From the mead-horn’s foaming, pure, and shining liquor,
Which the bees provide, but do not enjoy;
Mead distilled, I praise; its eulogy is everywhere
Precious to the creature whom the earth maintains.
God made it to man for his happiness,
The fierce and the mute both enjoy it.”
Mead was made from honey and water, fermented, and in many languages
its name has a striking similarity. In Greek, honey is _methu_, in
Sanskrit, _madhu_, and the drink made therefrom in Danish, is _miod_,
in Anglo-Saxon, _medu_, in Welsh, _medd_, whence metheglyn—_medd_,
mead, and _llyn_, liquor. In _Beowulf_ we frequently find mention of
the _mead-horns_, and we see it vividly portrayed in the heading of
this chapter, which is taken from the Bayeux Tapestry. These horns were
generally those of oxen, although some were made of ivory, and were
probably used because fictile ware was so easily broken in those drinking
bouts in which they so frequently indulged. Another reason was doubtless
that they promoted conviviality, for, like the classical _Rhyton_, they
could not be set down like a bowl, but must either be nursed, or their
contents quaffed.
Many examples of drinking horns remain to us, and illustrations of two
are here given: one that of Ulph, belonging to, and now kept at, York
Minster, and the other the Pusey horn. These are veritable _drinking
horns_; but there are many other tenure horns in existence, which are
hunting horns.
[Illustration: THE PUSEY HORN.]
This horn is an old tenure horn. It was once the custom, when making
a gift of land, instead of making out a deed of gift, to present some
article of personal use, such as a knife, a drinking or hunting horn, and
with it the manor or land, the recipient keeping the present, as a proof
that the land was given him. This Pusey horn is said to have been given
by King Knut to William Pewse, and on the silver-gilt band, to which are
appended dog’s legs and feet, is inscribed in Gothic letters—
“Kyng Knowde geve Wyllyam Pewse
This horne to holde by thy lond.”
It is an ox horn, dark brown, and is 25½ inches long, having a
silver-gilt rim, and at the small end a hound’s head, also of
silver-gilt, which unscrews, thus enabling it to be used either as a
drinking or hunting horn.
Ulph’s horn is considered of somewhat later date, and is of ivory.
[Illustration: ULPH’S HORN.]
Of this horn Dugdale[13] says: “About this time also, Ulphe, the son of
Thorald, who ruled in the west of Deira,[14] by reason of the difference
which was like to rise between his sons, about the sharing of his lands
and lordships after his death, resolved to make them all alike; and
thereupon, coming to York, with that horn wherewith he was used to drink,
filled it with wine, and before the altar of God, and Saint Peter, Prince
of the Apostles, kneeling devoutly, drank the wine, and by that ceremony
enfeoffed this church with all his lands and revenues. The figure of
which horn, in memory thereof, is cut in stone upon several parts of
the choir, but the horn itself, when the Reformation in King Edward the
VIth’s time began, and swept away many costly ornaments belonging to this
church, was sold to a goldsmith, who took away from it those tippings of
gold wherewith it was adorned, and the gold chain affixed thereto; since
which, the horn itself, being cut in ivory in an eight square form, came
to the hands of Thomas, late Lord Fairfax.”
He, dying in 1671, it came into the possession of his next relation,
Henry, Lord Fairfax, who restored its ornaments in silver-gilt, and
restored it to the cathedral authorities. It bears the following
inscription:—
“CORNV HOC, VLPHVS IN OCCIDENTALI PARTE
DEIRÆ PRINCEPS, VNA CUM OMNIBVS TERRIS
ET REDDITIBVS SUIS OLIM DONAVIT.
AMISSVM VEL ABREPTVM.
HENRICVS DOM. FAIRFAX DEMVM RESTITVIT.
DEC. ET CAPIT. DE NOVO ORNAVIT.
A.D. MDC. LXXV.”
Most of us know Longfellow’s poem of King Witlaf’s drinking horn, a story
which may be found in Ingulphus, who says that Witlaf, King of Mercia,
who lived in the reign of Egbert, gave to the Abbey of Croyland the horn
used at his own table, for the elder monks of the house to drink out of
it on festivals and saints’ days, and that when they gave thanks, they
might remember the soul of Witlaf the donor. That they had some horn
of the kind is probable, for the same chronicler says that when the
monastery was almost destroyed by fire, this horn was saved.
Besides the liquors above mentioned, the Anglo-Saxons had others, as we
see in a passage of Henry of Huntingdon (lib. vi.), which is probably
an invention, the same story being told by Florence of Worcester, of
Caradoc, the son of Griffith, A.D. 1065. However, he says that in 1063,
in the king’s palace at Winchester, Tosti seized his brother Harold by
the hair, in the royal presence, and while he was serving the king with
wine; for it had been a source of envy and hatred that the king showed a
higher regard for Harold, though Tosti was the elder brother. Wherefore,
in a sudden paroxysm of passion, he could not refrain from this attack on
his brother.
Tosti departed from the king and his brother in great anger, and went to
Hereford, where Harold had purveyed large supplies for the royal use.
There he butchered all his brother’s servants, and inclosed a head and
an arm in each of the vessels containing wine, mead, ale, pigment,[15]
morat,[16] and cider, sending a message to the king that when he came to
his farm he would find plenty of salt meat, and that he would bring more
with him. For this horrible crime the king commanded him to be banished
and outlawed.
There is no doubt but that the Anglo-Saxons drank to excess, and thought
no shame of it. Many times in Beowulf are we told of their being dragged
from the mead-benches by their enemies and slaughtered, and in a fragment
of an Anglo-Saxon poem on Judith we read:—
“Then was Holofernes
Enchanted with the wine of men:
In the hall of the guests
He laughed and shouted,
He roared and dinn’d,
That the children of men might hear afar,
How the sturdy one
Stormed and clamoured,
Animated and elate with wine
He admonished amply
Those sitting on the bench
That they should bear it well.
So was the wicked one all day,
The lord and his men,
Drunk with wine;
The stern dispenser of wealth;
Till that they swimming lay
Over drunk.
All his nobility
As they were death slain,
Their property poured about.
So commanded the lord of men,
To fill to those sitting at the feast,
Till the dark night
Approached the children of men.”
[Illustration]
Even the clergy and monks drank probably more than was good for them, for
a priest was forbidden by law to eat or drink at places where ale was
sold. But that did not prevent their drinking at home; their benefactors
provided well for that, as one instance will show. Ethelwold allowed the
Monastery of Abingdon a great bowl, from which the drinking vessels of
the brothers were filled twice a day. At Christmas, Easter, Pentecost,
the Nativity and Assumption of the Virgin, on the festivals of Saints
Peter and Paul, and all the other saints, they were to have wine, as well
as mead, twice a day; and taking the number of Saints in the Anglo-Saxon
Calendar, it must have gone hard with them, if this was not almost an
every-day occurrence.
[Illustration]
The Northern nations did not lose their love of drink as time rolled on,
as we may find in the pages of Olaus Magnus. They drank wine, but owing
to the extreme cold it was not of native production, but imported. In
this illustration we see the vessel that has brought it, and the bush
outside, denoting that it was to be sold. They got it from Spain, Italy,
France, and Germany, but he says that the wine most in repute was a
Spanish wine called Bastard, which Shakspeare mentions more than once, as
(1 _Henry IV._ act ii. sc. 4) Prince Henry relating his adventures with a
drawer, says, “Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of Bastard in the Half Moon.”
[Illustration]
He gives receipts for making Hydromel, or Mead, which was to be made of
one part honey, and four of boiling water, to be well stirred, boiled,
and skimmed. Hops were then to be added, then casked, and brewers’ yeast
added. Then to be strained, and it was fit for drinking in eight days. He
tells a pathetic story of King Hunding, who being sorely grieved at the
loss of his brother-in-law, Gutthorm, called all his nobility around him
to a great feast, and had a large tun, filled with hydromel, placed in
the middle of the hall. When his guests were sufficiently inebriated, he
threw himself into the liquor, and died sweetly.
[Illustration]
Beer had they, made of malt and hops, and he gives various methods of
brewing, and also a list of divers beers and their medicinal qualities.
[Illustration]
He also gives an illustration of various drinking vessels then (16th
cent.) in use among the Danes and Swedes, where is here reproduced. Here
we see some plain, others ornamental with runes, and some with very
curious handles. He says they were mostly of brass, copper, or iron,
because in that cold climate the liquor they held had to be warmed over
the fire.
An old translation of a portion of his _Historia de Gentibus
Septentrionalibus_ gives the following account “Of the manner of drinking
amongst the Northern People.”
[Illustration]
“It will not displease curious Readers to hear how the custom is of
drinking amongst the Northern People. First, they hold it Religion to
drink the healths of Kings and Princes, standing, in reverence of them;
and here they will, as it were, sweat in the contention, who shall at
one or two, or more draughts, drink off a huge bowl. Wherefore they seem
to sit at Table as if they had Crowns on their heads, and to drink in
a certain kind of vessel; which, it may be, may cause men that know it
not, to admire it. But that were more admirable to see the servants go
in a long train, in troops, as Pastours of Harts with horns, that they
may drink up those Cups full of beer to the Ghests. And, not content with
these Ceremonies, they will strive to shew their Sobriety, by setting
such a high Cup full of Beer upon their naked heads, and dance and turn
round with it; in like manner they deliver other Cups which they bring in
both hands to the Ghests to drink off, at equall draughts, which are full
of Wine, Ale, Mede, Metheglin, or new Wine.”
[Illustration]
He winds up with a moral dissertation on the punishment of drinkers,
and, after detailing the various effects of alcohol on different races,
as rendering the Gaul petulant, the German quarrelsome, the Goth
obstreperous, and the Finn lachrymose, he suggests that drunkards should
be seated on a sharp wedge, compelled to drink a mighty horn of beer, and
then be hauled up and down by a rope.
J. A.
[Illustration]
WINES.
Definition—Various Meanings of Wine—Alcohol—Varieties
of Wine—Miller—Professor Mulder—Origin of Wine—Brook
of Eshcol—Strabo and Reland—Francatelli’s Order of
Wines—Classification of M. Batalhai Reis.
In the matter of wine, as in that of beer, it is perhaps as well to
commence with a dictionary description or definition. Ogilvie declares it
to be the “fermented juice of the grape, or fruit of the vine.” It is,
however, also the juice of certain fruits, prepared in imitation of wine
obtained from grapes, but distinguished by naming the source whence it is
derived, as currant wine, gooseberry wine, etc.; and a third meaning of
wine—a meaning with which we have happily little to do—is the effect of
drinking wine in excess, or intoxication.[17]
Wines are practically distinguished by their colour, flavour, stillness
or effervescence, and what is known as hardness or softness. The
differences in quality depend on the vines, the soils, the exposure of
the vineyards, the treatment of the grapes, and the mode of manufacture.
The alcohol[18] contained is the leading characteristic. In strong ports
and sherries this varies from about 16 to 25 per cent. It is about 7 per
cent. in claret, hock, and other so-called light wines. Wine containing
about 13 per cent. of alcohol may be assumed to be _fortified_, as it is
called, with brandy or other spirit.
The varieties of wine produced are said to be “almost endless.” This
great number of wines is in some measure owing to an interesting fact
mentioned by Miller in his _Organic Chemistry_ (3rd ed. p. 187), who
tells us that a particular variety of grape, when grown upon the Rhine,
furnishes a species of hock; the same grape, when raised in the valley
of the Tagus, yields Bucellas, in which the palate of a connoisseur may
possibly detect the flavour of hock; whilst in the island of Madeira the
same grape produces the wine known as _Sercial_, which, though generally
allowed to be a delicious wine, has suggested, it seems, to no skilled
palate the flavour either of Bucellas or of hock.
It would therefore be more logical to commence an article on wines with
an article on the grapes from which they are produced, but we fear it
would be far less interesting. Of the chemical composition of wine,
and of its _uses in health and disease_, on which so many books from
the days of old have been already written, we shall, in accordance with
our preface, say nothing at all, or very little. Every person who feels
himself or herself interested in this latter matter may learn as much as
he or she will from the pages of the _Lancet_, while Professor Mulder
has probably written enough about the former to satisfy the most anxious
student.
The origin of most things is obscure. Treatises have been composed
about that of wine. We have no intention of reproducing aught of them
in the present work. Let us be content to suppose that wine had its
origin, again like most things, somewhere at some time in the East. The
date of its introduction into Greece is no more known than that of its
introduction into Italy. A traditional credit is due to Saturn, to Noah,
and to Bacchus as early wine manufacturers. Certainly in Palestine they
had the advantage of fine grapes. On the well-known historic occasion of
Moses sending men to search the land of Canaan, in the time of the first
ripe fruit, we learn that when they came unto the brook of Eshcol, they
cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes and “bare it
between two upon a staff.” It has been perhaps somewhat hastily assumed
that the fruit was therefore necessarily of a large size. There may
have been other reasons for this proceeding than an enormity of weight.
But if, as is generally imagined, these grapes were unusually fine and
large, wine makers would be clearly benefited thereby. In support of this
interpretation of the passage in Numbers, Strabo has declared that some
of the grapes in the Holy Land measured two feet in length; and Reland
has not hesitated to declare, as if unwilling to be outdone by Strabo,
that some bunches are of ten pounds weight.
This prefatory matter could make no pretence to completeness if it
omitted an instruction for the service of wines, denoting the order in
which they should be drank at the dinner table, which has already been
given by an adept. Whether the matter is more admirable, or the style, it
is difficult to determine.
“I would recommend,” says Francatelli, “all _bon vivants_ desirous of
testing and thoroughly enjoying a variety of delectable wines, without
being incommoded by the diversity of those introduced for their learned
degustation, to bear in mind that they should be drunk in the following
order;” viz., “When it happens that oysters preface the dinner, a glass
of Chablis or Sauterne is their most proper accompaniment.”
After soup of any kind, genuine old Madeira, East India Sherry, or
Amontillado are recommended as “welcome stomachics.” But you are to
avoid, as you value your health, drinking punch after Turtle soup,
especially Roman punch. With fish, a large variety of wines, such as
Pouilly, Meursault, Montrachet, Barsac, and generally all dry white
wines, is allowed. With the entrées you are permitted to drink any
variety of Bordeaux or Burgundy.
Second course and dessert wines are given at too great a length to admit
of reproduction. About these a “question of the highest importance”
arises as to which should be preferred. But here Francatelli remembers
a fact which might have spared him his vast labour on this service of
wines: that “it is difficult, not to say impossible, to lay down rules
for the guidance of the palate.” The sanguine person, we are told, will
prefer the _genuine_ Champagne; the phlegmatic, Sherry or Madeira. The
splenetic and melancholy man will be prone to select Roussillon and
Burgundy. The bilious will imbibe Bordeaux. In few words, “Burgundy is
aphrodisiac, Champagne is captious, Roussillon restorative, and Bordeaux
stomachic.” By careful attention to the foregoing remarks, the reader
will happily be preserved from any serious mistake in the matter of his
dinner. But other meals must also be taken into consideration, about
which Francatelli preserves a Sibylline and mysterious silence. For
instance, luncheon. We learn, however, from another source that there are
luncheon sherries and dessert sherries. With lunch the brown, rich, and
full-bodied Raro may be suitably drunk; but the pale Solera and the soft
yet nutty Oloroso should make their appearance at dessert alone.
M. Batalhai Reis, Consul for Portugal at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a report
on the wine trade of England, has troubled himself thus in the interests
of posterity to classify the wines of the world.
CLASS I.—TABLE WINES.
Alcohol and sugar imperceptible. Taste acid and astringent.
Division A. Red.
Group 1. _Acid._ Examples: Inferior Bordeaux and Burgundies, Wines from
North of Portugal.
Group 2. _Astringent._ Examples: Superior Bordeaux and Burgundies,
Collares from Portugal.
Division B. White.
Group 1. Simple Flavour. Example: Rhine Wines.
Group 2. Complex Flavour. Example: Bucellas of Portugal.
CLASS II.—TRANSITION WINES.
Alcohol and sugar perceptible. Taste astringent. Flavour complex.
Division A. Red. Examples: Many Spanish and Portuguese wines.
Division B. White. Examples: Many Spanish and Portuguese wines.
CLASS III.—GENEROUS WINES.
1st Family. Madeira type. Wines of the Canaries, Azores, Lisbon;
Carcanellas, Sherry, Marsala, and Cyprian wines.
2nd Family. Port type.
3rd Family. Tokay, Malaga.
4th Family. Château Yquem, Johannisberg, Steinberg.
CLASS IV.—SPARKLING WINES.
Group A. Natural.
Group B. Artificial.
This division of the wines of the world is presented to the reader as a
literary curiosity. It is at once simple and scientific. In a word, no
book on wines can be considered complete without it. In the succeeding
pages Wines as Beers are, for convenience of reference, arranged after
the alphabetical order of their countries.
AFRICA: Constantias—Rota—Mascara. AMERICA:
Catawbas—Muscatel—Chacoli—Mosto. AUSTRALIA:
Carbinet—Kaludah—Verdeilho—Conatto. CANARIES:
Vidueño—Sack. ENGLAND: Home-made Wines.
AFRICA.
Of this country the most important wines of the present are, perhaps,
Pontac, Hanepoot, Frontignac, and Drakenstein. On the wines of the Cape
of Good Hope, Dr. Edward Kretschmar is a great authority. _Kokwyn_, made
from Muscat grapes, resembles Malaga. The best dry white wines, called
Cape Hocks, are produced in the village of _Paarl_. The _Constantias_,
so called from the wife of the Dutch governor, Van der Stell, are of
three kinds. These excellent sweet wines are too frequently falsified and
adulterated before reaching the palate of the English consumer. A red
wine, called _Rota_, is made at Stellenbosch. Cape Madeira is a boiled
and mixed wine. Stein wine is excellent when old. Red Cape, when drunk in
the country, is a “sound, good wine,” says Cyrus Redding.[19] The wine
of Morocco is chiefly made by the Jews; it is light, acid, and will not
keep. In Tetuan a wine is made nearly equal, according to Cyrus Redding,
to the Spanish wine of Xeres. Palm wines are, of course, common. The
people of Cacongo prepare a wine called _Embeth_, and those of Benin
_Pali_ and _Pardon_. The Caffres make a wine called _Pombie_, from millet
or Guinea corn.[20] In Congo they drink a wine called _Milaffo_, which
will not keep beyond three days.
Of the many wines produced at Algiers, the best is probably the white
wine of _Mascara_, situated on a slope of the plane of Egbris, 1,800
feet above the sea level. The Arabic name of the place is a corruption
of _Umm-al-asakir_, or the Mother of Soldiers. The wine is the principal
industry of Algiers. It is eagerly bought up by agents of Bordeaux
houses. Wines of inferior quality are made at Boue, Tlemcen, Medeah, and
Milianah. The wines of _Oran_ are said to resemble the small wines of
Languedoc. In ancient times the valley of the Nile produced the wines of
Mareotis, Mendes, Koptos, and Arsinoe, and its Delta the liqueur wine of
Sebenytus.
AMERICA.
The first attempt to cultivate the vine in North America was made, we are
informed by Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, in 1564. Some of its best known
wines at the present time are the _Catawbas_[21] (still and sparkling),
red _Aliso_ and _Angelico_. Wine has been made from the vines on the
Ohio, said to resemble Bordeaux in quality. In several parts of Mexico,
as at Passo del Norte, at Zalaya, and at St. Louis de la Paz, wines are
made of tolerable flavour. The red wine of California is agreeable. In
Florida, according to Sir John Hawkins, wine was made from a grape like
that of Orleans, as far back as 1564. The island of Cuba possesses a
“light, cool, sharp wine,” according to Redding.
In South America wine was made long ago in Paraguay. A sweet wine
resembling Malaga is made at Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes, and is
found to improve by transportation some thousand miles across the Pampas.
The wines made in Chili and Peru are white and red. The _Muscatel_ of
Chili is considered to be especially good.[22] The white wine of _Nasca_
is inferior. The wine of _Pisco_ is highly esteemed. Though the white
is held by connoisseurs to be superior to the red wine of Chili, yet it
is little drunk in the cradle of its production. _Chacoli_ is a wine
commonly patronised by labourers. The _Mosto_ of _Concepcion_ differs
from _Mosto asoleado_ by the grapes of the latter being sundried for some
twenty days.
AUSTRALIA.
Australian wines are pretty well known from our tradesmen’s circulars.
For instance, there is the _Gouais_, the _Carbinet_, a soft wine like
Burgundy, the _Mataro_, the _Sauvignon_. There is that “elegant dinner
wine,” _Kaludah_, the Singleton Red or White _Hermitage_, “noted for its
refinement”; the _Tintara Ferruginous_, of “immense power and generous
quality”; the _Tokay Imperatrice_; and the _Alexandrian Moscat_, both
poetically described as “abounding in memories of the sun which begot
them,” and possessing the “most beautiful bouquet that can be imagined,”
with a flavour “resembling the first crush in the mouth of three or four
fine ripe Muscatel grapes—the large white oval ones—covered with a light
bloom, and attached to a clean, thin stalk.”
Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, who are themselves indebted to a publication by
Toovey, have given an excellent description of these wines. _Verdeilho_
is a wine, like Madeira, of delicate aroma and a full body; _Frontignac_
is described as a thin white wine with a slight taste of the Muscat
grape, being a fictitious elderflower flavour; _Malbee_ is described as
made from “claret” grape; _Tavoora_ is described as a pure “port” of
1859; _Tintara_, a red, clear wine; _Adelaide_, a pure white wine, mainly
from _Riessling_ grapes with a _soupçon_ of Muscatel, “a little too fiery
for greatness.” _Wattlesville_ is an acidulous white wine. The poor and
acid _Chasselas_, the strong-scented _Highercombe_, said to resemble
good Sauterne, with many varieties of so-called claret, as _Emu_, _St.
Hubert_, and so-called Hock, as _Heron_ and _Royal Reserve_, are also
imported from Australia. The _Conatto_ is a rich liqueur with a flavour
of Curaçoa and Rum Shrub combined.
CANARIES.