ENGLISH VINEYARDS.
fillfE success of the Marquis of Butes efforts to revive the wine-making industry has come as a surprise. In a paper read before the Horticultural Society last week, Mr. Pettigrew, who has for twenty years had charge of the vine- yard, gave the history of the enterprise from its beginning in 1875 until the present time, when the price quoted for its matured vintages is 60s, a dozen,—an average return which might content the owners of many of the best wine- bearing estates of the Rhine or Hungary. In character it is a rich wine full of body, resembling Tokay rather than the lighter growths of France. But that is in part due to the nature of the vines chosen for cultivation, the central point of interest being the fact that for a lengthened period the experiment shows that the vine can be cultivated in this -country to bear a crop which, taken one year with another, produces good wine in paying quantities.
The site and surroundings of the vineyard do not suggest any advantages not shared by many positions on estates in the South of England. It is four miles from Cardiff, where the climate is far damper than in. Kent, Sussex, or Hemp- -shire, and therefore presumably less favourable to the ripen- ing of the grape, though the nearness of the Gulf Stream possibly gives a more even temperature. Yet no disease has affected the vines except mildew, caused probably by the excess of moisture. The vines were planted in 1875 on three acres of land on a gentle slope to the south, protected on the north any trees which cover the breast and summit of the hill, and on the east and west by smaller hills at some distance. On the south the vineyard is open, and overlooks the Bristol Channel at a distance of four miles. The soil is light, and overlies a broken limestone bottom, the whole combining to form just -such a site as would be chosen for a vineyard on the Continent. The vines are trained to stakes only 6 ft. high, and planted in rows, on the French system, which was carefully studied before the experiment was made. Good seasons favoured their early growth, and the first wine was made only two years after the slips were set,—a small yield of only two hundred and fifty bottles, but of good quality. "The rows -of vines, as straight as a line, in a curved slope down the hill, with their tops neatly pruned to a height of 4 ft., and their -dark, glossy green leaves almost meeting in the intervening --spaces, produce an effect pot readily forgotten, for nowhere in the United Kingdom is a similar sight to be seen,” is the --comment of a visitor to this now famous Welsh vineyard.
The record of the yield year by year has abounded both in 'disappointments and successes. Three seasons, those of 1879, 1880, and 1886 were total failures. Two more were nearly as -bad. On the other hand, in 1881 the vintage was so large and -of such quality that the whole yield sold for ,C3 per dozen, and a remainder, sold from a private cellar, fetched in 1893 the extraordinary price of £5 15s. per dozen. The yield of 4890 was two thousand bottles, and that of 1884 and 1885, one thousand five hundred bottles in each year. The hot summer -of 1893 brought a surprise. It is not likely that such a season will occur again in a lifetime, and farmers may well pray that it never may. But in that year the Castle Coch vineyard pro- duced the astonishing yield of twelve thousand bottles, equal to the whole amount pressed since the vines were established, -representing a value of £3,000.
Though the practice of wine-making has ceased in this 'country for more than a century, the remains and records of the old English vineyards are abundant and suggestive. East 'Smithfield was converted into a vineyard, and held by four esuccessive Constables of the Tower in the reigns of Rufus, Henry, and Stephen. In the reign of Richard II. the Little `,Park at Windsor was taken for a vineyard to supply the Castle ; and it was asserted of the Vale of Gloucester that "there is no province of England that bath no many, or such good vine- yards, as this country, either for fertility, or sweetness of the grape ; the wine thereof carrieth no unpleasant tartness, ,being not much inferior to the French in softness," It is said .that on the site of one of these old vineyards, in a park near Berkeley Castle, tendrils of vines are still found springing up
yearly among the grass. Some cuttings from these were planted, and grew into good vines. Apparently most of the southern castles and abbeys had their home-vineyard, just as they have in France, Italy, Germany, and Hungary.
The name still clings to the fields, though the vineyards are gone. In parts of Devonshire, the name of " vineyard " is given to land allotted to the poor under the Inclosure Act. Whatever the origin of this curious use of the word, the cultivation of the vineyards, and the making of good wine, were in some oases continued to such a recent date, that the land which still bears the name may be said to have only temporarily passed out of cultivation. The terraced vineyard of Beaulieu Abbey was used for wine-making till the middle of the last century by John, Duke of Montagu; and the "house of the wine-press," built in the reign of Henry III., was kept in. repair, after other buildings had gone to ruin. At Arundel Castle, where the steep hill-side forms an ideal exposure for wine-growing, the manufacture did not cease until the second half of the eighteenth century, " excellent wine of the Bur- gundy type " having continued to be made there in the ancient vineyard. The last place in which good wine was commonly made from vineyard grapes on a large scale, was, strange to say, in what is now West London. The wonderfully fertile soil which now grows fruit and vegetables for Covent Garden then grew grapes for wine-making. In Kensington, on the the site of the park of a large house, once owned by Henry Cromwell, was a large fruit nursery, in which, partly on walls, partly growing as in a proper vineyard, the grapes were raised for making "Burgundy wine" as late as the year 1760. This productive vineyard was rearranged by a Scotchman, James Lee, and the wine had a high reputation. Part of the site is now covered by Addison Road Station ; part is a nursery-garden, which still bears the name of "the Vineyard Nursery," Another vineyard in Kensington was used for the growth of outdoor grapes after the wine-manu- facture was discontinued, " affording a spectacle not to be met in any other garden in this country to an equal extent, and exciting the admiration of all persons who have seen them." Of another vineyard at Parson's Green, the following note was written in October, 1785 :—" I went to see Mr. Roger's vineyard at Parson's Green, alr of Burgundy grapes, seemingly all perfectly ripe. I did not see a green, half-ripe grape in all this great quantity. He does not expect to make less than fourteen hogsheads of wine. The branches and fruit are remarkably large, and the vines very strong." It appears from this that October would be the month of vintage, were the picturesque harvest of the vine once re-established. The Castle Coch vineyards are in course of being supplemented by a much larger area at Swaubridge, at a distance of seven miles ; and the first acre came into bearing last year, and contributed its share to the vintage, which promises to be among the beet of recent seasons. This is evidence that the success of the older vineyards was not accidental.
The experiment so boldly made, deserves success, and meantime should meet with every encouragement. If a good and cheap native wine could be produced in any quantity, it might suggest a change in the national habits, making wholly for good. To spread the tests for wine is to spread temper-
ance. It is alcohol in the concentrated form that does mischief in the wide sense, not alcohol diluted with the natural ingredients of the grape. The nations of the South, of France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the Balkan Peninsula, where every workman drinks his quart of wine a day, are the temperate races. Not to grow the vine is a defect of the soil which presses with special weight upon the poor, irrespectively of climate. India cannot grow it ; and if it were not for the sanctions of custom and religion, arrack would sap the vigour of its cultivators, as vodka does the body and mind of the Russian peasants. English wine-making has fallen into dis- repute since the regular vineyards were abandoned, and though private efforts were made, there has been no exchange of ideas to bring methods to perfection. In Suffolk, more than one owner of wall-trained vines has continued the art of making an excellent light sparkling wine year by year, from the common sweet water-grapes which grow in such abundance on cottage and farmhouse walls, that they are sold by the stone-weight. Walls insure a crop in nearly all seasons, and every cottager might grow his vine in comparative shelter and with little trouble. These might be made into wine at a common press, managed like the co-operative " creameries," now so common, to which each brings his share, and receives his portion of the proceeds. There can be little doubt that the taste for wine would spread then, as it has spread among workmen in Australia, in spite of bounty-fed brandy dis- tilleries, or as the taste for the tomato has spread among the poor. The Excise should deal gently with any such experi- ment ; duties are more potent to influence changes in the taste for liquor than of any other article of consumption, and the facilities for home-brewing now given to the countryman should be extended to the making of English wine.
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