1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

146 THE FLOWING BOWL spirit—is being produced in Spain in commercial quantities which it is to be hoped will success fully compete with the stuff erroneously called brandy, not to say Cognac, but of which not a drop has been derived from the grape." In my researches into the manufacture of port and sherry, I have come across no mention of the phylloxera, I am, therefore, halting between the beliefs, either that the Spaniards and Portuguese understand vermin better than do the French, or that the "vine-louse" has her own reasons for keeping out of Spain and Portugal. Forty years ago an estimable Irish nobleman was known as " Old Sherry," from his partiality to that wine. And thirty years ago I was once seatedat the table of a General of Division, up at Simla. My right-hand neighbour was a son of this same nobleman, but our host, apparently, did not know this—or had forgotten the fact. At all events, during a lull in the conversation, the General (who had a voice like sharpening a saw) rapped out: "By the way, Captains—you say you've been quartered in Ireland—did you ever meet ' Old Sherry ' there .? " A subaltern can't very well throw a dinner- roll at a General or stick a carving-fork into his leg; but that is what I, personally, felt like doing. In mediaeval times a sulKcient quantity of wine for the needs of the inhabitants was made in gallant little Wales ; and the idea of reviving the industry occurred to the Marquis of Bute, who has done so much for the welfare of Cardiff