1892 Drinks of the world

Drinks.

^5

These are only some of the wines of the Medoc, so that I may be excused from recapitulating the names of the different growths of the Graves, the Pays de Sauternes, the Cotes, the Palus, and those of Entredeux Mers — their name is legion, and it would answer no good purpose. Cocks, in his Bordeaux and its Wines, gives a list of 1,900 of the principal growths, so that we can have a good choice of names from which to christen our '' Shilling Gladstone." The wines of Bordeaux used to be greatly drank in England until the great wars with France — in the last century, when, of course, their importation was prohibited — but, even then, large quantities were smuggled* They must, however, have been of better quality than the cheap stuff now imported. In Scot- land, where an affinity with France always existed, it was a common drink, and very cheap ; for in Camp- bell's Life of Lord Loughborough (vi. 29), we find that excellent claret was drawn from the cask at eighteenpence a quart: and its downfall as a beverage in Scotland is thus surtg by John Home, probably in allusion to the Methuen Treaty of 1703. "Firm and erect the Caledonian stood. Prime was his mutton, and his claret good : Let him drink port, an English Statesman cried ; He drank the poison, and his spirit died." The white wines of these districts are delicious, and are not sufficiently appreciated in England, where we know very little of the Sauternes, Bommes, Barsac, Fargues, St. Pierre de Mons, Preignac, and those of Petits Graves and the Cotes. Chief of all is