Host and Guest

by A. V. Kirwan

Liqueurs, [245]. Alkermes and rossolis, [245]. Liqueurs of Batavia’, Jamaica, Martinique, and Montpelier, [246]. Ratafias; absinthe, noyau, and curaçoa, [246]. Eau d’or and eau de vie de Dantzic, [247]. Patin on rossolis, [248]. Madame Théanges and liqueurs, [248]. La fenouillette and other lawful liqueurs, [249]. Liqueurs of Montpelier and Lorraine, [249]. Lémery on black currant ratafia, [250]. Liqueurs of French West Indies, [251]. L’huile de Venus, [252]. Cinnamon water, crême de girofle, curaçoa, usquebaugh, &c., [253]. Eau cordiale of Colladon, [254]. Eau de vie d’Andaye, [254]. Eau divine, cordiale du chasseur nuptiale, [257]. Anisette and absinthe, [257]. Cherry bounce, rum and pine-apple shrub, [257]. Petit lait de Henri IV., l’eau des braves, l’huile de Vénus, le parfait amour, l’eau virginale, &c., [259]. Adulterations of liqueurs, [260]. German liqueurs; Pomeranzen, Wackholder, Kummel, &c., [260–61]. Jean de Milan on liqueurs, [262]. Famous cities for liqueurs in France, [262].

CHAPTER XIX.—Ale, Beer, Cider, and Perry.

Bass’s, Allsopp’s, and Guinness’s ale and stout, [263]. Cider, its origin and history, [264]. Cocky Gee, [265]. Perry and hydromel, [266]. Different kinds of beer, [267]. The zythus and curmi of the Egyptians, [267]. Fifteen hundred years ago the Parisians commenced with beer, and finished with wine, [268]. The descent from wine to beer in France, [270]. The French beer called godale, [271]. The beer of Cambrai, of Bavaria, of Berlin, and of Brussels, [272]. Beer should be light, brisk, and sparkling, [273]. Forty brewers in Paris 120 years ago, [273]. Seventy years ago but twenty-three, of whom Santerre the most celebrated, [273]. Epitaph on Santerre, [273]. English and Scotch brewers flocked to Paris at the peace in 1815, [273]. In seasons of dearth Paris brewers forbidden to make beer, [274].

CHAPTER XX.—On Wines, Ancient and Modern.

Lord Bacon, Bacci, Barry, Redding, Shaw, and Denman on wines, [275], [276]. Hippocrates on vinous mixtures, [276]. Plato and Homer’s praises of wine, [277]. Virgil, Pliny, and Columella on wines, [278]. The Setine wine commended by Martial, Juvenal, and Silius Italiens, [278]. Sand, powdered marble, and salt water added to ancient wines, [279]. Cato’s receipt for artificial Chian and Falernian, [279]. The Cæcuban, [280]. The Falernian, [280]. Galen and Martial on Falernian, [280]. Virgil on the vinum Rhæticum, [281]. The lighter wines of the Roman territory, [281]. The earliest Greek wines, [281]. The Thrasian and Cretan wines, [282]. Greeks familiar with Asiatic and African wines, [282]. Greeks drank wine diluted with water, [282]. Athenæus on the πεντε και δυο, [283]. The Greeks had casks, [283]. Gauls knew the use of wine six centuries before Christianity was introduced, [283]. Athenæus calls the wine of Marseilles good, [286]. The Allobroges mixed pitch with wine, [286]. Dioscorides says pitch is a necessary ingredient in Gaulish wine, [286]. Secret as to the Bordelais wine, [287]. The Marseillaise boiled their wine, [287]. Horace and Tibullus on the smoking of wine, [288]. Baccius on the wines of Alsace, [288]. Domitian publishes an order for rooting up one half of the vines in some provinces, and for destroying them in others, [289]. This order abrogated by Probus, [289]. The Roman legions spread in Gaul employed in replanting the vine, [289]. The Salique law, and law of the Visigoths, as to the cutting of the vine and stealing grapes, [290]. Vine property regarded as sacred, [290]. Tribute decreed by Chilperic, [290]. Massacre of the officer who was to levy the tribute, [290]. Passion for the culture of the vine among French kings, [290]. Wine-presses and utensils for making wine in all the palaces, [290]. Charlemagne and his Capitularies, [290]. The Louvre enclosed vineyards within its precincts, [290]. “La Bataille des Vins,” a fabliau of the thirteenth century, [291]. Philip Augustus had vineyards in many districts of France, [291]. Wines of Guyenne sold in Flanders and England, [291]. Matthew Paris, on the sale of Gascony wine in England, [292]. Froissart on the number of merchantmen that arrived at Bordeaux from England, A.D. 1372, [292]. Champier as to the consumption of French wine and corn in England, [292]. Charles IX. proscribed the vine in 1566, [292]. His ordonnance respecting it, [293]. In 1577 Henry III. modifies this ordonnance, [293]. Louis XV, in 1731, forbade any new plantation of vines, [293]. Origin of the expression, vendre à pot, [293]. Adulterations 1800 years ago as frequent as now, [294]. The ancients understood the maturing of wines, [294]. Customs survive forms of polity and government, [294]. Identity of the amphoræ to vessels in present use at Asti, Montepulciano, and Montefiascone, [295]. Use of casks unknown to Greeks and Romans, [295]. Romans employed glass, but a rude glass, [296]. Invention of casks due to the Gauls, [296]. Ordonnance of Charlemagne as to employment of barrels, [297]. The άβαξ or abacus, [297]. Misquotation of Barry as to abaci, [297]. The ancients had servants like our butlers, [297]. Business of the οἱνοπτης, [298]. The cup-bearer and pourer out of wine, [298]. Cicero’s description of a supper, &c., [298–9]. Deep drinkers of a congius or gallon, [299]. Cooling of wine by snow not a modern invention, [299]. Pliny ascribes it to Nero, [299]. Drinking of healths to absent friends, [299]. Extract from Henderson as to the manner of pledging friends and drinking healths, [300]. Analogy between the French and Greeks as to mixing wine and water, [300]. The vin d’entremets; the wine for oysters and roast meat, [300]. The coup-d’avant and du milieu, [300]. The coup du milieu, according to the “Manuel des Amphitryons,” [301]. Wormwood, Jamaica rum, or old cognac used for it, [301]. Practice at Bordeaux in this respect, [301]. The coup-d’avant used in Russia, Sweden, and Germany, [302]. The coup-d’apres, what, [302]. Wine used for it, [302]. Wine cellars of the ancients, [303]. Precautions as to cellar, [303]. Women forbidden to enter the cellars of the ancients, [303]. Principles of the ancients as to cellars, [303]. An ante-cellar advisable, [304]. Salt used in cellars, [305]. The ancients more effectually preserved their wines than the moderns, [305]. Wine better tasted in quarts than in pints, [305]. Ancient rules for site of cellars, and on time for tasting and racking, still sanctioned by practice, [305]. Wine of middle age best and most grateful, [305]. Fancy prices paid for old wines, [306]. No one obliged to drink on compulsion among the ancients, [306]. Irish practice, [306]. Some ancient sages great bibbers, but unexcited, [306]. Cyrus a larger drinker than Artaxerxes, and therefore, in his own thinking, worthier of the crown, [306]. Darius’s capacity of drinking, [307]. Hippocrates rarely directs water, but almost invariably wine mixed with water, [307]. Cornaro before and after a new vintage, [307]. His plan of preserving his health, [308]. Effect of fresh sugar-canes on mules, [308]. Pitching ancient and modern wines, [308]. Monster puncheons in Latium and Germany, [309–10]. The French constructed their wine-vats in brick or stone, [310]. Pierre de Blois’s denunciation of the luxury of the twelfth century, [310]. Repast of Philippe de Valois and his leathern bottles, [311]. Wine supplied by a miracle, [311]. The tanners of Amiens obliged to furnish the bishop with two leathern bottles, [312]. The derivation of the word bottle, [312]. The name afterwards applied to decanters, [312]. Charles VI., according to Froissart, was supplied with wine out of leathern bottles, [312]. Gregory of Tours speaks of the wines of Maçon, Orleans, Cahors, and Dijon, [313]. Wines of Rheims and Marne mentioned in a letter of Pandulus, [313]. Henry I. and the wine of Rébréchien, [313]. Louis le Jeune and the wine of Orleans, [313]. Wines of Auxerre, Beaune, &c., [314]. Wine of Chabli, Epernai, Rheims, &c., [314]. The popes drank Beaune at Avignon, [314]. The queen of Louis XII. sent Beaune to the ambassadors of the Emperor Maximilian at Blois, [314]. Caprice in the estimate of wine, [315]. Wine of Romanée Conti, [315]. Wine of Mantes carried to Persia uninjured, [316]. Burgundy and Champagne in the fifteenth century, [316]. Leo X., Charles V., Francis I., and Henry VIII., had vineyards in Champagne, [316]. Erasmus and Burgundy wine, [316]. Champier on the excellence of French wines, [317]. Rabelais vaunts Auxerre wine, [317]. Canteperdrix wine, [317]. This wine sent to Rome for the pope, [317]. Canteperdrix wine now known as the vin de Beaucaire, [317]. Favourite beverage of Henry IV., [318]. Paumier on the colours of wine, [318]. Wines of Château Thierry gout producing, [319]. Gout does not come from Champagne, [319]. Baccius on the wines of France, [319–20]. Paumier on the wines of Paris, [320]. Liebaut and Patin on wines, [320]. The vin de Condrieux, [321]. The manner of making Orleans wines, [321]. Boileau on the wine of Orleans, [322]. Vin de Grave, mentioned in 1550, [322]. Why the wine is called Grave, [323]. The Haut-Brion, 323. Hermitage, [323]. Hermitage of Lord Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, [323]. Hermitage divided into five classes, [323]. Prices of Hermitage, [324]. How the Burgundy wines got their reputation, [325]. The vin de Tonnerre, [325]. The Abbé de Marolles’ list of Burgundy wines, [325]. The wine of Olivotte, [326]. The vin de Chablis for oysters, [326]. Vin de Pouilly and Bucellas good with oysters, [326]. Difficulty of transporting Burgundy, [327]. Extent of Burgundy vineyards, [328]. Arthur Young on the vineyards, [328]. Mr. James Busby on the Burgundy vineyards, [329]. Clos Vougeot, [329]. The late notorious Ouvrard, [330]. Père Perignon and the wines of Hautvilliers, [330]. Sparkling Burgundy and Moselle, [330]. The vin de Nuits, [330]. The St. George, Meursalt, and Mont Rachet, [331]. Volnay the finest wine in Barry’s time, [331]. The vin de Beaune, [331]. The vin de Pomard, [332]. Chambertin the wine of Napoleon, [332]. The Romanée Conti, [333]. The Maçon and Beaujolais wines, [334]. Maçon a wholesome wine, [335]. Adulterated at Paris, [335]. Burgundy not to be iced, [335]. Burgundy at the roast, [336]. Champagne wine, [337]. Dispute, in the time of Louis XIV., between the Burgundy doctor and the Champenois, [337]. Fagon forbid the use of Champagne to Louis XIV., [337]. Opinion of the faculty of the town of Rheims, [337]. Colbert, a Champenois, but he did not give renown to the wines, [338]. Francis I., Leo. X., Charles V., and Henry VIII. had vineyards at Aï, [338]. Volnay drank at the coronation of Sobieski, [338]. Beaune served at Venice to the senators after the conquest of the Morea, [338]. St. Evremond on Champagne wine, [338]. Champagne used in putrid fevers, [339]. Millions of worthless Champagne sold at two francs and three francs the bottle, [340]. Dr. Henderson on Champagne, [340]. The briskest Champagne not the best, [340]. Crêmants and demi-mousseux wines, [341]. Sillery Champagne, [341]. Vin de la Maréchale, [342]. The rich, dry Sillery, [342]. Champagne not a vin de garde, [342]. Old Champagne, [343]. Jaquesson’s cellars, [343]. Champagne always improved by ice, [343]. Jullien on the high price of the vins mousseux, [344]. How to obtain a first-rate Champagne, [345]. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of Champagne at the docks are not worth the duty, [345]. When the bottling of Champagne begins, [345]. Vins grand mousseux, [346]. Precautions in packing Champagne for exportation, [346]. Champagne for India and America packed in salt, [346]. Burgundies so packed preserve their qualities, [347]. Claret, [347]. Château Margaux and Château Lafitte, [348]. Monton and Léoville, [348]. Kirwan and Château d’Issau, [348]. St. Julien, Béchevelle and St. Pierre, [348]. Great management in Bordeaux cellars, [349]. Brandy ought to be put in in very small quantities, [349]. Extract from Davies’ work on colouring Claret, [350]. A freer exchange of the vinous wealth of France with England desirable, [351]. Difference in price between first and inferior wines, [352]. Mixture of Benicarlo and other wines with claret, [353]. The age of wine at Bordeaux counted par feuilles, [353]. What Barry wrote ninety years ago on Claret wines, [353]. Names of the proprietors of vineyards and factors, 110 years ago, [354]. Irish Claret and Irish wine merchants, [355]. The Bordeaux wines celebrated in the days of Ausonius, [355]. A great proportion of the wine drank as Claret is vin ordinaire, [355]. Definition of the word Claret, [356]. The Côte Rôti, [356–7]. Hermitage and its division into five classes, [357]. White Hermitage of the late Lord Castlereagh, [357]. Hermitage of the late Marquis of Wellesley, [358]. The cost of wine cultivation in France immense, [359]. The German wines, their general character and durability, [359]. Price of Rüdesheim, [359]. In Barry’s day the best old Hock sold at 50l. the auhm, [360]. Marcobrunner, Rüdesheimer and Niersteiner, [360]. Julius Hospitalis and Liesteinwein wines, [360]. Spanish wines, [360–1]. Cellars and stock of Gordon and Co. of Cadiz, [361]. Amontillado, [361]. Port and Madeira, [362]. The Italian wines, [362]. The wines of Hungary, [362]. The Greek wines over-rated, [363]. The Constantia wine of the Cape, [363]. The Russian Champagne, [363]. The New South Wales wines, [363]. New vintages, [364]. Advice as to purchase and stock of wines, [365]. Good and low-priced wine a myth, [366]. Prices of wines at sales in Edinburgh and Dublin, [366]. Prices of Amontillado, Montilla, and Manzinilla, [366]. Fabulous prices given for old Ports and Sherries, [366]. First-rate Clarets rising in price, [367]. Burgundies, [367]. Dietetic qualités of wine, 367. The best Burgundies and Champagnes, [368]. The best Bordeaux wines, [368]. Red Constantin and Frontignan, [369]. Consumption of Champagne doubled in England since 1848, [369].

CHAPTER XXI.—The Cellar for Wines.

The cellar for wines, [370]. Requisites of a wine-cellar, [370]. Lighter wines require a colder cellar than strong, [371].

APPENDIX.

Luxuries of the table in France and England in mediæval and modern times, [373]. Menu of a dinner given by Mathieu Molé, in 1652, [375]. Menu of a supper of the Regent Orleans, [376]. Menu of a supper of Louis XV., [377]. Carte dinatoire of the citizen General Barras, [378]. Menu of the family Buonaparte at the Tuileries on Samedi Saint, 1811, [379]. Bill of fare of the first dinner of Louis XVIII. at Compiègne, [380]. Bill of fare of a dinner given by the Emperor Alexander on 11th September, 1815, [382]. Bill of fare of the first diplomatic dinner of the Duke of Wellington in 1815, [383]. Menu of a royal banquet given at the Tuileries by Louis XVIII. on Twelfth-day, 1820, [384]. Bill of fare, [385]. Luxuries in the days of Queen Mary, [385]. Common Council’s regulation as to dinners, [385]. Regulations for the aldermen, sheriffs, and city corporation, [386]. City venison feasts in time of Elizabeth, [386]. Letter of the Lord Mayor and aldermen to Lord Burleigh, [386]. The reign of Queen Anne the golden age of cookery, [386]. Dr. King’s “Art of Cookery,” [386]. Sir John Hill, M.D., [386]. The great Lord Chesterfield, [386]. La Chapelle his cook, [386]. Cookery book of La Chapelle, [386]. Lord Chesterfield sitting on a chair outside Chesterfield House, [387]. Bill of fare of official dinner of Lord Chesterfield, [387]. Bill of fare of a supper of Lord Chesterfield, [389]. The French emigrants in London, [390]. Entertainments given to the French royal family by the Marquis of Buckingham and Earl of Moira, [390]. Reception of the Count de Lille at Stowe, [390]. Stowe, a scene of great festivity in 1805 and 1808, [390]. Bill of fare of Christmas-dinner in 1808, given by the Duke of Buckingham to Louis XVIII, [391]. The Prince Regent’s love of French cookery, [392]. Bill of fare for the coronation banquet of George IV, [392]. Bill of fare for a private dinner given at the Pavilion, Brighton, in 1817, [393]. Bills of fare for dinners in January, April, May, and June, also for a dinner in plain English fashion, [395]. Anthony Carème, [396]. Mr. Wm. Hall’s panegyric on Carème, [398]. Autobiography of Carème, [399 to 406]. Fête given at the Elysée for the marriage of Prince Jerome, [406]. New invention of Carème, [407]. Aphorisms, thoughts, and maxims of Carème, [407]. Death of Carème in 1835 or 1836, [409]. Carème bestowed fine names on his soups, [409], Carème on maigre sauces, [409].