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dients were infused; and took its name from the particular sort of bag, termed HIPPOCRATES' sleeve, through which it was strained. There is a curious receipt preserved by MR ASTLE, which gives directions how to make Ypocrasse for lords with gynger, synamon, and graynes, sugour, and turesoll: and for comyn pepull, gynger, canell, longe peper, and claryffyed honey.' It was drunk at all great entertainments between the courses, or at the conclusion of the repast; and wafers and manchets are directed to be served with it. Clarry, on the other hand, which we have seen noticed in the act of RICHARD II., was a claret or mixed wine, mingled with honey, and seasoned in much the same way, as may be inferred from an order of the 36th of HENRY III., respecting the delivery of two casks of white wine and one red, to make clarry and other liquors for the king's table at York. It is repeatedly named by our early poets, and appears to have been drunk by many fasting, or as a composing draught before they retired to rest. Of these medicated liquors, the only kinds still in use are the Wermuth, or wormwood wine, which is manufactured in Hungary and some parts of Italy; and bishop, which is prepared by infusing one or more toasted Seville oranges, in a certain quantity of Burgundy or other light wine, and then sweetening the whole with sugar. '+

"From the manner in which sweet wines are spoken of in the act of RICHARD II., it might be supposed that they were all compounded artificially, like the liquors just described. But, in the writings of the age, there is abundant evidence that our countrymen were already familiar with several genuine wines of that class; though, at the same time, it must be acknowledged, that the frequent notice of them, in the works alluded to, does not always imply that they were imported into England. Much of the literature of that period consisted of translations from foreign authors; and in

"For he had yeven the gailer drinke so
Of a clarrie, made of certain wine,

With narcotise and opie of Thebes fine.'" &c.

"He drinketh Ipocras, clarrie, and Vernage
Of spices hote, to encrease his corage.'"-Merchant's Tale.

When made with Burgundy or Bordeaux wine, it is called bishop; when old Rhine wine is used, it receives the name of cardinal; and when Tokay is employed, it is distinguished by the appellation of pope.-RITTER'S Weinlehre, p. 202. But Port, Claret, Burgundy, are, it seems, the three grades in the vinous vocabulary of Oxford.-See Reginald Dalton, vol. I. p. 342.

Monte Rose.

copying their descriptions of the customs of other nations, mention would necessarily be made of articles which seldom or never came into general use. It was also a common practice with the early poets, to make an ostentatious display of their knowledge, by giving long catalogues of the products of nature and art, wherever it was possible to introduce them; and many names of commodities were thus pressed into their verses, which, however valuable they may be as historical data, add nothing to the harmony or dignity of the composition. In this way, we may account for the great variety of wines which these writers delight to enumerate at the feasts they describe; but which could hardly have come together at a time when the relations of commerce were so little multiplied. Thus, in one of the old metrical romances, entitled, The Squire of Low Degree,' and referred by Mr WARTON to the reign of EDWARD II., the king of Hungary proposes to regale his daughter not only with the wines of France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, but also with those of Syria;-an assemblage which, even at the present day, it might be no easy matter to realize;

'Ye shall have rumney, and malmesyne,
Both ypocrasse and vernage wine,
Mount Roset and wine of Greke,
Both algrades and respice eke;
Antioche and bastarde,
Pyment also, and garnarde;¶
Wine of Greke, and muscadell,
Both clare, pyment, and Rochell,
The reed your stomake to defye,
And pottes of osey sett you bye.'**

"In the following century, it is clear, that the prevailing taste for sweet wines led to the importation of all the choicest kinds; for they are frequently noticed, and seem to have been used in considerable quantity. In one of the ordinances for the household of GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, made on the 9th December, 1469, we find the sum of twenty pounds allowed for the purveying of Malvesie, romenay, osay, bastard muscadelle, and other sweete

CHAUCER, Knight's Tale.

§ Algarves, or Algadia.

Raspis (vin rape), a rough sweetish red wine, so called from its being made with unbruised grapes, which, having been freed from the stalks, are afterwards fermented along with them and a portion of other wine.

¶Garnache, or Grenache. There is some reason to believe, that this term may be a corruption of Vernaccia; but, at all events, it appears certain, that the wine in question came originally from Greece; for we are told by Froissart, that, when the Christian forces were besieging the town of Africa, in Barbary, de l'isle de Candie il leur venoient tres bonnes malvoisies et grenaches, dont ils estoient largement servis et confortez.'-Chronique, Tom. IV. ch. 18. *Ritson's Metrical Romances, Vol. III. p. 176.

T

wynes. As some of these varieties have not before appeared in our lists, it may be desirable to ascertain their respective characters and history a little more fully.

"Though the trade with the Canary Islands had been for some time established, no wines were obtained from them at this period sugar being still the principal commodity which they supplied. Nor had Spain or Portugal as yet sent us any malmsies. The best dessert wines, however, were made from the Malvasia grape: and Candia, where it was chiefly cultivated, for a long time retained the monopoly. The term Malmsey is merely a corruption of Malvasia, or rather Monemvasia, the name of a small fortified town in the bay of Epidaurus Limera, whence the grape was originally derived.+

"Another of the above-mentioned wines, designated by the name of the grape, was the Romenay, otherwise Romeney, Rumney, Romanie, or Romagnia. That it could not be the produce of the Ecclesiastical State, as the two last corruptions of the word would seem to imply, may be safely averred; for at no period, since the decline of the empire, has the Roman soil furnished any wines for exportation; and even BACCI, with all his partiality, is obliged to found his eulogy of them on their ancient fame, and to confess, that, in his time, they had fallen into disrepute. By COGAN and others, Romeney is classed among the Spanish white wines; but from what part of Spain it came is not specified. Except the small town of Romana, in Arragon, there is no place that bears a similar denomination; and I am not aware that the wines of that province have ever been much known beyond the places of their growth. The probability is, that it was a wine made from a grape of Greek extraction; and, in fact, BACCI informs us, that the produce of the red and white muscadels, which were cultivated in the Ionian islands, and the adjoining continent, was called by the Italians, Romania. In a passage of an old sermon, quoted by CARPENTIER, the word occurs in conjunction with 'malvaticum,' or malmsey; and BEN JONSON mentions the Romagnia' along with the wine of Candia. The name, however, is not exactly, as BACCI supposes, of Italian origin, but comes from Rum-Ili, the appellation given by the Saracens to a considerable part of the continent of Greece; and the several spellings, Romania, Ruma

nia, and Rumenia, correspond pretty closely with the variations in the name of the wine. In confirmation of this view of the subject, it may be remarked, that one of the species of grapes at present grown in Andalusia, is termed Romé negro, and there can be no doubt that the word 'Romé' is derived from the Arabic, Rumi. That the wines of that province were then freely imported into England, and distinguished, as they have always been, by their uncommon strength, is evident from the manner in which CHAUCER speaks of the white wine of Lepe, (now Niebla,) between Moguer and Seville :

"Now kepe you fro the white and fro the rede,
Namely fro the white wine of Lepe,
That is to sell in Fish-streat and in Chepe:
This wine of Spain crepeth subtelly,
And other wines growing fast by,
Of which riseth soch fumosite,

That whan a man hath dronk draughts thre,
And weneth that he be at home in Chepe,
He is in Spain, right at the tʊune of Lepe.'

"The oseye, otherwise spelled osoye, ossey, &c., which the act of 5 RIC. III. directs to be sold at the same price as the wines of Gascony and Poitou, appears, from the entry above quoted, to have been of the sweet kind: And in an ordinance of CHARLES VI., cited by LE GRAND, it is noticed in similar company. Some verses, which are inserted in the first volume of HACKLUYT'S Voyages, place it among the 'commodities of Portugal:' but, on the other hand, a passage in VALOIs' Description of France seems to prove beyond dispute, that oseye was an Alsatian wine; Auxois, or Osoy, being, in old times, the name commonly used for Alsace. If this conjecture be well founded, we may presume, that oseye was a luscious-sweet, or straw-wine, similar to what is still made in that province. That it was a rich, high.. flavoured liquor, is sufficiently shewn by a receipt for imitating it, which may be seen in MARKHAM; and we learn from BACCI, that the wines which Alsace then furnished, in great profusion, to England, as well as different parts of the continent, were of that description. In the Bataille des Vins,' we find the Vin d'Aussai' associated with the growths of the Moselle.

"With respect to Bastard, or, as the printing of the ordinance, if rightly copied, might lead us to name it, Bastard muscadel, there is greater difficulty in tracing its history. That it was a sweetish wine there can be no doubt; and that it came from

"Collection of Ordinances for the Government of the Royal Household. Lond. 1790, p. 101. "It was anciently a promontory, called Minoa, but is now an island, connected with the coast of Laconia by a bridge. The name of Monemvasia, derived from the circumstances of its position (μón EuBaola, single entrance,) was corrupted by the Italians to Malvasia; and the place being celebrated for the fine wines produced in the neighbourhood, Malvasia, changed to Malvoisie in French, and Malmsey in English, came to be applied to many of the rich wines of the Archipelago, Greece, and other countries-Rescarches in Greece, by W. MARTIN LEAKE, p. 197

some of the countries which border the Mediterranean appears equally certain. MINSHEW and SKINNER suppose it to have been a liquor obtained from dried grapes (v. passum ;) but all the luscioussweet wines, as we have seen, are made in this manner-this definition, therefore, cannot be received. CARPENTIER, on the other hand, pronounces bastard to have been a mixed wine (v. mixtum ;) which accords with the assertion of LE GRAND, that it was a wine from Corsica, mingled with honey. In the translation of the Maison Rustique,' by MARKHAM, we are told, that such wines are called mungrell or bastard, which, betwixt the sweet and astringent, have neither the manifest sweetness, nor manifest astriction, but indeed participate and contain both qualities.' This character, however, is far from satisfactory, as it will apply to many of the finest growths, which have that mixed taste. On the whole, the most intelligible account of the matter is given by VENNER, who says, that Bastard is in virtue somewhat like to muskadell, and may also, in stead thereof, be used: it is in goodness so much inferiour to muskadell, as the same is to malmsey.' It was, therefore, not a true muscadel wine, though approaching to that class in flavour, and taking its name not from any admixture of honey, which would have reduced it to the nature of a piment, but from the grape of which it was made,-probably a bastard species of muscadine. In support of this conjecture, it may be observed, that one of the varieties of wines now cultivated in the Alto Douro, and also in Madeira, is called bastardo, and the must which it yields is of a sweetish quality. Of the Bastard wine there were two sorts-white and brown; both of them, according to MARKHAM'S report, fat and strong;' the tawny or brown kind being the sweetest. They are

frequently mentioned by dramatic authors, especially about the time of Queen ELIZABETH. COGAN, we perceive, calls Bastard a growth of Spain; and SACH, who agrees with him in this particular, describes it as the heaviest of all wines."

"With respect to the wines called Sacks, which had now come into general use, much diversity of opinion has prevailed; and, although various attempts have been made to explain their nature, and the subject has undergone frequent discussion, especially among those writers who have laboured to illustrate our early poets, the question remains, in a great measure, undetermined. When we consider how familiar our ancestors must have been with this class of wines, and how repeatedly they have been noticed by authors of every description, it appears not a little singular that their history should now be involved VOL. XVI.

in such obscurity. But, in pursuing the inquiry, we shall find, that on this, as on many other points of antiquarian research, the truth lies nearer the surface than has been commonly imagined.

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"It seems, indeed, to be admitted, on all hands, that the term Sack was originally applied to certain growths of Spain. MINSHEW defines it to be a wine that cometh out of Spain, vinum siccum, vin sec, vino seco, q. d. propter magnam siccandi humores facultatem.' SKINNER, however, thinks this explanation unsatisfactory, and inclines to the opinion of MANDELSO, a German traveller, who published an account of his travels to the East Indies in 1645, and who derives the name from Xeque, a town in Morocco, whence the plant that yields this species of wine is said to have been carried to the Canary Islands. But in all the catalogues of vines which I have had the opportunity of consulting, there is no mention of any such species. Besides, it was not from the Canaries, but from Spain, that sack was first brought to

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"DR PERCY has the credit of restoring the original interpretation of the term. In a manuscript account of the disbursements by the chamberlain of the city of Worcester for the year 1592, he found the ancient mode of spelling to be seck, and thence concluded that Sack was merely a corruption of sec, signifying a dry wine. MINSHEW, as we have seen, renders the term vin sec; and COTGRAVE, in his Dictionary, gives the same translation. The most satisfactory evidence, however, in support of this opinion, is furnished by the French version of a proclamation for regulating the prices of wines, issued by the privy council in 1633, where the expression vins secs corresponds with the word sacks in the original copy. It may also be remarked, that the term sec is still used as a substantive by the French to denote a Spanish wine; and that the dry wine of Xerez is distinguished at the place of its growth by the name of vino

seco.

"These several authorities, then, appear to warrant the inference, that Sack was a DRY Spanish wine. But, on the other hand, numerous instances occur, in which it is mentioned in conjunction with wines of the sweet class. The act of HENRY VIII. speaks of sakkes or other swete wynes.' In like manner, the Mystery of Vintners,' published by DR MERRET in 1675, gives a receipt to correct the rankness and eagerness of wines, as Sack and Malago, or other sweet wines.' GLAS, in his ' History of the Canary Islands,' makes no distinction between Malmsey and Canary Sack; and NICHOLS, in the account which he has given of Teneriffe, expressly says, that' island produces three sorts of excellent B

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wines Canary, Malmsey, and Verdona; which all go under the denomination of Sacks. To get rid of the difficulty which thus arises, MR NARES has recourse to the supposition, that Sack was a common name for all white wines. 'But it has been already shewn, that the appellation was originally confined to the growths of Spain; and if it had been used to designate white wines in general, there can be no reason why it should not have been applied to those of France or Candia, which were then imported in large quantity. If, again, we suppose that the name denoted a sweet wine, we shall be equally at a loss to dis cover the circumstances which could have given rise to such a distinction between it and the other kinds then in use; not to mention that such an application of the term would have been wholly at variance with the etymology as above deduced. A more particular examination of the characters assigned to Sack by the few writers who have described it, will perhaps enable us to reconcile these discrepancies, and remove much of the perplexity in which the question has hitherto been involved.

6

"In the first place, we are told by VENNER, that Sacke is completely hot in the third degree, and of thin parts, and therefore it doth vehemently and quickly heat the body: wherefore the much and untimely use of it doth overheat the liver, inflame the blood, and exsiccate the radical humour in lean and dry bodies.' This description accords with the epithet sprightly,' which is given to it in some verses published in 1641, and sufficiently proves, that it could not have been of a thick luscious quality, like most of the dessertwines then in vogue. That, however, it was a liquor of considerable strength and body, may be inferred from a subsequent passage of the last-mentioned work, where it is extolled as the elixir of wine ;'-an expression apparently borrowed from one of BEN JONSON's plays. HERRICK,

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again, calls it a frantic liquor;'-expatiating, with rapture, on its witching beauties,'generous blood,' &c.; and most of the dramatic writings of the age contain frequent allusions to its enlivening virtues and other fascinating properties. Had there been nothing new or uncommon in the nature of the wine, it could hardly have excited such extravagant admiration, or come into such universal request, at a time when our countrymen were already familiar with the choicest vintages from almost all parts of the globe.

"The practice which prevailed of mixing sugar with Sack has been thought by most persons to indicate a dry wine, such as Rhenish or Sherry. DR DRAKE, indeed, is of a contrary opinion, alleging, that there would be no humour in FALSTAFF's well-known jest on Sack and su

gar, if the liquor had not been of the sweet kind. But on this point little stress can be laid; as at that time it was a general custom with the English to add sugar to their wines. The testimony of VENNER, however, who has discussed the question, "whether Sack be best to be taken with sugar or without,' clearly points to a dry wine.

Some,' he observes, affect to drinke Sacke with sugar, and some without, and upon no other ground, as I thinke, but that, as it is best pleasing to their pallates. I will speake what I deeme thereof, and I thinke I shall well satisfie such as are judicious. Sacke, taken by itself, is very hot, and very penetrative: being taken with sugar, the heat is both somewhat allayed, and the penetrative quality thereof also retardated. Wherefore let this be the conclusion: Sacke taken by itself, without any mixture of sugar, is best for them that have cold stomackes, and subject to the obstructions of it, and of the meseraicke veines. But for them that are free from such obstructions, and fear lest that the drinking of sacke, by reason of the penetrative faculty of it, might distemper the liver, it is best to drinke with sugar; and so I leave every man that understandeth his owne state of body, to be his own director herein." "

"Sack was used as a generic name for the wines in question: but occasionally the growths were particularly specified. Thus, in one of the scenes in The Second Part of K. Henry IV.' we have a laboured panegyric by FALSTAFF on the attributes of Sherris-sack, or dry Sherry; and for a long time the words Sack and Sherry were used indiscriminately for each other. In like manner, we frequently read of Canary Sack, and find the latter term sometimes employed to express that particular wine; although it differed materially from Sherry in quality, and scarcely came within the description of a dry wine. Canarie wine,' says VENNER, 'which beareth the name of the islands from whence it is brought, is of some termed a Sacke, with this adjunct sweete, but yet very improperly, for it differeth not onely from Sacke, in sweetnesse and pleasantnesse of taste, but also in colour and consistence; for it is not so white in colour as Sacke, nor so thin in substance; wherefore it is more nutritive than Sacke, and lesse penetrative. It is best agreeable to cold constitutions, and for old bodies, so that they be not too impensively cholericke; for it is a wine that will quickly enflame, and therefore very hurtfull unto hot and cholericke bodies, especially if they be young. This passage is the more deserving of attention, as it not only illustrates the nature of the Canary wine in use at the commencement of the seventeenth century, but shews that there were considerable differences in the quality of the wines which bore the general name of SACKS, and thus

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removes much of the confusion that has arisen from the misnomer above alluded to. Whether the Canary Islands then furnished any dry wines, similar to those which are now imported from Teneriffe, seems doubtful: but it is clear, that Canary Sack resembled the liquor which still passes under that denomination. Of the precise degree of sweetness which it possessed, we may form some idea from the observation of HOWELL, who informs us, that Sherries and Malagas well mingled pass for Canaries in most taverns, more often than Canary itself. BEN JONSON mentions his receiving a present of Palm-sack, that is, sack from the island of Palma.

"With these decisive authorities before us, we can more readily understand the description which MARKHAM has given of the various kinds of Sack known in his time. Your best Sacks,' he observes,

are of Xeres, in Spain, your smaller, of Gallicia and Portugall; your strong Sacks are of the islands of the Canaries and of Malligo; and your muskadine and malmseys are of many parts, of Italy, Greece, and some special islands.' It thus appears, that the Xerez wine, though the driest of any then imported, was inferior in point of strength to the growths of Malaga and the Canary Islands; which is much the same character that was given of it at a subsequent period. With respect to the Sacks of Galicia and Portugal, HowELL would persuade us, that few of them could have been then brought to this country. There is,' he remarks, a gentle kind of wine that grows among the mountains of Galicia, but not of body enough to bear the sea, called Rabidavia. Portugal affords no wines worth the transporting.' This opinion, however, I conceive to be erroneous. In the verses above referred to, which were published soon after the Revolution, the wines of Galicia and Carcavellos are noticed; and there is some reason to believe, that the latter may have been the growth which MARKHAM had in view, when speaking of the Portugal Sacks. SHAKSPEARE and other dramatic writers mention a wine called Charneco, which, in a pamphlet quoted by Warburton, is enumerated along with Sherry-sack and Malaga. According to Mr Stevens, the appellation is derived from a village near Lisbon. There are, in fact, two villages in that neighbourhood, which take the name of Charneca; the one situated about a league and a half above the town of Lisbon, the other near the coast, between Collares and Carcavellos. We shall, there

fore, probably not err much, if we refer the wine in question to the last-mentioned territory.

“The Malaga Sacks must have been not only stronger, but also sweeter than the other kinds; as, by mixing them with Sherry, a liquor resembling Canary wine was produced. They were doubtless of the

same quality as those which imve since been so largely imported under the name of Mountain. But that the richest growths of the Malaguese vineyards were not unknown in England at this period, the fre quent notice of the Pedro-Ximenes, under various disguises of the name, sufficiently testifies.

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Judging from what is still observable of some of the wines of Spain, we may easily imagine, that many of the Sacks, properly so called, might, at the same time, be both dry and sweet. At all events, when new, they would belong to the class of sweetish wines; and it was only after having been kept a sufficient length of time, to ensure the decomposition of the greater part of the free saccharine matter contained in them, that they could have acquired the peculiar dryness for which they were distinguished. We find, accordingly, that they were valued in proportion to their age; and the calls for old Sack,' as Sack xar' ioxov, were very common. We may also presume, that there would be much less difference of taste among the several species of Sack, in their recent state, than after they had been long kept; for even the sweetest wines betray at first some degree of roughness, which is gradually subdued by age; while the character of dryness, on the other hand, will hardly apply to any of the durable wines, as they come from the vat.' Mountain and Canary were always sweeter than Sherry: but between the richer kinds there is often a strong resemblance in flavour, which is the less extraordinary, as they are made from the same species of grape, though growing in different soils. It was, therefore, not without reason, that they were considered as near allied.'

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"The conclusion at which we thus arrive is so far satisfactory, as it proves, that the wines formerly known under the name of SACKS, though they may, upon the whole, have been inferior, yet differed in no essential quality from those with which we are at present supplied by the same countries that originally produced them, and which are still held in such de served estimation. They probably first came into favour, in consequence of their possessing greater strength and durability, and being more free from acidity, than the white wines of France and Germany; and owed their distinctive appellation to that peculiar sub-astringent taste which characterizes all wines prepared with gypsum."

The history of the English taste in wines may be carried down from these days to the present in a single sentence. Claret became the standing liquor at the Restoration, and continued so until the abominable Methuen treaty gave those shameful advantages to the Portuguese growers, by which their pockets are to this hour enriched, and our

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