Fontainebleau. It was at first considered that this plant was succeeding
so well, that "there were hopes," says Olivier de Serres, "that France
would soon be able to furnish her own Malmsey and Greek wines, instead of
having to import them from abroad." It is evident, however, that they soon
gave up this delusion, and that for want of the genuine wine they returned
to artificial beverages, such as _vin cuit_, or cooked wine, which had at
all times been cleverly prepared by boiling down new wine and adding
various aromatic herbs to it.

Many wines were made under the name of _herbes_, which were merely
infusions of wormwood, myrtle, hyssop, rosemary, &c., mixed with sweetened
wine and flavoured with honey. The most celebrated of these beverages
bore the pretentious name of "nectar;" those composed of spices, Asiatic
aromatics, and honey, were generally called "white wine," a name
indiscriminately applied to liquors having for their bases some slightly
coloured wine, as well as to the hypocras, which was often composed of a
mixture of foreign liqueurs. This hypocras plays a prominent part in the
romances of chivalry, and was considered a drink of honour, being always
offered to kings, princes, and nobles on their solemn entry into a town.

[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Butler at his Duties.--Fac-simile from a Woodcut
in the "Cosmographie Universelle," of Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

The name of wine was also given to drinks composed of the juices of
certain fruits, and in which grapes were in no way used. These were the
cherry, the currant, the raspberry, and the pomegranate wines; also the
_more_, made with the mulberry, which was so extolled by the poets of the
thirteenth century. We must also mention the sour wines, which were made
by pouring water on the refuse grapes after the wine had been extracted;
also the drinks made from filberts, milk of almonds, the syrups of
apricots and strawberries, and cherry and raspberry waters, all of which
were refreshing, and were principally used in summer; and, lastly,
_tisane_, sold by the confectioners of Paris, and made hot or cold, with
prepared barley, dried grapes, plums, dates, gum, or liquorice. This
_tisane_ may be considered as the origin of that drink which is now sold
to the poor at a sous a glass, and which most assuredly has not much
improved since olden times.

It was about the thirteenth century that brandy first became known in
France; but it does not appear that i