison my lady of newport bakes her venison in a dish thus; a side or a hanch serves for two dishes. season it as for a pasty. line the dish with a thin crust, of good pure past, but make it pretty thick upwards towards the brim, that it may be there pudding crust. lay then the venison in a round piece upon the paste in the dish, that must not fill it up to touch the pudding, but lie at ease; put over it a cover, and let it over-reach upon the brim with some carved pasty work to grace it, which must go up with a border like a lace growing a little way upwards upon the cover, which is a little arched up, and hath a little hole in the top to pour in unto the meat the strong well seasoned broth that is made of the broken bones, and remaining lean flesh of the venison. put a little pure butter or beef-suet to the venison, before you put the cover on, unless it be exceeding fat. this must bake five or six hours or more as an ordinary pasty. an hour, or an hour and half before you take it out to serve it up, open the oven, and draw out the dish far enough to pour in at the little hole of the cover the strong decoction (in stead of decoction in water, you may boil it by it self in _balneo in duplici vase_; or bake it in a pot with broth and gravy of mutton) of the broken bones and flesh. then set it in again, to make an end of his baking and soaking. the meat within (even the lean) will be exceeding tender and like a gelly; so that you may cut all of it with a spoon. if you bake a side at once in two dishes, the one will be very good to keep cold; and when it is so, you may, if you please, bake it again, to have it hot; not so long as at first, but enough to have it all perfectly heated through. she bakes thus in pewter-dishes of a large cise. mutton or veal may be thus baked with their due seasoning; as with onions, or onions and apples, or larding, or a cawdle, &c. sweetbreads, beatilles, champignons, treuffles, &c. an excellent way of making mutton steaks cut a rack of mutton into tender steaks, rib by rib, and beat the flesh well with the back of a knife. then have a composition ready, made of crumbs of stale manchet grated small, and a little salt (a fit proportion to salt the meat) and a less quantity of white-pepper. cover over on both sides all the flesh with this, pretty thick, pressing it on with your fingers and flat knife, to make it lie on. then lay the steaks upon a gridiron over a very quick fire (for herein consisteth the well doing) and when the fire hath pierced in a little on the one side, turn the other, before any juyce drop down through the powder. this turning the steaks will make the juyce run back the other way; and before it run through, and drop through this side, you must turn again the other side; doing so till the steaks be broiled enough. thus you keep all the juyce in them, so that when you go to eat them (which must be presently, as they are taken from the fire) abundance of juyce runneth out as soon as your knife entereth into the flesh. the same person, that doth this, rosteth a capon so as to keep all its juyce in it. the mystery of it is in turning it so quick, that nothing can drop down. this maketh it the longer in rosting. but when you cut it up, the juyce runneth out, as out of a juycie leg of mutton; and it is excellent meat. excellent good collops take two legs of fleshy juycie tender young mutton, cut them into as thin slices as may be. beat them with the back of a thick knife, with smart, but gentle blows, for a long time, on both sides. and the stroaks crossing one another every way, so that the collops be so short, that they scarce hang together. this quantity is near two hours beating. then lay them in a clean frying-pan, and hold them over a smart fire: and it is best to have a fit cover for the pan, with a handle at the top of it, to take it off when you will. let them fry so covered, till the side next the pan be done enough; then turn the other side, and let that fry, till it be enough. then pour them with all the gravy (which will be much) into a hot dish, which cover with another hot one, and so serve it in to eat presently. you must season the collops with salt sprinkled upon them, either at the latter end of beating them, or whiles they fry. and if you love the taste of onions, you may rub the pan well over with one, before you lay in the steaks or collops; or when they are in the dish, you may beat some onion-water amongst the gravy. you may also put a little fresh-butter into the pan to melt, and line it all over before you put in the collops, that you may be sure, they burn not to the pan. you must put no more collops into one pan, at once, then meerly to cover it with one lare; that the collops may not lye one upon another. black puddings take three pints of cream, and boil it with a nutmeg quartered, three or four leaves of large mace, and a stick of cinnamon. then take half a pound of almonds, beat them and strain them with the cream. then take a few fine herbs, beat them and strain them to the cream, which came from the almonds. then take two or three spoonfuls (or more) of chickens blood; and two or three spoonfuls of grated-bread, and the marrow of six or seven bones, with sugar and salt, and a little rose-water. mix all together, and fill your puddings. you may put in eight or ten eggs, with the whites of two well-beaten. put in some musk or ambergreece. to make pith puddings take a good quantity of the pith of oxen, and let it lie all night in water to soak out the blood. the next morning, strip it out of the skin, and so beat it with the back of a spoon, till it be as fine as pap: you must beat a little rose-water with it. then take three pints of good thick cream, and boil it with a nutmeg quartered, three or four leaves of large mace; and a stick of cinnamon. then take half a pound of the best jordan almonds. blanch them in cold water all night; then beat them in a mortar with some of your cream; and as they grow dry, still put in more cream; and when they be well beaten, strain the cream from the almonds into the pith. then beat them still, until the cream be done, and strain it still to the pith. then take the yolks of ten eggs, with the whites of two; beat them well, and put them to your former ingredients. then take a spoonful of grated-bread. mingle all these together, with half a pound of fine-sugar, the marrow of six or seven bones, and some salt, and so fill your puddings. they will be much the better, if you put in some ambergreece. red-herrings broyled my lord d'aubigny eats red-herrings thus broiled. after they are opened and prepared for the gridiron, soak them (both sides) in oyl and vinegar beaten together in pretty quantity in a little dish. then broil them, till they are hot through, but not dry. then soak them again in the same liquor as before, and broil them a second time. you may soak and broil them again a third time; but twice may serve. they will be then very short and crisp and savoury. lay them upon your sallet, and you may also put upon it, the oyl and vinegar, you soaked the herrings in. an oat-meal-pudding take a pint of milk; and put to it a pint of large or midling oat-meal; let it stand upon the fire, until it be scalding hot: then let it stand by and soak about half an hour: then pick a few sweet herbs and shred them, and put in half a pound of currants, and half a pound of suet, and about two spoonfuls of sugar, and three or four eggs. these put into a bag, and boiled, do make a very good pudding. to make pear-puddings take a cold capon, or half-rosted, which is much better; then take suet, shred very small the meat and suet together; then half as much grated bread, two spoonfuls of flower, nutmegs, clove and mace; sugar as much as you please; half a pound of currants; the yolks of two eggs, and the white of one; and as much cream, as will make it up in a stiff paste. then make it up in fashion of a pear, a stick of cinnamon for the stalk, and the head a clove. to make call-puddings take three marrow-bones, slice them; water the marrow over night, to take away the blood. then take the smallest of the marrow, and put it into the puddings, with a peny-loaf grated, a spoonful of flower, and spice as before; a quarter of a pound of currants; sugar as much as you please, four eggs, two of the whites taken away. cream as much as will make it as stiff as other puddings. stuff the call of veal cut into the bigness of little hogs-puddings; you must sow them all to one end; and so fill them; then sow up the other end, and when they are boiled, take hold of the thred, and they will all come out. you must boil them in half white wine and half water; with one large mace, a few currants, a spoonful of the pudding stuff, the marrow in whole lumps; all this first boiled up, then put in your puddings, and when half boiled, put in your marrow. one hour will boil them. serve them up with sippets, and no more liquor, then will serve them up; you must put salt in all the puddings. a barley pudding take two ounces of barley pick'd and washed; boil it in milk, till it is tender; then let your milk run from it; then take half a pint of cream, and six spoonfuls of the boiled barley; eight spoonfuls of grated bread, four eggs, two whites taken away. spice as you please, and sugar and salt as you think fit, one marrow-bone, put in the lumps as whole as you can; then make puff-paste, and rowl a thin sheet of it, and lay it in a dish. then take a piece of green-citron sliced thin, lay it all over the dish. then take cream, grated bread, your spice, sugar, eggs and salt; beat all these very well together half a quarter of an hour, pour it on your dish where citron is, then cover it over with puff-paste, and let it bake in a quick oven three quarters of an hour. scrape sugar on it, and serve it up. a pippin-pudding take pippins and pare, and cut off the tops of them pretty deep. then take out as much of your apple as you can take without breaking your apple, then fill your apple with pudding-stuff, made with cream, a little sack, marrow, grated bread, eggs, sugar, spice and salt; make it pretty stiff. put it into the pippins; lay the tops of the pippins upon the pippins again, stick it through with a stick of cinnamon. set as many upright in your dish as you can: and so fill it up with cream, and sweeten it with sugar and mace; and stew them between two dishes. to make a baked oatmeal-pudding take middle oat-meal, pick it very clean, steep it all night in cream, half a pint of oat-meal, to a quart of cream, make your cream scalding hot, before you put in your oat-meal, so cover it close. take a good handful of penny-royal, shred it very small, with a pound of beef-suet. put it to your cream with half a pound of raisins of the sun, sugar, spice, four or five eggs, two whites away. so bake it three quarters of an hour; and then serve it up. a plain quaking-pudding take about three pints of new morning milk, and six or seven new laid eggs, putting away half the whites, and two spoonfuls of fine-flower, about a quarter of a nutmeg grated, and about a quarter of a pound of sugar (more or less, according to your taste,) after all these are perfectly mingled and incorporated together, put the matter into a fit bag, and so put it into boiling water, and boil it up with a quick fire. if you boil it too long, the milk will turn to whay in the body or substance of the pudding, and there will be a slimy gelly all about the outside. but in about half an hour, it will be tenderly firm, and of an uniform consistence all over. you need not put in any butter or marrow or suet, or other spice, but the small proportion of nutmeg set down, not grated bread. for the sauce, you pour upon it thickened melted butter, beaten with a little sack, or orange-flower water, and sugar; or compounded in what manner you please, as in other such like puddings. a good quaking bag-pudding set a quart of good morning milk upon the fire, having seasoned it with salt, and sliced or grated nutmeg. when it beginneth to boil, take it from the fire, and put into it four peny manchets of light french-bread sliced very thin (if it were kingstone-bread, which is firmer, it must be grated) and a lump of sweet-butter as big as a wall-nut, and enough sugar to season it; and cover the possnet with a plate to keep the heat in, that the bread may soak perfectly. whiles this standeth thus, take ten yolks of new-laid-eggs, with one white, and beat them very well with a spoonful or two of milk; and when the milk is cooled enough, pour it (with the bread in it,) into the bason, where the beaten eggs are, (which likewise should first be sweetned with sugar to their proportion,) and put about three spoonfuls of fine flower into the composition, and knead them well together. if you will, you may put in a spoonful of sack or muscadine, and ambared sugar, working all well together; as also, some lumps of marrow or suet shred very small: but it will be very good without either of these. then put this mixtion into a deep woodden dish (like a great butter-box) which must first be on the inside a little greased with butter, and a little flower sprinkled thereon, to save the pudding from sticking to the sides of the dish. then put a linnen cloth or handkercher over the mouth of the dish, and reverse the mouth downwards, so that you may tye the napkin close with two knots by the corners cross, or with a strong thred, upon the bottom of the dish, then turned upwards; all which is, that the matter may not get out, and yet the boiling water get through the linnen upon it on one side enough to bake the pudding sufficiently. put the woodden-dish thus filled and tyed up into a great possnet or little kettle of boiling water. the faster it boils, the better it will be. the dish will turn and rowl up and down in the water, as it gallopeth in boiling. an hours boiling is sufficient. then unty your linnen, and take it off, and reverse the mouth of the dish downwards into the silver-dish you will serve it up in; wherein is sufficient melted butter thickened with beating, and sweetened to your taste with sugar, to serve for sauce. you may beat a little sack or muscadine, or rose, or orange-flower-water with the sauce; a little of any of which may also go into the composition of the pudding. if you put in more flower, or more then one white of egg to this proportion, it will binde the pudding too close and stiff. in plain bag-puddings it makes them much more savoury, to put into them a little penny-royal shreded very small, as also other sweet-herbs. you must put in so little, as not to taste strong of them, but onely to quicken the other flat ingredients. another baked pudding take a pint and half of good sweet-cream; set it on the fire, and let it just boil up, take a peny manchet, not too new, cut off the crust, and slice it very thin, put it into a clean earthen pan, and pour the cream upon it, and cover it very close an hour or thereabouts, to steep the bread; when it is steeped enough, take four new laid-eggs, yolks and whites, beat them with a spoonful of rose-water, and two of sack; grate into it half a nutmeg, and put into it a quarter of a pound of good white-sugar finely beaten, stir all this together with the cream and bread; then shred very small half a pound of good beef-kidney-suet, and put this to the rest, and mingle them very well together with a slice or spoon; then size your dish, that you intend to bake it in, and rub the bottom of it with a little sweet-butter; then put your pudding into it, and take the marrow of two good bones, and stick it in lumps here and there all over your pudding; so put it into the oven three quarters of an hour, in which time it will be well baked. strew on it some fine sugar, and serve it. to make black puddings take a pottle of half-cut groats; pick them clean, that there may be no husks nor foulness in them; then put them into a mortar, bruise them a little with a pestle; then have ready either milk, or fresh meat-broth boiled up, and the oat-meal immediately put into it; it must be just so much as will cover it; then cover the thing close that it is in, and let it steep twenty four hours; to this two quarts of oatmeal, put a pint and half of blood, season it well with salt, and a little pepper, and a little beaten cloves and mace, eight eggs, yolks and whites, five pound of kidney-beef-suet shred, but not too small; then put in of these herbs; peny-royal, fennel, leek-blades, parsley, sage, straw-berry-leaves and violet leaves, equal parts, in all to the quantity of a good handful; let them be pick'd and washed very clean, and chop'd very small, and mingled well with the former things; then fill your puddings. make ready your guts in this manner. cleanse them very well, when they are fresh taken out of the hog; and after they are well washed and scowred, lay them to soak in fair water three days and three nights, shifting the water twice every day: and every time you shift the water, scour them first with water and salt. an hour and a quarter is enough to boil them. to preserve pippins in jelly, either in quarters, or in slices take good sound clear pippins, pare, quarter and coar them; then put them into a skillet of conduit-water, such a proportion as you intend to make; boil it very well: then let the liquor run from the pulp through a sieve, without forcing, and let it stand till the next morning. take orange or limon peel, and boil in a skillet of water, till they are tender; then rowl them up in a linnen cloth to dry the water well out of them; let them lie so all night. then take of double refined and finely beaten and searced sugar a pound to every pint of pippin liquor that ran through the sieve, and to every pound of sugar, and pint of liquor, put ten ounces of pippins in quarters or in slices, but cut them not too thin; boil them a little while very fast in the pippin-liquor, before you put in the sugar, then strew in the sugar all over them as it boileth, till it is all in, keeping it still fast boiling, until they look very clear; by that you may know they are enough. while they boil, you must still be scumming them; then put in your juyce of limon to your last, and amber, if you please; and after let it boil half a dozen walms, but no more. then take it from the fire, and have ready some very thin brown-paper, and clap a single sheet close upon it, and if any scum remain, it will stick to the paper. then put your quarters or slices into your glasses, and strew upon them very small slices of limon or orange (which you please) which you had before boiled; then fill up your glasses with your jelly. for making your pippin-liquor, you may take about some fourty pippins to two quarts of water, or so much as to make your pippin-liquor strong of the pippins, and the juyce of about four limons. my lady diana porter's scotch collops cut a leg or two of mutton into thin slices, which beat very well. put them to fry over a very quick fire in a pan first glased over, with no more butter melted in it, then just to besmear a little all the bottom of the pan. turn them in due time. there must never be but one row in the pan, nor any slice lying upon another; but every one immediate to the pan. when they are fryed enough, lay them in a hot dish covered, over a chafing-dish, and pour upon them the gravy that run out of them into the pan. then lay another row of slices in the pan to fry as before; and when they are enough, put them into the dish to the other. when you have enough, by such repetitions, or by doing them in two or three pans, all at a time; take a porrenger full of gravy of mutton, and put into it a piece of butter as much a wall-nut, and a quartered onion if you will (or rub the dish afterwards with garlike) and pepper and salt, and let this boil to be very hot; then throw away the onion, and pour this into the dish upon the slices, and let them stew a little together; then squeese an orange upon it, and serve it up. a fricacee of veal cut a leg of veal into thin slices, and beat them; or the like with chicken, which must be flead off their skin. put about half a pint of water or flesh-broth to them in a frying-pan, and some thyme, and sweet-marjoram, and an onion or two quartered, and boil them till they be tender, having seasoned them with salt, and about twenty corns of whole white pepper, and four or five cloves. when they are enough, take half a pint of white wine, four yolks of eggs, a quarter of a pound of butter (or more) a good spoonful of thyme, sweet-marjoram and parsley (more parsley then of the others) all minced small; a porrenger full of gravy. when all these are well incorporated together over the fire, and well beaten, pour it into the pan to the rest, and turn it continually up and down over the fire, till all be well incorporated. then throw away the onion and first sprigs of herbs, squeese orange to it, and so serve it up hot. if instead of a fricacee, you will make _un estuveé de veau_, stew or boil simpringly your slices of veal in white-wine and water, _ana_, with a good lump of butter, seasoning it with pepper and salt and onions. when it is enough, put to it store of yolks of eggs beaten with verjuyce, or white-wine and vinegar, and some nutmeg (and gravy if you will) and some herbs as in the fricacee; and stir all very well over the fire till the sauce be well _lié_ together. a tansy take three pints of cream, fourteen new-laid-eggs (seven whites put away) one pint of juyce of spinage, six or seven spoonfuls of juyce of tansy, a nutmeg (or two) sliced small, half a pound of sugar, and a little salt. beat all these well together, then fryit in a pan with no more butter then is necessary. when it is enough, serve it up with juyce of orange or slices of limon upon it. to stew oysters take what quantity you will of the best oysters to eat raw. open them, putting all their water with the fish into a bason. take out the oysters one by one (that you may have them washed clean in their own water) and lay them in the dish you intend to stew them in. then let their water run upon them through a fine linnen, that all their foulness may remain behind. then put a good great lump of butter to them, which may be (when melted) half as much, as their water. season them with salt, nutmeg, and a very few cloves. let this boil smartly, covered. when it is half boiled, put in some crusts of light french-bread, and boil on, till all be enough, and then serve them up. you may put in three or four grains of ambergreece, when you put in the nutmeg, that in the boiling it may melt. you may also put in a little white-wine or verjuyce at the last, or some juyce of orange. to dress lamprey's at glocester they use lamprey's thus. heat water in a pot or kettle with a narrow mouth, till it be near ready to boil; so that you may endure to dip your hand into it, but not to let it stay in. put your lamprey's, as they come out of the river, into this scalding-water, and cover the pot, that little while they remain in, which must be but a moment, about an _ave maria_ while. then with a woodden ladle take them out, and lay them upon a table, and hold their head in a napkin (else it will slip away, if held in the bare hand) and with the back of a knife scrape off the mud, which will have risen out all along the fish. a great deal and very thick will come off: and then the skin will look clean and shining and blew, which must never be flead off. then open their bellies all along, and with a pen-knife loosen the string which begins under the gall (having first cast away the gall and entrails) then pull it out, and in the pulling away, it will stretch much in length; then pick out a black substance, that is all along under the string, cutting towards the back as much as is needful for this end. then rowl them up and down in a soft and dry napkin, changing this as soon as it is wet for another, using so many napkins as may make the fishes perfectly dry; for in that consisteth a chief part of their preparation. then powder them well with pepper and salt, rubbing them in well, and lay them round in a pot or strong crust upon a good lare of butter, and store of onions every where about them, and chiefly a good company in the middle. then put more butter upon them, covering the pot with a fit cover, and so set them into a quick oven, that is strongly heated; where they will require three or four hours (at least) baking. when they are taken out of the oven and begin to cool, pour store of melted butter upon them, to fill up the pot at least three fingers breadth above the fish, and then let it cool and harden; and thus it will keep a year, if need be, so the butter be not opened, nor craked, that the air get into the fish. to eat them presently, they dress them thus: when they are prepared, as abovesaid, (ready for baking) boil them with store of salt and gross pepper, and many onions, in no more water, then is necessary to cover them, as when you boil a carp or pike _au court bouillon_. in half or three quarters of an hour, they will be boiled tender. then take them and drain them from the water, and serve them with thickened butter, and some of the onions minced into it, and a little pepper, laying the fish upon some sippets of spungy bread, that may soak up the water, if any come from the fish; and pour butter upon the fish; so serve it up hot. to dress stock fish, somewhat differingly from the way of holland beat the fish very well with a large woodden-mallet, so as not to break it, but to loosen all the flakes within. it is the best way to have them beaten with hard heavy ropes. and though thus beaten, they will keep a long time, if you put them into pease straw, so thrust in as to keep them from all air, and that they touch not one another, but have straw enough between every fish. when you will make the best dish of them, take only the tails, and tye up half a dozen or eight of them with white-thred. first, they must be laid to soak over night in cold water. about an hour and half, (or a little more) before they are to be eaten, put them to boil in a pot or pipkin, that you may cover with a cover of tin or letton so close, that no steam can get out; and lay a stone or other weight upon it, to keep the cover from being driven off by the steam of the water. put in no more water, then well to cover them. they must never boil strongly, but very leasurely and but simpringly. it will be near half an hour before the water begin to boil so: and from their beginning to do so, they must boil a good hour. you must never put in any new water, though hot, for that will make the fish hard. after the hour, take out the fishes and untie them, and lay them loose in a colander with holes to drain out the water, and toss them in it up and down very well, as you use to do butter and pease; and that will loosen and break asunder all the flakes, which will make them the more susceptible of the butter, when you stew them in it, and make it pierce the better into the flakes, and make them tender. then lay them by thin rows in the dish, they are to be served up in: casting upon every row a little salt, and some green parsley minced very small. they who love young-green onions or sives, or other savory herbs, or pepper, may use them also in the same manner, when they are in season. when all is in, fill up with sweet butter well melted and thickened; and so let it stew there a while, to soak well into the fish; which will lie in fine loose tender flakes, well buttered and seasoned. you may eat it with mustard besides. buttered whitings with eggs boil whitings as if you would eat them in the ordinary way with thick butter-sauce. pick them clean from skin and bones, and mingle them well with butter, and break them very small, and season them pretty high with salt. in the mean time butter some eggs in the best manner, and mingle them with the buttered whitings, and mash them well together. the eggs must not be so many by a good deal as the fish. it is a most savoury dish. to dress poor-john and buckorn the way of dressing poor-john, to make it very tender and good meat, is this. put it into the kettle in cold water, and so hang it over the fire; and so let it soak and stew without boiling for hours: but the water must be very hot. then make it boil two or three walms. by this time it will be very tender and swelled up. then take out the back-bone, and put it to fry with onions. if you put it first into hot water (as ling and such salt fish,) or being boiled, if you let it cool, and heat it again it will be tough and hard. buckorne is to be watered a good hour before you put it to the fire. then boil it till it be tender, which it will be quickly. then butter it as you do ling; and if you will, put eggs to it. the way of dressing stock-fish in holland first beat it exceedingly well, a long time, but with moderate blows, that you do not break it in pieces, but that you shake and loosen all the inward fibers. then put it into water (which may be a little warmed) to soak, and infuse so during twelve or fourteen hours (or more, if it be not yet pierced into the heart by the water, and grown tender.) then put it to boil very gently, (and with no more water, then well to cover it, which you must supply with new hot water as it consumeth) for six or seven hours at least, that it may be very tender and loose and swelled up. then press and drain out all the water from it; and heat it again in a dish, with store of melted butter thickened; and if you like it, you may season it also with pepper and mustard. but it will be yet better, if after it is well and tender boiled in water, and that you have pressed all the water you can out of it, you boil it again an hour longer in milk; out of which when you take it, to put it into the dish with butter, you do not industriously press out all the milk, as you did the water, but only drain it out gently, pressing it moderately. in the stewing it with butter, season it to your taste, with what you think fitting. another way to dress stock-fish beat it exceeding well with a large woodden mallet, till you may easily pluck it all in pieces, severing every flake from other, and every one of them in it so being loose, spungy and limber, as the whole fish must be, and plyant like a glove, which will be in less then an hour. pull then the bones out, and throw them away, and pluck off the skin (as whole as you can; but it will have many breaches and holes in it, by the beating) then gather all the fish together, and lap it in the skin as well as you can, into a round lump, like a bag-pudding, and tye it about with cords or strings (like a little collar of brawn, or souced fish) and so put it into lukewarm water (overnight) to soak, covering the vessel close; but you need not keep it near any heat whiles it lyeth soaking. next morning take it out that water and vessel, and put it into another, with a moderate quantity of other water, to boil; which it must do very leisurely, and but simpringly. the main care must be, that the vessel it boileth in, be covered so exceeding close, that not the least breath of steam get out, else it will not be tender, but tough and hard. it will be boiled enough, and become very tender in about a good half hour. then take it out, unty it, and throw away the skin, and lay the flaky fish in a cullender, to drain away the water from it. you must presently throw a little salt upon it, and all about in it, to season it. for then it will imbibe it into it self presently; whereas if you salt it not, till it grow cold in the air, it will not take it in. mean while prepare your sauce of melted well thickened butter (which you may heighten with shreded onions or syves, or what well tasted herbs you please) and if you will, you may first strew upon the fish some very small shreded young onions, or sibbouls, or syves, or parsley. then upon that pour the melted butter to cover the fish all over, and soak into it. serve it in warm and covered. to dress parsneps scrape well three or four good large roots, cleansing well their outside, and cutting off as much of the little end as is fibrous, and of the great end as is hard. put them into a possnet or pot, with about a quart of milk upon them, or as much as will cover them in boiling, which do moderately, till you find they are very tender. this may be in an hour and half, sooner or later, as the roots are of a good kind. then take them out, and scrape all the outside into a pulpe, like the pulpe of roasted apples, which put in a dish upon a chafing dish of coals, with a little of the milk, you boiled them in, put to them; not so much as to drown them, but only to imbibe them: and then with stewing, the pulpe will imbibe all that milk. when you see it is drunk in, put to the pulpe a little more of the same milk, and stew that, till it be drunk in. continue doing thus till it hath drunk in a good quantity of the milk, and is well swelled with it, and will take in no more, which may be in a good half hour. eat them so, without sugar or butter; for they will have a natural sweetness, that is beyond sugar, and will be unctuous, so as not to need butter. parsneps (raw) cut into little pieces, is the best food for tame rabets, and makes them sweet. as rice (raw) is for tame pigeons, and they like it best, varying it sometimes with right tares, and other seeds. cream with rice a very good cream to eat hot, is thus made. into a quart of sweet cream, put a spoonful of very fine powder of rice, and boil them together sufficiently, adding cinnamon, or mace and nutmeg to your liking. when it is boiled enough take it from the fire, and beat a couple of yolks of new-laid eggs, to colour it yellow. sweeten it to your taste. put bread to it, in it's due time. grewel of oat-meal and rice doctor pridion ordered my lord cornwallis, for his chief diet in his looseness, the following grewel, which he found very tastefull. take about two parts of oat-meal well beaten in a mortar, and one part of rice in subtile powder. boil these well in water, as you make water-grewel, adding a good proportion of cinnamon to boil also in due time, then strain it through a cloth, and sweeten it to your taste. the yolk of an egg beaten with a little sherry-sack, and put to it, is not bad in a looseness. at other times you may add butter. it is very tasteful and nourishing. sauce for a carp or pike. to butter pease take two or three spoonfuls of the liquor the carp was boiled in, and put it into a pipkin; there must be no more, then even to cover the bottom of the pipkin. make this boil by itself; as soon as it doth so, put to this half a pound of sweet butter, let it melt gently, or suddenly, it imports not, so as the liquor boiled, when you did put the butter in; when the butter is melted, then take it from the fire, and holding the handle in your hand, shake it round a good while and strongly, and it will come to be thick, that you may almost cut it with a knife. then squeese juyce of limon into it, or of sharp orange, or verjuyce or vinegar; and heat it again as much as you please upon the fire. it will ever after continue thick, and never again, upon any heating, grow oily, though it be cold and heated again twenty times. butter done with fair water, as is said above, with the other liquor, will be thick in the same manner, (for the liquors make no difference in that:) put of this butter to boiled pease in their dish, which cover with another; so shake them very strongly, and a good while together. this is by much the best way to butter pease, and not to let the butter melt in the middle of them, and then stir them long with a spoon. this will grow oily (though it be good at the first doing) if you heat them again: the other, never; and therefore, is the best way upon all occasions to make such thickened melted butter. you may make sauce for a pike in the same manner you did for a carpe; putting horse-radish to it if you please. a herring-pye put great store of sliced onions, with currants and raisins of the sun both above and under the herrings, and store of butter, and so bake them. a syllabub take a reasonable quantity (as about half a porrenger full) of the syrup, that hath served in the making of dryed plums; and into a large syllabub-pot milk or squirt, or let fall from high a sufficient quantity of milk or cream. this syrup is very quick of the fruit, and very weak of sugar; and therefore makes the syllabub exceeding well tasted. you may also use the syrup used in the like manner in the drying of cherries. butter and oil to fry fish the best liquor to fry fish in, is to take butter and salet oyl, first well clarified together. this hath not the unsavoury taste of oyl alone, nor the blackness of butter alone. it fryeth fish crisp, yellow, and well tasted. to prepare shrimps for dressing when you will butter shrimps, first wash them well in warm milk and water equally mingled together, and let them soak a little in it; then wash them again in fresh milk and water warmed, letting them also soak therein a while. do this twice or thrice with fresh milk and water. this will take away all the rankness and slimyness of them. then butter them, or prepare them for the table, as you think fit. tosts of veal my lady lusson makes thus her plain tosts of kidney of veal: cut the kidney with all the fat about it, and a good piece of the lean flesh besides. hash all this as small as you can. put to it a quarter of a pound of picked and washed currants, and as much sugar, one nutmeg grated, four yolks and two whites of new-laid eggs raw; work all these very well together, seasoning it with salt. spread it thick upon slices of light white-bread cut like tosts. then fry them in butter, such quantity as may boil over the tops of the tosts. to make mustard the best way of making mustard is this: take of the best mustard-seed (which is black) for example a quart. dry it gently in an oven, and beat it to subtle powder, and searse it. then mingle well strong wine-vinegar with it, so much that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping. put to this a little pepper beaten small (white is the best) at discretion, as about a good pugil, and put a good spoonful of sugar to it (which is not to make it taste sweet, but rather quick, and to help the fermentation) lay a good onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and a race of ginger scraped and bruised; and stir it often with a horse-radish root cleansed, which let always lie in the pot, till it have lost it's vertue, then take a new one. this will keep long, and grow better for a while. it is not good till after a month, that it have fermented a while. some think it will be the quicker, if the seed be ground with fair water, in stead of vinegar, putting store of onions in it. my lady holmeby makes her quick fine mustard thus: choose true mustard-seed; dry it in an oven, after the bread is out. beat and searse it to a most subtle powder. mingle sherry-sack with it (stirring it a long time very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistence for mustard. then put a good quantity of fine sugar to it, as five or six spoonfuls, or more, to a pint of mustard. stir and incorporate all well together. this will keep good a long time. some do like to put to it a little (but a little) of very sharp wine-vinegar. to make a white-pot boil three pints of sweet cream with a very little salt and some sliced nutmeg. as soon as it begins to boil, take it from the fire. in the mean time beat the yolks of twelve or fifteen new-laid eggs very well with some rose or orange-flower-water, and sweeten the cream to your taste with sugar. then beat three or four spoonfuls of cream with them, and quickly as many more; so proceeding, till you have incorporated all the cream and all the eggs. then pour the eggs and cream into a deep dish laid over with sippets of fine light bread, which will rise up to the top for the most part. when it is cooled and thickened enough to bear raisins of the sun, strew all over the top with them (well-washed.) then press a little way into it with great lumps of raw marrow. two bones will suffice. cover your dish with another, and set it upon a great pot of boiling water, with a good space between the water and the dish, that there be room for the hot steam to rise and strike upon the dish. keep good fire always under your pot. in less then an hour (usually) it is baked enough. you will perceive that, if the marrow look brown, and be enough baked. if it should continue longer on the heat, it would melt. you may bake it in an oven if you will; but it is hard to regulate it so, that it be not too much or too little: whereas the boiling water is certain. you may strew ambred sugar upon it, either before you set it to bake, or after it is done. for rosting of meat to rost fine meat (as partridge, pheasant, chicken, pigeon) that it be full of juyce; baste it as soon as it is through hot, and time to baste, with butter. when it is very moist all over, sprinkle flower upon it every where, that by turning about the fire, it may become a thin crust. then baste it no more till the latter end. this crust will keep in all the juyce. a little before you take it up, baste it again with butter, and this will melt away all the crust. then give it three or four turns of the spit, that it may make the outside yellow and crisp. you may also baste such meat with yolks of new-laid eggs, beaten into a thin oyl. but with this you continue basting all the while the meat rosteth. to stew a rump of beef take a rump of beef, break all the bones; season it with pepper and salt to your liking; take three or four nutmegs, and a quantity of mace, beat them grossly; then take a bunch of very good sweet herbs, and one good onion cut in quarters, or garlike, as you like it. put in half a pint of white-wine vinegar, and one pint of good claret, one handful of sugar; and a piece or two of beef suet or butter: shred some cabbage under and over, and scrape in a pound of good old cheese. put all these into an earthen pot, and let it stand in an oven with brown-bread four or five hours; but let the pot be covered close with paste. to stew a rump of beef take a fat rump of young beef, as it comes from the butcher, and take out all the bones, excepting the tip of it towards the tail that is all fat, which you cannot take out, without spoiling or defacing or breaking it. but take out all the thick bones towards the chine, and the thick sinews, that are on the outer sides of the flesh; (which will never become tender with boiling) so that you have nothing but the pure flesh and fat, without any bony or tough substance. then beat well the lean part with a woodden roling pin, and when you have beaten well one side, turn the other. then rub it well with pepper grosly beaten, and salt; just as you would do, to season a venison pasty, making the seasoning higher or gentler according to your taste. then lay it in a fit vessel, with a flat bottom (pipkin or kettle as you have conveniency) that will but just contain it, but so that it may lye at ease. or you may tye it up in a loose thin linnen cloth, or boulter, as they do capons _à la mode_, or brawn, or the like. then put water upon it, but just to cover it, and boil it close covered a matter of two hours pretty smartly, so that it be well half boiled. then take it out of that, and put it into another fit vessel, or the same cleansed, and put upon it about two quarts of good strong deep well bodied claret-wine, and a good bundle of sweet-herbs, (penny-royal, sweet-marjoram, winter-savory, limon thyme, &c.) and a good large onion peeled, and stuck as close with cloves, as you can stick it, if you like the taste of onions. they must be the strong biting onions, that are round and red: a little nutmeg, and some mace. put to the wine about a pint of the liquor that you have already boiled the beef in; and if you would have it strong of the seasoning of pepper, and salt; take the bottom of this liquor. thus let it boil very gently, simpringly, or rather stew with char-coal over a little furnace, or a fit chafing-dish, a matter of three hours, close covered. if the liquor waste too much, you may recruit it with what you have kept of that, which your beef was boiled in. when it is near time to take it up, stew some oysters in their own liquor (to which you may add at the latter end, some of the winy liquor, that the beef is now stewing in, or some of the first beef-broth, or use some good pickled oysters) and at the same time make some thin tostes of kingstone manchet, which toste very leisurely, or rather dry them throughly, and very hard, and crisp, but not burned, by lying long before the fire. and if you have fresh champignons, dress a good dish full of them, to be ready at the same time, when all the rest is ready; if not, use pickled ones, without further dressing. when you find your beef is as tender as can be, and will scarcely hold together, to be taken up together, and that all the other things are ready, lay the tostes in the dish, where the beef is to lye; pour some of the liquor upon it. then lay the beef upon the tosts; throw away the bundle of herbs and onions; and pour the rest of the liquor upon the beef, as also the oysters, and the mushrooms, to which add a pretty deal, about half a pint of broom-buds: and so let it stand a while well covered over coals to mittoner; and to have all the several substances communicate their tastes to one another, and to have the tostes swell up like a gelly. then serve it up. if you want liquor, you may still recruit your self out of the first beef-broth, which you keep all to supply any want afterwards. have a care, whiles it is stewing, in the winy-liquor, to lift the flesh sometimes up from the bottom of the vessel, least if it should lye always still, it may stick to the bottom, and burn; but you cannot take it out, for it would fall in pieces. it will be yet better meat, if you add to it, at the last (when you add all the other heightnings) some marrow, and some chess-nuts, and some pistachios, if you will. put to your broom-buds (before you put them in to the rest) some elder vinegar, enough to soak them, and even to cover them. if you find this make your composition of the whole too sharp, you may next time take less. when you put the beef to stew with the wine (or a while after) you may put to it a pretty quantity (as much as you can take in both hands at once) of shreded cabbage, if it be the season; or of turneps, if you like either of these. carrots make it somewhat flat. if the wine be not quick enough, you may put a little elder vinegar to it. if you like garlike, you may put in a little, or rub the dish with it. pickled champignons champignons are best, that grow upon gravelly dry rising grounds. gather them of the last nights growth; and to preserve them white, it is well to cast them into a pitcher of fair-water, as you gather them: but that is not absolutely necessary, if you will go about dressing them as soon as you come home. cut the great ones into halves or quarters, seeing carefully there be no worms in them; and peel off their upper skin on the tops: the little ones, peel whole. as you peel them, throw them into a bason of fair-water, which preserves them white. then put them into a pipkin or possnet of copper (no iron) and put a very little water to them, and a large proportion of salt. if you have a pottle of mushrooms, you may put to them ten or twelve spoonfuls of water, and two or three of salt. boil them with pretty quick-fire, and scum them well all the while, taking away a great deal of foulness, that will rise. they will shrink into a very little room. when they are sufficiently parboiled to be tender, and well cleansed of their scum, (which will be in about a quarter of an hour,) take them out, and put them into a colander, that all the moisture may drain from them. in the mean time make your pickle thus: take a quart of pure sharp white wine vinegar (elder-vinegar is best) put two or three spoonfuls of whole pepper to it, twenty or thirty cloves, one nutmeg quartered, two or three flakes of mace, three bay-leaves; (some like limon-thyme and rose-mary; but then it must be a very little of each) boil all these together, till the vinegar be well impregnated with the ingredients, which will be in about half an hour. then take it from the fire, and let it cool. when the pickle is quite cold, and the mushrooms also quite cold, and drained from all moisture: put them into the liquor (with all the ingredients in it) which you must be sure, be enough to cover them. in ten or twelve days, they will have taken into them the full taste of the pickle, and will keep very good half a year. if you have much supernatant liquor, you may parboil more mushrooms next day, and put them to the first. if you have not gathered at once enough for a dressing, you may keep them all night in water to preserve them white, and gather more the next day, to joyn to them. to stew wardens or pears pare them, put them into a pipkin, with so much red or claret wine and water, _ana_, as will near reach to the top of the pears. stew or boil gently, till they grow tender, which may be in two hours. after a while, put in some sticks of cinnamon bruised and a few cloves. when they are almost done, put in sugar enough to season them well and their syrup, which you pour out upon them in a deep plate. to stew apples pare them and cut them into slices. stew them with wine and water as the pears, and season them in like manner with spice. towards the end sweeten them with sugar, breaking the apples into pap by stirring them. when you are ready to take them off, put in good store of fresh-butter, and incorporate it well with them, by stirring them together. you stew these between two dishes. the quickest apples are the best. portuguez eggs the way that the countess de penalva makes the portuguez eggs for the queen, is this. take the yolks (clean picked from the whites and germ) of twelve new-laid eggs. beat them exceedingly with a little (scarce a spoonful) of orange-flower-water. when they are exceeding liquid, clear, and uniformly a thin liquor, put to them one pound of pure double refined sugar (if it be not so pure, it must be clarified before) and stew them in your dish or bason over a very gentle fire, stirring them continually, whiles they are over it, so that the whole may become one uniform substance, of the consistence of an electuary (beware they grow not too hard; for without much caution and attention, that will happen on a sudden) which then you may eat presently, or put into pots to keep. you may dissolve ambergreece (if you will, ground first very much with sugar) in orange-flower or rose-water, before hand, and put it (warm and dissolved) to the eggs, when you set them to stew. if you clarifie your sugar, do it with one of these waters, and whites of eggs. the flavor of these sweet-waters goeth almost all away with boiling. therefore half a spoonful put into the composition, when you take it from the fire, seasoneth it more then ten times as much, put in at the first. to boil eggs a certain and infallible method to boil new-laid eggs to sup up, and yet that they have the white turned to milk, is thus: break a very little hole, at the bigger end of the shell, and put it into the water, whiles it boileth. let it remain boiling, whiles your pulse beateth two hundred stroaks. then take it out immediately, and you will find it of an exact temper: others put eggs into boyling water just as you take it from the fire, and let them remain there, till the water be so cooled, that you may just put in your hand, and take out the eggs. others put the eggs into cold water, which they set upon the fire, and as soon as the water begins to boil, the eggs are enough. to make clear gelly of bran take two pound of the broadest open bran of the best wheat, and put it to infuse in a gallon of water, during two or three days, that the water may soak into the pure flower, that sticks to the bran. then boil it three or four walms, and presently take it from the fire, and strain it through some fine strainer. a milky substance will come out, which let stand to settle about half a day. pour off the clear water, that swimmeth over the starch or flomery, that is in the bottom (which is very good for pap, &c.) and boil it up to a gelly, as you do harts-horn gelly or the like, and season it to your taste. to bake venison boil the bones (well broken) and remaining flesh of the venison, from whence the meat of the pasty is cut, in the liquor, wherein capons and veal, or mutton have been boiled, so to make very strong broth of them. the bones must be broken, that you may have the marrow of them in the liquor; and they must stew a long time (covering the pot close:) that you may make the broth as strong as you can; and if you put some gravy of mutton or veal to it, it will be the better. when the pasty is half baked, pour some of this broth into it, by the hole at the top; and the rest of it, when it is quite baked, and wanteth but standing in the oven to soak. or put it all in at once, when the pasty is sufficiently baked, and afterwards let it remain in the oven a good while soaking. you may bake the bones (broken) with the broth and gravy, or for want thereof, with only water in an earthen pot close stopped, till you have all the substance in the liquor; which you may pour into the pasty an hour before it is baked enough. if you are in a park, you may soak the venison a night in the blood of the deer; and cover the flesh with it, clotted together when you put it in paste. mutton blood also upon venison, is very good. you may season your blood a little with pepper and salt. to bake venison to keep after you have boned it, and cut away all the sinews, then season it with pepper and salt pretty high, and divide a stag into four pots; then put about a pound of butter upon the top of each pot, and cover it with rye-past pretty thick. your oven must be so hot, that after a whole night it maybe baked very tender, which is a great help to the keeping of it. and when you draw it, drain all the liquor from it, and turn your pot upon a pie plate, with the bottom upwards, and so let it stand, until it is cold; then wipe your pot, that no gravy remain therein, and then put your venison into the same pot again; then have your butter very well clarified, that there be no dross remaining; then fill up your pot about two inches above the meat with butter, or else it will mould. and so the next day binde it up very close, with a piece of sheeps leather so that no air can get in. after which you may keep it as long as you please. master adrian may put's up his venison in pots, to keep long, thus: immediately as soon as he hath killed it, he seasoneth and baketh it as soon as he can, so that the flesh may never be cold. and this maketh that the fat runneth in among the lean, and is like calvered salmon, and eats much more mellow and tender. but before the deer be killed, he ought to be hunted and chafed as much as may be. then seasoned and put in the oven before it be cold. be sure to pour out all the gravy, that settleth to the bottom, under the flesh after the baking, before you put the butter to it, that is to lie very thick upon the meat, to keep it all the year. about making of brawn it must be a very large oven, that so it may contract the stronger heat, and keep it the longer. it must be at least eight hours heating with wood, that it be as hot as is possible. if the brawn be young, it will suffice eight hours or a little more in the oven. but if old, it must be ten or eleven. put but two collars into each pot, for bigger are unwieldy. into every pot, put twelve corns of whole pepper, four cloves, a great onion peeled and quartered, and two bay-leaves, before you put them into the oven. before they are set in, you do not fill them with water to the top, least any should spill in sliding them in; but fill them up by a bowl fastned to a long pole. no water must be put in, after the oven is closed (nor the oven ever be opened, till after all is throughly baked) and therefore you must put in enough at first to serve to the last; you must rowl your collars as close as may be, that no air may be left in the folds of them: and sow them up in exceeding strong cloth, which a strong man must pull as hard as he can in the sowing. their cloths must not be pulled off, till the collars have been three or four days out of the oven, least you pull off part of the brawn with them. you may put the same proportion of pepper, cloves, &c. into the souce drink as you did in the baking them; which at either time (especially at first) give them a fine taste. the souce-drink is made of six shillings beer, and thames or river-water, of each an equal quantity, well boiled with salt. when boiled and cold, put in to it two or three quarts of skimmed milk, only to colour it; and so change it once in three weeks. tender brawn sliced thin, and laid sallet-wise in a dish as the sliced capon, and seasoned with pepper, salt and vinegar and oyl, with a little limon, is a very good sallet. sallet of cold capon rosted it is a good sallet, to slice a cold capon thin; mingle with it some sibbolds, lettice, rocket and tarragon sliced small. season all with pepper, salt, vinegar and oyl, and sliced limon. a little origanum doth well with it. mutton baked like venison, soaking either in their blood take a large fat loin of mutton (or two) boned after the manner of venison. season it well to your taste with pepper and salt. then lay it to steep all night in enough of the sheep's blood, to cover it over, and soak well into it. then lay it into the past, with all the clotted thick blood, under it, upon it, and hanging about it. you may season the blood with pepper and salt, before you lay the meat in it. but though you do not, it will not be amiss, so as the meat be seasoned high enough. then bake it as you do an ordinary pasty; and you may put gravy of mutton or strong broth into it. you may do it in a dish with past; as my lady of newport doth her venison. this way of steeping in blood before you bake it, is very good also for venison. to make an excellent hare-pye hash the flesh of as many hares, as you please, very small. then beat them strongly in a mortar into a paste, which season duly with pepper and salt. lard it throughly all over with great lardons of lard well rowled in pepper and salt. put this into a straight earthen pot, to lye close in it. if you like onions, you may put one or two quartered into the bottom of the pot. put store of sweet-butter upon the meat, and upon that, some strong red claret-wine. cover the pot with a double strong brown paper, tyed close about the mouth of it. set it to bake with houshold-bread (or in an oven, as a venison pasty) for eight or ten hours. then take out the pot, and thence the meat, and pour away all the liquor, which let settle. then take all the congealed butter, and clarifie it well. put your meat again into the pot, and put upon it your clarified butter, and as much more as is necessary. and i believe the putting of claret-wine to it now is better, and to omit it before. bake it again, but a less while. pour out all the liquor, when it is baked, and clarifie the butter again, and pour it upon the meat, and so let it cool; the butter must be at least two or three fingers breadth over the meat. to bake beef bone it, and beat it exceeding well on all sides, with a roling pin, upon a table. then season it with pepper and salt, (rubbing them in very well) and some parsley, and a few sweet herbs (penny-royal, winter-savoury, sweet-marjoram, limon thyme, red-sage, which yet to some seems to have a physical taste) an onion if you will. squeese it into the pot as close as you can. put butter upon it, and claret-wine, and covered all as above. bake it in a strong oven eight or ten hours. take it out of the oven, and the meat out of the pot, which make clean, from all settlings; and squeese all the juyce from it (even by a gentle press.) then put it in again hard pressed into the pot. clarifie the butter, that you poured with the liquor from the meat out of the pot; and pour it again with more flesh, to have enough to cover it two or three fingers thick. to bake pidgeons, (which are thus excellent, and will keep a quarter of a year) or teals, or wild-ducks season them duly with pepper and salt; then lay them in the pot, and put store of butter, and some claret-wine to them. cover and bake as above: but a less while according to the tenderness of the meat. in due time take out your pot, and your birds out of it, which press not, but only wipe off the liquor. pour it out all. clarifie the butter; put in the birds again, and the clarified butter, and as much more as needs (all melted) upon them, and let it cool. you may put a few bay-leaves upon any of these baked meats, between the meat and the butter. green-geese-pye an excellent cold pye is thus made. take two fat green-geese; bone them, and lay them in paste one upon the other, seasoning them well with pepper and salt, and some little nutmeg, both above and below and between the two geese. when it is well-baked and out of the oven, pour in melted butter at a hole made in the top. the crust is much better than of a stubble-goose. to boil beef or venison tender and savoury the way to have beef tenderest, short and best boiled, as my lord of saint alban's useth it, is thus. take a rump or brisket of beef; keep it without salt as long as you may, without danger to have it smell ill. for so it groweth mellow and tender, which it would not do, if it were presently salted. when it is sufficiently mortified, rub it well with salt; let it lie so but a day and a night, or at most two nights and a day. then boil it in no more water then is necessary. boil it pretty smartly at first, but afterwards but a simpring or stewing boiling, which must continue seven or eight hours. sometimes he boileth it half over night, and the rest next morning. if you should not have time to salt it, you may supply that want thus; when the beef is through boiled, you may put so much salt into the pot as to make the broth like brine, and then boil it gently an hour longer; or take out the beef, and put it into a deep dish, and put to it some of his broth made brine, and cover it with another dish, and stew it so an hour. a hanch of venison may be done the same way. to bake wilde-ducks or teals season your duck and teal with pepper and salt, both within and without, so much as you think may season them; then crack their bones with a roling pin; then put them into an earthen pot close, and cover them with butter, and bake them in an oven as hot as for bread, and let them stand three or four hours; when you take them out of the oven, pour out all the liquor from them, then melt so much butter as will cover them; when you have melted your butter, let it stand a while, until all the dross be settled to the bottom, and put in the clear butter, which must cover the fowl. to season humble-pyes: and to rost wilde-ducks bake humble-pyes without chapping them small in a pye, seasoned with pepper and salt, adding a pretty deal of parsley, a little sweet-marjoram and savoury, and a very little thyme. rost wilde ducks putting into their bellies some sage and a little onion (both well shreded) wrought into a lump with butter, adding a little pepper and salt. and let their sauce be a little gravy of mutton, to enlarge the seasoned gravy, that comes from the ducks when they are cut up. to souce turkeys take a good fat turkey or two; dress them clean, and bone them; then tye them up in the manner of sturgeon with some thing clean washed. take your kettle, and put into it a pottle of good white-wine, a quart of water, and a quart of vinegar; make it boil, and season it with salt pretty well. then put in your turkeys, and let them boil till they be very tender. when they are enough boiled, take them out, and taste the liquor; if it be not sharp enough, put more vinegar, and let it boil a little; then put it into an earthen pot, that will hold both turkeys. when it is cold enough, and the turkeys through-cold, put them into the liquor in the pot, and be sure they be quite covered with the liquor; let them lye in it three weeks or a month; then serve it to the table, with fennel on it, and eat it with elder vinegar. you may do a capon or two put together in the same manner: but first larding it with great lardons rowled in pepper and salt. a shorter time lying in the pickle will serve. an excellent meat of goose or turkey take a fat goose, and powder it with salt eight or ten days; then boil it tender, and put it into pickle, like sturgeon-pickle. you may do the like with a very fat turkey; but the best pickle of that is, the italian marinating, boiling mace, nutmeg, &c. in it. you may boil garlick in the belly of the fouls, if you like it, or in the pickle. to pickle an old fat goose cut it down the back, and take out all the bones; lard it very well with green bacon, and season it well with three quarters of an ounce of pepper; half an ounce of ginger; a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and salt as you judge proportionable; a pint of white wine and some butter. put three or four bay-leaves under the meat, and bake it with brown-bread in an earthen pot close covered, and the edges of the cover closed with paste. let it stand three or four days in the pickle; then eat it cold with vinegar. about ordering bacon for gambons, and to keep at franckfort they use the following cautions about the bacon they salt for gambons or sides to keep. the best is of male hogs of two year old, that have been gelt, when they were young. they kill them in the wane of the moon, from a day or two after the full, till the last quarter. they fetch off their hair with warm-water, not by burning (which melteth the fat, and maketh it apt to grow resty), and after it hath lain in the open air a full day, they salt it with dry salt, rubbing it in well: then lay what quantity you will in a tub for seven or eight days (in which time the salt dissolveth to water); then take it out, and wipe it dry, and hang it in a room, where they keep fire, either on a hearth, or that smoak cometh out of a stove into the room (as most of those rooms do smoak) but hang them not in the chimney, that the hot smoak striketh upon them; but if you have a very large chimney, hang them pretty high and aside, that the smoak may not come full upon them. after a while, (when they are dry) take them thence, and hang them from the smoak in a dry warm room. when the weather groweth warm as in may, there will drop from them a kinde of melted oyly grease, and they will heat, and grow resty, if not remedied. take them down then, and lay them in a cold dry place, with hay all about them, that one may not touch another. change the hay every thirty, or twenty, or fifteen days, till september, when the weather groweth cool; then hang them up again in the free air, in a dry chamber. if you make the shoulders into gambons, you must have a care to cut away a little piece of flesh within, called in dutch the mause; for if that remain in it, the bacon will grow resty. to make a tansey take spinage, sorrel, tansey, wheat, a quart of cream; bread (the quantity of a two peny loaf) twenty eggs, and half the whites, one nutmeg, half a pound of sugar, and the juyce of a couple of limons. spinage is the chief herb to have the juyce; wheat also is very good, when it is young and tender. you must not take much sorrel, for fear of turning the cream; but less tansey, so little that it may not taste distinctly in the composition. the juyce of limons is put in at the end of all. you may lay thin slices of limon upon the tansey made, and sugar upon them. another way beat twelve eggs (six whites put away) by themselves exceeding well (two or three hours), sometimes putting in a spoonful of cream to keep them from oyling; then mingle them well with a quart of cream; to which put about half a pint of juyce of spinage (as much as will make the cream green) or of green wheat, and four spoonfuls of juyce or tansey, one nutmeg scraped into thin slices, and half a pound of sugar; all things exceeding well incorporated together; fry this with fresh butter, no more then to glase the pan over, and keep the tansey from sticking to the pan. to make cheese-cakes take twelve quarts of milk warm from the cow, turn it with a good spoonful of runnet. break it well, and put it into a large strainer, in which rowl it up and down, that all the whey may run out into a little tub; when all that will is run out, wring out more. then break the curds well; then wring it again, and more whey will come. thus break and wring till no more come. then work the curds exceedingly with your hand in a tray, till they become a short uniform paste. then put to it the yolks of eight new laid eggs, and two whites, and a pound of butter. work all this long together. in the long working (at the several times) consisteth the making them good. then season them to your taste with sugar finely beaten; and put in some cloves and mace in subtile powder. then lay them thick in coffins of fine paste, and bake them. short and crisp crust for tarts and pyes to half a peck of fine flower, take a pound and half of butter, in this manner. put your butter with at least three quarts of cold water (it imports not how much or how little the water is) into a little kettle to melt, and boil gently: as soon as it is melted, scum off the butter with a ladle, pouring it by ladlefuls (one a little after another, as you knead it with the flower) to some of the flower (which you take not all at once, that you may the better discern, how much liquor is needful) and work it very well into paste. when all your butter is kneaded, with as much of the flower, as serves to make paste of a fitting consistence, take of the water that the butter was melted in, so much as to make the rest of the flower into paste of due consistence; then joyn it to the paste made with butter, and work them both very well together, of this make your covers and coffins thin. if you are to make more paste for more tarts or pyes, the water that hath already served, will serve again better then fresh. to make goose-pyes, and such of thick crust, you must put at least two pound of butter to half a peck of flower. put no more salt to your past, then what is in the butter, which must be the best new butter that is sold in the market. to make a cake take eight wine quarts of flower; one pound of loaf sugar beaten and searsed; one ounce of mace, beat it very fine: then take thirty eggs, fifteen whites, beat them well; then put to them a quart of new ale-yest; beat them very well together, and strain them into your flower; then take a pint of rose-water, wherein six grains of ambergreece and musk have been over night. then take a pint and half of cream or something more, and set it on the fire, and put into it four pounds and three quarters of butter; and when it is all melted, take it off the fire and stir it about, until it be pretty cool; and pour all into your flower, and stir it up quick with your hands, like a lith pudding; then dust a little flower over it, and let it stand covered with a flannel, or other woollen cloth, a quarter of an hour before the fire, that it may rise; then have ready twelve pounds of currants very well washed and pick'd, that there may be neither stalks, nor broken currants in them. then let your currants be very well dryed before the fire, and put warm into your cake; then mingle them well together with your hands; then get a tin hoop that will contain that quantity, and butter it well, and put it upon two sheets of paper well buttered; so pour in your cake, and so set it into the oven, being quick that it may be well soaked, but not to burn. it must bake above an hour and a quarter; near an hour and half. take then a pound and half of double refined sugar purely beaten and searsed; put into the whites of five eggs; two or spoonfuls of rose-water; keep it a beating all the time, that the cake is a baking which will be two hours; then draw your cake out of the oven, and pick the dry currants from the top of it, and so spread all that you have beaten over it, very smooth, and set it a little into the oven, that it may dry. another cake take three pounds and an half of flower; one penny worth of cloves and mace; and a quarter of a pound of sugar and salt, and strew it on the flower. then take the yolks of eight eggs well beaten, with a spoonful and half of rose water; then take a pint of thick cream, and a pound of butter; melt them together, and when it is so, take three quarters of a pint of ale-yest, and mingle the yest and eggs together. then take the warm liquor, and mingle all together; when you have done, take all, and pour it in the bowl, and so cover the flower over the liquor; then cover the pan with a napkin, and when it is risen, take four pounds of currants, well washed and dryed, and half a pound of raisins of the sun sliced, and let them be well dryed and hot, and so stir them in. when it is risen, have your oven hot against the cake is made; let it stand three quarters of an hour. when it is half baked, ice it over with fine sugar and rose-water, and the whites of eggs, and musk and ambergreece. when you mingle your yest and eggs together for the cake, put musk and amber to that. to make a plumb-cake take a peck of flower, and put it in half. then take two quarts of good ale-yest, and strain it into half the flower, and some new milk boiled, and almost cold again; make it into a very light paste, and set it before the fire to rise; then take five pound of butter, and melt it in a skillet, with a quarter of a pint of rose-water; when your paste is risen, and your oven almost hot, which will be by this time, take your paste from the fire, and break it into small pieces, and take your other part of flower, and strew it round your paste; then take the melted butter, and put it to the past, and by degrees work the paste and flower together, till you have mingled all very well. take six nutmegs, some cinnamon and mace well beaten, and two pound of sugar, and strew it into the paste, as they are a working it. take three pounds of raisins stoned, and twelve pounds of currants very well washed and dryed again; one pound of dates sliced; half a pound of green citron dryed and sliced very thin; strew all these into the paste, till it have received them all; then let your oven be ready, and make up your cake, and set it into the oven; but you must have a great care, it doth not take cold. then to ice it, take a pound and half of double refined sugar beaten and searsed; the whites of three eggs new-laid, and a little orange-flower-water, with a little musk and ambergreece, beaten and searsed, and put to your sugar; then strew your sugar into the eggs, and beat it in a stone mortar with a woodden pestel, till it be as white as snow, which will be by that time the cake is baked; then draw it to the ovens mouth, and drop it on, in what form you will; let it stand a little again in the oven to harden. to make an excellent cake to a peck of fine flower, take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of currants, of cloves and mace, half an ounce of each, an ounce of cinnamon, half an ounce of nutmegs, four ounces of sugar, one pint of sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of ale (as soon as it is settled, to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be, when it is about two days old) half a pint of rose-water; half a quarter of an ounce of saffron. then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flower: then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors: and put it into the oven well heated presently. for the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it stand in the oven one hour and half. you ice the cake with the whites of two eggs, a small quantity of rose-water, and some sugar. to make bisket to half a peck of flower, take three spoonfuls of barm, two ounces of seeds; aniseeds or fennel-seeds. make the paste very stiff, with nothing but water, and dry it (they must not have so much heat, as to make them rise, but only dry by degrees; as in an oven after manchet is taken out, or a gentle stove) in flat cakes very well in an oven or stove. to make a caraway-cake take three pound and a half of the finest flower and dry it in an oven; one pound and a half of sweet butter, and mix it with the flower, until it be crumbled very small, that none of it be seen; then take three quarters of a pint of new ale-yeast, and half a pint of sack, and half a pint of new milk; six spoonfuls of rose-water, four yolks, and two whites of eggs; then let it lie before the fire half an hour or more. and when you go to make it up, put in three quarters of a pound of caraway-confits, and a pound and half of biskets. put it into the oven, and let it stand an hour and half. another very good cake take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, three quarters of a pound of sugar, four nutmegs; a little mace; a pound of almonds finely beaten, half a pint of sack, a pint of good ale-yest, a pint of boiled cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of eggs; four pound of currants. when you have wrought all these into a very fine past, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the oven. if you please, you may put into it, two pound of raisins of the sun stoned and quartered. let your oven be of a temperate heat, and let your cake stand therein two hours and a half, before you ice it; and afterwards only to harden the ice. the ice for this cake is made thus: take the whites of three new laid eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine sugar finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the eggs, and ice the cake. if you please you may add a little musk or ambergreece. excellent small cakes take three pound of very fine flower well dryed by the fire, and put to it a pound and half of loaf sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dryed; three pounds of currants well washed and dryed in a cloth and set by the fire; when your flower is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a pound and half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of cream, with the yolks of three new-laid eggs beat with it, one nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of sack. when you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. afterwards ice them over with sugar. the cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin: of the cise of the sugar cakes sold at barnet. my lord of denbigh's almond march-pane blanch nut-kernels from the husks in the best manner you can. then pun them with a due proportion of sugar, and a little orange-flower, or rose-water. when it is in a fitting uniform paste, make it into round cakes, about the bigness of your hand, or a little larger, and about a finger thick; and lay every one upon a fine paper cut fit to it; which lay upon a table. you must have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the cakes, with fire upon it. let this remain upon the cakes, till you conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; which may be within a quarter of an hour; but you take it off two or three times in that time, to see you scorch not the outside, but only dry it a little. then remove it to others, that lye by them; and pull the papers from the first, and turn them upon new papers. when the others are dryed enough, remove the pan back to the first, to dry their other side: which being enough, remove it back to the second, that by this time are turned, and laid upon new papers. repeat this turning the cakes, and changing the pan, till they are sufficiently dry: which you must not do all at once, least you scorch them: and though the outside be dry, the inside must be very moist and tender. then you must ice them thus: make a thick pap with orange flower or rose-water, and purest white sugar: a little of the whites of eggs, not above half a spoonful of that oyl of eggs, to a porrenger full of thick pap, beaten exceeding well with it, and a little juyce of limons. lay this smooth upon the cakes with a knife, and smoothen it with a feather. then set the pan over them to dry them. which being if there be any unevenness, or cracks or discolouring, lay on a little more of that mortar, and dry it as before. repeat this, till it be as clear, and smooth, and white, as you would have it. then turn the other sides, and do the like to them. you must take care, not to scorch them: for then they would look yellow or red, and they must be pure, white and smooth like silver between polished and matte, or like a looking glass. this coat preserves the substance of the cakes within, the longer moist. you may beat dissolved amber, or essence of cinnamon, with them. to make slipp coat cheese according to the bigness of your moulds proportion your stroakings for your cheese-curds. to six quarts of stroakings, take a pint of springwater: if the weather be hot, then let the water be cold, and before you put it into the stroakings, let them stand a while to cool after they are milked, and then put in the water with a little salt first stirred in it: and having stirred it well together, let it stand a little while, and then put in about two good spoonfuls of runnet, stir it well together, and cover it with a fair linnen-cloth, and when it is become hard like a thick jelly, with a skimming-dish lay it gently into the moulds, and as it sinks down into the moulds, fill it still up again, till all be in, which will require some three or four hours time. then lay a clean fine cloth into another mould of the same cise, and turn it into it, and then turn the skirts of the cloth over it, and lay upon that a thin board, and upon that as much weight, as with the board may make two pound or thereabouts. and about an hour after, lay another clean cloth into the other mould, and turn the cheese into that; then lay upon the board so much, as will make it six or seven pound weight; and thus continue turning of it till night: then take away the weight, and lay it no more on it; then take a very small quantity of salt finely beaten, and sprinkle the cheese all over with it as lightly as can be imagined. next morning turn it into another dry cloth, and let it lye out of the mould upon a plain board, and change it as often as it wets the cloth, which must be three or four times a day: when it is so dry, that it wets the cloth no more, lay it upon a bed of green-rushes, and lay a row upon it; but be sure to pick the bents clean off, and lay them even all one way: if you cannot get good rushes, take nettles or grass. if the weather is cold, cover them with a linnen and woollen cloth; in case you cannot get stroakings, take five quarts of new milk, and one of cream. if the weather be cold, heat the water that you put to the stroakings. turn the cheese every day, and put to it fresh of whatsoever you keep it in. they are usually ripe in ten days. to make slipp-coat-cheese master phillips his method and proportions in making slippe-coat cheese, are these. take six wine quarts of stroakings, and two quarts of cream; mingle these well together, and let them stand in a bowl, till they are cold. then power upon them three pints of boiling fair water, and mingle them well together; then let them stand, till they are almost cold, colder then milk-warm. then put to it a moderate quantity of runnet, made with fair water (not whey, or any other thing then water; this is an important point), and let it stand till it come. have a care not to break the curds, nor ever to touch them with your hands, but only with your skimming dish. in due time lade the curds with the dish, into a thin fine napkin, held up by two persons, that the whey may run from them through the bunt of the napkin, which you rowl gently about, that the curds may dry without breaking. when the whey is well drained out, put the curds as whole as you can into the cheese-fat, upon a napkin, in the fat. change the napkin, and turn the cheese every quarter of an hour, and less, for ten, twelve or fourteen times; that is, still as soon as you perceive the napkin wet with the whay running from the curds. then press it with a half pound weight for two or three hours. then add half a pound more for as long time, then another half pound for as long, and lastly another half pound, which is two pounds in all; which weight must never be exceeded. the next day, (when about twenty four hours are past in all) salt your cheese moderately with white salt, and then turn it but three or four times a day, and keep it in a cotton cloth, which will make it mellow and sweet, not rank, and will preserve the coat smooth. it may be ready to eat in about twelve days. some lay it to ripen in dock-leaves, and it is not amiss; but that in rain they will be wet, which moulds the cheese. others in flat fit boxes of wood, turning them, as is said, three or four times a day. but a cotton cloth is best. this quantity is for a round large cheese, of about the bigness of a sale ten peny cheese, a good fingers-breadth thick. long broad grass ripeneth them well, and sucketh out the moisture. rushes are good also. they are hot, but dry not the moisture so well. my lady of middlesex makes excellent slipp-coat cheese of good morning milk, putting cream to it. a quart of cream is the proportion she useth to as much milk, as both together make a large round cheese of the bigness of an ordinary tart-plate, or cheese-plate; as big as an ordinary soft cheese, that the market-women sell for ten pence. thus for want of stroakings at london, you may take one part of cream to five or six of morning milk, and for the rest proceed as with stroakings; and these will prove as good. slipp-coat cheese take three quarts of the last of the stroakings of as many cows as you have; keep it covered, that it may continue warm; put to it a skimming dishful of spring-water; then put in two spoonfuls of runnet, so let it stand until it be hard come: when it is hard come, set your fat on the bottome of a hair-sieve, take it up by degrees, but break it not; when you have laid it all in the fat, take a fine cloth, and lay it over the cheese, and work it in about the sides, with the back of a knife; then lay a board on it, for half an hour: after half an hour, set on the board an half pound stone, so let it stand two hours; then turn it on that board, and let the cloth be both under and over it, then pour it into the fat again; then lay a pound and half weight on it; two hours after turn it again on a dry cloth, and salt it, then set on it two pound weight, and let it stand until the next morning. then turn it out of the cheese-fat, on a dry board, and so keep it with turning on dry boards three days. in case it run abroad, you must set it up with wedges; when it begins to stiffen, lay green grass or rushes upon it: when it is stiff enough, let rushes be laid both under and over it. if this cheese be rightly made, and the weather good to dry it, it will be ready in eight days: but in case it doth not dry well, you must lay it on linnen-cloth, and woollen upon it, to hasten the ripening of it. to make a scalded cheese take six gallons of new milk: put to it two quarts of the evening cream; then put to it good runnet for winter cheese; let it stand, till it be even well, then sink it as long as you can get any whey out: then put it into your fat, and set it in the press, and let it stand half an hour: in this time turn it once. when you take it out of the press, set on the fire two gallons of the same whey; then put your cheese in a big bowl, break the curd as small with your hands as you do your cheese-cakes: when your whey is scalding hot, take off the scum: lay your strainer over the curd, and put in your whey: take a slice, and stir up your curd, that it may scald all alike: put in as much whey as will cover it well: if you find that cold, put it out, and put in more to it that is hot. stir it as before: then cover it with a linnen and woollen cloth: then set some new whey on the fire, put in your cheese-fat and suter and cloth. after three quarters of an hour, take up the curd, and put it into the cheese fat, as fast, as two can work it in: then put it into the hot cloth, and set it into the press. have a care to look to it, and after a while turn it, and so keep it in the press with turning, till the next day: then take it forth and salt it. the cream-courds strain your whey, and set it on the fire: make a clear and gentle fire under the kettle: as they rise, put in whey, so continuing, till they are ready to skim. then take your skimmer, and put them on the bottom of a hair-sieve: so let them drain till they are cold. then take them off, and put them into a bason, and beat them with three or four spoonfuls of cream and sugar. savoury tosted or melted cheese cut pieces of quick, fat, rich, well tasted cheese, (as the best of brye, cheshire, &c. or sharp thick cream-cheese) into a dish of thick beaten melted butter, that hath served for sparages or the like, or pease, or other boiled sallet, or ragout of meat, or gravy of mutton: and, if you will, chop some of the asparages among it, or slices of gambon of bacon, or fresh-collops, or onions, or sibboulets, or anchovis, and set all this to melt upon a chafing-dish of coals, and stir all well together, to incorporate them; and when all is of an equal consistence, strew some gross white-pepper on it, and eat it with tosts or crusts of white-bread. you may scorch it at the top with a hot fire-shovel. to feed chicken first give them for two days paste made of barley meal and milk with clyster sugar to scowre them. then feed them with nothing but hashed raisins of the sun. the less drink they have, the better it is: for it washeth away their fat; but that little they have, let it be broken beer; milk were as good or better; but then you must be careful to have it always sweet in their trough, and no sowerness there to turn the milk. they will be prodigiously fat in about twelve days: and you must kill them, when they are at their height: else they will soon fall back, and grow fat no more. others make their paste of barley meal with milk and a little course sugar, and mingle with it a little (about an eight part) of powder of green glass beaten exceeding small. give this only for two days to cleanse their stomacks. then feed them with paste of barley-meal, made sometimes with milk and sugar, and sometimes with the fat skimmed off from the pot, giving them drink as above. others make a pretty stiff paste for them with barley-meal (a little of the coursest bran sifted from it) and the fat scummed off from the boiling pot, be it of beef (even salted) or mutton, &c. lay this before them for their food for four days. then give them still the same, but mingled with a little powder of glass for or five days more. in which time they will be extremely fat and good. for their drink, give them the droppings of good ale or good beer. when you eat them, you will find some of the powder of glass in their stomacks, i.e. gizzards. to feed poultry my lady fanshaws way of feeding capons, pullets, hens, chickens or turkies, is thus. have coops, wherein every fowl is a part, and not room to turn in, and means to cleanse daily the ordure behind them, and two troughs; for before that, one may be scalding and drying the day the other is used, and before every fowl one partition for meat, another for drink. all their meat is this: boil barley in water, till it be tender, keep some so, and another parcel of it boil with milk, and another with strong ale. let them be boiled as wheat that is creed. use them different days for variety, to get the fowl appetite. lay it in their trough, with some brown-sugar mingled with it. in the partition for liquor, let them have water or strong ale to drink. they will be very drunk and sleep; then eat again. let a candle stand all night over the coop, and then they will eat much of the night. with this course they will be prodigiously fat in a fortnight. be sure to keep them very sweet. this maketh the taste pure. another way of feeding chicken take barley meal, and with droppings of small ale, (or ale it self) make it into a consistence of batter for pan-cakes. let this be all their food. which put into the troughs before them, renewing it thrice a day, morning, noon and evening; making their troughs very clean every time, and keeping their coops always very clean and sweet. this is to serve them for drink as well as meat, and no other drink be given them. feed them thus six days; the seventh give them nothing in their troughs but powder of brick searced, which scowreth and cleanseth them much, and makes their flesh exceeding white. the next day fall to their former food for six days more, and the seventh again to powder of brick. then again to barley meal and ale. thus they will be exceeding fat in fifteen days, and purely white and sweet. to fatten young chickens in a wonderfull degree boil rice in milk till it be very tender and pulpy, as when you make milk potage. it must be thick, almost so thick, that a spoon may stand an-end in it. sweeten this very well with ordinary sugar. put this into their troughs where they feed, that they may be always eating of it. it must be made fresh every day. their drink must be onely milk, in another little trough by their meat-trough. let a candle (fitly disposed) stand by them all night; for seeing their meat, they will eat all night long. you put the chicken up, as soon as they can feed of themselves; which will be within a day or two after they are hatched, and in twelve days, or a fortnight, they will be prodigiously fat; but after they have come to their height, they will presently fall back. therefore they must be eaten as soon as they are come to their height. their pen or coop must be contrived so, that the hen (who must be with them, to sit over them) may not go at liberty to eat away their meat, but be kept to her own diet, in a part of the coop that she cannot get out of. but the chicken must have liberty to go from her to other parts of the coop, where they may eat their own meat, and come in again to the hen, to be warmed by her, at their pleasure. you must be careful to keep their coop very clean. to feed chicken fatten your chicken the first week with oatmeal scalded in milk; the second with rice and sugar in milk. in a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat. it is good to give them sometimes a little gravel, or powder of glass, to cleanse their maws, and give them appetite. if you put a little bran with their meat, it will keep their maws clean, and give them appetite. another excellent way to fatten chicken boil white bread in milk, as though you were to eat it; but make it thick of the bread, which is sliced into it in thin slices, not so thick as if it were to make a pudding; but so, that when the bread is eaten out, there may some liquid milk remain for the chicken to drink; or that at first you may take up some liquid milk in a spoon, if you industriously avoid the bread: sweeten very well this potage with good kitchin sugar of six pence a pound; so put it into the trough before them. put there but a little at a time, (two or three spoonfuls) that you may not clog them, and feed them five times a day, between their wakening in the morning, and their roosting at night. give them no other drink; the milk that remaineth after they have eaten the bread, is sufficient; neither give them gravel, or ought else. keep their coops very clean, as also their troughs, cleansing them very well every morning. to half a dozen very little chickens, little bigger then black-birds, an ordinary porenger full every day may serve. and in eight days they will be prodigiously fat, one peny loaf, and less then two quarts of milk and about half a pound of sugar will serve little ones the whole time. bigger chickens will require more, and two or three days longer time. when any of them are at their height of fat, you must eat them; for if they live longer, they will fall back, and grow lean. be sure to make their potage very sweet. an excellent way to cram chicken stone a pound of raisins of the sun, and beat them in a mortar to pulp; pour a quart of milk upon them, and let them soak so all night. next morning stir them well together, and put to them so much crums of grated stale white bread as to bring it to a soft paste, work all well together, and lay it in the trough before the chicken (which must not be above six in a pen, and keep it very clean) and let a candle be by them all night. the delight of this meat will make them eat continually; and they will be so fat (when they are but of the bigness of a black-bird) that they will not be able to stand, but lie down upon their bellies to eat. to feed partridges that you have taken wilde you must often change their food, giving them but of one kind at a time, that so their appetites may be fresh to the others, when they are weary of the present. sometimes dry wheat; sometimes wheat soaked two or three days in water, to make it soft and tender; sometimes barley so used; sometimes oats in like manner. give them continually to lie by them; some of the great green leaves of cabbages, that grow at the bottom of the stalk, and that are thrown away, when you gather the cabbage; which you may give them either whole or a little chopped. give them often ants and their eggs, laying near them the inward mould of an ant hill, taken up with the ants in it. to make puffs take new milk curds, strained well from the whey; then rub them very well; season them with nutmeg, mace, rose-water and sugar; then take an egg or two, a good piece of butter, and a handful of flower; work all together, and make them into balls; bake them in an oven, upon sheets of paper; when they are baked, serve them up with butter melted and beaten with rose-water and sugar. in stead of flower, you may take fine grated-bread, dried very well, but not crisp. apples in gelly my lady paget makes her fine preserved pippins, thus: they are done best, when pippins are in their prime for quickness, which is in november. make your pippin-water as strong as you can of the apples, and that it may be the less boiled, and consequently the paler, put in at first the greatest quantity of pared and quartered apples, the water will bear. to every pint of pippin-water add (when you put the sugar to it) a quarter of a pint of fair spring-water, that will bear soap (of which sort only you must use) and use half a pound of sugar, the purest double refined. if you will have much gelly, two pippins finely pared and whole, will be enough; you may put in more, if you will have a greater proportion of substance to the gelly. put at first but half the sugar to the liquor; for so it will be the paler. boil the apples by themselves in fair water, with a very little sugar, to make them tender; then put them into the liquor, and the rest, the other half of the sugar with them. boil them with a quick fire, till they be enough, and the liquor do gelly, and that you see the apples look very clear, and as though they were transparent. you must put the juyce of two limons and half an orange to this in the due time. every pippin should be lapped over in a broad-pill of orange; which you must prepare thus. pare your orange broad and very thin, and all hanging together, rub it with salt, prick it, and boil it in several waters, to take away the bitterness, and make it tender. then preserve it by it self with sufficient quantity of sugar. when it is throughly done, and very tender (which you must cast to do before hand, to be ready when the apples are ready to be put up) take them out of their syrup, and lap every pippin in an orange-peel, and put them into a pot or glass, and pour the liquor upon them: which will be gelly over and about the apples, when all is cold. this proportion of liquor, apples, and orange-peels, will take up about three quarters of a pound of sugar in all. if you would keep them any time, you must put in weight for weight of sugar. i conceive apple-john's in stead of pippins will do better, both for the gelly and syrup; especially at the latter end of the year; and i like them thin sliced, rather than whole; and the orange-peels scattered among them in little pieces or chipps. syrup of pippins quarter and core your pippins; then stamp them in a mortar, and strain out the juyce. let it settle, that the thick dregs may go to the bottom; then pour off the clear; and to have it more clear and pure, filter it through sucking paper in a glass funnel. to one pound of this take one pound and an half of pure double refined sugar, and boil it very gently (scarce simpringly, and but a very little while) till you have scummed away all the froth and foulness (which will be but little) and that it be of the consistence of syrup. if you put two pound of sugar to one pound of juyce, you must boil it more & stronglier. this will keep longer, but the colour is not so fine. it is of a deeper yellow. if you put but equal parts of juyce and sugar, you must not boil it, but set it in a _cucurbite in bulliente balneo_, till all the scum be taken away, and the sugar well dissolved. this will be very pale and pleasant, but will not keep long. you may make your syrup with a strong decoction of apples in water (as when you make gelly of pippins) when they are green; but when they are old and mellow, the substance of the apple will dissolve into pap, by boiling in water. take three or four spoonfuls of this syrup in a large draught of fountain water, or small posset-ale, _pro ardore urinæ_ to cool and smoothen, two or three times a day. gelly of pippins or john-apples cut your apples into quarters (either pared or unpared). boil them in a sufficient quantity of water, till it be very strong of the apples. take the clear liquor, and put to it sufficient sugar to make gelly, and the slices of apple; so boil them all together, till the slices be enough, and the liquor gelly; or you may boil the slices, in apple-liquor without sugar, and make gelly of other liquor, and put the slices into it, when it is gelly, and they be sufficiently boiled. either way, you must put at the last some juyce of limon to it; and amber and musk if you will. you may do it with halves or quartered apples, in deep glasses, with store of gelly about them. to have these clear, take the pieces out of the gelly they are boiled in, with a slice, so as you may have all the rags run from them, and then put neat clean pieces into clear gelly. preserved wardens pare and core the wardens, and put a little of the thin rind of a limon into the hole that the core leaveth. to every pound of wardens, take half a pound of sugar, and half a pint of water. make a syrup of your sugar and water; when it is well scummed, put it into a pewter dish, and your wardens into the syrup, and cover it with another pewter dish; and so let this boil very gently, or rather stew, keeping it very well covered, that the steam get out as little as may be. continue this, till the wardens are very tender, and very red, which may be in five, or six, or seven hours. then boil them up to the height the syrup ought to be to keep: which yet will not be well above three or four months. the whole secret of making them red, consisteth in doing them in pewter, which spoileth other preserves, and in any other mettal these will not be red. if you will have any amber in them, you may to ten or twelve pounds of wardens, put in about twenty grains of amber, and one, or at most, two grains of musk, ground with a little sugar, and so put in at the last. though the wardens be not covered over with the syrup in the stewing by a good deal, yet the steam, that riseth and cannot get out, but circulateth, will serve both to stew them, and to make them red and tender. sweet meat of apples my lady barclay makes her fine apple-gelly with slices of john apples. sometimes she mingles a few pippins with the john's to make the gelly. but she liketh best the john's single, and the colour is paler. you first fill the glass with slices round-wise cut, and then the gelly is poured in to fill up the vacuities. the gelly must be boiled to a good stiffness. then when it is ready to take from the fire, you put in some juyce of limon, and of orange too, if you like it: but these must not boil; yet it must stand a while upon the fire stewing in good heat, to have the juyces incorporate and penetrate well. you must also put in some ambergreece, which doth exceeding well in this sweet-meat. a flomery-caudle when flomery is made and cold, you may make a pleasant and wholesome caudle of it, by taking some lumps and spoonfuls of it, and boil it with ale and white wine, then sweeten it to your taste with sugar. there will remain in the caudle some lumps of the congealed flomery, which are not ungrateful. pleasant cordial tablets, which are very comforting, and strengthen nature much take four ounces of blanched almonds; of pine kernels, and of pistachios, _ana_, four ounces. erin-go-roots, candid-limon peels, _ana_, three ounces, candid orange peels two ounces, candid citron-peels four ounces, of powder of white amber, as much as will lie upon a shilling; and as much of the powder of pearl, grains of ambergreece, three grains of musk, a book of leaf gold, cloves and mace, of each as much as will lie upon a three pence; cut all these as small as possible you can. then take a pound of sugar, and half a pint of water, boil it to a candy-height, then put in the ambergreece and musk, with three or four spoonfulls of orange flower water. then put in all the other things and stir them well together, and cast them upon plates, and set them to dry: when both sides are dry, take orange-flower-water and sugar, and ice them. to make harts-horn gelly take four ounces of harts-horn rasped, boil it in four pound of water, till it will be a gelly, which you may try upon a plate (it will be so, in four or five or six hours gentle boiling) and then pass the clear liquor from the horn (which will be a good quart) then set it on the fire again with fine sugar in it to your taste; when that is dissolved (or at the same time you put that in) put half a pound of white-wine or sack into it, and a bag of spice, containing a little ginger, a stick of cinnamon bruised, a nutmeg quartered, two or three cloves, and what other spice you like, but pepper. as soon as it beginneth to boil, put into it the whites of three or four eggs beaten, and let it boil up gently, till the eggs harden into a curd. then open it with a spoon, and pour into it the juyce of three or four good limons; then take it presently off the fire, letting it not boil more above a walm: then run it through a hippocras bag, putting spirit of cinnamon, or of ambergreece, or what you please to it. for gelly of flesh you proceed in the same manner, with a brawny capon or cock, and a rouelle of veal (first skinned, and soaked from the blood) in stead of harts-horn: and when the broth will gelly, do as above, using a double or treble proportion of wine. boil no salt in it at first, for that will make the gelly black. harts-horn gelly take a pound of harts-horn, and boil it in five quarts of water, until it come to three pints, then strain it through a sieve or strainer, and so let it stand, until it be cold; and according to the strength you may take more or less of the following ingredients. first, take your stock of gelly, & put it into a skillet or pipkin with a pound of fine loaf sugar, and set it over a fire of charcoal; and when it begins to boil, put in a pint or more of rhenish-wine. then take the whites of eggs six or eight, beaten very well, with three or four spoonfuls of rose-water, and put into the gelly. then take two grains of amber, and one grain of musk, and put thereto, so let it boil a quarter of an hour, but not too violent; then put in three or four spoonfuls of cinnamon-water, with the juyce of seven or eight limons; boil it one walm more, and run it very hot through your gelly-bag; this done, run it again as cool and softly as you can into your glasses and pots. to make harts-horn gelly take a pound of harts-horn, and a prety big lean chicken, and put it into a skillet with about nine quarts of water, and boil your stock prety stiff, so that you may cut it with a knife; you may try it in a spoon, as it is a boiling. then drain your liquor clear away from the harts-horn through a fine searse, and let it stand until the next morning; then if there be any fat upon it, pare it away, and likewise the settlings at the bottom. then put your gelly into a good big skillet, and put to it a quart of the palest white-wine that you can procure, or a quart of rhenish-wine, and one pound of double refined sugar, and half an ounce of cinnamon broken into small pieces, with three or four flakes of mace. then set it upon the fire, and boil it a good pace. then have the whites of sixteen eggs beaten to a high froth; so put in the froth of your eggs, and boil it five or six walms; then put in the juyce of six limons, and boil it a little while after, and then run it into a silver bason through your gelly-bag: and keep it warm by the fire, until it have run through the second time. you must observe to put but a very little into your bag at a time for the second running, that it may but little more then drop; and it will be so much the clearer: and you must not remove the whites of eggs nor spice out of the bag, all the while it is running. and if the weather be hot, you need not put in so much wine; for it will not then be so apt to gelly as in cold weather. another way to make harts-horn-gelly take a small cock-chick, when it is scalded, slit it in two pieces, lay it to soak in warm water, until the blood be well out of it. then take a calves foot half boiled, slit it in the middle and pick out the fat and black of it. put these into a gallon of fair-water; skim it very well; then put into it one ounce of harts-horn, and one ounce of ivory. when it is half consumed, take some of it up in a spoon; and if it gelly, take it all up, and put it into a silver bason, or such a pewter one as will endure char-coal. then beat four whites of eggs, with three or four spoonfuls of damask-rose-water very well together. then put these into the gelly, with a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon broken into very small pieces; one flake of mace; three or four thin slices of ginger; sweeten it with loaf sugar to your liking; set it then over a chafing dish of coals; stir it well, and cover it close; blow under it, until there arise a scum or curd; let it boil a little, then put into it one top of rose-mary, two or three of sweet marjoram; wring into it the juyce of half a limon; let not your curd fall again, for it will spoil the clearness of the gelly. if you will have it more cordial, you may grind in a sawcer, with a little hard sugar, half a grain of musk, a grain of ambergreece. it must be boiled in an earthen pipkin, or a very sweet iron-pot, after the harts-horn and ivory is in it. it must constantly boil, until it gellieth. if there arise any scum, it must be taken off. marmulate of pippins take the quickest pippins, when they are newly gathered, and are sharp; pare and core and cut them into half quarters. put to them their weight of the finest sugar in powder, or broken into little pieces. put upon these in your preserving pan, as much fountain water, as will even cover them. boil them with a quick-fire, till by trying a little upon a plate, you find it gellieth. when it is cold (which may be in less then half an hour) then take it from the fire, and put into it a little of the yellow rind of limons rasped very small, and a little of the yellow rinde of oranges boiled tender (casting away the first waters to correct their bitterness) and cut into narrow slices (as in the gelly of pippins) and some ambergreece, with a fourth part of musk, and break the apples with the back of your preserving spoon, whiles it cooleth. if you like them sharper, you may put in a little juyce of limon, a little before you take the pan from the fire. when it is cold, put it into pots. this will keep a year or two. try if the juyce of apples (strained out of rasped apples) in such sort, as you make marmulate of quinces, with the juyce of quinces, would not be better, then fair-water, to boil your apples and sugar in. gelly of quinces my last gelly of quinces i made thus. the quinces being very ripe, and having been long gathered, i took the flesh of twelve quinces in quarters, and the juyce of fifteen or sixteen others, which made me two pounds of juyce; and i made a strong decoction of about twenty four others, adding to these twenty four (to make the decoction the stronger, and more slimy) the cores and the parings of the twelve in quarters; and i used the cores sliced and parings of all these. all this boiled about an hour and half in eight or ten pound of water; then i strained and pressed out the decoction (which was a little viscous, as i desired) and had between and five pound of strong decoction. to the decoction and syrup, i put three pound of pure sugar, which being dissolved and scummed, i put in the flesh, and in near an hour of temperate boiling (covered) and often turning the quarters, it was enough. when it was cold, it was store of firm clear red gelly, environing in great quantity the quarters, that were also very tender and well penetrated with the sugar. i found by this making, that the juyce of quinces is not so good to make gelly. it maketh it somewhat running like syrup, and tasteth sweetish, mellowy, syrupy. the decoction of the flesh is only good for syrup. i conceive, it would be a grateful sweetmeat to mingle a good quantity of good gelly with the marmulate, when it is ready to put into pots. to that end they must both be making at the same time: or if one be a little sooner done then the other, they may be kept a while warm (fit to mingle) without prejudice. though the gelly be cold and settled, it will melt again with the warmth of the marmulate, and so mingle with it, and make a marmulate, that will appear very gellyish; or peradventure it may be well to fill up a pot or glass with gelly, when it is first half filled with marmulate a little cooled. preserved quince with gelly when i made quinces with gelly, i used the first time these proportions; of the decoction of quinces three pound; of sugar one pound three quarters; flesh of quince two pound and an half; the second time these, of decoction two pound and an half, sugar two pound and a quarter, of flesh two pound three quarters. i made the decoction by boyling gently each time a dozen or fourteen quinces in a pottle of water, an hour and a half, or two hours, so that the decoction was very strong of the quinces. i boiled the parings (which for that end were pared very thick, after the quinces were well wiped) with all the substance of the quince in thick slices, and part of the core (excepting all the kernels) and then let it run through a loose napkin, pressing gently with two plates, that all the decoction might come out; but be clear without any flesh or mash. the first making i intended should be red; and therefore both the decoction, and the whole were boiled covered, and it proved a fine clear red. this boiled above an hour, when all was in. the other boiled not above half an hour, always uncovered (as also in making his decoction) and the gelly was of a fine pale yellow. i first did put the sugar upon the fire with the decoction, and as soon as it was dissolved, i put in the flesh in quarters and halves; and turned the pieces often in the pan; else the bottom of such as lay long unturned, would be of a deeper colour then the upper part. the flesh was very tender and good. i put some of the pieces into jar-glasses (carefully, not to break them,) and then poured gelly upon them. then more pieces, then more gelly, &c. all having stood a while to cool a little. to make fine white gelly of quinces take quinces newly from the tree, fair and sound, wipe them clean, and boil them whole in a large quantity of water, the more the better, and with a quick fire, till the quinces crack and are soft, which will be in a good half hour, or an hour. then take out the quinces, and press out their juyce, with your hands hard, or gently in a press through a strainer, that only the clear liquor or juyce run out, but none of the pap, or solid and fleshy substance of the quince. (the water, they were boiled in, you may throw away.) this liquor will be slimy and mucilaginous, which proceedeth much from the seeds that remaining within the quinces, do contribute to making this liquor. take three pound of it, and one pound of fine sugar, and boil them up to a gelly, with a moderate fire, so that they boil every where, but not violently. they may require near an hours boiling to come to a gelly. the tryal of that is, to take a tin or silver plate, and wet it with fair-water, and drop a little of the boiling juyce upon the wet plate; if it stick to the plate, it is not enough; but if it fall off (when you slope the plate) without sticking at all to it, then is it enough: and then you put it into flat shallow tin forms, first wetted with cold water, and let it stand in them four or five hours in a cold place, till it be quite cold. then reverse the plates, that it may shale and fall out, and so put the parcels up in boxes. note, you take fountain water, and put the quinces into it, both of them being cold. then set your kettle to boil with a very quick-fire, that giveth a clear smart flame to the bottom of the kettle, which must be uncovered all the while, that the gelly may prove the whiter; and so likewise it must be whiles the juyce or expression is boiling with the sugar, which must be the finest, that it may not need clarifying with an egg; but that little scum that riseth at the sides at the beginning of moderate boiling must be scummed away. you let your juyce or expression settle a while, that if any of the thick substance be come out with it, it may settle to the bottom; for you are to use for this only the clear juyce: which to have it the clearer, you may let it run through a large, thin, open, strainer, without pressing it. when you boil the whole quinces, you take them out, to strain them as soon as their skins crack, and that they are quite soft; which will not happen to them all at the same time, but according to their bigness and ripeness. therefore first take out and press those, that are ready first: and the rest still as they grow to a fit state to press. you shall have more juyce by pressing the quinces in a torcular, but it will be clearer, doing it with your hands; both ways, you lap them in a strainer. white marmulate, the queens way take a pound and an half of flesh of quinces sliced, one pound of sugar, and one pound of liquor (which is a decoction made very strong of quinces boiled in fair water). boil these with a pretty quick fire, till they be enough, and that you find it gellieth. then proceed as in my way. my lady of bath's way take six pounds of flesh of quince, and two pound of sugar moistened well with juyce of quinces. boil these together in a fit kettle; first gently, till the liquor be sweated out from the quince, and have dissolved all the sugar; then very quick and fast, proceeding as in my way, (bruising the quinces with a spoon, &c.) till it be enough. this will be very fine and quick in taste; but will not keep well beyond easter. in this course you may make marmulate without any juyce or water (by the meer sweeting of the flesh) if you be careful, proceeding slowly till juyce enough be sweated out, least else it burn to; and then quick, that the flesh may be boiled enough, before the moisture be evaporated away. paste of quinces take a quart of the juyce of quince, and when it is on the fire, put into it, pared, quartered and cored as much quince, as the juyce will cover; when it is boiled tender, pass the liquor through a sieve & put the pulp into a stone mortar, and beat it very fine with a woodden pestel; then weigh it, and to every pound of pulp, take a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, and boil it up to a candy-height in some of the juyce, which you passed through the sieve; then put therein your pulp, stirring it well together, till it hath had one boil and no more; then drop it on glasses, or spread it on plates, and set it to dry. into the juyce that remains, you may put more flesh of quinces, and boil it tender, doing all as at the first. then adding it (beaten to pulp in a mortar) unto the former pulp; repeating this, till you have taken up all your juyce. then put your proportion of sugar to the whole quantity of pulp, and so make it up into paste, and dry it, and sometimes before a gentle fire, sometimes in a very moderate stove. paste of quinces with very little sugar to one pound of flesh or solid substance of quinces (when they are pared, cored, and quartered,) take but a quarter of double refined sugar. do thus, scald your flesh of quinces in a little of the juyce of other quinces, that they may become tender, as if they were coddled. then beat them in a mortar to a subtle uniform smooth pulp (which you may pass through a searce.) in the mean time let your sugar be dissolved, and boiling upon the fire. when it is of a candy-height, put the pulp of quince to it, and let it remain a little while upon the fire, till it boil up one little puff or bubbling, and that it is uniformly mixed with the sugar; you must stir it well all the while. then take it off, and drop it into little cakes, or put it thin into shallow glasses which you may afterwards cut into slices. dry the cakes and slices gently and by degrees in a stove, turning them often. these will keep all the year, and are very quick of taste. another paste of quinces put the quinces whole into scalding water, and let them boil there, till they be tender. then take them out and peel them, and scrape off the pulp, which pass through a strainer; and when it is cold enough to every pound put three quarters of a pound of double refined sugar in subtile powder; work them well together into an uniform paste; then make little cakes of it, and dry them in a stove. if you would have the cakes red, put a little (very little; the colour will tell you, when it is enough) of juyce of barberies to the paste or pulp. you have the juyce of barberries thus: put them ripe into a pot over the fire, till you see the juyce sweat out. then strain them, and take the clear juyce. if you would have the paste tarter, you may put a little juyce of limons to it. a pleasant gelly in the beginning of the winter is made, of pearmains, pippins and juyce of quinces. also a marmulate made of those apples, and juyce of quinces, is very good. a smoothening quiddany or gelly of the cores of quinces take only the cores, and slice them thin, with the seeds in them. if you have a pound of them, you may put a pottle of water to them. boil them, till they be all mash, and that the water hath drawn the mucilage out of them, and that the decoction will be a gelly, when it is cold. then let it run through a widestrainer or fitcolender (that the gross part may remain behind, but all the slyminess go through), and to every pint of liquor take about half a pound of double refined sugar, and boil it up to a gelly. if you put in a little juyce of quince, when you boil it up, it will be the quicker. you may also take a pound of the flesh of quinces (when you have not cores enow, to make as much as you desire) and one ounce of seeds of other quinces, and boil them each a part, till the one be a strong decoction; the other a substantial mucilage. then strain each from their course _fæces:_ and mingle the decoctions, and put sugar to them, and boil them up to a gelly. or with the flesh and some juyce of quinces, make marmulate in the ordinary way; which whiles it is boiling, put to it the mucilage of the seeds to incorporate it with the marmulate. you may take to this a less proportion of sugar than to my marmulate. marmulate of cherries take four pound of the best kentish cherries, before they be stoned, to one pound of pure loaf sugar, which beat into small powder: stone the cherries, and put them into your preserving pan over a gentle fire, that they may not boil, but resolve much into liquor. take away with the spoon much of the thin liquor, (for else the marmulate will be glewy) leaving the cherries moist enough, but not swimming in clear liquor. then put to them half your sugar, and boil it up quick, and scum away the froth that riseth. when that is well incorporated and clear, strew in a little more of the sugar; and continue doing so by little and little, till you have put in all your sugar; which course will make the colour the finer. when they are boiled enough, take them off, and bruise them with the back of a spoon; and when they are cold, put them up in pots. you may do the same with morello cherries; which will have a quicker-tast, and have a fine, pure, shining, dark colour. both sorts will keep well all the year. marmulate of cherries with juyce of raspes and currants mingle juyce of raspes and red currants with the stoned cherries, and boil this mixture into marmulate, with a quarter, or at most, a third part of sugar. the juyces must be so much as to make gelly of them to mingle handsomely with the cherries, to appear among and between them. madam plancy (who maketh this sweet-meat for the queen) useth this proportion. take three pounds of cherries stoned; half a pound of clear juyce of raspes, and one pound of the juyce of red currants, and one pound of fine sugar. put them all together into the preserving pan; boil them with a quick fire, especially at the first, skimming them all the while, as any scum riseth. when you find them of a fit consistence, with a fine clear gelly, mingled with the cherries, take the preserving pan from the fire, and braise the cherries with the back of your preserving spoon; and when they are of a fit temper of coolness, pot them up. peradventure, to keep all the year, there may be requisite a little more sugar. to make an excellent syrup of apples slice a dozen or twenty pippins into thin slices, and lay them in a deep dish, _stratum super stratum,_ with pure double refined sugar in powder. put two or three spoonfuls of water to them, and cover them close with another dish, luting their joyning that nothing may expire. then set them into an oven. and when you take out the dish, you will have an excellent syrup, and the remaining substance of the apples will be insipid. you may proceed with damsens, or other plumms, in the same manner, and you will have excellent stewed damsens, (as fair as preserved ones) swimming in a very fine syrup. sweet-meats of my lady windebanks she maketh the past of apricocks (which is both very beautiful and clear, and tasteth most quick of the fruit) thus, take six pound of pared and sliced apricocks, put them into a high pot, which stop close, and set it in a kettle of boiling water, till you perceive the flesh is all become an uniform pulp; then put it out into your preserving pan or possenet, and boil it gently till it be grown thick, stirring it carefully all the while. then put two pound of pure sugar to it, and mingle it well, and let it boil gently, till you see the matter come to such a thickness and solidity, that it will not stick to a plate. then make it up into what form you will. the like you may do with raspes or currants. it is a pleasant and beautiful sweet meat to do thus: boil raspes in such a pot, till they be all come to such a liquor; then let the clear run through a strainer; to a pound, or english wine pint whereof, put a pound of red currants (first stoned and the black ends cut off) and a pound of sugar. boil these, till the liquor be gellied. then put it in glasses. it will look like rubies in clear gelly. you may do the like with cherries, either stoned, and the stalks cut off, or three or four capped upon one stalk, and the stone left in the first, and boiled in liquor of raspes. she makes her curious red marmulate thus: take six pounds of quince-flesh; six pounds of pure sugar; and eight pints of juyce; boil this up with quick fire, till you have scummed it, then pull away all the coals, and let it but simper, for four or five hours, remaining covered, renewing from time to time so little fire, as to cause it so to continue simpring. but as soon as it is scummed, put into it a handful of quince kernels, two races of ginger sliced, and fourteen or fifteen cloves whole; all these put into a tyffany-bag tyed fast; when you finde that the colour is almost to your minde, make a quick fire, and boil it up a pace, then throw away your bag of kernels, ginger and cloves, and pot up your marmulate, when it is cool enough. she makes her red gelly of quince thus: put the quinces pared and sliced into a pot, as above; and to every pound of this flesh put about half a demistier of fair water, and put this into a kettle of boiling water, till you perceive all the juyce is boiled out of the quince. then strain it out, and boil this liquor (which will not yet be clear) till you perceive it gellieth upon a plate. then to every pint of liquor put a pound of sugar, and boil it up to a gelly, skimming it well, as the scum riseth, and you will have a pure gelly. gelly of red currants take them clean picked, and fresh gathered in the morning, in a bason, set them over the fire, that their juyce may sweat out, pressing them all the while with the back of your preserving spoon, to squeese out of them all that is good. when you see all is out, strain the liquor from them, and let it stand to settle four or five hours, that the gross matter may sink to the bottom. then take the pure clear, (the thick settling will serve to add in making of marmulate of cherries, or the like) and to every pint or pound of it, put three quarters of a pound of the purest refined sugar, and boil them up with a quick fire, till they come to a gelly height (which will be done immediately in less then a quarter of an hour) which you may try with a drop upon a plate. then take it off, and when it is cold enough, put it into glasses. you must be careful to skim it well in due time, and with thin brown paper to take off the froth, if you will be so curious. gelly of currants, with the fruit whole in it take four pound of good sugar, clarifie it with whites of eggs, then boil it up to a candid height (that is, till throwing it, it goeth into flakes): then put into it five pound (or at discretion) of pure juyce of red currants first boiled to clarifie it by skimming it. boil them together a little while, till it be well scummed, and enough to become gelly. then put a good handful or two of the berries of currants whole, and cleansed from the stalks and black ends, and boil them a little till they be enough. you need not to boil the juyce, before you put it to the sugar, and consequently do not scum it before the sugar and it boil together: but then scum it perfectly: and take care before, that the juyce be very clear and well strained. marmulate of red currants take some juyce of red currants, and put into it a convenient proportion of some entire currants cleansed from the stalks and buttons at the other end. let these boil a little together. have also ready some fine sugar boiled to a candy height. put of this to the currants at discretion, and boil them together, till they be enough: and bruise them with the back of your spoon, that they may be in the consistence of marmulate (like that of cherries) which put in pots, when it is cool enough. you do not stone the whole currants put into the juyce, unless you please. sucket of mallow stalks to candy or preserve the tender stalks of mallows, do thus; take them in the spring, when they are very young and tender; and peel off the strings that are round about the outside, as you do french-beans, and boil them, till they are very tender. in the mean time prepare a high syrup of pure sugar, and put the boiled stalkes into it, whiles it is boiling hot, but taken from the fire. let them lie soaking there till the next morning. then take out the stalks, and heat the syrup again, scalding hot, and return the stalks into it, letting them lie there till next morning; (note, that the stalks must never boil in the syrup,) repeat this six, or eight, or nine times, that is to say, till they are sufficiently imbibed with the syrup. when they are at this pass, you may either keep them as a wet sucket in syrup, or dry them in a stove upon papers, turning them continually, in such sort as dried sweet-meats are to be made. i like them best dry, but soft and moist within _(medullosi)_ like candied eryngos. in italy they eat much of them, for sharpness and heat of urine, and in gonorrhoea's to take away pain in urining. a sucket is made in like manner of the carneous substance of stalks of lettice. it is the knob, out of which the lettice groweth, which being pared, and all the tough rind being taken off, is very tender and so it is a pretty way downwards the root. this also is very cooling and smoothing. in italy these tender stalks of mallows are called _mazzocchi_, and they eat them (boiled tender) in sallets, either hot or cold, with vinegar and oyl, or butter and vinegar, or juyce of oranges. conserve of red roses doctor glisson makes his conserve of red roses thus: boil gently a pound of red rose leaves (well picked, and the nails cut off) in about a pint and a half (or a little more, as by discretion you shall judge fit, after having done it once; the doctors apothecary takes two pints) of spring water; till the water have drawn out all the tincture of the roses into it self, and that the leaves be very tender, and look pale like linnen; which may be in a good half hour, or an hour, keeping the pot covered whiles it boileth. then pour the tincted liquor from the pale leaves (strain it out, pressing it gently, so that you may have liquor enough to dissolve your sugar) and set it upon the fire by it self to boil, putting into it a pound of pure double refined sugar in small powder; which as soon as it is dissolved, put in a second pound; then a third, lastly a fourth, so that you have four pound of sugar to every pound of rose-leaves. (the apothecary useth to put all the four pounds into the liquor altogether at once,) boil these four pounds of sugar with the tincted liquor, till it be a high syrup, very near a candy height, (as high as it can be, not to flake or candy) then put the pale rose-leaves, into this high syrup, as it yet standeth upon the fire, or immediately upon the taking it off the fire. but presently take it from the fire, and stir them exceeding well together, to mix them uniformly; then let them stand till they be cold; then pot them up. if you put up your conserve into pots, whiles it is yet throughly warm, and leave them uncovered some days, putting them in the hot sun or stove, there will grow a fine candy upon the top, which will preserve the conserve without paper upon it, from moulding, till you break the candied crust, to take out some of the conserve. the colour both of the rose-leaves and the syrup about them, will be exceeding beautiful and red, and the taste excellent; and the whole very tender and smoothing, and easie to digest in the stomack without clogging it, as doth the ordinary rough conserve made of raw roses beaten with sugar, which is very rough in the throat. the worst of it is, that if you put not a paper to lie always close upon the top of the conserve, it will be apt to grow mouldy there on the top; especially _aprés que le pot est entamé_. the conserve of roses, besides being good for colds and coughs, and for the lunges, is exceeding good for sharpness and heat of urine, and soreness of the bladder, eaten much by it self, or drunk with milk, or distilled water of mallows, and plantaine, or of milk. another conserve of roses doctor bacon related to me, that mr. minito the roman apothecary, made him some conserve of roses, in this manner. he took twelve pounds (of sixteen ounces to the pound) of the best lump or kitchin sugar, and clarified it very well with whites of eggs, using spring-water in doing this. he made his reckoning, that his twelve pound of sugar, came to be but nine pound, when all the scum was taken away, and the sugar perfectly clarified. boil it then to a syrup, and when it is about half boiled, go roundly about your rose-leaves. they must be picked and the white nails cut off before-hand; but begin not to beat them before your syrup is half boiled. then put thirty ounces (which is two pound and an half of roses to every pound of such sugar) of your red-roses into the mortar, and beat them well, squeesing into them, as you beat them, some of the subtilest and best part (which comes out first) of about two limons, which brings out their colour finely. you must have finished beating your roses, by then the sugar is come by boiling to a high syrup (for if you should let them lie still in the air, but a little while, they would grow black, and of ill colour) then with your ladle put the roses to the sugar, and stir them very well in it, to incorporate all well and uniformly together. so let them boil on gently (for all this while you take not your preserving pan from the fire, and a thick scum of the roses will rise, which you scum off from time to time continually as it comes up, and reserve this in a pot by it self, for it will be good hard sugar of roses, and may be about an eight or ninth part of the whole. after it is clear from scum, and hath boiled near a quarter of an hour with the roses in it, and that you see by a drop upon a plate, that it is of a due consistence; take your pan from the fire, and stir all very well together, and put it into pots, which leave uncovered during ten or twelve days, setting them in the hot strong sun all the day long during that time, to give the roses a fine hard crust or candy at the top; but under it, in the substance of the matter, it will be like a fine clear syrupy gelly. if the sun favour you not, then you may use a stove. after twelve days, tie covers of paper, upon the pots. doctor bacon useth to make a pleasant julep of this conserve of roses, by putting a good spoonful of it into a large drinking glass or cup; upon which squeese the juyce of a limon, and clip in unto it a little of the yellow rinde of the limon; work these well together with the back of a spoon, putting water to it by little and little, till you have filled up the glass with spring-water: so drink it. he sometimes passeth it through an hypocras bag, and then it is a beautiful and pleasant liquor. _finis_ the table[ ] a scotch ale from my lady holmbey to make ale drink quick a very pleasant drink of apples ale with honey small ale for the stone apple drink with sugar, honey, &c. master webbs ale and bragot to stew apples apples in gelly sweet-meat of apples to make an excellent syrup of apples b stewed broth portugal broth, as it was made for the queen nourishing broth broth and potage broth for sick and convalescent persons a savoury and nourishing boiled capon to stew beef to stew a rump of beef , , to rost wilde boar about making of brawn to bake beef to boil beef or venison ordering bacon for gambons, and to keep to make bisket c to make cider sir paul neal's way of making cider dr. harvey's pleasant water cider, whereof he used to drink much, making it his ordinary drink a good dish of cream an excellent spanish cream another clouted cream my lord of st. alban's cresme fouettee to make the cream curds the queens barley cream capon in white-broth to make cock-ale savoury collops of veal to pickle capons my lady portland's way scotch collops excellent good collops my lady diana porter's scotch collops cream with rice pickled champignons sallet of cold capon rosted to make cheese cakes short and crisp crust for tarts and pyes to make a cake to make a caraway-cake excellent small cakes to make scalded cheese the cream-courds savoury tosted or melted cheese to feed chicken to fatten young chicken in a wonderful degree an excellent way to cram chicken gelly of red currants gelly of currants with the fruit whole in it d to bake wilde ducks or teals to rost wilde ducks e to butter eggs with cream portuguez eggs to boil eggs f wheaten flomery a fricacee of lamb-stones, &c. to boil smoaked flesh a fricacee of veal , butter and oyl to fry fish a flomery-caudle g smallage gruel about water gruel an excellent and wholesome water gruel with wood sorrel and currants gruel of oatmeal and rice to make clear gelly of bran an excellent meat of goose or turkey to pickle an old fat goose h some notes upon honey my lord hollis hydromel hydromel as i made it weak for the q. mother to make honey drink weak honey drink to make an hotchpot , the queens hotchpot a nourishing hachy red herrings boiled to season humble pyes to make harts-horn gelly - l to dress lampreys m master corsellises antwerp meath to make excellent meathe a weaker, but very pleasant meathe an excellent white meathe master webbes meathe - my own considerations for making of meathe my lady gower's white meathe strong meathe a receipt for making of meathe my lord morice's meathe my lady morice her sisters meathe to make white meath sir william paston's meathe another way of making meathe sir baynam throckmorton's meathe my lady bellassises meathe my lord gorge his meathe several sorts of meathe, small and strong to make meathe sir john arundel's white meathe to make a meathe good for the liver and lungs a very good meathe my lord herbert's meathe to make small white meathe meathe from the muscovian ambassadour's steward meathe with raisins a receipt to make metheglin as it is made at liege, communicated by mr. masillon white metheglin of my lady hungerfords which is exceedingly praised a receipt to make a tun of metheglin the countess of bullingbrook's white metheg. metheglin composed by myself sir thomas gower's metheglin for health metheglin for taste and colour an excellent way of making white metheglin several ways of making metheglin to make white metheglin another metheglin mr. pierce's excellent white metheglin an excellent way to make metheglin, called the liquor of life to make good metheglin to make white metheglin of sir j. fortescue the lady vernon's white metheglin to make metheglin a most excellent metheglin to make white metheg. of the count. of dorset to make small metheglin the earl of denbigh's metheglin to make metheglin that looks like white wine metheglin, or sweet-drink of my lady stuart a metheg. for the colick-stone, of the same lady a receipt for metheglin of my lady windebanke marrow sops with wine to make a shoulder of mutton like venison an excellent way of making mutton steaks to make mustard for roasting of meat mutton baked with venison my lord of denbigh's almond march-pane marmulate of pippins white marmulate, the queens way my lady of bath's way marmulate of cherries marmulate of red currants o a plain but good spanish oglia to stew oysters p excellent marrow-spinage pasties to make a french barley posset to make puff-past to make a pudding with puff past to make pear puddings marrow puddings to make excellent black puddings a receipt to make white puddings to make an excellent pudding pyes to make pith puddings an oat-meal pudding to make call puddings a barley pudding a pippin pudding to make a baked oat-meal pudding a plain quaking pudding a good quaking bag pudding to preserve pippins in jelly to dress poor-john, and buckorn to dress parsneps to butter pease a herring pye to make an excellent hare pye to bake pidgeons, teals or wild ducks green-geese pye to make a plain ordinary posset concerning potages plain savoury english potage potage de blanc de chapon ordinary potage barley potage an english potage another potage nourissant potage de santé potage de santé , good nourishing potage pap of oat-meal panado barley pap oat-meal pap. sir john colladon pressis-nourissant pan-cotto my lord lumley's pease-potage an excellent posset pease of the seedy buds of tulips to make plague-water , an excellent baked pudding my lady of portland's minced pyes minced pyes to feed poultry to feed partridges that you have taken wilde to make puffs gelly of pippins or john-apples q to keep quinces all the year good gelly of quinces preserved quince with gelly to make fine white gelly of quinces paste of quinces , a smoothening quiddany or gelly of the cores of quinces r [transcribers note: r was missing in the original.] rice & orge mondé boiled rice dry to rost fine meat to make red-dear conserve of red roses , s sack with clove gilly-flowers to make stepponi to make a sack-posset a barley sack-posset my lord of carlile's sack-posset a syllabub to make a whip syllabub to make spinage-broth sauce of horse-radish very good sauce for partridges and chicken to dress stock-fish , to prepare shrimps for dressing to make slip-coat-cheese - sweet-meats of my lady windebanks sucket of mallow-stalks t tea with eggs a tansy , , to souce turkeys pleasant cordial tablets v to stew a breast of veal vuova lattate vuova spersa baked venison tosts of veal w morello wine currants wine the countess of newport's cherry wine strawberry wine to make wine of cherries alone to make rasbery-wine to make a white-pot , buttered whitings with eggs to stew wardens or pears preserved wardens [footnote : this table reproduces the index to the original volume. an index on modern lines, for more ready reference, will be found on pages - .] appendix i some additional receipts . _aqua mirabilis_. sir kenelm digby's way. take cubebs, gallingale, cardamus, mellilot-flowers, cloves, mace, ginger, cinammon, of each one dram bruised small, juyce of celandine one pint, juyce of spearmint half a pint, juyce of balm half a pint, sugar one pound, flower of cowslips, rosemary, borage, bugloss, marigold, of each two drams, the best sack three pints, strong angelica-water one pint, red rose-water half a pint; bruise the spices & flowers, & steep them in the sack & juyces one night; the next morning distil it in an ordinary or glass-still, & first lay harts-tongue leaves in the bottom of the still. the vertues of the precedent water this water preserveth the lungs without grievances, & helpeth them; being wounded, it suffereth the blood not to putrifie, but multiplieth the same. this water suffereth not the heart to burn, nor melancholly, nor the spleen to be lifted up above nature: it expelleth the rheum, preserveth the stomach, conserveth youth, & procureth a good colour: it preserveth memory, it destroyeth the palsie: if this be given to one a dying, a spoonful of it reviveth him; in the summer use one spoonful a week fasting; in the winter two spoonfuls. the above receipt is given in the rd edition of _the closet opened_, , also in _the queen's closet opened_. . _another more precious cosmetick, or beautifying water, by sir_ kenelm digby. take white lillies six drams, florence orrice roots, beans, cicers, lupins, of each half an ounce, fresh bean-flowers a handful, gum tragant, white lead, fine sugar, of each half an ounce, crums of white bread, (steeped in milk) an ounce, frankincense, and gum arabick of each three drams, borax, and feather'd allom of each two drams, the white of an egg, camphire a dram and a half; infuse them four and twenty hours in a sufficient quantity of rose and bean-flower water, equal parts; then distil it in _b.m._ _this water smooths, whitens, beautifies & preserves the complexions of ladies. they may wash their faces with it at any time, but especially morning and evening_. . _another richer perfume; being pleasant and wholesome, to perfume tobacco taken in a pipe_. take balm of peru half an ounce, seven or eight drops of oyl of cinamon, oyl of cloves five drops, oyl of nutmegs, of thyme, of lavender, of fennel, of aniseeds (all drawn by distillation) of each a like quantity, or more or less as you like the odour, and would have it strongest; incorporate with these half a dram of ambergrease; make all these into a paste; which keep in a box; when you have fill'd your pipe of tobacco, put upon it about the bigness of a pin's head of this composition. _it will make the smoak most pleasantly odoriferous, both to the takers, and to them that come into the room; and ones breath will be sweet all the day after. it also comforts the head and brains._ approved by sir _kenelm digby_. from hartman, _the true preserver of health_, . appendix ii _the true preparation of the powder of sympathy, as it was prepared every year in sir_ kenelm digby's _elaboratory, and as i prepare it now_. take good english vitriol, which you may buy for two pence a pound, dissolve it in warm water, using no more water than will dissolve it, leaving some of the impurest part at the bottom undissolved; then powr it off and filtre it, which you may do by a coffin of fine gray paper put into a funnel, or by laying a sheet of gray paper in a sieve, and powring your water or dissolution of vitriol into it by degrees, setting the sieve upon a large pan to receive the filtred liquor; when all your liquor is filtred, boil it in an earthen vessel glazed, till you see a thin scum upon it; then set it in a cellar to cool, covering it loosly, so that nothing may fall in; after two or three days standing, powr off the liquor, and you will find at the bottom and on the sides large and fair green christals like emerauds; drain off all the water clean from them, and dry them; then spread them abroad, in a large flat earthen dish, & expose them to the hot sun in the dog-days, taking them in at night, and setting them out in the morning, securing them from the rain; and when the sun hath calcin'd them to whiteness, beat them to powder, & set this powder again in the sun, stirring it sometimes, and when you see it perfectly white, powder it, & sift it finely, and set it again in the sun for a day, and you will have a pure white powder, which is the powder of sympathy; which put up in a glass, and stop it close. the next yeare when the dog-days come, if you have any of this powder left, you may expose it again in the sun, spreading it abroad to renew its vertue by the influence of the sun-beams. the way of curing wounds, with it, is, to take some of the blood upon a rag, and put some of the powder upon the blood, then keep only the wound clean, with a clean linnen about it, and in a moderate temper betwixt hot and cold, and wrap up the rag with the blood, and keep it either in your pocket, or in a box, & the wound will be healed without any oyntment or plaister, and without any pain. but if the wound be somewhat old, and hot, and inflamed, you must put some of this powder into a porringer or bason full of cold water, and then put any thing into it that hath been upon the wound, and hath some of the blood or matter upon it, and it will presently take away all pain and inflammation, as you see in sir _kenelm's_ relation of mr. _howard [sic]_. to staunch the blood either of a wound or bleeding at the nose, take only some of the blood upon a rag, & put some powder upon it, or take a bason with fresh water, and put some of the powder into it, and bath the nostrils with it. from hartman, _the preserver of health_. appendix iii a list of the herbs, flowers, fruits, etc., referred to in _the closet opened:_-- i. agrimony; alexander; angelica; avens, leaves & flowers; balm; bay-leaves; beet leaves; bettony, wild; bettony, paul's; bistort; bloodwort; bluebottles; blue-button; borage, leaves & flowers; bramble, red, tops of; broom-buds; bugle; bugloss, leaves & flowers; burnet; carduus benedictus; carrot, wild; celandine; cersevril; chicory; chives; clove gilly-flowers; clown's all-heal; coltsfoot; comfrey; cowslip & french cowslip flowers; dragons; elder flowers; endive; eyebright; fennel; fever-few; garlic; ground-ivy; groundsel; hart's tongue, leaves; hops, flowers; horehound; hypericum, tops & flowers; hyssop; ladies' mantle; lettuce, leaves & stalks; lily of the valley; liquorice; liverwort; maidenhair; marigold, flowers & leaves; marjoram, sweet; marjoram, wild; marshmallow, leaves, flowers, & stalks; may-weed, brown; meadowsweet; mellilot, flowers; mint; spearmint; mouse-ear; mugwort; muscovy; nettle, red; oak of jerusalem; organ; origanum [wild marjoram]; oseille; parietary; peas (chick); pellitory-of-the-wall; penny-royal; philipendula; pimpernel; pourpier; primrose, flowers; purslane; ribwort; rocket; rosemary, tops, flowers, & sprigs; rose; rue; sage, (red & wild), leaves & flowers; saxifrage; sanicle; scabious; scurvy grass; self-heal; shallots; sibboulets; skirrets; smallage; sorrel (wood); spike [spignel?]; spleenwort; spinach; st. john's wort; strawberry leaves; sweetbriar, leaves, tops, buds; sweet oak; sweetwort; tamarisk; tansy; thyme (broad, lemon, mother, & wild); violet, leaves & flowers; wallflowers (yellow); wall rue; watercress; wheat (green); white-wort; winter savoury; woodbine; wormwood (sea & roman); yarrow. (from this list i have omitted the commoner vegetables.) . _roots_.--alexander; angelica; asparagus; beet; betony, bittersweet; bluebottle; borage; coltsfoot; elecampane; eringo; fennel; fern; galingale; horse-radish; marshmallow; nettle (red); orris; parsley; scabious; sorrel; strawberry; succory; thyme (wild); tormentilla. . _seeds_.--anise; cardamom; carraway; citron; coriander; fennel; gromwell; melon; musk grains; mustard; nettle; parsley; saffron; tulip, seedy buds of; wormwood. . _fruits_.--apples (codlings, ginet moils, pearmains, pippins, golden pippins, red streaks); apricots; barberries; bilberries; cherries (black, kentish, morello); currants (dried, black, red); damsons; dates; jujubes; juniper berries; lemons; pears (bon chrétien & wardens); plums; prunes; raisins; rasps; sweetbriar berries; strawberries. . _barks, woods._--ash-tree bark; lignum cassiæ. . _nuts_.--almonds; chestnuts; pine kernels; pistachios; walnuts (green). . _juices_.--balm; celandine; cherry; hop; lemon; onion; orange; spearmint; spinach; tansy. .--_distilled waters_ of angelica; cinnamon; mallow; orange-flower; plantain; rose (red & damask). . _spices_ of all sorts; cloves; cinnamon (also oil of, & spirit of); ginger; mace; mustard; nutmeg; pepper; peppercorns. . _wines_.--canary sack; claret; deal; elder; malaga (old); muscat; muscadine (greek); red; rhenish; sack, sherry sack; spanish; white. . _other liquors_.--ale & beer; afterworts; lees of beer & wine; aqua vitæ; orangeado. . _vinegars_ of elder wine, & of white wine. . _verjuice_ of cider, & green sour grapes. . _other notable seasonings and ingredients_:-- ambergris; ivory; leaf gold; powder of white amber; powder of pearl; spanish pastilles (ambergris, sugar, & musk). notes _introduction_ p. x . _old cookery books and ancient cuisine_. by w. carew hazlitt. booklovers' library. . p. x . _the life of sir kenelm digby_. by one of his descendants [t. longueville]. . p. xi . for the controversy about the date of his birth, see the usual biographical authorities:--longueville, _op. cit._, digby's _memoirs_, ed. nicolas, ; _dict. of nat. biog._; _biog. brit._ (kippis); wood's _athenae oxon._, iii. ; aubrey's _lives_, ii. , etc. etc. p. xiv . "the elder lady digby." see text, p. . p. xv . "manuscript of elections." see w.h. black's _catalogue of the ashmolean mss._, , and , . p. xx . _journal of a voyage to scanderoon_, ed. j. bruce for camden soc., . p. xxi . "scanderoon had to be repudiated." here is a curious echo of the affair, quoted by mr. longueville from blundell of crosby. "when the same sir kenelm was provoked in the king's presence (upon occasion of the old business of scanderoon) by the venetian ambassador, who told the king it was very strange that his majesty should slight so much his ancient amity with the most noble state of europe, for the affections which he bore to a man (meaning sir kenelm) whose father was a traitor, his wife a ----, and himself a pirate, altho' he made not the least reply (as long as the ambassador remained in england) to those great reproaches, yet after, when the quality of his enemy was changed (by his return) to that of a private person, sir kenelm posted after him to italy. there sending him a challenge (from some neighbouring state) he found the discreet magnifico as silent in italy as himself had been in england, and so he returned home." p. xxii . the _memoirs_ were edited by sir n.h. nicolas from the harleian ms. in . p. xxii . "outburst of vile poetry." see _poems from sir k.d.'s papers_, ed. warner. roxburghe club, . p. xxiii . "hermit." the portrait of digby in this guise, painted by janssen, in the possession of t. longueville, esq., is reproduced in mr. longueville's life of his ancestor. says pennant in his _journey from chester to london_, ed. , "i know of no persons who are painted in greater variety than this illustrious pair [digby and his wife]: probably because they were the finest subjects of the time." p. xxv . "duel ... with a french lord." see the curious little pamphlet, _sir kenelme digby's honour maintained_, . p. xxvi . i the _observations on religio medici_, together with the correspondence between browne and digby, are often reprinted with the text of _r.m._ p. xxvi . "glass-making." see longueville, pp. - p. xxix . descartes. des maizeaux. _viede saint-evremond,_ pp. - . p. xxxi . _a late discourse made in a solemne assembly of nobles and learned men at montpellier_. by sir k.d., kt. rendered faithfully into english by r. white. nd ed., . the original was in french. longueville gives a loathsome receipt for the sympathetic powder from an original in the ashmolean. "to make a salve yt healeth though a man be miles off." but vitriol is the only ingredient digby mentions; and the receipt given by his steward hartman [see appendix], and sold by him, is more likely to be digby's. of course, there were many claimants to the credit of the invention of sympathetic powders. p. xxxiii . "house in covent garden." for a brief account of this house, see an article on hogarth's london in the _english review_, february, . p. xxxiv . "history of the digby family." this has disappeared. p. xxxiv . "catalogue of the combined collection." _bibliotheca digbeiana_, . see also edwards's _memoirs of libraries_, ii, , and _sir k.d. et les anciens rapports des bibliothèques françaises avec la grande bretagne_. l. delisle. . p. xxxviii . lloyd's _lives of excellent personages that suffered for ... allegiance to the soveraigne in the late intestine wars_, ed. . p. xliv . "remedy for biting of a mad dog." there is a similar receipt in _arcana fairfaxiana_, ed. g. waddell, , a collection of old medical receipts, etc. of the fairfax and cholmely families. "a cure for the bite of a mad dog published for ye benefit of mankind in the newspapers of by a person of note.... n.b. this medicine has stood a tryal of years experience, and was never known to fail." p. liii . culpeper's _english physitian_, . p. liii . n. culpeper. herball. p. liii . john gerard. _the historie of plants_, . p. liii . wm. coles. _adam in eden_ and _the art of simpling._ and . _to the reader_. p. . "that old saw in the regiment of health." _the regyment, or a dyetary of helth_. by andrew borde, . (reprinted by the early english text soc.) _receipts._ p. , etc. "metheglin is esteemed to be a very wholsom drink; and doubtless it is so, since all the world consents that honey is a precious substance, being the choice & collection which the bees make of the most pure, most delectable, & most odoriferous parts of plants, more particularly of their flowers & fruits. metheglin is therefore esteemed to be an excellent pectoral, good against consumption, phthisick and asthma; it is cleansing & diuretick, good against the stone & gravel; it is restorative and strengthening; it comforts and strengthens the noble parts, & affords good nourishment, being made use of by the healthy, as well as by the sick. "my worthy master, that incomparable sir kenelm digby, being a great lover of this drink, was so curious in his researches, that he made a large collection of the choicest & best receipts thereof." hartman, _select receipts_, p. . concerning the difference between mead and metheglin, borde (_regyment of helth_) says:-- "_of meade_: meade is made of honny & water boyled both togyther; yf it be fyred and pure, it preserveth helth; but it is not good for them the whiche have the ilyache or the colycke. "_of metheglyn_: metheglyn is made of honny and water, & herbes, boyled and sodden togyther: yf it be fyred and stale, it is better in the regyment of helth than meade." but the distinction seems to have been forgotten in the hundred odd years between the publication of borde's book and digby's. glossary _ana_, of each. _apple-johns_, or _john apples_, apples considered best when shrivelled, so called because they are ripe about st. john's day. _aume, aam, awm_, a liquid measure used for wine and oil. a dutch aume of wine equalled about english gallons. _balneum_, a vessel filled with water or sand, in which another vessel is placed to be heated. _beatilies, beatilia, battalia_, tit-bits (e.g. cockscombs or sweet-breads) in a pie. _bragot_, ale boiled with honey. _bunt_, the cavity or baggy part of a napkin when folded or tied as a bag. _burthen_, a quantity, here signifying no certain amount. _call_, a wedge. _calvered_, cut in thin slices when "fresh," and pickled. _canicular days_, dog days. _cock's tread_, "the opaque speck or germinal vesicle in the surface of the yolk in an impregnated egg." m. _coddle_, to boil gently, to stew. _coffin_, a mould of paste for a pie. _cucurbite_, a gourd-shaped vessel; also a shallow vessel with a wide mouth, used for distillation. _demistier_ = demi setier, a measure of quarter-pint capacity. _electuary_, a medical conserve or paste of powder mixed with honey, syrup, etc. _fæces_, dregs. _fearced_, forced, stuffed. _florenden_, _florentine_, a kind of pie, of minced meats, currants, spices, etc., baked in a dish with a cover of paste. _gambon_, _gammon_, a smoked ham. _garavanzas_, chick-peas. _gelt_, castrated. _ginet-moils_, _gennet-moil_, a kind of apple ripe before others. _hippocras_, _hypocras bag_, a bag used in making hippocras, a medicinal drink consisting of spiced wines. _humble-pie_, a pie made of umbles or numbles (the heart, liver, kidneys, etc.) of the deer. _kiver_, _kive_, _keever_, a large vessel for fermenting liquors; a mashing tub. _lardons_, strips of bacon or salt pork used for larding. _laton_, _latton_, _latten_, a utensil made of thin brass, or mixed metal. _lith_, smooth, thick. _lute_, to close v., to adhere. _magma_, grounds. _manchet_, roll, or small loaf of fine white bread. _marinate_, to salt or pickle, and then preserve in oil or vinegar. _medullos_, _medullose_, having the texture of pith. _mittoner_, fr. _mitonner_. _mother of wine_, lees. _must_, new wine. _pearmains_, a variety of apple, perhaps from _permagnus_. _poix-chiches_, chick-peas. _posnet_, _possnet_, _possenet_, a porringer. _pottle_, a measure of two quarts. _pugil_, a pinch. _pun_, to beat, to pound as in a mortar. _race_, a root. _ranch-sieve_, perhaps a sieve mounted on a stand, from _rance_, _ranse_ a prop. _rand_, a strip or slice of meat cut from the margin of a part, or from between two joints. _resty_, _reasty_, rancid. _rouelle_, a rolled piece [of veal]. _rundlet_, _runlet_, a small barrel. _runnet_, rennet. _searse_, _searce_, a fine sieve. _souce-drink_, pickle sauce. _stroakings_, the last milk drawn from a cow; strippings. _stubble-goose_, the grayling goose. _tansy_, see recipe. the dish has been traced to the jewish custom of eating cakes with bitter herbs. _tourtière_, a pie-dish. _tyffany_, _tyffany bag_, bag made of thin silk or gauze. _torcular_, a press used in making wine. _trivet_, a tripod. _walm_, a bubble in boiling; a boiling-up. _wardens_, winter pears. _wort_, an infusion of malt which after fermentation becomes beer. index of receipts ale with honey, scotch, from my lady holmbey, small, for the stone, to make ale drink quick, and bragot, master webbe's, cock, apple drink with sugar, honey, etc., apples, a very pleasant drink of, in gelly, to stew, sweet meat of, syrup of, bacon for gambons, and to keep, barley cream, the queen's, pap, beef, to bake, or venison, to boil, to stew, rump of, to stew, , , bisket, to make, bragot, master webbe's, bran, to make clear gelly of, brawn, about making of, broth, nourishing, portugal, as it was made for the queen, spinage, stewed, and potage, for sick and convalescent persons, butter and oil to fry fish, cake, to make a, , a very good, an excellent, carraway, plumb, cakes, excellent small, capon, boiled, savoury and nourishing, cold rosted, sallet of, to pickle, my lady portland's way, in white broth, champignons, pickled, cheese, savoury tosted, or melted, scalded, slippcoat, - cheese-cakes, to make, cherries, marmulate of, marmulate of, with juyce of raspes and currants, to make wine of, chicken, fricacee of, to cram, to fatten in a wonderful degree, , to feed, , cider, sir paul neale's way, water, dr. harvey's, clouted cream, , cock ale, to make, collops, excellent good, scotch, my lord of bristol's, scotch, my lady diana porter's, of veal, savoury, conserve of red roses, , cordial tablets, which strengthen nature much, cream, clouted, , curds, to make, a good dish of, an excellent spanish, with rice, courdes, the, cresme fouettee, my lord of s. alban's, crust, short and crisp, for tarts and pyes, currants, gelly of, with the fruit whole in it, red, marmulate of, red, gelly of, wine, ducks, wilde, to bake, wilde, to rost, eggs, to boil, to butter, with cream, portuguez, flommery caudle, a, wheaten, fricacee of lamb-stones, sweetbreads, etc., a., of veal, , goose, an excellent meat of, to pickle an old fat, green geese pye, gruel of oatmeal and rice, smallage, water, water, with wood-sorrel and currants, hachy, a nourishing, hare-pye, to make, harts-horn gelly, to make, , , , herring pye, a, honey, some notes about, drink, to make, drink, weak, horse radish, sauce of, hotchpot, to make, , the queen's, humble pyes, to season, hydromel as i made it weak for the queen-mother, with clove-gilly-flowers, with juniper berries, my lord hollis's, julep of conserve of red roses, dr. bacon's, lamb-stones, a fricacee of, lampreys, to dress, mallow stalks, sucket of, marchpane, my lord of denbigh's almond, marmulate of cherries, of cherries with juyce of raspes and currants, of pippins, of red currants, my lady windebank's curious red, white, my lady of bath's way, the queen's, marrow puddings, sops, with wine, spinage pasties, excellent, meat, fine, to rost, for rosting of, meathe (mead), , , , , , , , , , , , , , a receipt to make good, a very good, excellent, to make, white, , , , , , , , white, an excellent, white, small, white, sir john arundel's, white, my lady gower's, good for liver and lungs, small, strong, , a weaker but pleasant, to keep long, with raisins, my lady bellassises, mr. corsellises, antwerp, my lord gorge his, my lord herbert's, my lady morrice's, my lady morrice, her sister's way, my own considerations for making, sir wm. paston's, another pleasant meathe of sir wm. paston, from the muscovian ambassador's steward, sir baynam throckmorton's, master webbe's, - metheglin, to make, - , , , , , , , , , , , , to make a tun of, composed by myself out of various receipts, my lady windebanke's, good, very good, excellent, most excellent, an excellent way to make, called the liquor of life, small, , , white, , , , , , , , , white, sir edward bainton's, the countess of bullingbroke's, the countess of dorset's, sir john fortescue's, my lady hungerford's, mr. pierce's excellent, the lady vernon's, the earl of denbigh's, sir thomas gower's, as it is made at liège, or sweet drink of my lady stuart, for the colic and stone, of my lady stuart, for health, sir thomas gower's, for taste and colour, that looks like white wine, minced pyes, to make, , my lady of portland's, , morello wine, mustard, to make, mutton, baked like venison, fricacee of, steaks, an excellent way of making, to make a shoulder of, like venison, oatmeal, pap of, pap of, sir john colladon's, pudding, pudding, a baked, and rice, gruel of, oglia, spanish, plain but good, ordinary drink, sir thomas gower's, oysters, to stew, panado, pan cotto, pap, barley, parsneps, to dress, partridges that you have taken wilde, to feed, pear pudding, pears, to stew, preserved wardens, pease, to butter, porage, my lord lumley's, of the seedy buds of tulips, pidgeons, teals, or wild ducks, to bake, pippins, gelly of (or of john apples), marmulate of, to preserve in gelly, syrup of, plague water, , poor john and buckorn, to dress, posset, an excellent, a plain ordinary, a barley sack, a french barley, a sack, , sack, my lord of carlile's, potages, concerning, barley, an english, good nourishing, ordinary, plain savoury, de santé, , de santé, nourissant, de blanc de chapon, poultry, to feed, pressis, nourissant, pudding, an excellent baked, another baked, a barley, black, , black, excellent, call, marrow, oatmeal, oatmeal, baked, pear, , pippin, pith, quaking, plain, quaking, bag, with puff paste, white, white, excellent, puff-past, puffs, to make, pyes, minced, minced, my lady of portland's, , hare, herring, quiddany of quinces, a smoothening, quince preserved with gelly, quinces, gelly of, gelly of, fine white, gelly of, red, my lady windebanke's, paste of, , paste of, with very little sugar, to keep all the year round, raspberry wine, to make, red dear, to make, herrings broyled, rice, boiled dry, and orge mondé, roses, red, conserve of, , julep of, sack with clove-gilly-flowers, posset, posset, my lord of carlile's, sallet of cold capon rosted, sauce of horse radish, very good for partridges, etc., for a carp or pike, shrimps, to prepare for dressing, slippcoat cheese, to make, , , , smallage gruel, smoaked flesh, to boil, spinage broth, to make, stepponi, stockfish, the way of dressing, in holland, another way, to dress, somewhat differingly from the way of holland, strawberry wine, sucket of mallow stalks, of lettuce, sweetbread, fricacee of, sweet-meats of my lady windebanke, , syllabub, a, , a plain, a whip, tablets, pleasant cordial, tansy, a, , , tea with eggs, turkeys, excellent meat of, to souce, veal, fricacee of, , savoury collops of, to stew a breast of, tosts of, venison, baked, , to keep, vuova lattate, spersa, wardens, preserved, to stew, white pot, to make, , whitings buttered with eggs, wilde boar, to rost, wilde ducks or teals, to bake, ducks, to rost, wine, cherry, the countess of newport's, raspberry, strawberry,