give it rest; that is, to allow the bits of rock
in which the vine delights, to decompose and
furnish fresh soil. But such stubbings-up
seldom occur on well-managed ground. On
the Côte is a vineyard called Charlemagne,
because, according to an old tradition, it was
planted by that prince's order. Some vines
at Chablis have lasted from sixty to eighty
years, with care; others, neglected, fall off
at thirty. As the Burgundians are short of
grain crops, they consequently are short of
manure; and, in the absence of farm-yard
muck, they sow the land destined for wheat,
with peas, vetches, and other leguminous
plants, sometimes also with raves, or coarse
turnips, to be ploughed in as fertilizers. All
these are allowable make-shifts; but, apart
from vine-growing, farming is not at high-
water mark. In Basse Bourgogne are to be
seen instructive examples of the evil effects
of stripping beet of its leaves. The root
resulting is something resembling a crooked
red walking-stick, instead of the fat honest
corpulence which a well-to-do beet is expected
to protrude. A hundred symptoms, as you
travel along, show that the vine is lord
paramount of the soil. Thus, all the moist
hollows are planted with willows and osiers,
to serve as ligatures to the drooping shoots.

Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of
the best Burgundian vineyards, is their soil;
for the rich alluvial loam of the valley only
produces second-rate wine. It is composed
of bits of broken grey or yellow rock, mixed
with a portion of what cannot be called earth
or vegetable mould, but merely rotten stone
in the shape of powder, and hardly that.
You would say that it was only fit to mend
the roads with. I have seen many a good
cartload of the like lying ready prepared by
the wayside, in the midland counties. Mr.
Blueapron—who keeps his vinery so moist
that his vines put forth roots, in mid air, the
whole length of their new-wood branches—
who manures his vine-borders with quarters
of dead horse, and will not allow even a
mignonnette plant to exhaust their richness
—would look aghast if he were told to cultivate
such compost as that. It is perfectly
true that the two Messieurs B., Blueapron
videlicet, and Bourgignon, grow grapes with
a different object; table and tub are their
opposite destiny. "My grapes," the former
will boast, "are different to these." To which
B. the second will answer with a shrug—
"They are indeed! The only drink your
dropsical berries would make, is the crû
which the Champagne beasts call
Tordboyau, or Twistbowel wine. More opposite
conditions of culture can hardly exist. In
one case, the plant has its branches, fruit,
and foliage in the dryest almost of European
air, and its roots in a stratum of warm
well-ventilated pebbles; in the other, the vine is
smothered with steam above and choked
with carrion below. The horticultural vine
is glutted with animal manure; the vine of
the vineyards has little other stimulant (save
sunshine) than slowly decomposing mineral
food. The Academy of Salerno have wisely
decided that wine, to be really good, must
possess united the four meritorious qualities
of perfume, savour, brilliancy, and colour.
All these, and more, good burgundy can
boast; and yet it is produced from a mere
heap of stony rubbish.

In short, it is the rock that makes the
wine. Not that any and every rock will
produce good burgundy; but, on the quality of
the rock depends the permanent character of
the vintage. Everybody knows that good
champagne ought to have a decided taste of
gun-flint. Sir Humphry Davy has shown
that the nature of the soils depends on the
substratum of rock on which they lie, and by
the decomposition whereof they are mainly
produced. And thus, the wines of the Côte-
d'Or may be classed into groups; those growing
on the same bed of rock are similar in
flavour and character. As the substratum
varies along the course of the Côte, so do the
wines. Generally, the rock which forms the
base of the Golden Hills, is a coarse sub-carbonate
of lime, which furnishes very tolerable stone
for building purposes, and presents, especially
near Santenay, an enormous mass of gryphites
united by a calcareous paste of a grayish tint.
But the prevailing hue is an ochrey yellow;.
and it is uncertain whether the Côte derives
its name from the colour of its soil or the
money value of its produce. Examine any one
given hill, and the truth of the above principle
will be evident. For instance, the hill of
Puligny and Mursault is all of a piece; the
crystallisation is the same, and it is a heap of
the same kind of shells. Whether you take it
at Mursault or at Montrachet, namely, at the
two extremities, it is the same carbonate ot
lime, differing only in slight external
properties, but identical in its internal
composition.

Nevertheless, the wine of Montrachet is
superior to that of the rest of the hill; but
that is the consequence of its aspect, which
slopes to the south-east. Moreover, the soil
of this canton is fine, light, extremely permeable
to the action of the air, and is composed
of an admirable mixture of clay, sub-carbonate
of lime, tritoxide of iron, and vegetable
remains. The superiority of the produce is
owing to the fortunate combination of a
favourable aspect and a good soil.

At the valley of Nuits commences the portion
of the Côte, which is perhaps the most
celebrated amongst foreigners for its wines,
which have the reputation of being strong, of
keeping well, and of bearing long journeys.
Fashion may have had something to do with
it. Until the beginning of the eighteenth
century they were in less esteem. Their
reputation seems to date from the illness which
Louis the Fourteenth suffered in sixteen
hundred and eighty, when his physician Fagon
recommended Nuits wine to restore his