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    160 FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Ii.-^-Geape Gatherings. Whether Our Firs...

    agrees his country , that . each Humboldt was represented who affirms as being that the the first vine vine is not grower a native of

    ¦ of Europe , says that it grows , wild in Asia Minor , and is generally considered to be indigenous to Persia , whence it is thought to have

    been taken to Egypt , Greece , and Sicily , and from the latter place to have reached the other European countries . _"JWhy did Bacchus

    go to India ? " asks Dr . Sickler , the great German authority on ancient fruit-culture . " Notassuredly , " he _replies"to take the

    to vine spread thither it , in for other it was - lands there . , This alread India y , but was rather , however to fetch , , not it the thence Hin- ,

    dostan of our day , but the lands on the shores of the Caspian probablincluding Persia . " Some believe that it was introduced

    into Brit y ain by the Romans ; but according to others it was first brought hither bthe Phoenicianswho have also the credit of

    having transplanted y it from Palestine , to the islands of the Mediterranean . By whatever means it may have come , when once here

    the gift was by no means neglected ; and long before French fashions " came over with the Conqueror" home-made wine shared with ale ,

    the mea earliest d , and cider English , the chronicles honor of being make , one mention of our of national English drinks vineyards , for .

    Gloucester was famous for them , and one is known to have existed in the thirteenth century on that spot now sacred to the Court Circular ,

    the " Slopes " of Windsor . Thus , Jean Vigne , since looked on so jealouslas a foreirivalwas then competing in friendly strife

    side by y side with his gn compatriot , John Barleycorn , for the suffrages of their mutual countrymen .

    Vine culture continued to flourish in Britain until about the time of the Reformation ; but when the decline of the feudal system

    caused more attention to be directed to corn husbandry , and the introduction of the hop did so much for the improvement and

    preservation of malt liquor , little time or thought was left for grapegardens ; while , in tracing the cause of their decline , something too

    may doubtless be attributed to the loss of monkish care which we may well believe had been ungrudgingly bestowed on so rich a

    source of monkish solace . Surrey was at one time famous for its Champagne , Sussex for its Burgundy , and at Arundel Castle , in the

    latter county , so lately as in 1763 , there were sixty pipes of native wine in the cellars of the Duke of Norfolk . The rebuilding our

    obsolete wine-presses has every now and , then been urged by some enthusiastic supporter of the claims of a British Bacchus , and the

    author of a Treatise on Vineyards , dedicated to the Duke of Chandos , - in and 1727 exhorts , sets forth that nobleman strongly the to practicabilit set an examp y of le such by beg a proceeding inning the ,

    experiment j but the appeal had little effect . In later days it has found an advocate in Professor Martyn , who has suggested that any

    disadvantages of climate may , be overcome by training the vines near the ground , as is done in the North of France , a system which

    increases the size of the berries , as well as promotes their earlier

    160 Fruits In Their Season.

    160 FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/16/