1879 Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

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(Jhampagne and Othe1· Sparlding Wines.

scendant of the Dom Ruinart, whose remains repose nigh to those of the illustrious Dom P erignon in the abbey church of Hautvillers. From the Place de l'Hotel de Ville e pror.eed through the nanow Rue du Tambour, originally a Roman thoroughfare, and during the Middle Ages the locality where the nobility of Reims principally had their abodes. Half-way up this street, .i.n the direction of the Place des Marches, stands the famous House of the Musicians, one of the most interesting architectural relics of which the capital of the Champagne can' boast. It evidently dates from the early part of the fourteenth century, but by whom it was erected is unlrnown. Some ascribe it to the Knights Templars, others to the Counts of Champagne, while others suppose it to have been the residenee of the famous Counts de la Marek, who in later times diverged into three separate branches, the first furnishing Dukes of Cleves and Jiilich to G!?rmany and Dukes of Nevers and Counts of Eu to France, while the ~econd became Dukes of Bouillon and Princes of Sedan, titles which passed to the Turennes when Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, married the surviving heiress of the house. The third branch comprised the Barons of Lumain, allied to the Hohenzollerns. Their most famous member slew Louis de Bourbon, Archbishop of Liege, and flung his body into the Meuse, and subsequently became celebrated as the Wild Boar of the Ardenne;;i 1 of whom all readers of Quentin Durward will retain a lively recollection. To return, however, to t.he House of the Musicians. A probable conjecture ascribes the origin of the quaint mediawal structure to the Brotherhood of Minstrels of Reims, who in the thirteenth century enjoyed a considerable reputation, not merely in the Champagne, but throughout the North of France. The house takes its present name from five seated statues of musicians, larger than life-size, occupying the Gothic niches between the first-floor windows, and resting upon brackets orna– mented with grotesque heads. It is thought that the partially– da.maged figure on the left-hand side was originally playing a drum and a species of clarionet. The next one evidently bas the