been so fully described, that it may,
perhaps, appear superfluous to attempt any further account of a place
already so well known; but as all men are supposed to possess a
certain portion of vanity, and as travellers are proverbially accused
of laying claim to the discovery of some facts which had escaped the
observation of their predecessors, I venture to throw together, into
as brief a compass as possible, the result of my inquiries, in the
hope that I may add something to that which is already known, and, at
all events, with a strong confidence in the accuracy of my remarks.

The wine, being of vital importance to the prosperity of the island,
presents the first claim to the attention of a stranger. A sort of
controversy, with better reasons on the one side than the other,
prevails, respecting the relative qualities of the wines produced at
the north and the south sides of the island; in which the vineyards at
the north side have suffered what appears to be an indiscriminate and
injudicious censure. The grape chiefly grown there is the Virdelho,
which the most experienced planters allow to be productive of the
strongest and most esteemed of their wines; and when it is of the
growth of the southern vineyards it is held in the highest estimation.
It must, however, be admitted that the northern aspect is unfavourable
to the grape, and that the greater proportion of the wines from that
side are only fit for the still. The cause of this may be referred to
a variety of circumstances; such as the marked difference in the soil
and aspect and the mode of cultivation, the vines being trained upon
trees; whilst on the south side the more approved system is practised
of training them upon horizontal trellis work, raised two or three
feet from the ground, by which the plant is supported and the fruit
exposed to the full influence of the sun. A great superiority of
flavour is, no doubt, thus obtained: on the north side, the grapes are
entirely of the white kind, whilst on the south there is a great
variety, but chiefly of the red, from which it is said the finest wine
is made. The famed vineyards of the Malmsey and Sercial wines, are
towards the west end of the south side. There is but a very small
quantity of either grown on this spot of the first rate quality, or
indeed of any value as a characteristic wine, for on the easternmost
part of this situation there is a constant flow of water rushing from
the summits of the rocks, th