The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-07 00:00:00

MARCH 7, 1857. fittrature. A Pilgrimage into Dauphine; comprising a Visit to the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse. fly the Rev. George M. Musgrave, M.A. Two Vols. London: Hurst and Blackett. IT is a long time since we had any good travels in France. Railways, handbooks, and the newspapers, as well as the want of novelty, have extinguished the race of professional tourists who used to " do " France in pon derous quartos, garnished with second-hand anecdotes and scraps from French authors. Everybody has been to Paris ; and travelling amongst our neighbours is just as common as going to "the Lakes." Authors can scarcely expect readers for tours in regions so near home. Yet the social condition of France would well repay detailed study. The absence of a landed aristocracy, the ascendancy of an ex clusively official system of rule, the equality of conditions, the comparative wellbeing of the mass of the cultivators of the soil, would invite the laborious study of a modern Arthur Young. A political economist, with a mind liberalised by classical culture and foreign travel, might produce an interesting and valuable work on France. For the purely picturesque describer the cathedrals, vine yards, and rivers of France, along with the local costumes of the peasantry, and, last not least, the cookery of the country, afford con siderable resources. These volumes before us we have read with pleasure. They are written in a fresh and lively tone, and would suggest more youth in the author than he himself acknowledges. He tells us (vol i. p. 11.) of his recollecting Lord Keith's attempt in 1804 against Boulogne, and his having " heard on the Kentish coast the " firing of guns from those very heights where " I was at this moment (June. 1855) ru " minating." His composition is not that of a hackneyed writer, and his matter is well selected. He traverses a part of France which (with the exception of Lyons) has been less often described than either Normandy or the Gironde. lipernay, Rheims, Commercy, Neuf chateau, Dijon, Burgundy vineyards, all have one or more chapters. A large portion of the second volume is given to a description of La Grande Chartreuse, which is minutely de scribed. Our critical opinion may be expressed in a form which naturally becomes antithetical. Mr. Musgrave's best chapters are on cham pagne wine and convents, and his opinions on both are sound and orthodox. But though not a teetotaller, he is no bacchanalian ; and though a staunch Protestant, he is no bigot. Before quoting his remarks on champagne we shall extract a passage on potatoes a /a Fran gaise The breadth of potato plant around Paris is of vast extent; indeed, throughout France this vegetable appears to be more abundantly cultivated than in England: yet it is notorious that one may traverse the empire, and not find a genuinely good potato. The beautiful specimens with which we are familiar in our own country, from Yorkshire down to Penzance and the Scilly Isles—those mealy bulbs which break down in the plate, like little balls of flour, and emu• late the most farinaceous bread-fruit—are wholly unknown to our continental neighbours. They exist not ►n the ccuntry ; neither are our prime " kidneys " to be found in any single department, except where opulent proprietors who have resided for some time in this kingdom, and made a point of introducing good sorts into their forcing frames, succeed in rearing our " ash leaf," " regents," and " flukes," and similar varieties. Instead of this goodly growth we find a close•grained, yellow, waxy root fit only to be sliced and fried ; or rendered edible by the softening processes of the buttery sauté. Hence the pomme•de•terre au nature! (plain boiled), in or out of its " jacket," is not a dish re cognised by the French cuisine; and is only brought upon table " by special command," to the amazement of all beholders! Our Irish friends tell us that the best potatoes in the world are to be found in England. It is a vegetable whose wholesomeness depends on its cooking ; and the reason why the French fry their potatoes is explained by the author on account of the badness of the vegetable in France. The soil of France is not suited for vegetables, which require a peculiarly compact and rich, deep garden soil. hence the French have recourse to all sorts of artificial processes. For example, we are here told : THE PRESS. Seeing a very high chimney below, on the water side, and a large Wilding annexed, I asked Mullot whether it was a papentnill. In reply, I learned this was a very remarkable manufactory established of late years by a M. Fournier, in whose hands the whole of the barge traffic on the Canal de l'Ourcq is held, and constant communication maintained hereby with Paris; not only for all such merchandise as is transportable generally by this most useful watercourse; but for the produce, in particular, of the mill just nrentiemed, which is exclusively occupied in drying and compressing vegetables. By means of a twenty-four horse-power engine, the hydraulic pressure is brought to bear upon tons of cabbages, carrots, turnips, spinach, beans, peas, artichokes, onions, and other such garden stuff, partially macerated, till they assume the consistency and receive the shape of oil sake. These tablets of concentrated vege table matter are then thoroughly dried, and admit of being kept in store for a considerable period. When used, they are subjected to the action of boiling water, and begin to expand, and resume the colour and consistency of fresh herbs ; and the quantity shipped off to the Crimea, about the period of my visit, was enormous. A cake of the size of a man's hand makes potage . for eight persons. But these artificial substitutes aro only toler able counterfeits, and they are too often em ployed in French restaurants. The effect of staleness is rarely calculated by their com pounders. Omelettes made of musty eggs may be disguised with apricot jam and other condiments, but they are precursors of black draughts, and—but let us hear our reverend author on champagne. And first of the famous Meet : I made a point of paying my respects to the cellars of M. Moet, whose name I had so often seen making such rapid aerial ascents at the extremity of his released corks ; and after exploring the subterranean saloons and cloisters, sacred to Bacchus and bottles, it would be interesting to see how this great embellisher and " whip" of our social feasts was himself lodged; and where, while nestling in his own palatial home, he had thrown open the gates of another, equally luxurious and extensive, to Napoleon 1., who was lodged in it on the eve of the battle of Montmirail, and of the defeat of Blucher, in 1814. M. Moet's splendid residence is situate on one side of the principal street of Epernay ; and exactly opposite to it is its counterpart, which forty-three years ago received the then Emperor of France and all his suite. Both mansions are the reflex of the soil they stand upon ; for they are one white. No model in biscuit or Bristol cardboard could be more destitute of colour: but this is the prevalent taste in France, and the exteriors, at least, look clean and whole- some. I counted in M. Moet's own special flower-garden upwards of ninety orange-trees, surrounding the piece of water between the greenhouse and courtyard; the latter area reminding me of that in front of the Euston-square Hotel. And next of the great millionaire, Madame Clicquot : Madame Clicquot's Château de Bourceau, opposite to Damery, is literally a castle in the air; for it stands on the extreme summit of a considerable eminence, rising so abruptly fr..m the line of rail, and elevated at such a per pendicular height, as to require no little outstretching of the head and shoulders from a carriage window to gain a view of it. The style of this costly edifice of brilliant white stone is imitative of some of the most ornate speci• mens of the middle ages, castellated and turreted con amore; and the natives admire it as a first•rate sample of modern building; but it is painfully new (being but five years of age), and parvenu ; and requires the " toning down" of, at least, two centuries. Through the telescope in this lady millionaire's drawing•room she may espy the hills of Dormans, and Haut Villiers, the ruins of Château Chiltillon, and the ripening clusters of thrice famous Ai ; a name far tco familiar to the lovers of Trine mouaseuz to need particularisation or eulogium here. Madame lives in a very atmosphere of vineyards, and thereout bath sucked no em ill advantage in a bibulous and lovemaking genera- tion ; for her fortune is estimated to be quadruple of M. Moet's, and her daughters are the wives of wealthy men of title. " Wine, wine, wine, rosy wine !" is the genius loci ; and if all the hedge timber we saw between Port a Hinson and Epernay had been cork•trees, it would only have been in keeping with the general features and prestige of the neighbourhood. The account of the stock of Moet's wines, and of the cellars, is very curious. Hero are statistics that must stagger the teetotallers : The cellarmen on M. Moet's premises were extremely civil and obliging. He employs about two hundred work. people all through the year, of which number thirty are boys, and twelve women. These women do the whole work of tinfoiling the corks after the final wire-fastening; and wrap up the bottles in paper, as we see them when we open the cases. One of the chief overlookers took a lighted candle, and placed another in my hand, and proceeded to conduct me, at my request, through the principal cellars, which are about fifty feet below the level of the street. He said the stock in hand was regularly kept up to a total of three millions of bottles (upwards of five thousand pipes) ; portioned off into growths of various years and qualities. The wine is corked in the following way : Not far from the Grand Berceau was a high vaulted chamber, containing seven vast tars which held from two thousand three hundred, to three thousand one hundred gallons, one with another. These are kept filled every year till bottling time. Alongside of these monster casks were eight men occupied in the operation of corking. The cork being taken out of hot water, for which a little steaming apparatus is kept close at hand, comes to the " chewier " (or iron•framed machine for driving it into the bottle) 231 in a very soft and supple state. It is exactly two inches long and one and a quarter in diameter, and in less than s second of time after it is submitted to the grip and squeeze of the chantier and its mallet, it descends into the neck of the bottle, and is ready for the string and first wiring. The men I saw on this occasion were engaged on these three operations alone ; for the tinfoil and wrapper would not be in requisition till the last corking and wiring had takes place. We have seen soda-water in a manufactory corked with inconceivable rapidity, and the operation is more difficult. The " shaking " of the wine in the cellar may give a hint to private persons respecting home-made wines : The man whom I found here was going his rounds to give each of the bcales under his charge a smart drake from left to right and back again. This he did by an in conceivably rapid action of his right wrist, after which be replaced the bottle ; marking it wi white, and raising it a little higher than when he drew it out. This was to be done twice a day for four, five, or six weeks, accordingly as the sediment might be found passing from the sides to the neck of the bottle ; for, once deposited there, the " dis gorging" process would become necessary • that is, the string would be cut and the cork expelled, and a couple of glasses of liquor be permitted to escape with it, carrying off the said deposit, on the riddance of which the bottle is dexterously raised by the hand of the disgorger, and pre. vented discharging any more liquor; but is filled, immedi ately, to the full extent of the quantity just released, from a bottle of pure wine standing alongside. This operation takes place three times, at least, before the liquor is fit for final sweetening, corking, stringing. tinfoiling and paper ing. I witnessed the shaking on this occasion, as I have just said, at Epernay; and the remaining processes at Rheims. The manner in which this shake is given 'is very peen. liar. The bottle being twelve inches and a half in circum ference keeps the four fingers and thumb in full stretch, when grasping it at its extreme broad end ; and if the shaker were to agitate his elbow in the movement, as I did mine, when I tried to imitate him, he would find his arm disable) before he had handled fifty. The vibration is produced by the wrist exclusively ; and fifteen thousand are thus treated in the course of nine horns. A French winegrower gave the author the following information : " You never drink this wine entire," said Monsieur L. " Your nation rejects it in that pure and primitive forte in which it is drunk in France and many other countries. The Russians consume enormous supplies of it ; and they, of all the Northeners (and you know what intense cold is felt in Russia), drink it without the slightest admixture of brandy. Whereas, to forty gallons of pure champagne wine, we are obliged, by the requisitions of the British agents, to add, at least, five (but more frequently from ten to twelve) gallons of brandy; while for German orders we infuse half a gallon only in that quantity. We consider the true wine spoilt by this mixture ; but the English palate demands it, not only in champagne, but in other wines likewise. Here, for instance, is a letter from Duff Gordon, in which he guarantees to me the delivery of a certain quantity of sherry from Cadiz, without any of the admixture usually introduced, is a matter of course, into the sherries sent to England. All our champagne wine is sweetened artificially ; but that is indispensable, as the unsweetened juice of the grape would find no purchaser." The fact about the champagne being brandied is well known. Tho author describes all the sweetening processes. but we prefer to quote the prices current of the wine at Rheims : per bottle. A. d. Grand Vin Cremant (first class creaming Champagne) Sparkling Verzenay (finest growth of Rheims) Fleur Bouzy 3 8 Sparkling Bouzy 3 3 Fleur Sillery Sillery ( first quality) Sparkling Ai Pink Champagne 2 9 The cost of a cue of three dozen of Verzenay (bottles, case, packing, and cartage to the railway inclusive), would be charged to a buyer in Rheims, seven pounds four shillings. It would be delivered at London-bridge Station for ten pounds fcur shillin g s; the duty being paid in that sum. Thus the total cost would amount to sixty-eight shillings the dozen. And further on let us hear his reverence in. raptures : " And now," said mine host, " let me offer you some of the best wine we have to boast of at Rheims." The string and wire were instantly cut, and away went the cork on its aerial travels. Our glasses overflowed with the creamy stream, and my lips with compliments en its unsurpassable excellence immediately afterwards. It was. indeed, beautiful wine. When all the eulogium which such a creditable sample elicited had been exhausted, and the sober certainty alone remained of having lived thus to clasp perfection, the announcement was quietly made of the bottle, just emptied, being the identical one from which I had en deavoured, in vain, to drink a quarter of a glassful two hours previously ! It had not been iced, but placed, after my first introduc tion to it, in a very cold vault, which sent it to table suts• ciently chilled, while the thermometer outdoors indicated eightyfive degrees of heat. This was a pleasant mode of illustration. The syrup renders the wine palatable ; the body, the peculiar flavour of the grape, the effervescence and general good condition