from those of our Bishops; especially as it seems of modern introduction, since not only those on the tombs of the old prelates in Canterbury cathedral, but those of some since the Reformation, in the windows of that church, have it not. 1775, July. Yours, &c. MR. URBAN, Q. IN answer to your correspondent's question concerning placing the Archbishop's mitre on a Ducal coronet, I can only say, that the best account of it which I have seen is in Mr. Pegge's assemblage of coins, fabricated by authority of the Archbishops of Canterbury, p. 7. It is there acknowledged to be a practice lately introduced, but seems to be done with much propriety, considering the rank his grace holds, which is above the dukes, except those of the blood: and at the same time it is very ornamental, as appears to the eye in the engraved inscription prefixed to the assemblage, &c. 1775, Oct. T.Row. LXXXII. On the Culture of Vines in England. THE controversy about the culture of the vine in England hath been so largely discussed by two learned members of the Society of Antiquaries, that it may seem superfluous, if not impertinent, to add any more to it. But as doubts and conjectures often furnish means for the discovery of truth, I may be permitted to suggest such as have occurred to me in the perusal of Mr. Barrington's paper on this subject, just published in the third vol. of the Archæologia*, and submit myself to his candor, while I range myself on the side of his antagonist. It appears to me that the word vinea is in no one instance used by our ancient writers, in any other than its classical and common signification. I shall examine the instances in which it is used by our monkish historians, who, though they too often mistake a bombast for a florid style, and give common relations, and trivial incidents, an air of pomp and rhapsody, are not apt to err in the use of obvious and well known terms. The question about the alteration of our * In answer to Mr. Pegge, on the same question in the same volume. climate since the time of the Romans, of Bede, or of Edward III. is a petitio principii, against which, I apprehend, terms and names in general acceptation are not here allowed their proper weight. When it is said that vinum, as ovos, is applied by classical writers to other species of wine besides that made from grapes, it is bearing too hard upon monkish writers, not to allow that in them it ever signifies grape wine. Vinum is certainly a word of as unconfined signification as uva; yet these no more exclude the idea of grapes and their wine from later writers, than monstrum, pons*, and vinitor, do those primary ones of a monster, a bridge, a vine-dresser. The instance of Pavo, adduced from Brompton, is not conclusive; since Giraldus, whom Brompton professes to follow, expressly adds sylvestres, which his transcriber omitted; and even had not this been the case, the same exception might have been taken to grues, which I suppose are now as scarce in Ireland as in England. But with all due deference to Mr. B. I must take the liberty to affirm, that no instance in Du Cange amounts to a proof that vinea has more than the usual sense of a vineyard, I mean, applied to plantation; for we all know that certain machines were called by this name. Not to multiply quotations in my own cause, let us examine those brought by Mr. B. in defence of his. That of terra vineata, is not terra simply culta vel consita, but "vineis culta vel consita ;" as under the same article we have "unam peciam terræ vineata," and " unam peciam terræ arativæ et vineatæ," where vineata is distinguished from arativa: and Du Cange's design in adducing these passages, is to shew, that "terra vineata" was "ager vineis consitus." He also brings vineatus for embroidered with vine leaves. "Vineare campum" is not merely to break it up, but vineis conserere. Vinearium†, and vineale, are strictly vineyards; and though vinea and vinealia occur together in one instance, * Pons novi Templi Londoniæ, per quem tum magnates quam alii fideles nostri ad Parliamentum et concilia nostra apud Westmonasterium, venientes de dicta civitate et suburbiis ejusdem per aquam ad dictum locum Westmonasterii, communiter transeunt, &c. are the words of the record, by which, probably, is meant some bridge over a creek or inlet of the Thames, crossing the lane leading down to the temple stairs, rather than the stairs or lane. Stowe cites the record without explaining what is meant by the bridge, as he translates it. Hist of Lond. p. 440. Ed. 1633. + Vinearium is explained, in Greek Glossaries and Codes, avopos and inaumeños; so that admitting onepopos to be cyder bearing, we must translate αμπελος ροικum. they are no more distinct than horti and jardini in another, and are corruptions from classical words appropriated to vineyards. Granting vindemiare to signify "fructus quoslibet colligere" in later writers, as it applied to olives and honey in Pliny and Columellat, this will no more prove against its natural application to grapes, than the term hay-harvest will prove there is no corn where it is used; and harvest, like messist, is a controvertible term. Admitting also, with Charpentier, that vinea is "ager vineis arboribusque consitus," what is this but saying that vines were an essential part of the plantation? so that, could we but meet with this term in an English record or historian, our country might recover its vines again. Most commentators allow that the carme, or vineyards of Engeddi, were proper vineyards. Dom Calmets says, they produced the Cyprus vines, and Bishop Patrick || supposes that clusters, or, as the margin of our bible renders it, cypresses, were branches of the aromatic shrub, which gave its name to the island of Cyprus. There is, however, no reason for excluding these plants from vineyards, or supposing carme should not here mean a vineyard. It is by no means clear, that the French word vigne is put for "a house including a small garden." In the instances cited from Madame du Boccage, she is certainly only a translator of the Italian term vigna, which is as commonly applied to mansion-houses, whether in town or country, as villa.. We need only look into Montfaucon's and other travels in Italy, to be convinced of this. The truth is, vineyards made a part of considerable gardens, and came in time to be put for the whole; as with us a tract of ground laid out in plantations of various kinds (where what is strictly called a garden has the least share) is yet called a garden. But it seems too great a force upon language, to suppose, that, because the Italians gave the name of vigna to a pleasure-ground or house, (for it is to these, by the authorities Mr. B. cites, and not to a garden or orchard, simply considered, that this name was given) that, therefore, the English, who knew not what a pleasure-house was at the time in question, should confine vinea to it, to the absolute exclusion of its primary sense. * Lib. XV. c. 1. + Lib. IX. c. 15. Messis amara, sc. absynthi, Ovid. Pont. III. 1. 24. though messis proprie dicitur in iis quæ metuntur, maxime in frumento. Varro. Dict art. Engeddi Paraph. on Canticles I. 14. I shall not plead, that, as I have not Biornor by me, I know not whether the Russians went into a Russian, or a more southern, wood to pick pears or plums. But if there are, in the northern languages, such words as perur and plumer, it is a fair conclusion, that such sort of fruits grew in northern latitudes, without supposing these plums and pears to approach nearer to the green-gage or bon chretien, than the crab to the golden pippin. Whatever might be the productions of the northern countries, where Bede lived, there is no reason to suppose him so unacquainted with those of the southern ones. There was a sufficient commerce between the monks and the different provinces of England, to undeceive any writer as to the state of their monasteries, in which, alone, we suppose vines to be cultivated. Bede had a correspondence with Albin, Abbot of Canterbury, and Nothelm, presbyter of London, to both whom he acknowledges himself obliged in his preface. Add to this, that the Saxon translator of Bede renders vineas, wingeardas. Mr. B. observes from Pliny, that the paucity of vineyards in Italy occasioned a law of Romulus to use milk instead of wine in libations. But as this by no means proves that there were then no vineyards in Italy, and succeeding cultivation encouraged their advance, so neither can we prove, from the fewness of them in England, that there were none in the places that ever since bear their name. Had there been a similar law among Alfred's, it could never surely have been alleged to prove there were no vineyards in England. Hamo de Hethe, Bishop of Rochester, was so great an improver of his palaces by building and cultivation, that it cannot be supposed the wines which he presented to his sovereign could be the juice of inere ordinary currants. He spent the whole year after his inthronization in repairing his houses, and circa culturam terrarum plurimum insudavit.* Whatever Mr. Pegge understood by the term sicera, or whatever it really signifies, it is plainly distinguished from vinum, which, in the passages of Giraldus and Huntingdon, is put for wine strictly, and not as a generical name comprehending all liquors: whereas, according to Mr. B.'s ideas, we must transfer it from its obvious import to the juice of apples, though Malmsbury expressly marks the distinction. On the so much controverted passage of that author, I shall VOL. I. * Dene Hist. Roff. in Aug. Sac. I. 361. Y only observe, that, besides the progression from corn to apples and grapes, it supposes apple-trees the natural growth of Glocestershire, but vines the effect of cultivation. It does not suppose vineyards in every county of England, but more in this than in any other; and the wine made from them might be more palatable than the French, without concluding the latter to have been sweet. Dulcedo is here only opposed to roughness, as Mr. B. himself admits, when applying it to cyder.-Florid as this description of Malmsbury is, it appears to be founded on the strictest truth: and I should be sorry to see it convicted of falshood, any more than that similar, but at this time unaccountable, description of Thorney by the same author. I must beg leave to differ from Mr. B. about the meaning of the word tædiosus. All the instances both in Ainsworth's Dictionary and Du Cange's Glossary, amount to Malmsbury's idea of it. Tædium belli in Livy*, capti in Ovid†, laboris in Quintilliant, is a wearisomeness of war, enterprize, or labour, an unwillingness to continue them. But as this unwillingness may arise from other causes, Malmsbury critically ascertains his meaning by adding per socordiam: so that, if tædiosus signifies only a man tired of his work, tadiosus per socordiam is a man tired of his work by downright laziness, or a lazy fellow. Mr. B. proceeds to controvert the word vinitor in the Dunstable Annals: but he seems not aware that the word he cites from Du Cange for a wine-merchant is vinator, not vinitor, which that Glossographer explains by amigos, a vine-keeper or presser, or one who had the charge of wine, though his last instance seems to relate to dealers in wine. Though the instances relative to wine and vineyards among us are so few that there is no arguing from a single one, whether the Dunstable vinitores were day labourers and villains, or smuggling vintners. Mr. B. will hardly suppose that the vinitores ad dracones pugnantes§, on the cup which Widaf gave to Croyland, were any other than vine-dressers. In quoting honest Fuller as saying that "cyder was made in Glocestershire sooner than in any other county in England," (which however I do not find in the page referred to) Mr. B. omits all that he had said about wine which "formerly grew in this county, but doth not now; witness the many places therein called vineyards, whereof one most eminent high Glocester, the palace of the bishop; and it appears * VIII. 2. Met. IX. 615. II. 2. Ingulph. p.9. |