Q,6o RIESBECIt’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY .

fir ft ripe bunch of grapes in his vineyard; a cudom, it feems, moft religioufly obfervedby ail the rich inhabitants of this country. This feaft was the more acceptable, as ithappened that the grapes had this year ripened uncommonly late. After the altar ofBacchus was erefted, our hod made a fbort but excellent fpeech, fuited to the nature ofthe feftivity; and then we danced round the grape. Never in my life, brother, have Idanced with fuch pleafure as I did here. The remembrance of thefe joyous momentsdill pofleffes and tranfports me. Were I to form a commonwealth, fedivals of this fortfhould be the only ones feen in it. Can there, indeed, be a more facred or more re-fpeftable holiday, than that in which we joyfully thank the Creator for the benefits hehas bellowed upon us ? Nor was our pleafure diminifhed by this not turning out theonly ripe bunch of grapes in the vineyard of our hofl; for though on a nearer invedi-gation we found more, we contended for the honour of the grape round which wehad danced and fung, with more heat than if it had been an oriental pearl of the famefize.

Rudefheim is a rich village, which contains about two thoufand five hundred inha-bitants. The wine of this place is looked upon as without comparifon the bed of theRhinegau, and confequently of all Germany . I found it much more fiery than that ofHochheim; but for pleafantnefs of tade there is no comparifon betwixt them. Thebed Rudefheim, like the bed Hochheimer, fells upon the fpot for three guilders thebottle. You can have no tolerable wine here for one guilder, nor any very good fortwo 5 at lead I fhould prefer the word Burgundy I ever taded to any Rudefheimer Imet with either here or at Mentz for thefe prices. Indeed, the wine of our fpiritualhod was far better than any we could get at the inn. It dands to reafon, that the famevintage furniflies grapes of very different degrees of goodnefs; but befides this, it is inthe Rhinegau as every where elfe. The bed wines are generally fent abroad by thepoor and middling inhabitant, and the word kept for internal confumption •, for the ex-pence of the carriage being the fame in both cafes, drangers had much rather pay adouble price for the good than have the bad. It is only rich people, fuch as our hodwas, who can afford to keep the produce of their land for their own drinking. Uponthis principle, I have eaten much better Swifs cheefes out of Switzerland than in it, andhave drank much better Rhenifh in the inns of the northern parts of Germany , thanin the country where the wine grows. The pofition of the country alfo contributes torender the wine dearer than it would otherwife be. As the bed wine grows in its morenorthern parts the eafy tranfport by the Rhine to Holland, and all parts of the world,raifes its price above its real value.

The place where the flower of the Rudefheim wine grows is precifely the neck of theland, formed by the winding of the Rhine to the north, after it has run to the wedwardfrom Mentz hither. This neck, which is a rock almod perpendicular, enjoys the firdrays of the fifing, and the lad of the fetting fun. It is divided into fmall low terraces,which are carried up to the utmod top of the hill like deep dairs ; thefe are guarded byfmall walls and earthen mounds, which are often wafhed away by the rain. The firdvine was brought hither from France , and they dill call the bed grape the Orleanois.They plant the vine docks very low’, fcarce ever more than four or five feet high. Thisway of planting the vine is favourable to the produftion of a great deal of wine, butnot to its goodnefs, as the phlegmatic and harfh parts of it would certainly evaporatemore, if the fap was refined through higher and more numerous canals. This is un-doubtedly the reafon why every kind of Rhenifh has fomething in it that is harfh, four,and watery. The harveft of the bed vineyards, which are the lower ones, in the above-mentioned neck of land, is often bought before hand, at the advanced price of fome du-

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