Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

That Italy produces good wines is, says Cyrus Redding, undeniable. She also produces wines that are very bad. The best Italian wines are believed to be of Tuscany. As Hafiz is the authority for _Shiraz_, so Redi’s _Bacco in Toscana_ should be consulted for the wines of Italy. _Monte Pulciano_ is of a purple hue, sweet and slightly astringent. It is to this wine that Redi gives the palm, calling it _la manna di Monte Pulciano_. The wine of _Chianti_, near Sienna, is well known. _Artiminio_, _Poncino_, _Antella_, and _Carmignano_, though of less reputation, are not greatly inferior. The best _Verdea_[34] comes from Arcetri near Florence. _Trebbiano_, a gold-coloured syrup, is produced, according to Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, from grapes, “passulated on the vine by torsion of the stalk.” _Montelcino_, _Rimaneze_, and _Santo Stefano_ are Siennese wines. Of Sardinia the chief wines are the so-called _Malvasias_, _Giro_, _Aleatico_, like the _Tinto_ of Alicante, and _Bosa_, _Ogliastra_, and _Sassari_. Of Piedmont the principal wines are _Barolo_, _Barbera_, _Nebbiolo_, _Braccheto_. _Asti_, _Chaumont_, _Alba_, and _Montferrat_ have had reputation thrust upon them. _Grignolinos_ are made from a vine closely related to the _Kadarka_ of Hungary, and the _Carmenet_ of the Gironde. The wines of Genoa are of small repute. Central Italy furnishes _Montefiascone_,[35] with a delicious aroma, _Albano_, resembling _Lacryma Christi_, and _Orvieto_. The principal wine of Naples, from the base of Vesuvius, is _Lacryma Christi_, a rich, red, exquisite drink, affirmed by some adventurous fancies to be the _Falernian_ of Horace. “O Christ!” said a Dutchman who drank, “why didst Thou not weep in my country?” Gallipoli, Tarento, Baia, Pausilippo, yield good wines. The islands in the Bay of Naples all produce wine; that of _Caprea_ is of good ordinary quality, both white and red. Calabria furnishes many good wines. _Muscadenes_ and dry wines are made at Reggio. _Asprino_, a white foamy wine, with a pleasant sharpness, is a favourite of the Campagna. _Carigliano_ is a Muscadine, with a flavour of fennel. Dr. Charnock speaks highly of the wine of Capri, and of Orvieto, a delicate white wine of Rome. The disagreement of travellers about the merits of wines arises principally, of course, from a diversity of tastes, but also in the matter of Italian wines, from the fact that different wines bear the same names in different countries. There is, for instance, a _vino santo_ and a _vino greco_ in Naples. A Veronese wine, _vino debolissimo e di niuna stima_, is also called _vino santo_, and an excellently good wine at Brescia. It is the same with half a dozen of the most noted wines of Italy. _Modico_, a fine white wine from the place of that name near Salerno, was apparently a favourite of the noted School of Salernum. The best known wines out of Italy are the _Barola_, _Barbera_, and the rest which may be found on the wine-list of every _padrone_ of an Italian restaurant; the _Inferno_ of the Valtellina; the _Lambrusco_ of Modena; the _Chianti_ of Tuscan—a wine grown on the estate of Baron Ricasoli, not thought so much of in Italy as in England; and the _Lacryma Christi_ of Naples. Most Italian wines are bottled in flasks, in the old Roman style, with oil[36] on the top, and wool over the oil.

MADEIRA.

Wine is first mentioned as a product of Funchal, the capital of Madeira, in the fifteenth century. In 1662, when Charles II. married the Infanta Catherine of Bragança, English merchants began to settle in Madeira. The principal varieties of Madeira are _Malvasia_, _Bual_, _Sercial_, _Tinta_, and _Verdelho_ (the _Verdea_ of Tuscany). In England, Madeira is now within the reach of all. At the beginning of this century, it was known only to connoisseurs. The “fine rich old _Boal_” is fairly familiar, and if we may trust the wine merchants, the “Very Superior Old,” variously described as full, soft, golden, delicate, and mellow, is gradually winning its way into public favour, since that same “soft fulness,” added to a delicious and yet pungent flavour, produces a drink “altogether superior” to the best Sherry.

PERSIA.

The ancient, most famous wines of this country were those of Chorassan, Turan, and Mazanderan. These places still produce wines; but their characteristics and reputation have, it is affirmed, become blended in the wine of Shiraz, in the province of Ferdistan, on the Persian Gulf. Chardin, the Frenchman, describes this wine as of excellent quality, but of course not so fine as the French wines. The German, Kämpfer, puts Shiraz on the same level with the best Burgundy and Champagne. He who wishes to learn the nature of the wine of Shiraz should consult the _Diwan_ of Hafiz. How far this poet speaks of wine literally understood, and how far of spiritual delights, is a matter for commentatorial investigation. Persian wine is frequently mixed with _raki_ and saffron, and the extract of hemp. _Sherbet_, made of fruit juices and water, is English rather than Oriental.

PORTUGAL.

PORTUGAL: Peso da Regoa—Four Methods of Cultivation of
Vine—White and Black Ports—The _Quintas_—Tarragona—Charneco.
RUSSIA: Kahetia—Gumbrinskoé. SICILY: Marsala.
SPAIN: Malaga—Sherry—Amontillado. SWITZERLAND:
Chiavenna—St. Gall—The Canton of Vaud. CIDER:
Derivation—Ainsworth—Gerard—Bacon—Evelyn—Turberville—Macaulay—Phillips.
PERRY.

One hundred and fifty years ago, in the small town of Peso da Regoa, then called Regua only, near the confluence of the Corgo with the Douro, lived a single fisherman, in a hut which he had himself constructed. When the Oporto Wine Company was established, their warehouses were erected here, and an annual fair for the sale of wine was established.

Peso da Regoa—the Peso comes from an adjoining village—is now a thriving town, and may be considered the capital of the Alto Douro district (_Paiz Vinhateiro do Alto Douro_), whence are sent to England and elsewhere those wines which are here known as Port. The wine district is bounded by Villa Real on the north, Lamego on the south, S. João da Pesqueira on the east, and Mezãofrio on the west. It is unwholesome, and but thinly populated. Those who list may draw from this fact a divine prohibition of the bibbing of Port.

The vine is cultivated in Portugal in four ways. (1) By being trained round oaks or poplars _de enforcado_, as the Romans _ulmisque adjungere vites_. (2) By the terrace system, the best as (1) is the most picturesque. (3) By bushes in rows, with the intermediate ground ploughed. (4) By the trellis or _de ramada_. The first liquor drawn from the _lagar_, or press, the result of the weight of the grapes alone, is called _Lacryma Christi_. After that a gang of men jump into the _lagar_, and dance to the sound of the fife or bagpipe. The weather is warm, the work is hard; the result is better conceived than expressed.

Of white Ports the best are _Muscatel de Jesus_ (the testimony to religious influence in this and the _Lacryma Christi_ is extremely touching), considered the prince of all, the _Dedo de Dama_, the _Ferral Branco_, _Malvazia_ (our Malmsey),[37] _Abelhal_, _Agudelho_, _Alvaraça_, _Donzellinho_, _Folgozão_, _Gonveio_, White _Mourisco_, _Rabo da Ovelha_, and _Promissão_. Of the black Ports the finest is _Touriga_, and the sweetest _Bastardo_. Other dark Ports are _Souzão_, the darkest of all, _Aragonez_, _Pegudo_, besides _Tintas_, whose names are legion. Other wines grown here, or in the immediate vicinity, are _Alvarilhão_, a kind of Claret, _Alicante_, _Muscatel_, _Roxo_, and _Malvazia Vermelha_. Great quantities of wine are produced in the _quintas_ outside the line of demarcation, and some of these wines are equal to those made in the wine district of the _Alto Douro_ itself. Red wines transformed into French Clarets at Bordeaux, are exported in large quantities. A wine from Tarragona, known as “Spanish Red,” or superb Catalan, is sent yearly to England, and sold as very full, rich, fruity, and tawny Port. Port will not keep good in the cask for more than two years without the addition of alcohol. The Oporto merchants use a pure spirit distilled from the wine itself. The old Port which we prize so highly and pay for so dearly is seldom unaffected by brandy or other spirit.

Some of the best wines are produced by Estremadura, such as _Bucellas_, _Collares_, _Lavradio_, _Chamusca_, _Carcavellos_, _Barra a Barra_, and many others of which not even the names are known in England. The vines round Torres Vedras might, it has been said, produce the finest wines in the world, if properly cultivated. _Arinto_ and _Estremadura_ are comparatively new wines. The white wines of Tojal and the vintages of Palmella and Inglezinhos have only to be known to become popular. The province of Traz-os-Montes, in spite of its climate of _nove mezes de inverno, e tres de inferno_, produces excellent wines in the Piaz Vinhateiro. Those in the vicinity of the river Tua and the Sabor are considered by connoisseurs to resemble the celebrated _Clos Vougeot_. There is a remarkable red wine called _Cornifesto_, and the white wines of _Arêas_, _Bragança_, _Moraes_, _Moncorvo_, and _Nosedo_ are excellent. The cup of _Charneco_ (2 Hen. VI. ii. 3), a wine mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher and Decker, is said to have been made at _Charneco_, a village near Lisbon (_European Magazine_, March, 1794).

Port-wine is accredited with producing gout, and the two accompanying illustrations give the “Introduction to the Gout,” and the real fiend itself.

RUSSIA.

_Kahetia_ is a wine produced in a district of that name, east of Tiflis. It is of two descriptions, red and white, and is much esteemed throughout Transcaucasia. As it is kept in skins made tight with naphtha, it has generally a slight taste of leather and petroleum. _Gumbrinskoé_ is a sweet wine grown in the Gumbri district of the Caucasus. _Donskoé Champanskoé_, the champagne of the Don, is said by Dr. Charnock to be a very good wine, and better than many sorts drunk in Britain. Russian wines generally, as those of many other countries, are largely diluted, and, like the majority of Greek wines, do not improve by keeping.

SICILY.

A thousand years before Christ, says Mr. Simmonds, districts of Sicily were famous for wine. The coins of Naxos (500 B.C.) bear the head of Bacchus on the obverse, on the reverse Pan, or a bunch of grapes. Of Sicilian wines, the light amber or brown wine of _Marsala_ is best known. There is Ingham’s L.P., and Woodhouse’s; there is also the Old Brown. The Faro is perhaps the strongest wine of Sicily. The wine of Terre Forte is made near Etna, in some vineyards of Benedictine monks. Marsala, as we know it, is generally adulterated, or fortified, to use a more technical term. Even the “Virgin” has not escaped this common lot of wines. Much Marsala is indeed sold as Marsala, but much more is sold as Sherry. The wine of _Taormina_ has the classic taste of pitch. Augusta produces a wine with a strong flavour of violets. This to some palates is the most agreeable wine drank in Sicily or elsewhere. The _Del Bosco_ of Catania, and the _Borgetto_ have been both recommended by the subtle taste of Dr. Charnock. A dry wine called _Vin de Succo_ is made about ten miles from Palermo. The wine of Syracuse somewhat resembles _Chablis_.

SPAIN.

As Spain succeeds France geographically, so it follows it in the excellence of its vinous productions. Throughout all ages this country has been distinguished for its wines. But the Spaniard’s chief glory under heaven is in the preparation of white dry fortified wines such as Sherries, and sweet wines such as _Malagas_. In the province of Andalusia is situated Xeres de la Frontera, and the convent of _Paxarete_, which produces a rich sweet sparkling drink. Here, too, are the vines of the _vino secco_ and the _abocado_, and _Rota_,[38] which produces Andalusia’s best red wines. Here are _Ranico_, _Moguro_, or _Moguer_, a cheap light wine, _Negio_, and the capital _Seville_. Catalonia yields a large quantity of red wine shipped to England mostly as a drink for the general. The _Malaga_ of Granada is well known. Sherry[39] wines are, or ought to be, the products of Cadiz, including Xeres de la Frontera, San Lucar de Barrameda,—where _Tintilla_, an excellent Muscadine red wine, is manufactured,—Trebujena, and Puerto de Santa Maria. The celebrated wine known as Manzanilla[40] is made in San Lucar de Barrameda. _Val de Peñas_[41] wines are commonly red. After the perfection of age, this celebrated product of La Manche[42] is, in the opinion of Redding, equal to any red wine in the world. Much wine of Catalonia is now imported into England as Catalan Port. Borja produces a luscious white wine. The country about Tarragona on the road to Barcelona is almost wholly occupied with wine making. _Beni-Carlos_, _La Torre_, _Segorbe_, and _Murviedro_, are all fair wines of Valencia. Alicant produces an excellent red wine, _vino tinto_, strong and sweet; when old, this wine is called _Fondellol_. Vinaroz, Santo Domingo, and Perales, offer red wines of moderate excellence. The best wines of Aragon are _Cariñena_ and the _Hospital_, from the vine which the French call _Grenache_. In Biscay, at Chacoli, a _vino brozno_, or austere wine, is produced in large quantity. The best is made at Vittoria, and called _Pedro Ximenes_.[43] Fuençaral, near Madrid, offers a good wine seldom exported. The most famous wine-growing district of Granada is that of Malaga, termed Axarquia. This produces _Malagas_, _Muscatels_, _Malvasies_, and _Tintos_. The red wines called _Tinto de Rota_ and _Sacra_ are unfermented with only enough spirit for preservation, and are commonly advertised in our wine circulars as “suitable for sacramental purposes.” _Guindre_ is flavoured with cherries from which it derives its name. Into this wine, as into some others, the Spaniards are wont to put roasted pears, under the conceit that thereby it is much improved in taste and rendered more wholesome. Hence arose the proverb _El vino de las peras dalo a quien bien quiéras_. _Malaga Xeres_ is often known in England as the pale, gold, dry Sherry,[44] as the wines of Alicant, Benicarlos, and Valencia are sold as a rich and fruity Port. The so-called _Amontillado_ Sherry is very often the outcome of accident. Out of a hundred butts of Sherry from the same vineyard, some, says a great authority, will be _Amontillado_, without the manufacturers being able to account for it. At Cordova, a dry wine called _Montilla_ is commonly drunk.

SWITZERLAND.

Swiss wines are commonly consumed only in Switzerland. The best is produced in the Grisons, called _Chiavenna_, aromatic and white from the red grape. A white _Malvasia_ of good quality is made in the Valais. It is luscious, as is _Chiavenna_. The Valais also furnishes red wines, made at La Marque and Coquempin in the district of Martigny. Schaffhausen gives plenty of red wine. The _wine of blood_[45] is manufactured at Basle. These wines are also known as those of the _Hospital_ and _St. Jaques_. The red wines of Erlach, in Berne, are of a good quality. The red wine of Neufchâtel is equal to a third-class Burgundy. St. Gall produces tolerable wines. In the Valteline, the red wines are both good and durable, much resembling the aromatic wine of Southern France. These wines are remarkably luscious, and will, it is said, keep for a century. The largest amount of wine is produced by the Canton of Vaud. The wines of _Cully_ and _Désalés_, near Lausanne, much resemble the dry wines of the Rhine.

CIDER.

The original meaning of the word _cider_[46] appears to have been strong drink. It was used to designate a liquor made of the juice of any fruit pressed, and an example of the word in this use is to be found in Wycliffe’s Bible, in the speech of the angel to Zacharias (Luke i. 15), in allusion to his promised progeny: _He schal not drynke wyn and syder_. The next meaning is that of a liquor made from the juice of apples expressed and fermented.

“A flask of _cider_ from his father’s vats,
Prime, which I knew.”

TENNYSON: _Audley Court_.

We have little information about cider either from the Greeks or the Latins. It would seem that it was not known to them, if we may trust Ainsworth, who translates cider by _succus e pomis expressus_, and Byzantius, who gives μηλίτης (οἶνος) εἶδ. ποτοῦ as the equivalent for _cidre_.[47] Gerard, in his _Historie of Plants_, published in 1597, says that he saw in the pastures and hedgerows about the grounds of a “worshipful gentleman,” dwelling two miles from Hereford, called M. Roger Bodnome, so many trees of all sorts that the servants drunk for the most part no other drink but that which is made from apples. The quantity, says Gerard, was such that by the report of the gentleman himself, the parson “hath for tithe many hogsheads of Syder.” This reference to the servants and the parson drinking it, but not to the “gentleman,” seems to show that the liquor was not then held in much esteem.

Bacon placed cider after wine, and we have followed in our arrangement of the present volume his august example. This great philosopher speaks of cider and perry as “notable beverages on sea-voyages.” The cider of his day did not, he says, sour by crossing the line, and was good against sea-sickness. He also speaks of cider, a “wonderful pleasing and refreshing drink,” in his _New Atlantis_.

John Evelyn’s _French Gardener_ gives much information on this subject, and his _Pomona_ is, says Stopes, the first monograph on the manufacture of cider in England.

Cider is made in many parts of Barbary, and in Canada. In all the States, apples are abundant, particularly in New York and New England, and cider is a common drink of the inhabitants. And it is as excellent as it is common. That of New Jersey is generally considered the best. It is curious that the least juicy apples afford the best liquor. Cider of a superior quality is abundant in Cork, Waterford, and other counties of Ireland, where it was introduced, we are told, in the reign of Elizabeth. It was first made at Affane, in the county of Waterford.[48] Worledge’s _Vinetum Britannicum_, 1676, and his _Most Easy Method for Making the Best Cider_, 1687, have been considered at full length by Mr. Stopes. Worledge’s press is an improvement upon one shown in Evelyn’s _Pomona_.

Cider appears in Russia under the name of _Kvas_. There is _Yàblochni kvas_, made of apples; _Grùshevoi kvas_, of pears, a perry; and _Malinovoi kvas_, of raspberries. George Turberville, secretary to the English Embassy to Moscow in the year 1568, mentions _kvas_ in a description of the Russians of his time as:—

“Folk fit to be of Bacchus’ train, so quaffing is their kind;
Drink is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride.
The soberest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide.
If he to banquet bid his friends, he will not shrink
On them at dinner to bestow a dozen kinds of drink,
Such liquor as they have, and as the country gives;
But chiefly two, one called _kwas_, whereby the Moujike lives,
Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste;
The rest is mead, of honey made, wherewith their lips they baste.”

Stopes is of opinion that the finest cider is made, not in the west, as has been commonly asserted, but in the east of England. This authority seems particularly to favour the Ribston pippins of Norfolk.

“Worcester,” says Macaulay, in his _History of England_, ch. iii., “is the queen of the cider land;” but Devon and Somerset, Gloucester and Norfolk, might dispute the title. To make good cider the apples should be quite ripe, as the amount of sugar in ripe apples is 11·0; in unripe apples, 4·9; in over-ripe apples, 7·95. The fermentation should proceed slowly. Brande says that the strongest cider contains, in 100 volumes, 9·87 of alcohol of 92 per cent; the weakest, 5·21. By distillation, cider produces a good spirit; but it is seldom converted to that purpose in consequence of its acidity, which, however, is greatly remedied by rectification.

Much cider is distilled in Normandy, and sent to this country under the name of _arrack_, or some other foreign spirit, according to its flavour. To the Normans the invention of this liquor has been attributed. They are also said to have received it from the Moors. Whitaker (_Hist. Manchester_, i. 321) says this drink was introduced into this country by the Romans; and Simmonds (p. 25) that it was first used in England about 1284.

Cider has been immortalised by Phillips in a classical poem, in imitation of Virgil’s Georgics, which, according to Johnson, “need not shun the presence of the original.” Milton’s nephew thought that cider—

“far surmounts
Gallic or Latin grapes.”

PERRY.

Perry is prepared from pears, as cider from apples. It is capable of being used in the adulteration of champagne.[49] The harsher, redder, and more tawny pears produce the best drink. Perry is less popular than cider, but some consider it superior.[50]

BRANDY.

The Invention of Brandy—Early Alchemists—Aqua
Vitæ—Distillation—The Still-room—Ladies Drinking—Nantes
and Charente—Johnson’s Idea of Brandy—The Charente
District—Manufacture of Brandy—The Cognac Firms.

Who invented Brandy? is a question that cannot be authoritatively answered offhand; but the good people of some parts of Germany hold that it was the Devil. And their legend is, at all events, circumstantial.

Every one who is at all acquainted with old legends is fully aware that the Father of Evil is extremely simple, and has allowed himself, many times, to be outwitted by man. Once, especially, he was so guileless as to put trust in a Steinbach man, who cajoled him into entering an old beech tree, and there he was imprisoned until the tree was cut down. His first step, on regaining his freedom, was to revisit his own particular dominion, which, to his horror, he found empty!

This, naturally, would not do, and he set about re-peopling hell without delay. He thought the quickest plan would be to start a distillery; so he hurried off at once to Nordhausen, where his manufacture of Brandy (his own invention) became so famous that people from all parts came to him to learn the new art, and to become distillers. From that time his Satanic Majesty has never had to complain of paucity of subjects.

It seems fairly established that the famous chemist Geber, who lived in the 7th or 8th century, was acquainted with distillation, and we know that it was practised by the Arabian and Saracenic alchemists, but have no knowledge whether they made any practical use of the _alcohol_ they produced. They, at all events, gave us the word by which we now know the _spirit_, or ethereal part, of wine.

Alcohol, distilled from wine, is first reliably mentioned by a celebrated French alchemist and physician, Arnaud de Villeneuve, who died in 1313, who gave it the name of _aqua vitæ_, or water of life,[51] and regarded it as a valuable adjunct in physic, and as a boon to humanity. Raymond Lully, the famous alchemist, who is said to have been his pupil, declared it to be “an emanation from the Deity,” and on its introduction it was supposed to be the elixir of life, capable of rejuvenating those who partook of it, and, as such, was only purchasable at an extremely high price.

We may see, by a book[52] written 200 years after the death of Arnaud de Villeneuve, the esteem in which Aqua Vitæ was held even after so great a lapse of time.

Aqua Vite is comonly called the mastresse of al medycynes, for
it easeth the dysseases comynge of colde. It gyveth also yonge
corage in a person, and cawseth hym to have a good memorye and
remembraunce. It puryfyeth the fyve wittes of melancolye and of
unclenes whan it is dronke by reason and measure. That is to
understande fyve or syx droppes in the mornynge lastyng with a
sponefull of wyne, usynge the same in the maner aforsayde the
evyl humours can not hurte the body, for it withdryveth them
oute of the vaynes.

¶ It conforteth the harte, and causeth a body to be mery.

¶ It heleth all olde and newe sores on the hede comynge of
colde, whan the hede is enoynted therwyth and a lytell of the
same water holden in the mouthe, and dronke of the same.

¶ It causeth a good colour in a parson whan it is dronke and
the hede enoynted therwyth the space of xx dayes; it heleth
Alopicia, or whan it is dronke lastyng with a lytell tryacle.
It causeth the here well to growe, and kylleth the lyce and
flees.

¶ It cureth the Reuma of the hede, whan the temples and the
fore hede therwith be rubbed.

¶ It cureth Litargiam,[53] and all yll humours of the hede.

¶ It heleth the coloure in the face, and all maner of pymples.
It heleth the fystule when it is put therein with the Juce of
Celendyne.

¶ Cotton wet in the same and a lytell wronge out agayn and so
put in the eares at nyght goynge to bedde, and a lytell dronke
thereof, is good against all defnes.

¶ It easeth the payn in the teethe, when it is a longe tyme
holden in the mouthe, it causeth a swete brethe, and theleth
the rottyng tethe.

¶ It heleth the canker in the mouthe, in the teethe, in the
lyppes, and in the tongue, whan it is longe time holden in the
mouthe.

¶ It cawseth the hevy togue to become light and wel spekyng.

¶ It heleth the shorte brethe whan it is droke with water
wheras the figes be soden in, and vanisheth al flemmes.

¶ It causeth good dygestynge and appetyte for to eat, and
taketh away all bolkynge.[54]

¶ It dryveth the wyndes out of the body, and is good agaynst
the evyll stomake.

¶ It easeth the fayntenes of the harte, the payn of the mylte,
the yelowe Jandis, the dropsy, the yll lymmes, the goute, in
the handes and in the fete, the payne in the brestes whan they
be swollen, and heleth al diseases in the bladder, and breaketh
the stone.

¶ It withdryveth venym that hath been taken in meat or in
drynke, whā a lytell tryacle is put therto.

¶ It heleth the flanckes[55] and all dyseases coming of colde.

¶ It heleth the brennyng of the body, and of al membres whan it
is rubbed therewith by the fyre viii dayes contynnynge.

¶ It is good to be dronke agaynst the sodeyn dede.

¶ It heleth all scabbes of the body, and all colde swellynges,
enoynted or washed therwith, and also a lytell thereof dronke.

¶ It heleth all shronke sinewes, and causeth them to become
softe and right.

¶ It heleth the febres tertiana and quartana, when it is dronke
an houre before, or the febres becometh on a body.

¶ It heleth the venymous bytes, and also of a madde dogge, whan
they be wasshed therwith.

¶ It heleth all stynkyng woundes whan they be wasshed therwith.”

From use in medicine, Aqua Vitæ soon came into domestic use, and here is given one of Iherom Bruynswyke’s “Styllatoryes,” which he says was the “comon fornays” which was “well beknowen amonge the potters, made of erthe leded or glased, and it may be removed from the one place to the other.”

It was in a still of this sort that the old housewives of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries used to concoct their strong and cordial waters—a practice which has given, and left to, our own times, the name of “Still-room,” as the housekeeper’s own particular domain. They experimented on almost every herb that grew, and some of their concoctions must have been exceedingly nasty. Yet some of their recipes read as if they were comforting, and they were not deficient in variety.

Heywood, in his _Philocothonista_, or _The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected, and Anatomized_, 1635, p. 48, mentions some of them. “To add to these chiefe and multiplicitie of wines before named, yet there be Stills and Limbecks going, swetting out _Aqua Vitæ_ and strong waters deriving their names from _Cynamon_, _Lemmons_, _Balme_, _Angelica_, _Aniseed_, _Stomach Water_, _Hunni_, etc. And to fill up the number, we have plenty of _Vsque-ba’ha_.”

The old housewives’ books of the latter end of the sixteenth century, until much later, are still in existence, and from them we may learn many drinks of our forefathers, how to make _Ipocras_ (_very good_, especially when taken in a “Loving Cup”), to clarify _Whey_, to make _Buttered Beer_, _Sirrop of Roses or Violets_, _Rosa Solis_, _a Caudle for an old Man_, or to distil _Spirits of Spices_, _Spirits of Wine tasting of what Vegetable you please_, _Balme Water_, _Rosemary Water_, _Sinamon Water_, _Aqua Rubea_, Spirits of Hony, Rose Water, _Vinegar_, very many scents, and a distillation called _Aqua Composita_, which entered into many receipts. There are many formulæ for this, but Bruynswyke gives the following:—

“AQUA VITE COMPOSITA.

“The same water is made some time of wyne with spyces onely,
sometyme with wyne and rotes of the herbes, sometyme with the
herbes, some tyme with the rotes and herbes togyder, for at all
tymes thereto must be stronge wyne.

“Take a gallon of strong Gascoigne wine, and Sage, Mints,
Red Roses, Time, Pellitorie, Rosemarie, Wild Thime, Camomil,
Lavender, of eche an handfull. These herbes shal be stamped all
togyder in a Morter, and then putte it in a clene vessell and
do herto a pynte of Rose Water, and a quart of romney,[56] and
then stoppe it close and let it stand so iii or iiii dayes.
Whan ye have so done, put all this togyder in a styllatory and
dystyll water of the same; than take your dystylled water, and
pore it upon the herbes agayne into the styllatory, and strewe
upon it these powders followynge.

¶ Fyrst cloves and cynamon, of eche an halfe ounce, Oryous[57]
an ounce, and a few Maces, nutmeggs halfe an ounce, a lytell
saffran, muscus, spica nardi, ambre, and some put campher in
it, bycawse the materyals be so hote. Stere[58] all the same
well togyder and dystylle it clene of, tyll it come fat lyke
oyle, than set awaye your water, and let it be wel kepte.
After that make a stronge fyre, and dystyll oyle of it, and
receyve it in a fyole,[59] this oyle smelleth above all oyles,
and he that letteth one droppe fall on his hande, it will
perce through. It is wonderfull good, excellynge many other
soveraygne oyles to dyvers dysseases.”

Although the Still-room was serviceable for medicinal purposes, yet, as we have seen, there were many comforting drinks made, including _Vsquebath, or Irish aqua vitæ_ (a recipe for which we will give in its proper place), and doubtless this contributed much towards the tippling habit of some ladies in the 17th and 18th centuries. We hear somewhat of this in the reign of good Queen Anne (who, by the bye, was irreverently termed “Brandy-faced Nan”), when they used to make, and drink, _Ratifia of Apricocks_, _Fenouillette of Rhé_, _Millefleurs_, _Orangiat_, _Burgamot_, _Pesicot_, and _Citron Water_, etc., etc., numerous allusions to which are made in the pages of “The Spectator,” and other literature of the times. Edward Ward, who had no objection to call a spade, a spade, thus plainly speaks out.[60]

“It would make a Man smile to behold her Figure in a front Box, where her twinkling Eyes, by her Afternoon’s Drams of Ratifee and cold Tea, sparkle more than her Pendants.... Her closet is always as well stor’d with Juleps, Restoratives, and Strong Waters, as an Apothecary’s Shop, or a Distiller’s Laboratory; and is, herself, so notable a Housewife in the Art of preparing them, that she has a larger Collection of Chemical Receipts than a Dutch Mountebank.... As soon as she rises, she must have a Salutary Dram to keep her Stomach from the Cholick; a Whet before she eats, to procure Appetite; after eating, a plentiful Dose for Concoction; and to be sure a Bottle of Brandy under her Bed side for fear of fainting in the Night.”

There is no necessity to multiply instances of the feminine liking for brandy, for everyone finds numerous examples in his reading, from Juliet’s nurse,[61] who, after Tybalt’s death, says, “Give me some _aqua vitæ_,” to old Lady Clermont, of whom Grantley Berkeley tells the following story[62]:—

“Prominent among my earliest Brighton reminiscences are those of old Lady Clermont, who was a frequent guest at the Pavilion. Her physician had recommended a moderate use of stimulants, to supply that energy which was deficient in her system, and brandy had been suggested in a prescribed quantity, to be mixed with her tea. I remember well having my curiosity excited by this, to me, novel form of taking medicine, and holding on by the back of a chair to watch the _modus operandi_. Very much to my astonishment, the patient held a liqueur bottle over a cup of tea, and began to pour out its contents, with a peculiar purblind look, upon the _back_ of a teaspoon. Presently, she seemed suddenly to become aware of what she was about, turned up the spoon the right way, and carefully measured, and added the quantity to which she had been restricted. The Tea, so strongly ‘laced,’ she now drank with great apparent gusto.”

We derive our name of Brandy from the Dutch _brand-wijn_, or the German brannt-wein, that is, _burnt_ or distilled _wine_; and in the 17th and 18th centuries it was generally spelt, and spoken of as brandy wine. But, also, in those centuries was it known by the name of “Nantz,” from the town (Nantes, the capital of the Loire Inferieure) whence it came. But this name was changed early last century, when the trade left Nantes, and got into the Charente district, of which Cognac was the centre; so what used to be “right good Nantz” of the old smuggling days, turned into the delicate, many-starred “Cognac” of our times.

It was an eminently respectable spirit. Whiskey was practically unknown out of Scotland and Ireland. Gin was the drink of the common people, and rum was considered only fit for sailors. Even Dr. Johnson, though so fond of his tea, was also fond of brandy, as Boswell chronicles of him, when in his 70th year: “On Wednesday, April 7, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s. Johnson harangued upon the qualities of different liquors; and spoke with great contempt of claret, as so weak, that ‘a man would be drowned by it, before it made him drunk.’ He was persuaded to drink one glass of it, that he might judge, not from recollection, which might be dim, but from immediate sensation. He shook his head, and said, ‘Poor stuff! No, sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero’ (smiling) ‘must drink brandy. In the first place the flavour of brandy is the most grateful to the palate, and then brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking _can_ do for him. There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attained.’”

And two years later on he gives another illustration of the doctor’s liking for strong potations. “Mr. Eliot mentioned a curious liquor peculiar to his country, which the Cornish fishermen drink. They call it _Mahogany_; and it is made of two parts gin and one part treacle, well beaten together. I begged to have some of it made, which was done with proper skill by Mr. Eliot. I thought it very good liquor, and said it was a counterpart of what is called _Athol porridge_[63] in the Highlands of Scotland, which is a mixture of whiskey and honey. Johnson said ‘That must be a better liquor than the Cornish, for both its component parts are better.’ He also observed, ‘_Mahogany_ must be a modern name; for it is not long since the wood called mahogany was known in this country. I mentioned his scale of liquors: Claret for boys—port for men—brandy for heroes. ‘Then,’ said Mr. Burke, ‘let me have claret; I love to be a boy; to have the careless gaiety of boyish days,’ Johnson: ‘I should drink claret too, if it would give me that; but it does not; it neither makes boys men, nor men boys. You’ll be drowned in it before it has any effect upon you.’”

But it was the spirit always drunk by gentlemen until well on in this century, as we see by Mr. Pickwick, whose constant resource in all cases of difficulty, was a glass of brandy. Pale brandy was not so much drank as brown, which is now only taken, when very old, as a liqueur, although a brown brandy of very dubious quality is to be met with in some country public houses. Brandy, like every other spirit, developes its ethers with age, gets mellower, and of exquisite flavour; and its popularity would undoubtedly be revived if the drinker were only sure he could get such brandy as the many starred brands of Hennessy and Martell, instead of that awful substitute so often given—British brandy, made of raw potato spirit.

The soil of the Charente slope is particularly adapted to the growth of the vine, although, as in all vine-growing countries some districts, and even small patches of land, produce finer wine than others. The grapes are white, not much larger than good-sized currants, and the vines seldom bear fruit until four or five years from their planting, and are most vigorous at the age of from ten to thirty. Many bear well up to fifty and seventy, and some are fruitful at one hundred years or more.

As a rule, the large firms do not distil the brandy they sell, but leave that operation to the small farmers round about, and then blend their products; as, to produce the quantity they sell, enormous distilling space would be necessary, wine only producing one-eighth or one-tenth of alcohol to its bulk. The farmer’s distillery is very primitive; merely a simple boiler with a head or receiver, and a worm surrounded with cold water. There are generally two of these stills at work, and when once the farmer commences making his brandy, he keeps on day and night, bivouacking near the stills, until he has converted all his wine into crude spirit, as colourless as water, which he carts off, just as it is, to the brandy factory for sale. There it is tasted, measured, and put into new casks of oak, hooped round with chestnut wood. These casks are branded with the date, together with the quality and place of growth of the wine from which the brandy was distilled, and they remain some time in stock before their contents are blended in the proportions which the firm deem suitable.

This new spirit is housed on a floor over large vats, which are filled from selected casks, the spirit being filtered through flannel discs on its way. This mixes the various growths pretty well, but the spirit is run into other vats, being forced through filters of a peculiar kind of paper, almost like paste-board. When it gets to the second series of vats, it is kept well stirred, to prevent the heavier spirit sinking to the bottom. It is then drawn off into casks, which are bunged up, and stored for several years that the brandy may mature, and that the fusel oil may develope into the ethyls, which give such flavour and fragrance to the brandy.

Perhaps the oldest house in the Cognac district is Hennessy’s, but it would be invidious to say that their brandy was superior either to Martell’s, Otard and Dupuy’s, the Société Vignicole, Courvoisier, or many other firms. That must be left to individual taste. But from these firms we can rely on having pure unadulterated brandies, the pure product of the vine, without any admixture of grain or beet spirit. At one time, adulteration was rife among the farmers, but in 1857 and 1858 several of them were prosecuted, and they are now credited with having abjured their evil ways.

J. A.

GIN.

Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_—Pope’s _Epilogue to Satires_—The
_Dunciad_—William III.—Lord Hervey—Sir R. Walpole—The Fall of
Madame Geneva—Hogarth’s Gin Lane—Schiedam Adulteration—Gin
Sling—Captain Dudley Bradstreet—Tom and Jerry Hawthorn.

Gin is an alcoholic drink distilled from malt or from unmalted barley or other grain, and afterwards rectified and flavoured. The word is French, _genièvre_, juniper, corrupted into _Geneva_, and subsequently into its present form. It is to the berries of the juniper that the best Hollands owes its flavour.

Perhaps one of the earliest allusions to gin is in Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_ (1623), Act I., scene i., when Graccho, a creature of Mariana, says to the courtier Julio, of a chance drunkard,

“Bid him sleep;
’Tis a sign he has ta’en his liquor, and if you meet
An officer preaching of sobriety,
Unless he read it in Geneva print,
Lay him by the heels.”

In this extract the word is played upon, Geneva suggesting both the habit of spirit-drinking and Calvinistic doctrine.

When Pope wrote, the corrupted word “Gin” had become common. In the _Epilogue to the Satires_, I. 130.

“Vice thus abused, demands a nation’s care;
This calls the Church to deprecate our sin,
And hurls the thunder of our laws on gin.”

Pope has added a note to this passage, to the effect that gin had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the people before it was restrained by Parliament in 1736.

Another early allusion to Geneva is to be found in _Carmina Quadragesimalia_, Oxford, 1723, vol. i., p. 7, in a copy of verses contributed by Salusbury Cade, elected from Westminster to Ch. Ch. in 1714.

The thesis of which Salusbury Cade maintained the affirmative, is whether life consists in heat, or in the original _An vita consistat in calore?_

“Dum tremula hyberno Dipsas superimminet igni
Et dextra cyathum sustinet, ore tubum,
Alternis vicibus fumos hauritque, bibitque,
Quam dat arundo sitim grata Geneva levat.
Languenti hic ingens stomacho est fultura, nec alvus
Nunc Hypochondriacis flatibus ægra tumet.
Liberior fluit in tepido nunc corpore sanguis,
Hinc nova vis membris et novus inde calor.
Si quando audieris vetulam hanc periisse: Genevæ
Dicas ampullam non renovasse suam.”

Which being Englished, is

“Dipsas, who shivers by her wintry fire,
While her pipe’s smoke ascends in spire on spire,
Alternate puffs and drinks—Geneva lays
That thirst the weed is wont in her to raise.
With this her belly propped, its pain expels;
Intestine wind no more her stomach swells;
A freer blood runs leaping through her frame,
New heat, new strength recalls the ancient game.
And should you hear she’s dead, the cause you’ll know
Was that Geneva in her jug ran low.”

In the _Dunciad_, which Pope wrote in 1726 (book iii., l. 143), we read,—

“A second see, by meeker manners known,
And modest as the maid that sips alone;
From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,
Another D’Urfey, Ward! shall sing in thee!
Thee shall each ale-house, thee each gill-house[64] mourn,
And answering gin-shops sourer sighs return.”

An early allusion to Geneva is in a poem by Alexander Blunt, Distiller, 8vo, 1729, price 6_d._, called “Geneva,” addressed to the Right Honourable Sir R⸺ W⸺. It commences,

“Thy virtues, O Geneva! yet unsung
By ancient or by modern bard, the muse
In verse sublime shall celebrate. And thou
O W⸺ statesman most profound! vouchsafe
To lend a gracious ear: for fame reports
That thou with zeal assiduous dost attempt
Superior to _Canary_ or _Champaigne_
Geneva salutiferous to enhance;
To rescue it from hand of porter vile,
And basket woman, and to the bouffet
Of lady delicate and courtier grand
Exalt it; well from thee may it assume
The glorious modern name of _royal_ BOB!”

Though “Brandy cognac, Jamaica Rum, and costly Arrack” are alluded to, there is no mention of Hollands in the poem, which is a defence of _Geneva_ against _ale_.

In this poem a statement is contained that Geneva was introduced by William III., and that he himself drank it.

“Great Nassau,
Immortal name! Britain’s deliverer
From slavery, from wooden shoes and chains,
Dungeons and fire; attendants on the sway
Of tyrants bigotted and zeal accurst,
Of holy butchers, prelates insolent,
Despotic and bloodthirsty! He who did
Expiring liberty revive (who wrought
Salvation wondrous!) God-like hero! He
It was, who to compleat our happiness
With liberty, restored Geneva introduced.
O Britons. O my countrymen can you
To glorious William now commence ingrates
And spurn his ashes? Can you vilify
The sovereign cordial he has pointed out,
Which by your own misconduct only can
Prove detrimental? Martial William drank
Geneva, yet no age could ever boast
A braver prince than he. Within his breast
Glowed every royal virtue! Little sign,
O Genius of _malt liquor_! that Geneva
Debilitates the limbs and health impairs
And mind enervates. Men for learning famed
And skill in medicine prescribed it then
Frequent in recipe, nor did it want
Success to recommend its virtues vast
To late posterity.”

In 1736 Lord Hervey, describing the state of England, says: The drunkenness of the common people was so universal by the retailing a liquor called Gin, with which they could get drunk for a groat, that the whole town of London and many towns in the country swarmed with drunken people from morning till night, and were more like a scene of a Bacchanal than the residence of a civil society.

Retailers exhibited placards in their windows, intimating that people might get drunk for the sum of 1_d._ and that clean straw would be provided for customers in the most comfortable of cellars.

On Feb. 20, 1736, in the ninth year of George II., a petition of the Justices of the Peace for Middlesex against the excessive use of spirituous liquors was presented to the House of Commons, setting forth: That the drinking of Geneva and other distilled spirituous liquors had greatly increased, especially among the people of inferior rank, that the constant and excessive use thereof had destroyed thousands of his Majesty’s subjects, debauching their morals, etc., that the “pernicious liquor” was then sold not only by the distillers and Geneva shops, but many other persons of inferior trades, “by which means journeymen, apprentices and servants were drawn in to taste, and by degrees to like, approve, and immoderately to drink thereof,” and that the petitioners therefore prayed that the House would take the premises into their serious consideration, etc. The House having resolved itself into a committee on Feb. 23, Sir Joseph Jekyll moved the following resolutions: (1) That the low price of spirituous liquors is the principal inducement to the excessive and pernicious use thereof. (2) That a discouragement should be given to their use by a duty. (3) That the vending, etc., of such liquors be restrained to persons keeping public brandy-shops, victualling houses, coffee houses, ale houses and inn-holders, and to such apothecaries and surgeons as should make use of the same by way of medicine only; and, (4) That no person keeping a public brandy-shop, etc., should be permitted to vend, etc., such liquors, but by licence with duty payable thereon. These Resolutions were agreed on without debate.

On March 8, Mr. William Pulteney affixed a duty of 20_s._ per gallon on gin, on the grounds of ancient use and sanction, and of its reducing many thousands of families at once to a state of despair.

Sir Robert Walpole had no immediate concern in the laying of this tax on spirituous liquors, but suffered therefrom much unmerited obloquy. The bill was presented by Jekyll from a spirit of philanthropy, which led him to contemplate with horror the progress of vice that marked the popular attachment to this inflammatory poison. The populace showed their disapprobation of this Act in their usual fashion of riot and violence. We are told in Coxe’s Walpole that numerous desperados continued the clandestine sale of gin in defiance of every restriction.

The duty of 20_s._ per gallon was repealed 16 Geo. II., c. 8. On the 28th of September, 1736, it was deemed necessary to send a detachment of sixty soldiers from Kensington to protect the house of Sir Joseph Jekyll, the Master of the Rolls, in Chancery Lane, from the violence threatened by the populace against this eminent lawyer. Two soldiers with their bayonets fixed were planted as sentinels at the little door next Chancery Lane, and the great doors were shut up, the rest of the soldiers kept garrison in the stables in the yard.

This agitation gave rise to many a ballad and broadside, such as the “Fall of Bob,” or the “Oracle of Gin,” a tragedy; and “Desolation, or the Fall of Gin,” a poem.

THE LAMENTABLE FALL OF MADAME GENEVA.—_29 Sept., 1736._[65]

The Woman holds a song to yᵉ tune to yᵉ Children in yᵉ Wood.

“Good lack, good lack, and Well-a-day,
That Madame Gin should fall:
Superior Powers she must obey.
This Act will starve us all.”

The Man has the second part to yᵉ same tune.

“Th’ Afflicted she has caus’d to sing,
The Cripple leap and dance;
All those who die for love of Gin
Go to Heaven in a Trance.”

Underneath are the following verses—

“The Scene appears, and Madame’s Crew
In deep Despair, Exposed to view.
See Tinkers, Cobblers, and cold Watchmen,
With B⸺s and W⸺s as drunk as Dutchmen.
All mingling with the Common Throng,
Resort to hear her Passing Song.

“Whilst Mirth suppress’d by Parliament,
In Sober Sadness all lament,
Pursued by Jekyl’s indignation,
She’s brought to utter desolation.
With Oaths they storm their Monarch’s name,
And curse their Hands that form’d the Scheme.

“All Billingsgate their Case Bemoan,
And Rag-fair Change in Mourning’s hung;
Queen Gin, for whom they’d sacrifice
Their Shirts and Smocks, nay, both their Eyes.
Rather than She want Contribution,
They’d trudge the Streets without their shoes on.”

The following verses on the Gin Act, in 1736, are supposed by John Nichols to be the production of Dr. Johnson.

“Pensilibus fusis cyatho comitata supremo,
Terribili fremitu stridula mæret anus.
O longum formosa vale mihi vita decusque,
Fida comes mensæ fida comesque tori!
Eheu quam longo tecum consumerer ævo,
Heu quam tristitiæ dulce lenimen eras.
Æternum direpta mihi, sed quid moror istis,
Stat, fixum est, nequeunt jam revocare preces;
I, quoniam sic fata vocant, liceat mihi tantum,
Vivere te viva te moriente mori.”

A clever cento from the Latin poets, which may be thus represented in English:—

“... Left with her last glass alone,
Thus loud laments her lot, the squeaking crone:
Farewell, my life and beauty, thou art sped,
Faithful companion of my board and bed!
My earthly term fain with thee would I live,
Who to my sorrowing heart can’st solace give.
Bereft of gin, alas! am I for aye!
The Act is passed. ’Tis all in vain to pray.
Go where the Fates may call, and know that I
Living, with thee would live, and dying, die!”

Hogarth’s Gin Lane was advertised in 1751, with a note that, as its subject was calculated to reform some reigning vices peculiar to the lower class of people, in hopes to render them of more extensive use, the author had published them in the cheapest manner possible. “The cheapest manner possible” was one shilling which in those days was a fairly good price for a print. The following lame and defamatory verse was composed for the occasion by the Rev. James Townley:—

“GIN LANE.

Gin, cursed fiend, with fury fraught,
Makes human race a prey;
It enters by a deadly draught,
And steals our life away.
Virtue and Truth, driven to despair,
Its rage compels to fly;
But cherishes, with hellish care,
Theft, murder, perjury.
Damned cup, that on the vitals preys,
That liquid fire contains;
Which madness to the heart conveys,
And rolls it through the veins.”

Hogarth tells us that in Gin Lane every circumstance of the horrid effects of gin drinking is brought to view _in terrorem_. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen; and not a house in tolerable condition but the pawnbrokers and gin shop. The same moral is taught by Cruikshank, but not before his conversion to teetotalism.

Schiedam is the metropolis of gin, and its numerous distilleries are omnivorous, taking with equal relish cargoes of rye and buckwheat from Russia, and damaged rice or any cereal from other countries, and sometimes also potato spirit from Hamburg.

The distillery of De Kuypers is probably that of the greatest note, and that firm’s black square bottles, packed in cases filled with hemp husks, are known all over the world. In Africa “square face” is king, but he frequently holds some counterfeit liquor, even sometimes the vilest of Cape Smoke.

Schiedam is the Mecca of the Dutchman, the birthplace of his beloved Schnapps. This drink is always acceptable, and fifty good reasons exist for drinking it.

The chief varieties of the aromatised popular spirit called gin are now known as Geneva, Hollands, and Schiedam. It is current in some parts of Africa as a species of coin.

Since, however, every distiller varies his materials and their proportions, the species of this beverage are practically unlimited. Generally, however, the distinction is clear between Hollands or Dutch and English gin. The former is commonly purer than the highly flavoured and too frequently adulterated British product.