No. 131.
[Addison.
From Tuesday, Feb. 7, to Thursday, Feb. 9, 1709-10.
——Scelus est jugulare Falernum,
Et dare Campano toxica sæva mero.
Mart., Epig. i. 18.
Sheer Lane, February 8.
There is in this city a certain fraternity of chemical operators, who work under ground in holes, caverns, and dark retirements, to conceal their mysteries from the eyes and observation of mankind. These subterraneous philosophers are daily employed in the transmutation of liquors, and, by the power of magical drugs and incantations, raising under the streets of London the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France. They can squeeze bordeaux out of the sloe, and draw champagne from an apple. Virgil in that remarkable prophecy,
Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,[76]
(The ripening grape shall hang on every thorn),
seems to have hinted at this art which can turn a plantation of Northern hedges into a vineyard. These adepts are known among one another by the name of "wine-brewers," and I am afraid do great injury, not only to her Majesty's customs, but to the bodies of many of her good subjects.