John Evelyn's French Gardener gives much informa tion on this subject, and his Pomona is, says Stopes, the first monograph on the manufacture of cider in England.

Cider is made in many parts of Barbary, and in Canada. In all the States, apples are abundant, particularly in New York and New England, and cider is a common drink of the inhabitants. And it is as excellent as it is common. That of New Jersey is generally considered the best. It is curious that the least juicy apples afford the best liquor. Cider of a superior quality is abundant in Cork, Waterford, and other counties of Ireland, where it was introduced, we are told, in the reign of Elizabeth. It was first made at Affane, in the county of Waterford. Worledge's Vinetum Britannicum, 1676, and his Most Easy Method for Making the Best Cider, 1687, have been considered at full length by Mr. Stopes. Worledge's press is an improvement upon one shown in Evelyn's

Pomona.

Cider appears in Russia under the name of Kvas. There is Yablochni kvas, made of apples; Grushevoi kvas, of pears, a perry; and Malinovoi kvas, of raspberries. George Turberville, secretary to the English Embassy to Moscow in the year 1568, mentions kvas in a description of the Russians of his time

as:

"Folk fit to be of Bacchus' train, so quaffing is their kind; Drink is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride.

Walker: Hist. Essay on

Hibernica, i. 194.

Gardening, p. 166. Anthologia

The soberest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide. If he to banquet bid his friends, he will not shrink

On them at dinner to bestow a dozen kinds of drink,

Such liquor as they have, and as the country givesTM,

But chiefly two, one called kwas, whereby the Mousike lives,
Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste;
The rest is mead, of honey made, wherewith their lips they
baste."

Stopes is of opinion that the finest cider is made, not in the west, as has been commonly asserted, but in the east of England. This authority seems particularly to favour the Ribston pippins of Norfolk.

"Worcester," says Macaulay, in his History of England, ch. iii., "is the queen of the cider land; but Devon and Somerset, Gloucester and Norfolk, might dispute the title. To make good cider the apples should be quite ripe, as the amount of sugar in ripe apples is 110; in unripe apples, 4'9; in over-ripe apples, 795. The fermentation should proceed slowly. Brande says that the strongest cider contains, in 100 volumes, 9.87 of alcohol of 92 per cent; the weakest, 5 21. By distillation, cider produces a good spirit; but it is seldom converted to that purpose in consequence of its acidity, which, however, is greatly remedied by rectification.

Much cider is distilled in Normandy, and sent to this country under the name of arrack, or some other foreign spirit, according to its flavour. To the Normans the invention of this liquor has been attributed. They are also said to have received it from the Moors. Whitaker (Hist. Manchester, i. 321) says this drink was introduced into this country by the Romans; and

H

Simmonds (p. 25) that it was first used in England about 1284.

Cider has been immortalised by Phillips in a classical poem, in imitation of Virgil's Georgics, which, according to Johnson, "need not shun the presence of the original." Milton's nephew thought that cider

"far surmounts

Gallic or Latin grapes."

PERRY.

Perry is prepared from pears, as cider from apples It is capable of being used in the adulteration of champagne. The harsher, redder, and more tawny pears produce the best drink. Perry is less popular than cider, but some consider it superior.2

1 The extra dry old lauded or pale cremant, or the extra reserve Cuvée, 1884 vintage.

For further information see Crocker, Marshall, Knight, and especially Stopes.

AN OLD CIDER MILL.

The Invention of Brandy-Early Alchemists-Aqua Vita -Distillation-The Still-room-Ladies Drinking-Nantes and Charente -Johnson's Idea of Brandy-The Charente District-Manufacture of Brandy-The Cognac Firms.

HO invented Brandy? is a question that can

WHO invented

not be authoritatively answered offhand; but the good people of some parts of Germany hold that it was the Devil. And their legend is, at all events, circumstantial.

Every one who is at all acquainted with old legends is fully aware that the Father of Evil is extremely simple, and has allowed himself, many times, to be outwitted by man. Once, especially, he was so guileless, as to put trust in a Steinbach man, who cajoled him into entering an old beech tree, and there he was imprisoned until the tree was cut down. His first step, on regaining his freedom, was to revisit his own particular dominion, which, to his horror, he found empty!

This, naturally, would not do, and he set about repeopling hell without delay. He thought the quickest

plan would be to start a distillery; so he hurried off at once to Nordhausen, where his manufacture of Brandy (his own invention) became so famous that people from all parts came to him to learn the new art, and to become distillers. From that time his Satanic Majesty has never had to complain of paucity of subjects.

It seems fairly established that the famous chemist Geber, who lived in the 7th or 8th century, was acquainted with distillation, and we know that it was practised by the Arabian and Saracenic alchemists, but have no knowledge whether they made any practical use of the alcohol they produced. They, at all events, gave us the word by which we now know the spirit, or ethereal part, of wine.

it

Alcohol, distilled from wine, is first reliably mentioned by a celebrated French alchemist and physician, Arnaud de Villeneuve, who died in 1313, who gave the name of aqua vita, or water of life,' and regarded it as a valuable adjunct in physic, and as a boon to humanity. Raymond Lully, the famous alchemist, who is said to have been his pupil, declared it to be "an emanation from the Deity," and on its introduction it was supposed to be the elixir of life, capable of rejuvenating those who partook of it, and, as such, was only purchasable at an extremely high price.

We may see, by a book' written 200 years after the death of Arnaud de Villeneuve, the esteem in which Aqua Vita was held even after so great a lapse of time.

1 The French name, Eau de Vie, having the same meaning.