their son. The earl died at Quarr, in the year 1154, being the first year of Henry II. Three hundred pounds were bequeathed by William de Vernon, for the erection of a tomb for his father and himself. A monument to the memory of Lady Cicely, second daughter of Edward IV., was also erected in the chapel. After the Dissolution, the abbey was purchased for the sake of its materials, by a merchant of Southampton, named George Mills. In the spirit of Vandalism, he destroyed the venerable pile, with its sacred altars, noble monuments, and sepulchres of the illustrious dead. Subsequently, the estate was purchased by lord chief justice Fleming, and it still remains in the hands of his descendants.

The abbey was originally encompassed by a wall, nearly a mile in circumference, the greater part of which remains. The few relics of the building denote the architecture to have been a mixture of Anglo-Norman and Gothic. The church or chapel of the monastery may be traced at the east end, and some vaulted cellars are discernible at the west end. The walls which remain are converted into barns and stables, and a farmhouse has been erected of their materials for the residence of the bailiff. The distance from the sea-shore is inconsiderable; and the north gate, which led to the sea, was armed with a portcullis. Just above highwater mark, Edward III. erected a fort for the defence of the monastery; but not a vestige of it can be traced.

William de Vernon left lands to the abbey, for masses to be said for the souls of King Heury II; his father, Baldwin, the founder; his mother, Adeliza; his elder brother, Baldwin; Mabel, his wife; and his son, Baldwin. This deed is dated September 4,

1206.

We are indebted for the substance of these historical details to Sheridan's Guide, already referred to.

Useful Arts.

ORANGES.

THE oranges chiefly used in England, are from Portugal, Malta, the Barbary coast, and Seville; but by far the greatest number are from Seville; the export from which, equals that of all these other places. About forty vessels are yearly freighted with oranges from Seville; each cargo consists of four hundred chests, and each chest contains eight hundred oranges, so that the average number exported from Seville, is twelve million, eight hundred thousand oranges; of this quantity, about one tenth part are bitter. The price paid by the London merchant to the Seville exporter, is one hundred and twenty reals a chest, which is fourpence halfpenny per dozen, or one farthing and a half a piece; so that if the freight and other expenses be added, one. can scarcely expect a good orange much under a penny. The cargo of each vessel is generally consigned to about ten persons; so that the trade is a secure one, and, to the grower, sufficiently profitable. The best oranges are allowed to remain long on the tree; the tree blossoms in March, and the choicest fruit still hangs on the tree when the blossom of another crop begins to appear. The Spaniards do not esteem them as thoroughly ripe till then; but, in this state, they are of course unable to bear exportation. The chief part of the export takes place in November and December, and a small number is shipped in January; if the fruit

(Abridged from Inglis's Spain in 1830.) XERES is the famous nursery of sherries. The vineyards lie scattered; but supposing them to be all concentrated, they might occupy about six miles square. They are mostly planted upon slopes; and the nearest vineyard to the city, is distant from it about half a league.

The grape that produces the wine of Xeres, is a green grape; it is allowed to become perfectly ripe, being plucked just before it begins to shrivel: this, in average years, is on the 9th of September,-a day marked in Catholic countries, by being the day before the feast of the immaculate Conception; but in less forward years, the plucking is deferred until the 15th of September, beyond which day it is never protracted. After the plucking, those growers who are the most attentive to their wines, place the grapes in baskets, exposed to the sun for forty-eight hours, turning and sorting them all the while, according as they appear to require this attention.

It has often been said that sherry is a compound wine; but this is a mistake. The best pale and light golden sherries are made from the pure Xeres grape, with only the addition of two bottles of brandy to a butt, which is no more than one two-hundred-and-fiftieth part. This brandy is of an excellent quality; it is imported from Catalunia, and seemed to me scarcely inferior to the best and purest cogniac. Neither are the deep golden and brown sherries of the best quality, compound wines, though they may be called mixed wines. The difference is thus produced:-If a butt of brown sherry be wanted, a butt of light sherry is boiled down to one-fifth part of its bulk, till it acquire a deep brown colour; and one-half of this quantity is added to a butt of the best pale sherry, of course removing from it as much as makes room for this additional tenth part of a butt of boiled wine. When it is said that a butt of light sherry is boiled down, it is not to be understood that this is wine of an inferior kind; it is wine produced from the Xeres grape, planted upon a lighter soil, near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, and producing a somewhat lighter wine. To make a butt of brown sherry, a butt and a half is, therefore, required, deducting a tenth part; but the brown sherry is not more expensive, because the grape from which the boiled wine is made, is more abundant than the other grape, and consequently

cheaper. This boiled wine is also mixed, in the proportion of one-half, with unboiled wine,-not to be drunk, but to be added in smaller or larger quantities to other sherries, for the mere purpose of giving them colour, should this be desired by the English merchant. It is evident, therefore, from these details, that although brown sherry cannot be said to be a compound wine, inasmuch as it is all the wine of Xeres, the pale sherries are, nevertheless, the purest; and all the gradations of colour upon which so much stress is laid, have nothing to do with the quality of the wine, but depend entirely upon the greater or smaller quantity of boiled wine used for colouring it.

Amontillado, the produce also of the Xeres grape, is made either intentionally or accidentally: if it be intended to produce amontillado, the fruit is plucked a fortnight sooner than for sherry. But it is an extraordinary fact, that if a hundred butts of wine be taken from a Xeres vineyard, and treated in precisely the same way, several of them will, in all probability, turn out amontillado, without the grower or the merchant being able to assign any reason for this. Amontillado is the purest of all wine; for it will bear no admixture of either brandy, or boiled wine; whatever is added to it, entirely spoils it.

Sherries, when adulterated, are not usually adulterated by the London wine-merchant, with the exception of those extremely inferior wines, which, from their excessive low price, no one can expect to be genuine wines, and which are, probably, mixed with Cape. But the class of wines which pass under the denomination of "low-priced sherries," are not adulterated in London, but at Xeres-by the grower, not by the exporter. These wines are mixed with the wines of Moguer, and with a larger proportion of brandy; and the exporter, in purchasing them from the grower, is quite well aware of their quality: but, being ordered to send a large cargo of low-priced wines, he is forced to purchase and export these. It may be laid down as a fact, that genuine sherry, one year old, cannot be imported under thirty shillings per dozen; and if to this be added the profit of the merchant, and the accumulation of interest upon capital on older wine, it is obvious that genuine sherry, four years old, cannot be purchased in England under forty-five shillings.

The principal depositories of wine at Xeres and at Port St. Mary's, are not cellars, but lightly constructed buildings, containing various chambers. There are generally three tier of casks, laid horizontally upon beams; and in the principal vaults, as many as two thousand five hundred butts may be seen. I noticed many casks without bungs; this, I was told, is not at all prejudicial to the wine, but, on the contrary, if a brick be merely laid

upon the hole, to keep out dust, the admission of air is considered an advantage. Sherry is a very hardy wine; and is well known, by the merchants of Xeres, to be improved by exposure to the weather. An illustration of this fact lately occurred: the roof of one of the wine-houses fell in; and, not being rebuilt, the wine was left exposed to the opposite temperatures of winter and summer; and this wine was celebrated as the finest that for many years had left Xeres.

Before visiting Xeres, one cannot have any idea of the variety in flavour, and the various gradations of excellence in sherry; and, after tasting the primest samples of each kind, from the palest straw, up to the deep brown, it is impossible to say which is the finest. I need scarcely repeat again, that it is entirely by the aroma and by the taste-not at all by the colour, that sherries are to be judged. The wide differences in colour, depend entirely upon the proportion of boiled wine; while those slighter shades, perceptible among the pale and light golden wines, are owing to some small difference in the ripeness of the fruit.

A few houses, of the greatest capital, are growers, as well as merchants; but, generally speaking, the wine is bought of the growers when on the lees. The exporter who is also a grower, has an advantage over the other merchant, in the perfect security he has, that no wine of Moguer has been mixed with the sherry. But the merchants are not afraid to trust to their knowledge and experience, in being able to detect adulterated wine; and besides, those who are perfectly accustomed to the trade can tell, before vintage time, by merely looking at a vineyard, within two or three butts of the quantity the vineyard will produce: so that, when one comes to treat for the produce of those vineyards which he has had in his eye, he discovers by the quantity whether it has been much adulterated with Moguer. An experienced merchant possesses an intimate acquaintance with the quality of the different vineyards; among which, the most essential differences are found, even when they lie contiguous. It is, of course, this difference in the quality of the vine, that creates the difference in price and quality among the genuine unadulterated sherries. In this trade, as in every other, the capitalist has an advantage; for, if he advances a few bags of dollars to the cultivator during the summer, he has the first choice of the November sales, when the article is always cheaper.

It is difficult to say what is the return for land under a vineyard in Xeres; this, of course, depends upon the quality of the produce, and partly upon the convenience of road and market. But all the vineyards of Xeres require great expense, and unintermitting labour. The following is a summary

of the management of the vine producing sherry.

The first operation is to take up the canes, or props, immediately after the vintage is gathered: the second operation immediately follows this; it is, to dig small pits about a yard square round each plant, that the vines may obtain a permanent advantage from the rains. There is then an interval of labour, till after the first rains have fallen; and in the early part of January, when this has taken place, the third operation of the vinegrower is, to prune the whole plant; and it is a curious fact, that the vineyard which is the earliest pruned, is the latest in budding; the plant too, is always better, the vine stronger, and more firmly rooted. The next operation is to close the pits, in order that the moisture which has been received, may be retained. After this, but a little later, the whole vineyard is dug up, to loosen the soil. The next operation is, to free the soil of grass and weeds, by turning it over; and this is repeated once, twice, or thrice, according as the rains may have reproduced the weeds, and rendered a repetition of this labour necessary. All these operations are concluded by the middle of March. When the vineyard has been thoroughly cleared of weeds, the next care of the husbandman is to smooth the soil, which is done twice, at an interval of three weeks: this done, he cuts off the vicious sprouts at the roots of the plants, which hinder their nourishment; he then pulverizes the land to a fine powder; and, lastly, he puts in the stakes to support the coming harvest. These are the distinct operations to be performed in succession, and each at its fixed time: but these do not comprehend all the labours of the vineyard; for, during the whole of this time, there are many lesser cares with which the grower must occupy himself; the most unintermitting and most laborious of these, being the search and destruction of insects. Such are the toils which are necessary to procure us the enjoyment of a glass of genuine sherry. The Xeres vintage is not considered an uncertain crop; the climate in that country may be depended upon; so that labour is certain, or almost certain of its reward. The wine trade employs, one way and another, the whole inhabitants of Xeres, and Port St. Mary: the latter is a very rising place; it is a more convenient point of export than Xeres, being close to the sea; and new wine establishments are every year springing up there.

Good sherry is an expensive wine even at Port St. Mary and Cadiz. The small wine, the vin ordinaire of the district, is about 6d. per bottle; but this, although passing under the generic name of sherry, is not produced from the Xeres grape, though there is so much similarity, that the sherry flavour is at