Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/351

 g» ; T H:E: H 1 S:T.O-R Y x .aBoc*,* the xlofe of the third. And as it muft have been for ages con- fined within the pale of the Roman government, fo was it trank planted into Ireland before the beginning of the eighth cen- • tury ** But the grape* or as with an agreeable and native firn- jlicity it was called by the Britons the Corn of the Tree the
 * Viiiergr4ne and (he Apple of the Vine, was not, * as it now is*

merely, raifed for the ufes of the table. All the arts<<6f *the vig- neron would naturally be introduced with the vine. They •were carried with it into Gaul. And that they came together into Britain, the good knowledge whidh the Caledonians ap- pear to have had of the liquor is a ftrong presumptive evi- dence, and the Britifh appellation of Wine-tree for the vine is a -ftrong argument* Doomfilay exhibits to us a very particular -proof of wine made in England during the period preceding the -Conqueft x % And the wines of Gloucefterfhire within a iingt* .century afterwards were little inferior to the French in fweet- nefs "• The beautiful region of Gaul, which had not a finglfe vine in ? the days of Caefar * was even famous for its vineyards -in the reign of Vefpafkn% and even exported its wines into /Italy * The whole province of Narborine in the reign t>f Ve- fytfian was planted with vineyards : and' the wine-merchants of the vines of the Allobroges in the north -ofDauphine. Thefe wese peculiarly fitted for cold countries. .Thefe ripened even in the feofts of the advancing winter. And thefe were -certainly >of the fame colour and. feem to have been aduallyof the famefpecies as the black Mu{cadrees*of the prnfent -days *% which have lately been tried in the iilaad and are found fo be £tteft for the -climate. Thefe were ptetty certainly brought kite Britain a little after the introdu&ion oi vines into .all the regions of Gaul, and about *he middle x>f the third «ea* Jtury j when the MuaeeiHis plantations of vines, had gradually fpread