137 / 248
CHAPTER XIII
THE OLD WINES AND THE NEW
Decline and fall of port—Old topers—A youthful wine-bibber—
The whisky age succeeds the port age—"Jeropiga"—Land
ladies' port—A monopoly—Port nj. gout—A quaint break
fast in Reading—About nightcaps—Sherry an absolutely
pure wine—Except when made within the four miles radius
—Treading the grapes—"Yeso"—Pliny pops up again—
** Lime in the sack" —What the Lancet says "Old
Sherry"—Faux pas ofa General—About vintages.
On the decline and fall of port wine volumes
might be written. At the same time I am not
the man who is going to write them. Accord
ing to early recollections, the conversation of
my elders was limited to hunting, racing, and
the wines of Oporto. The man who had "'20,"
or " Comet," port in his cellars was a man to be
cultivated, and dined with ; whilst '"34"
" '47" men were next in demand. And this
was after the era of the three-and-four-bottle
heroes, of whose deeds I have heard my father
speak, almost with bated breath ; how, after the
retirement of the ladies, to discuss tea and
scandal by themselves, the dining-room door
would be locked by the host himself, who would
I, ill