A proof of the popularity of French wines at this period is found in the fact that in 1713, the year of the Peace of Utrecht, the registered imports, despite high duties, reached 2551 tuns, an amount not exceeded till 1786. The Treaty of Commerce, with which Bolingbroke (whose partiality to Champagne we have seen) and M. de Torcy sought to supplement that of Peace, having fallen through, the tavern-keepers put such a price on these wines that it was only members of the fashionable world who could afford to have what was termed ‘a good Champagne stomach.’[322] Their vogue is confirmed by the order given to her servant by a lady aspiring to take a leading position in the beau monde to
‘go to Mr. Mixture, the wine-merchant, and order him to send in twelve dozen of his best Champaign, twelve dozen of Burgundy, and twelve dozen of Hermitage,’[323]
as the entire stock for her cellar. ‘Good wine’ was indeed, in those days, ‘a gentleman.’
‘GOOD WINE A GENTLEMAN.’
The unvarying rule that the fashions set by the most select are inevitably aped by the most degraded, so far as lies in their power, is exemplified in the Tavern Scene of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress, where the table at which the hero and his inamoratas are seated is set out with the tall wine-glasses wherein
‘Champaign goes briskly round.’[324]
