Wine, the vine and the cellar / [Thomas George Shaw].

  • Shaw, Thomas George.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wine, the vine and the cellar / [Thomas George Shaw]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    487/532 (page 467)
    EXTRACT FROM CUNNINGHAM’S ‘HISTORY.’ 4G7 of some parts of our country ? Not at all. They have not more spirit than some of the growths of the Eoussillon, and other districts in the south, which are, without any addition, 26° and 28°. When shipped to Britain, they are made much stronger, in order to please the taste of the wine-drinkers there. ‘ Well, what must our wine-merchants do, if they hope to compete successfully with their rivals of the Peninsula ? They must assuredly make our wines as strong. The in- telligent merchant studies and follows the taste of his customer, however strange and bad it may be.’ VII. Extract from Cunningham's ‘ History of Britain' The following extract, from the Translation of ‘ Cunningham’s Latin History of Britain, from the Eevo- lution to the Hanover Succession,’ gives a very curious and interesting picture of the state of society at that period, and shows the feeling and excitement caused by the in- troduction of port, and the prohibition of French wines :— ‘And now I shall take this opportunity to speak of the French wine-drinkers as truly and briefly as I can. On the first breaking out of the confederate war, the merchants in England were prohibited from all com- merce with France, and a heavy duty was laid upon French wine. This caused a grievous complaint among the topers (who have great interest in Parliament), as if they had been poisoned by port wines. Mr. Portman Seymour, who was a jovial companion, and indulged his appetites, but otherwise a good man; General Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough’s brother, a man of courage, but a lover of wine; Mr. Pereira, a Jew and smellfeast, and other hard drinkers, declared that the want of French wine was not to be endured, and that they could hardly bear up under so great a calamity. These were