e of great
extent in this metropolis.

"There is, in this city, a certain fraternity of chemical operators, who
work underground in holes, caverns, and dark retirements, to conceal
their mysteries from the eyes and observation of mankind. These
subterraneous philosophers are daily employed in the transmutation of
liquors; and by the power of magical drugs and incantations, raising
under the streets of London the choicest products of the hills and
valleys of France. They can squeeze Bourdeaux out of the sloe, and draw
Champagne from an apple. Virgil, in that remarkable prophecy,

_Incultisque ruhens pendebit sentibus uva._

Virg. Ecl. iv. 29.

The ripening grape shall hang on every thorn.

seems to have hinted at this art, which can turn a plantation of
northern hedges into a vineyard. These adepts are known among one
another by the name of _Wine-brewers_; and, I am afraid, do great
injury, not only to her Majesty's customs, but to the bodies of many of
her good subjects."[30]

The following are a few of the recipes employed in the manufacture of
spurious wine:

To make _British Port Wine_.[31]--"Take of British grape wine, or
good cyder, 4 gallons; of the juice of red beet root two quarts;
brandy, two quarts; logwood 4 ounces; rhatany root, bruised, half a
pound: first infuse the logwood and rhatany root in brandy, and a
gallon of grape wine or cyder for one week; then strain off the
liquor, and mix it with the other ingredients; keep it in a cask
for a month, when it will be fit to bottle."

_British Champagne._--"Take of white sugar, 8 pounds; the whitest
brown sugar, 7 pounds, crystalline lemon acid, or tartaric acid, 1
ounce and a quarter, pure water, 8 gallons; white grape wine, two
quarts, or perry, 4 quarts; of French brandy, 3 pints."

"Put the sugar in the water, skimming it occasionally for two
hours, then pour it into a tub and dissolve in it the acid; before
it is cold, add some yeast and ferment. Put it into a clean cask
and add the other ingredients. The cask is then to be well bunged,
and kept in a cool place for two or three months; then bottle it
and keep it cool for a month longer, when it will be fit for use.
If it should not be perfectly clear after standing in the cask two
or three months, it should be rendered so by the use of isinglass.