WINES.
With one or two exceptions only, the different kinds of wines owe their names to the places where they are produced. Thus, Burgundy and Champagne respectively come from the French provinces, Pontac from the town, and Moselle from the vineyards extensively cultivated on the banks of the river, so designated. Rhenish wines are popular all over Europe; yet none are probably more celebrated than the Johannisberg, produced at the Castle of Johannisberg (literally, John’s Rock), near Wiesbaden, and Hock, produced at Hockheim. Among Italian wines, Florence comes from the historic “City of Flowers,” whereas Falernian, celebrated by Martial, Horace, and other Latin authors, was made from grapes grown in the district around the ancient city of Falernum. A justly celebrated Tuscan wine is the Montepulciano, produced at the old city so denominated. As its name implies, Malaga is imported from Malaga, in Spain; Sherry is our English rendering of the place-name Xeres, near Cadiz; while Port constitutes the native wine of Oporto, the capital of Portugal. Of Mediterranean wines, Cyprus, brought from the now British island of that name, and Malmsey, an English corruption of Malvasia, so termed after the district in the island of Candia, where it is produced, are the chief. Madeira and Canary are imported from the islands so called, situated on the great ocean highway to the Cape of Good Hope. An excellent wine greatly sought after on the Continent, though somewhat unknown in this country, is Tokay, produced from white grapes cultivated in the district of Tokay, Upper Hungary. Claret owes its designation to the French clair, clear, because it is a clarified wine; whereas Tent Wine is a mere corruption of the Spanish vino tinto, signifying a white wine coloured. The sparkling champagne known as Sillery popularizes the name of the Marquis de Sillery, the proprietor of the vineyards where this particular species is produced; just as Pommery is destined to perpetuate the memory of Madame Pommery, mother to the Duchess de Polignac, and sole proprietress of the vineyards and subterranean Pommery vaults near Rheims. Moet and Chandon similarly denotes the champagne brewed by the well-known French firm trading under the style of “Moet et Chandon.”
Among concoctions of the vinous order we have Hippocras, so called because it is said to have been first made according to the recipe of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine; Badminton, originally prepared at Badminton, the seat of the Duke of Beaufort; and Negus, named after Colonel Francis Negus, who invented it. Formerly, our countrymen set great store by Sack, which was simply the designation of a dry wine, derived from the French word sec, dry. Wine is said to be a Dry Wine when it is neither sweet nor sparkling. It cannot be sweet because, the fermentation being complete, the sugar contained in it is fully decomposed; moreover, it is dry because the carbonic acid has escaped. For the like reason, a certain evidence that port wine has completed the process of fermentation is the collection of tartar in the interior of the bottle, forming a crust; hence the term Crusted Port. A very bad wine of whatever kind usually bears the name of Three Men Wine, owing to the idea that it requires one man to hold the drinker, and another to pour it down his throat, while the third is the unfortunate individual himself. The derivation of the term Wine is the Anglo-Saxon vin from the Latin vinum, allied to vinea, a vine.
LITERARY SOBRIQUETS.
Gildas, the earliest chronicler of British history (born 511, died 570), was surnamed The Wise on account of his learning, which must have excited the wonder of the semi-barbarian inhabitants of these islands in the sixth century. Later, the Saxon historian Beda, incorrectly called Bede (born 673, died 735), was surnamed The Venerable because he was also an ecclesiastic. Approaching more modern times, we meet with John White, a Nonconformist lawyer, who, in consequence of being the author of a work entitled “The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests, made and admitted into Benefices by the Prelates, &c.,” merited the popular description of Century White. Still nearer our own day, Matthew Gregory Lewis (born 1775, died 1818) became the recipient of the name of Monk Lewis, after the publication of his famous novel, “The Monk”; just as John Thomas Smith, the antiquary (born 1766, died 1833), was indebted to his chatty, albeit valuable work, “A Book for a Rainy Day,” for his sobriquet of Rainy-Day Smith.
Turning to the poets, John Sylvester, the translator of Du Barta’s “Divine Weeks and Works” (born 1563, died 1613), is popularly referred to as Silver-tongued Sylvester on account of the sweet melody of his verse. John Taylor, The Water Poet (born 1580, died 1654), was a Thames waterman; James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd (born 1772, died 1835), followed the employment of a shepherd in the forest of Ettrick, Selkirkshire; and Edward Capern, The Bidëford Postman (born 1819), was for several years a letter-carrier in the little town of Bidëford, Devonshire. Nathaniel Lee (born 1655, died 1691) received the name of The Mad Poet from the fact of his four years’ confinement in a mad-house. The Quaker Poet was Bernard Barton, the friend of Charles Lamb (born 1784, died 1849); while Samuel Rogers, The Banker Poet (born 1763, died 1855), divided his time pleasantly between the counting-house and the study. Thomas Moore (born 1779, died 1852) merited the style of Anacreon Moore by his translations from the Greek poet Anacreon, and the circumstance that his own original verses were constructed upon the same classic model. Richard Horne, the poet and critic (born 1802, died 1884), was known as Orion Horne, and also as The Farthing Poet, on account of his principal work “Orion,” published at one farthing, as a satire on the poverty of the book-buying public.
Sir Walter Scott (born 1771, died 1832) was surnamed The Wizard of the North owing to the magic influence which he exerted over all classes of the people, and the widespread fascination of his novels; while Henry Mackenzie, the author of “The Man of Feeling” (born 1745, died 1831), enjoyed the signal honour of being designated The Addison of the North, owing to the purity and excellence of his style. No more flattering recognition of the genius of William Wordsworth (born 1770, died 1850) could ever have been desired than the title of The Minstrel of the Border, bestowed upon him by Sir Walter Scott. The Corn Law Rhymer was Ebenezer Elliott (born 1781, died 1849) who, by the dedication of his numerous versified philippics to the opponents of Free Trade, indirectly, if not directly, prepared the way for the repeal of the obnoxious Corn Laws in the year 1846. Reference to the word “Philippics” carries us back in imagination to Demosthenes, who directed one of his most famous orations against Philip, King of Macedon; hence, any indignant invective or vehement denunciation is characteristically styled a Philippic.