1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

"THE BOY"

135

pains and disturbances below the belt. The head cellarman, portly and urbane like his brother of Rheims, will watch your face closely as you taste his novelties, and will invariably ask your opinion of it. But the wise visitor will, not be too opinionative on the subject. I have noticed that the man who says the least is accounted the most knowing, whether he be inspecting the contents ofa cellar, or ofa stabje. And believe me, there is as much rubbish talked about wine as about horses. Still, in sampling new champagne you may praise indiscriminately, without being accounted an absolute dunce; whilst with claret it is altogether different. The wine varies exceedingly with the vintage ; and none but an expert and accomplished palate may dare to say what is good, what is bad, and what is mediocre. Is it necessary to state that claret was not drunk, on^ ordinary occasions, by the Ancient Britons ? I trow not. And I fency the wines of the noble old Romans partook more of the nature of burgundies than clarets. In England the wines of Medoc have never been fully appreciated until during the latter half of the present century, when the taste for port began to die out, with the good port itself. And as I writhe, occasionally, in the throes of gout, I bethink me of the merciless law delivered unto Moses, which provides that the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon their descendants, even unto the third and fourth generation. For the good old three-and-four-bottle men of eighty years ago, and farther back than that, certainly laid