Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/352

ch^ttc. o fr MAmcm est £ r. p% fpread over the face erf the latter, and when they muff have &€t ually continued thefr prflgrefs into the former * The Romans, even nearly to' the days of Lucuflusy ^ere'verY feldom aMe to regale themfelves with wine. Very iittfe *as fhefi raifed within the compafs of Italy. And the foreign wirt«  were fo dear* that they were veryfefdfotrc produced at an fenter* tainment ; and, when they were, each gueft was indulged only with a fingle draught. But in the feventh century of Rome, as the extent of their eonquefrs '- augmented the decree of tKeir wealth and enlarged the fphere of t&eir luiury, toin&s fiecame the obje£t of particular attention, many wihe* vaults were co&- ftrufted, and good flocks of liquor were repofited in them * This naturally gave encouragement to the wines of the country > and the Falernian rofe immediately into great- repute, and' a variety of others, the ftiH- celebrated wine of Florence among the reft, fticceeded it about the elofe of the century* An4 the -more wefterly parts of the European continent were at once fubje&cd to the Roman arms and enriched with the Rombri vines lf . But the fcarcity of the native and the dearnefs of the foireigtt wines in Italy, feveral ages before the conqueft of Lancafhire, had called out the inventive faculties of the Roman mind, and occafioned the original difcove?y of fa&itious wines 1( Thefe were ftill continued by the Romans and naturally taught to thfi Britons. Thefe were made of almoft all the products of the orchard and garden, the pear, the apple, the mulberry* the fef* vis r and the tfofe a Twa of them therefore wete thofe agrbeabl* liquors -which we ftill extract firora the apple and the pear and which wfc ftill denominate Cyder and Perry* The latter muft have been called Pyrtita by the Romans* and wis therefore called Per-ui, Periy, or Pear-water by the Britons. The former ac- tually received the appellation of Sicera among the Romans, the word being colloquially pronounced by them Sidera, as the fame pronunciation of it among the prefent Italians fatisfafto* r;ly evinces, and retained therefore the appellation of Cider among the Britons * And greatly as the Britifli language, and through T t it