he
last named at a shilling a bottle, while he paid no more than L3, 18s.
for six dozen bottles of Bordeaux, and L1, 1s. for a dozen and a half of
"Shampane." This of course was not the sparkling beverage which in our
times is the only contribution of Champagne to the wine markets of the
world, for the _Ay Mousseux_ first appears in history at the beginning
of the eighteenth century. It was the red wine of Champagne, which so
long contested the palm with the vintages of Burgundy. St. Evremond, who
with the Comte d'Olonne and the great _gourmets_ of the seventeenth
century thought Champagne the best, as the Faculty of Paris also
pronounced it the most wholesome of wines, doubtless introduced his own
religion on the subject into England--but the entry in the Duke's
Expense Book of 1668 is an interesting proof that the duel of the
vintages was even then going as it finally went in favour of Burgundy.
While the Duke got his Champagne for 1s. 2d. a bottle, he had to pay
twenty shillings a dozen, or 1s. 8d. a bottle, for five dozen of
Burgundy. He got his wines from Dublin, which then, as long before, was
the most noted wine mart of Britain. The English princes drew their best
supplies thence in the time of Richard II.

From the castle we drove through the snow to the Cathedral of St.
Canice, a grand and simple Norman edifice of the twelfth century, now
the Church of the Protestant bishop. An ancient Round Tower of much
earlier date stands beside it like a campanile, nearly a hundred feet in
height.

There is a legend that Rinuccini wanted to buy and carry away one of the
great windows of this Cathedral, in which mass was celebrated while he
was here. The Cathedral contains some interesting monuments of the
Butlers, and there are many curiously channelled burial slabs in the
floor, like some still preserved in the ruins of Abbeyleix. Lord de
Vesci pointed out to me several tombs of families of English origin once
powerful here, but now sunk into the farmer class. On one of these I
think it was that we saw a remarkably well-preserved effigy of a lady,
wearing a plaited cap under a "Waterford cloak"--one of the neatest
varieties of the Irish women's cloak--garment so picturesque at once,
and so well adapted to the climate, that I am not surprised to learn
from Lady de Vesci that it is very fast going out of fashion. This
morning before we left Abbeyleix she showed us two such cloaks, types
from two different provinces, each i