1. HE that would treat exactly of Cider and Perry, must lay his foundation so deep as to begin with the Soyl: For as no Culture or Graffs will exalt the French Wines to compare with the Wines of Greece, Canaries, and Montefiasco; so neither will the Ci­der of Bromyard and Ledbury equal that of Ham lacy, and Kings-Capell, in the same small County of Hereford.

2. Yet the choice of the Graff or Fruit hath so much of preva­lency, that the Red-strake-Cider will every where excel common Cider, as the Grape of Frontignac, Canary, or Baccharach, excels the common French Grape; at least, till by time and traduction it de­generateth.

3. I cannot divine what Soil or what Fruit would yield the best Cider; or, how excellent Cider or Perry might be if all Soils in common and all Fruit were tried; but for thirty years I have tried all sorts of Cider in Hereford-shire, and for three years I have tried the best Cider in Somerset-shire; and for some years I have had the best Cider of Kent and Essex at my call; yet hitherto I have al­ways found the Cider of Hereford shire the best, and so adjudged by all good Palates. But I shall rejoice to be better informed, and truly from all other Countries; and do both wish and hope, that in a short time, we shall every where be rich in many Improve­ments.

4. I cannot undertake to particularize all kind of Soil, no more than to compute how many syllables may be drawn from the Al­phabet; the number of Alphabetical Elements being better known than the Ingredients and Particles of Soil, as Chalk, Clay, Gravel, Sand, Marle, (the tenaciousness, colour, and innumerable other qualities, shewing endless diversities;) and the Fruit of Crabs, Apples, and Pears, being as various as of Grapes, Figs, and Plums.

5. Yet in gross, this I note; That as Bacchus amat colles, and a light ground, so our best Cider comes from the hot Rie-Lands: In fat Wheat-Land it is more sluggish; and in white, stiff Clay-Land (as in Woollhope in Hereford-shire) the common Cider retains a [Page 30] thick whey-colour, and not good: Only such as riseth there (by the diligence or some Art of the Inhabitants) is bright and clear, and so lively, that they are apt to challenge the best.

6. Some Cider mixeth kindly with Water in the Cider-mill, and will hold out a good small Wine, and less inflaming, all the follow­ing Summer. Some Cider (as of Long-hope, a kind of four Wood-Land Country of Herefordshire) will not bear any mixture of Water, but soon decay, and turn more harsh and four: And thus we noted in France, some course Wines stuck like paint in the Grass, unwil­ling to incorporate with the Water: Vin d' Aye, and other delicate Wines, did spread themselves more freely, as gold is more ductile than baser metals.

7. Some would, for a fit, extol the Cider of Pearmains, some of Pepins; (and of Pepins I have found a congenial Liquor, less af­flicting splenetick persons, as in mine own experience I conceived:) And Sir Henry Lingen once extolled the Cider of Eleots (as richly bedewing the Glass like the best Canaries;) and full Hogsheads of the Stocking-Apple have been tried amongst us, but disappointing our expectation, though perhaps by evil ordering: Yet Mr. Grit­ten highly boasted a Mixture of Stocking-Apples and May-Pears, tried (as I take it) by himself: After many years trial of those and many other kinds, the Red-strake carried the common fame, and from most of those reduced admirers. The Gennet-Moyl Cider was indeed more acceptable to tender Palats; and it will require Custom and Iudgment to understand the preferrency of the Red-strake, whose mordicant sweetness most agreeably gives the fare­wel, endearing the rellish to all flagrant Palats; which both ob­liges, whets, and sharpens the stomach with its masculine and winy vigour; and many thousands extol it for exceeding the ordinary French-Wine: But grant it should not be so strong as Wine; let me ask how many sober persons abroad addict themselves to meer Wine? Then compare this with diluted Wine, as usually for tem­perate men, and then let the trial be made, whether the Pepin-Cider or Red-strake will retain the winy vigour in greater propor­tion of Water. Add to this, That they commonly mingle Water in the Press with Apples (a good quantity) whiles they grinde the Apple; and the Water thus mixed, at that time, does so pleasingly incorporate in the grinding, fermentation, and maturity of Vessel­ing, that 'tis quite another and far more pleasant thing than if so much or half so much Water were mingled in the Cup at the drink­ing time; as Salt on the Trencher will not give Beef, Pork, or Neats-Tongue, half that same rellish which duly powder'd and time­ly season'd.

8. I did once prefer the Gennet-moyl Cider, but had only the Ladies on my side, as gentler for their sugary palats, and for one or two sober draughts; but I saw cause to recant, and to confess the Red-strake to warm and whet the Stomach, either for meat or more drink.

9. The right Cider-fruit is far more succulent, and the Liquor more easily divides from the pulpe of the Apple, than in best Table-fruit, [Page 31] in which the juice and the pulp seem friendly to dissolve together on the tongues end.

10. The Liquor of best Cider-fruit in the Apple, in best season of ripeness, is more brisk and smart than that which proves duller Cider: And generally the fiercest Pears, and a kind of tamer Crabs, (and such was the Red-strake called in my memory) makes the more winy Cider.

11. Palladius denieth Perry to bear the heat of Summer; but there is a Pear in Bosbury, and that Neighbourhood, which yields the Liquor richer the second year than the first, and so by my expe­rience very much amended the third year: They talk much high­er; but that's beyond my account.

12. As Cider is for some time a sluggard, so by like care it may be retained to keep the Memorials of many Consuls; and these smoaky bottles are the nappy Wine. My Lord Scudamore seldome fails of three or four years; and he is nobly liberal to offer the Trial.

13. As red Apples, so red Pears (and amongst them the red Hors-pear next to the Bosbury) have held out best for the sto­mach and durance: But Pears do less gratifie the stomach than Apples.

14. The season of grinding these harsh Pears is after a full matu­rity, not till they have dropt from the Tree, and there lain under the Tree, or in heaps, a week, or thereabouts.

15. And so of Cider-Apples, as of Grapes, they require full ma­turity, which is best known by their natural fragrancy; and then also, as ripe Grapes require a few mellowing days, so do all Apples, as about a week or little more, so they be not bruised, which soon turns to rottenness; and better sound from the Tree than rotten from the heap; though yet the juice of Apples and Pears (yea, of Cherrys or Grapes) is not altogether destroy'd, or quite putrified, as soon as the Pulp seems to be corrupted; neither haply needs there such curiosity, to cull and pick them so accurately, as some prescribe, though doubtless the cleaner, and less contaminated, the better.

16. That due maurity, and some rest on the heap, does make the Liquor taste rather of Apples than winy, hath no more truth, (if the Cider be kept to fit age) than that very old Cheese doth taste of a Posset.

17. The harsher the wild-fruit is, the longer it must lye on heaps; for of the same fruit, suddenly ground, I have tasted good Ver-juice; being on heaps till near Christmas, all good-fellows called it Rhenish-wine.

18. The Grinding is somewhat considerable, rather too much than too little; here I saw a Mill in Somersetshire which grinds half a Hogshead at a grist, and so much the better ground for the fre­quent rolling.

19.See for This, excellent dire­ctions in Mr. Newburghs preserving of the surface; C. Taylors Vessel, and D^r Smiths closing of it up. Soon after grinding it should be prest, and immediately be put into the Vessel, that it may ferment before the spirits be dissi­pated; and then also in fermenting time the Vent-hole should not [Page 32] be so wide as to allow a prodigal waste of the spirits; and as soon as the ferment begins to allay, the Vessels should be filled of the same, and well stopped.

20. Of late 'tis much [...]mmended, that before it be prest the Liquor and Must should for four and twenty hours ferment together in a Vat for that purpose, covered, as Ale or Beer in the Yest-vat, and then tunned up. This is said to enrich the liquor, and to give it somewhat of the tincture of some red Apples, as I have seen, and very well approved.

21. As Sulphur hath some use in Wines, so some do lay Brim­stone on a ragge, and by a wire let it down into the Cider-Vessel and there fire it; and when the Vessel is full of the smoak, the liquor speedily poured in ferments the better. I cannot condemn this, for Sulphur is more kind to the Lungs than Cider, and the impurity will be discharged in the ferment.

22. Apples over-long hoarded before grinding will for a long time hold the liquor thick; and this liquor will be both pleasant, and as I think, wholesome; and we see some rich Wines of the later Vintage, and from Greece, retain a like crassitude, and they are both meat and drink.

23. I have seen thick harth Cider the second Summer become clear and very richly pleasant; but I never saw clear acid Cider recover.

24. Wheat or Leven is good and kind in Cider, as in Beer; Iu­niper-berries agree well and friendly for Coughs, weak Lungs, and the aged, but not at first for every Palate: The most infallible and undiscerned improver, is Mustard a Pint to each Hogshead, bruised, as for sauce, with a mixture of the same Cider, and applied as soon as the Vessel is to be closed after fermenting.

25. Bottleing is the next improver, and proper for Cider; some put two or three Raisins into every Bottle, which is to seek aid from the Vine▪ Here in Somersetshire I have seen as much as a Wal nut of Sugar, not without cause, used for this Country Cider.

26. Crabs do not hasten the decay of Perry, but preserve it, as Salt preserves flesh. But Pears and Crabs being of a thousand kinds require more Aphorisms; this only I would Note, that Land which refuses Apples, is generally civil to Pears, and Crabs mingled with them, make a rich and wholsome Cider, and has sometimes chal­lenged even the best Red-strake.

27. Neither Wheat, Leven, Sulphur, nor Mustard, are used but by very few; and therefore are not necessary to make Cider last well, for two, three, or four years.

28. The time of drawing Cider into Bottles is best in March, it being then clarified by the Winter, and free from the heat of the Sun.

29. In drawing, the best is neerest the heart or middle of the Ves­sel, as the Yelk in the Egge.

30. Red-strakes are of divers kinds, but the name is in Here­fordshire appropriated to one kind, which is fair and large, of a high purple colour, the smell Aromatical, the Tree a very shrub, [Page 33] soon bearing a full burden, and seldom or never failing till it decays, which is much sooner than other Apple-trees. 'Tis lately spread all over Hereford-shire; and he that computes speedy return, and true Wine, will think of no other Cider-Apple, till a better be found.

31. I said the Red strake is a small shrub, 'tis of small growth where the Cider proves richest, for ought we have yet seen in He­refordshire, viz. in light quick land; and if the land be very dry, jejune and shallow, that and other Cider fruit (especially the Gen­net-moyle) will suspend the store of fruit alternatively every other year; except some Blasts or surprising Frosts in the Spring alter that Method; for two bad years seldom come together, very hardly three.

32. In good soil, I mean of common field (for fat land is not best for Cider-fruit, but common arable) I have seen the Trees of good growth, almost equalling other Cider-trees, the Apple larger and seldom failing of a good burthen: thus in the Vales of Wheat-lands, in strong Glebe or Clay, where the Cider is not so much extolled: but still Sack is Sack, and Canary differs from Claret; so does the Red-strake-Cider of the Vale excell any other Cider of the foresaid soil, such as is already celebrated for its kindness to good Ci­der.

33. Yet this distinction of Soil requires much experience, and great heed, if we insist upon accurate directions; for as Laurem­berg saith, in pingui solo non seruntur omnia rectè, ne (que) ▪ in macro ni­hil. And for Gardens, Flowers, and Orchards, I would chuse ma­ny times such lands as do not please the Husbandman, either for Wheat or sweet Pasture, which are his chief aims; and thus Lau­remberg, In Arida & ten [...]i terra faelicius proveniunt Ruta, Allium, Petroselinum, Crocus, Hyssopus, Capparis, Lupini, Satureia, Thymus; Arbores quo (que) tenue & macile [...]tum solum amant; item (que) frutices ple­ri (que) Hujusmodi arbores sunt, Pomus, Pyrus, Cerasus, Prunus, Persica, Cotonea, Morus, Iuglans, Corylus, Staphylodendrum, Mespilus, Ornus, Castanea, &c. Frutices, scil. Vitis, Berberis, Genista, Iunipe­rus, Oxyacantha, Periclymenum, Rosa, Ribesium, Vva, Spina, Vacci­nia, &c.

34. But here also we must distinguish, that Pears will bear in a very stony, hungry, gravelly-land, such as Apples will not bear in; and I have seen Pears bear in a tough binding hungry Clay, when Apples could not so well bear it (as the smooth rinds of the Pear-trees, and the Mossie and cankered rinds of the Apple trees did prove) the root of a Pear-tree being it seems more able to pierce a stony and stiff ground. And Cherries, Mulberries and Plums can re­joyce in a richer soil, though by the smalness of the Roots, the shal­lower soil will suffice them. And the Quinces require a deeper ground, and will bear with some degrees of hungry land, if they be supplied with a due measure of succulency, and neighbouring moi­sture; and the other shrubs, according to the smalness of their roots, do generally bear a thinner land. I have seen a soil so much too ran [...] for Apples and Plums, that all their fruits from year to year were [Page 34] always worm-eaten, till their lives were forfeited to the fire.

35. To take up from these Curiosities, the most useful result to our purpose; we have always found these Orchards to grow best, last longest, and bear most, which are frequently tilled for Barley, Wheat, or other Corn, and kept (by Culture and seasonable rest) in due strength to bear a full crop. And therefore, whereas the Red-strake might otherwise without much injury be planted at fifteen or twenty foot distance, and the best distance for other Cider-fruit hath heretofore been reputed thirty, or two and thirty foot; very good husbands do now allow in their largest Inclosures (as of 20, 40 or 100 Acres) fifty or sixty foot distance, that the Trees may not much hinder the Plow, and yet receive the benefit of Compost; and a Horse-teem well governed will (without any damage of danger) plow close to the Trees.

36. In such soil as is here required, namely of good Tillage, an Orchard of graffed Red-strakes will be of good growth, and good burthen, within ten or twelve years, and branch out with good store to begin an encouragement at three years graffing; and (ex­cept the land be very unkind) will not yield to any decay within sixty or eighty years, which is a mans age.

37. In some sheets I rendred many Reasons against Mr. Austi [...] of Oxford, why we should prefer a peculiar Cider fruit, which in Herefordshire are generally called Musts; (so we name both the Ap­ple and the Liquor, and Pulpe as mingled together in the contusion) as from the Latine Mustum. White-Musts of divers kinds, Red-cheek'd and Red-strak'd Musts of several kinds, Green-Musts called also Green-fillet, and Blew-spotted: Why, I say, we should prefer them for Cider, before Table-fruit, as Pepins, Pearmains, &c. And I do still insist on them: 1. The Liquor of these Cider-fruits and of many kinds of austere fruit, which are no better than a sort of full succulent Crabs, is more sprightful, brisk and winy. For Essay, I sent up many bottles to London, that did me no discredit. Secondly, One bushel of the Cider-fruit yields twice or thrice as much liquor. Thirdly, The Tree grows more in three or four years than the o­ther in ten years, as I oft times remarked. Fourthly, The Tree bears far greater store, and doth more generally escape Blasts and Frosts of the Spring. I might add, that some of these, and espe­cially such Pears as yield the best Perry, will best escape the hand of the Thief, and may be trusted in the open field.

38. By the first, second and fourth of these Reasons, I must ex­clude the Gennet-Moyle from a right Cider-fruit, it being dry and very apt to take frosty blasts; yet it is no Table-fruit, but properly a baking fruit, as the ruddy colour from the Oven shews.

39. I said that the right Cider-fruit generally called Musts, and deserving the Latine name Mustum, is of divers kinds; and I have need to note more expresly that there is a Red-strak'd Must (as I have often seen) but not generally known, that is quite differing from the famous Red-strake, being much less, somewhat oblong and like some of the white Musts in shape, and full of a very good winy liquor. I could willingly name the persons and place where [Page 35] the distinct kinds are best known: it was first shewed me by Iohn Nash of Ashperton in Herefordshire; and for some years they did in some places distinguish a Red-strake, as yielding a richer Red-strak'd Cider of a more fulvous or ruddy colour; but this difference, as far as I could find, is but a choice of a better insolated or ruddy fruit of the best kind, as taken from the South part of the Tree, or from a soil that renders them richer. But my Lord Scudamore's is safely of the best sort; and M. Whingate of the Grange in Dimoc, and some of King's-capel, do best know these and other differences, Straked-Must, right Red-strake, Red-Redstrake, &c.

40. The greenish Must, (formerly called in the Language of the Country, the Green-fillet) when the Liquor is of a kindly ripeness, retains a greeness equal to the Rhenish-glass; which I note for them that conceive no Cider to be fit for use till it be of the colour of old Sack.

41. To direct a little more caution, for enquiry of the right Red-strake, I should give notice that some Moneths ago, M. Philips of Mountague in Somersetshire, shewed me a very fair large Red-strake Apple, that by smell and sight seemed to me and to another of He­refordshire then with me to be the best Red strake; but when we did cut it, and taste it, we both denied it to be right (the other with much more confidence than my self) but M. Philips making Cider of it, this week invited me to it, assuring that already it e­quals or resembles High-country-wines. It had not such plenty of juice as our Red strakes with us, and it had more of the pleasant­ness of Table-fruit, which might be occasioned, for ought I know, by the purer and quicker soil. This Apple is here call'd Meriot-Ysnot, and great store of them are at Meriot, a Village not far di­stant: Possibly, this Meriot may prove to be the Red-strake of Somerset shire, when they shall please to try it apart with equal di­ligence and constancy as they do in Hereford-shire: This fruit is of a very lovely hue, and by some conceived to be of Affinity to the Red-Iersey Apple, which is reported to tinge so deeply: In truth, there can hardly be a deeper Purple, than is our right Here­fordshire Red-strake, having a few streaks towards the Eye, of a dark colour, or Orange-tawny intermingled: But, 'tis no won­der if an Apple should change its Name in travelling so far beyond the Severn, when even in this Country, most sorts of Apples, and especially, Cider-fruit, loseth the Name in the next Village.

42. I may now ask why we should talk of other Cider-fruit or Perry, if the best Red strake have all the aforesaid pre-eminencies of richer and more winy liquor, by half sooner an Orchard, more constantly bearing, &c. An Orchard of Red-strakes is commonly as full of fruit at ten years, as other Cider-fruit at twenty years, or as the Pepin and Pearmain at thirty or thereabout.

43. To this may be Answered, that all soils bear not Apples, and to some soils other Apples may be more kind, and if we be driven to Perry, much we may say both in behalf of the Perry, and of the Pear, of the fruit, and of the Tree; It is the goodlier Tree for a Grove, to shelter a house and walks from Summers heat and Win­ters [Page 36] cold Winds, and far more lasting; the pleasantest Cider-pear of a known name amongst them, is the Horse-pear. And it is much argued, whether the White-horse-pear, or the Red-horse-pear be the better; where both are best, within two Miles they differ in judg­ment. The Pear bears almost its weight of sprightful winy Liquor; and I always preferred the tawny or ruddy Horse-pear, and general­ly that colour in all Pears that are proper for Perry.

44. I rejected Palladius against the durableness of Perry; his words are, Hyeme durat, sed prima acescit aestate, Tit. 25. Febr. possi­bly so of common Pears, and in hotter Countries; but from good Cellars I have tasted a very brisk lively and winy liquor of these Horse-pears during the end of Summer; and a Bosbury-pear I have named and often tried, which without bottleing, in common Hogs­heads of vulgar and indifferent Cellars, proves as well pleasanter as richer the second year, and yet also better the third year. A very honest, worthy and witty Gentleman of that neighbourhood would engage to me, that in good Cellars, and in careful custody, it passeth any account of decay, and may be heightned to a kind of Aqua-vitae. I take the information worthy the stile of our modern improvements.

The Pear-tree grows in common fields and wild stony ground, to the largeness of bearing one, two, three or four Hogsheads each year.

45. This Bosbury-tree, and such generally that bear the most lasting Liquor and winy, is of such unsufferable taste, that hungry Swine will not smell to it; or if hunger tempt them to taste, at first crush they shake it out of their mouths; (I say not this of the Horse-pear) and the Clowns call other Pears, of best Liquor, Choak-pears, and will offer money to such as dare adventure to taste them, for their sport; and their mouths will be more stupified than at the root of Wake-robin.

46. A row of Crab-trees will give an improvement to any kind of Perry; and since Pears and Crabs may be of as many kinds as there are kernels, or different kinds or mixtures of soils; in a ge­neral Character I would prefer the largest and fullest of all austere juices.

47. M. Lill of Mark-hill (aged about 90 years) ever observed this Rule, to grass no wild Pear-tree till he saw the fruit; if it proved large, juicy, and brisk, it failed not of good Liquor. But I see cause to say, that to graff a young tree with a riper graff, and known excellency, is a sure gain and hastens the return.

48. M. Speke (last high Sheriff of Somersetshire) shewed me in his Park some store of Crab-trees, of such huge Bulk, that in this fertile year he offered a wager, that they would yield one or two Hogsheads of Liquor each of them; yet were they small dry Crabs.

49. I have seen several sorts of Crabs (which are the natural Apple, or at worst but the Wild-Apple) which are as large as many sorts of Apples, and the Liquor winy.

50. I have disclaimed the Gust of Iuniper-berries in Cider; I [Page 37] tried it only once for my self, and drank it before Christmas: pos­sibly in more time the rellish had been subdued or improved, as of Hops in stale Beer, and of Rennet in good Parmasan. Neither was the Gust to me otherwise unpleasant than as Annise-seeds in Bread, rather strange than odious; and by custom made grateful, and it did hasten the clarification, and increase the briskness to an endless sparkling: thus it indulgeth the Lungs, and nothing more cheap; where Iuniper grows a Girl may speedily fill her lap with the Berries.

If Barbados Ginger be good, cheaper, and a more pleasant pre­server of Beer, it must probably be most kind for Cider: For first, of all the improvers that I could name, bruised Mustard was the best; and this Ginger hath the same quick, mordicant vigour, in a more noble and more Aromatique fragrancy. Secondly, Cider (as I oft complain) is of a sluggish and somewhat windy nature; and for some Moneths the best of it is chain'd up with a cold ligature, as we fancy the fire to be lock'd up in a cold Flint. This will re­lieve the prisoner. And thirdly, will assist the winy vigour for them that would use it instead of a sparkling VVine. Fourthly, 'Tis a good sign of much kindness, and great friendship: it will both enliven the ferment for speedier maturity, and also hold it out for more duration, both which offices it performs in Beer.

51. Cider being windy before maturity, some that must not wait the leisure of best Season do put sprigs of Rose-mary and Bays in the Vessel; the first good for the head, and not unpleasant; the second, an Antidote against Infections; but less pleasant till time hath incorporated the Tastes.

52. And why may we not make mention of all these Mixtures, as well as the Ancients of their Vinum Marrubii, Vinum Abrotonites, Absynthites, Hyssopites, Marathites, Thymites, Cydonites, Myrtites, Scillites, Violaceum, Sorbi, &c.

53. And, for mixtures, I think we may challenge the Ancients, in naming the Red-raspy; of which there is in this County a Lady that makes a Bonella, the best of Summer drinks. And more yet if we name the Clove-july-flower, or other Iuly-flowers, a most grateful Cordial, as it is infused by a Lady in Staffordshire, of the Family of the Devereux's, and by some Ladies of this Country.

54. I could also give some account of Cherry-wine, and Wine of Plums; the last of which (in the best Essay that I have yet seen) is hardly worthy to be named: But, I conceive, and have ground for it, that some good Liquor and Spirits may be drawn from some sorts of them, and in quantity: And the vast store of Cherrys in some places, under a peny the pound, and of Plums that bend the Trees with their burdens, and their expedite growth makes it cheap enough, and as in the other, so in these, the large English or Dutch sharp Cherry, makes the Cherry-wine, and the full black, tawny Plum, as big as a Walnut (not the kind of Heart-Cherrys, nor the Plum which divides from the stone) make the Wine. Their cheap­ness should recommend them to more general use at Tables, when dryed like Prunellas (an easie art) and then wholesomer.

[Page 38] 55. To return for Red-strake; 'tis a good drink as soon as well fermented, or within a Moneth, better after some Frosts, and when clarified; rich Wine, when it takes the colour of old Sack. In a good Cellar it improves in Hogsheads the second year; in Bottles and sandy Cellars keeps the Records of late revolutions and old Majoralties. Quaere the manner of laying them up in sand­houses.

56. I tried some Bottles all a Summer in the bottom of a Foun­tain; and I prefer that way where it may be had. And 'tis some­what strange if the Land be neither dry for a sand-house, nor foun­tainous for this better expedient. When Cider is settl'd, and alto­gether, or almost clarifi'd, then to make it sprightful and winy, it should be drawn into well cork'd and well bound bottles and kept some time in sand or water; the longer the better, if the kind be good. And Cider being preserved to due age, bottl'd (and kept in cool places, conservatories, and refrigerating springs) it does almost by time turn to Aqua-vitae; the Bottles smoak at the opening, and it catches flame speedily, and will burn like spirit of VVine, with a fiery taste; and it is a laudable way of trying the vigour of Cider by its promptness to burn, and take fire, and from the quantity of Aqua-vitae which it yields. Cider affords by way of Distillation, an incomparable and useful Spirit, and that in such plenty, as from four Quarts, a full Pint has been extracted.

57. I must not prescribe to other Palats, by asserting to what degree of Perfection good Cider may be raised, or to compare it with VVines: But when the late King (of blessed memory) came to Hereford in his distress, and such of the Gentry of VVorcestershire as were brought thither as Prisoners; both King, Nobility, and Gen­try, did prefer it before the best VVines those parts afforded; and to my knowledge that Cider had no kind of Mixture. Generally all the Gentry of Herefordshire do abhor all mixtures.

Yet if any man have a desire to try conclusions, and by an harm­less Art to convert Cider into Canary-wine; let the Cider be of the former year, Masculine and in full body, yet pleasant and well tast­ed: into such Cider put a spoonful, or so, of the spirit of Clary, it will have so much of the race of Canary, as may deceive some who pretend they have discerning Palats.

IN obedience to the Commands of this Honourable So­ciety, I have at length endeavoured to give this brief Account of that little which I know concerning the Ordering of Cider; and in that I shall propound to my self six things.

First, To shew that Cider made of the best Eating-apples must needs be once the best; (that is to say) the pleasantest Cider.

Secondly, That hitherto the general opinion hath been other­wise, and that the reason of that mistake was the not apprehend­ing the true cause why the Pepin-cider, &c. did not retain its sweet­ness, when the Hard-apple-cider did.

Thirdly, What is the true cause that Pepin-cider, used in the ordinary method, will not retain its sweetness.

Fourthly, How to cure that evil in Pepin-cider.

Fifthly, A probable conjecture, how in some degree by the same Method to amend the Hard-apple-cider, and French-Wine.

Sixthly, That what is here propounded cannot chuse but be wholsome, and may be done to what degree every mans Palate shall wish.

Having now told your Lordship, what I will endeavour to do before I enter upon it, I must declare what I will not in the least pretend to do.

1. I do not pretend to any thing concerning the planting and graffing of Trees, &c.

Nor what Trees will soonest bear or last longest.

Nor what sorts of Trees are the best bearers, and may with lea [...] danger grow in Common fields.

Nor what sort of fruit will yield the greatest store of Cider.

Nor what Cider will keep the longest, and be the strongest, and wholesomest to drink constantly with meat.

[Page 40] The only thing I shall endeavour, being to prescribe a way to make a sort of Cider pleasant and quick of taste, and yet whole­som to drink, sometimes, and in a moderate proportion: For, if this be an Heresie, I must confess my self guilty; that I prefer Ca­n [...]ry wine, Verdea, the pleasantest Wines of Greece, and the High-country-wines before the harsh Sherries, Vin de Hermitage, and the Italian and Portugal rough Wines, or the best Graves-wines; not at all regarding that I am told, and do believe, that these harsh wines are more comfortable to the stomack, and a Surfeit of them less noxious, when taken; nor to be taken but with drinking great­er quantities than can wi [...] safety be taken of those other pleasant Wines: I sa [...]isfying my self with this, that I like the pleasant Wines best; which yet are so wholesom, that a man may drink a mode­rate quantity of them without prejudice.

Nor shall I at all concern my self, whether this sort of Cider I pretend to is so vinous a liquor; and consequently will yield so much spirit upon Distillation, or so soon make the Country-man think himself a Lord, as the Hard-apple-cider will do: nor whe­ther it will last so long; for it is no part of my design to perswade the World to lay by the making of Hard-apple-cider; but rather in a degree to shew how to improve that in point of pleasantness, and that by the making and rightly ordering of Cider of the best Eat­ing-Apples; as Golden-pepins, Kentish-pepins, Pear-mains, &c. there may be made a more pleasant liquor for the time it will last, than can be produced from those Apples which I call Hard-Ap­ples, that is to say, Red-strakes, Gennet-moyles, the Broms­ [...]ury-Crab, &c. which are so harsh that a Hog will hardly eat them.

Nor shall I at all meddle with the making of Perry, or of any mixed drink of the juyce of Apples and Pears; though possibly what I shall say for Cider may be aptly applied to Perry also.

For the first particular, I asserted that the best Apples would make the pleasantest, which in my sence is the best Cider; (and I account those the best Apples, whose juyce is the pleasantest at the time when first pressed, before fermentation) I shall need (besides the experience of the last ten years) only to say, that it is an unde­niable thing in all Wines, that the pleasantest Grapes make the richest and pleasantest Wines; and that Cider is really but the Wine of Apples, and not only made by the same way of Compressi­on; but left to it self hath the same way of Fermentation; and therefore must be liable to the same measures in the choice of the materials.

To my second Assertion, that this truth was not formerly own­ed, by reason that in Herefordshire, and those Countries where they abound both with Pepins and hard-apples of all sorts, they made Cider of both sorts, and used them alike; that is, that as soon as they ground and pressed the Apples and strained the Liquor, they put it into their Vessels and there let it lye till it had wrought, and afterwards was setled again and fined; as not thinking it wholesom to drink till it had thus (as they call it) purg'd it self, [Page 41] and this was the frequent use of most men in the more Southern and Western parts of England also. Now when Cider is thus used, it is no wonder that when they came to broach it, they for the most part found their Pepin-cider not so pleasant as their Moyle or Red strake cider; but to them it seemed a wonder, because they did not know the reason of it (which shall be my next work to make out) for till they knew the reason of this [...]ffect, they had no cause but to think it was the nature of the several Apples that pro­duced it; and consequently to prefer the Hard-Apple-cider, and to use the other Apples (which were good to eat raw) for the Ta­ble: which was an use not less necessary, and for which the hard-apples were totally improper.

To my third Assertion, which is, that in Herefordshire they knew not what was the true cause why their Pepin-cider (for by that name I shall generally call all sorts of Cider that is made of Apples good to eat raw) was not, as they used it, so good as the Cider made of hard-apples (for by that name, for brevities sake, I shall call the Cider of Moyle, Red-strake, and all other sorts of harsh Ap­ples, not fit to eat raw.) First, I say, for all liquors that are Vinous, the cause that makes them sometimes harder or less pleasant to the taste, than they were at the first pressing, is the too much ferment­ing: If Wine or Cider by any accidental cause do ferment twice, it will be harder than if it had fermented but once; and if it ferment thrice, it is harder and worse than if it had fermented but twice: and so onward, the oftner it ferments and the longer it ferments, it still grows the harder. This being laid as a foundation, before we proceed further we must first con­sider what is the cause of fermentation in Wine, Cider, and all other Vinous Liquors. Which (in my poor opinion) is the gross part of the Liquor, which scapes in the straining of the Cider (for in making of Wine, I do not find that they use the curiosity of straining) and which is generally known by the name of the Lee of that (Wine or) Cider. And this Lee I shall, according to its thickness of parts, distinguish into the gross Lee, and the fly­ing Lee.

Now, according to the old method of making and putting up of Cider, they took little care of putting up only the clear part of the Cider into their Vessels or Cask; but put them up thick and thin together, not at all regarding this separation; for experimen­tally they found that how thick soever they put it up, yet after it had throughly wrought or fermented and was setled again, it would still be clear; and perchance that which was put up the soonest after it was pressed and the thickest, would, when the fer­mentation was over, be the clearest, the briskest, and keep the longest. This made them confidently believe that it was not only not inconvenient to put it up quickly after the pressing, but in some degree necessary also to put it up soon after the pressing, so that it might have so much of the Lee mixed with it, that it might certainly, soon, and strongly put it into a fermentation, as the on­ly means to make it wholsom, clean and brisk; and when it ei­ther [Page 42] did not (or that they had reason to doubt) that it would not work or ferment strongly enough, they have used to put in Mu­stard or some other thing of like nature to increase the fermenta­tion.

Now that which in Cider of Pepins hath been a cause of greater fermentation than in Cider of Hard-Apples, being both used after the former method, is this, that the Pepins being a softer fruit are in the Mill bruised into smaller particles than the harder sorts of Apples; and consequently more of those small parts pass the strain­er in the Pepin-Cider than in the Cider of Hard-apples, which causeth a stronger fermentation, and (according to my former principle) a greater loss of the native sweetness than in that of Hard-app [...]e-cider; and not only so, but the Lee of the Hard-apple-cider being compounded of greater particles than the Lee of the Pepin-cider, every individual particle is in it self of a greater weight than the particles of the Lee of the Pepin-cider; and consequently less apt to rise upon small motions, which produceth this effect; that when the fermentation of the Hard-apple-cider is once over, unless the Vessel be stirred, it seldom falls to a second fermentati­on; but in Pepin-cider it is otherwise: For if the gross Lee be still remaining with the Cider, it needs not the motion of the Vessel to cause a new fermentation, but every motion of the Air by a change of weather from dry to moist will cause a new fermentati­on, and consequently make it work till it hath destroyed it self by losing its native sweetness. And this alone hath been the cause, why commonly when they broach their Pepin-cider they find it so unpleasant, that generally the Hard-apple-cider is preferred be­fore it, although at first it was not so pleasant as the Pepin-cider. Yet after this mischief hath prevailed over the Pepin-cider, it is no wonder to find the Hard-apple-cider remaining not only the stronger, but even the more pleasant tasted. This to me seems sa­tisfactory for the discovery of the cause, why in Herefordshire the Hard-apple-cider is preferred before the Pepin-cider. But perhaps it may be some be objected, that they have before the ten years, in which you pretend you found this to be the cause of spoiling the Pepin-cider, been in Herefordshire, and tasted the best Cider that Country did afford; and yet it was not like the Pepin-cider they had before then tasted in other parts. To this I do answer, at present, briefly, that by some mistake, or chance, the maker of this Pepin-cider, which proved good, had done that, or somewhat like that, which under the next Assertion I shall set down, as a Method to cure the inconveniences which happen to Pepin-cider, by the suffering it to ferment too often, or too strongly; but till that be explained it would be improper to shew more fully what these particular accidents might possibly be, which (without the intention of those persons which made the Cider) caused it to prove much better than their expectation, or indeed better than any could afterwards make: they possibly assigning the goodness of that Cider to somewhat that was not really the cause of that effect.

[Page 43] To justifie my fourth Assertion, and shew a Method how to cure the inconveniency which happens to Pepin-cider by the over-work­ing, I must first take notice of some things which I have been of­ten told concerning Wine, and which indeed gave me the light to know what was the cause which had made Pepin-cider that had wrought long, hard when it came to be clear again. The thing I mean, is, that in divers parts, and even in France they make three sorts of Wine out of one and the same Grapes; that is, they first take the juice of the Grapes without any more pressing than what comes from their own weight in the Vat, and the bruising they have in putting into Vessel, which causeth the ripest of those Grapes to break, and the juice without any pressing at all makes the pleasantest and most delicate Wine: And if the Grapes were red, then is this first Wine very pale. The second sort they press a little, which makes a redder Wine, but neither so pleasant as the first, nor so harsh as the last, which is made by the utmost pres­sing of the very skins of the Grapes, and is by much more harsh, and of deeper colour than either of the other two. Now I pre­sume the cause of this (at least in part) to be, that in the first sort of Wine, which hath little of the substance, beside the very juice of the Grape, there is little Lee, and consequently little fermentation; and because it doth not work long, it loseth but little of the ori­ginal sweetness it had: The second sort being a little more pressed hath somewhat more of the substance of the Grape added to the juice; and therefore having more of that part which causeth fer­mentation put with it, ferments more strongly, and is therefore▪ when it hath done working, less pleasant than the first sort, which wrought less. And for the same reason the third sort being most of all pressed, hath most of the substance of the Grape mingled with the Liquor, and worketh the longest: but at the end of the working when it settles and is clear, it is much more harsh than either of the two first sorts. The thought of this made me first apprehend that the substance of the Apple mingled with the juice, was the cause of fermentation, which is really nothing else but an endeavour of the Liquor to free it self from those Heterogeneous parts which are mingled with it: And where there is the greatest proportion of those dissimilar parts mingled with the Liquor, the endeavour of Nature must be the stronger, and take up more time to perfect the separation: which when finished leaves all the Li­quor clear, and the gross parts settled to the bottom of the Vessel; which we call the Lee. Nor did this apprehension deceive me; for when I began (according to the Method which I shall hereafter set down) to separate a considerable part of the Lee from the Cider before it had fermented, I found it to retain a very great part of its original sweetness, more than it would have done if the Lee had not been taken away before the fermentation; and this not once, but constantly for seven years.

Now the Method which I used, was this: When the Cider was first strained, I put it into a great Vat, and there let it stand twenty four hours at least (sometimes more, if the Apples were more ripe [Page 44] than ordinary) and then at a tap before prepared in the Vessel three or four inches from the bottom I drew it into pails, and from thence filled the Hogshead (or lesser Vessel) and left the greatest part of the Lee behind; and during this time that the Cider stood in the Vat, I kept it as close covered with hair-clothes or sacks as I could; that so too much of the spirits might not evaporate.

Now possibly I might be asked why I did not, since I kept it so close in the Vat, put it at first into the Vessel? To which I answer, that had I put it at first into the Vessel, it would possibly (especially if the weather had chanced to prove wet and warm) have begun to ferment before that time had been expired; and then there would have been no possibility to have separated any part of the gross Lee, before the fermentation had been wholly finished; which keeping it only covered with these clothes was not in danger: For, though I kept it warm in some degree, yet some of the spirits had still liberty to evaporate; which had it been in the Hogshead with the Bung only open, they would not so freely have done; but in the first 24 hours it would have begun to ferment, and so my design had been fully lost: For those spirits if they had been too strongly reverberated into the Liquor, would have caused a fer­mentation before I could have taken away any part of the gross Lee. For the great mystery of the whole thing lies in this, to let so many of the spirits evaporate, that the liquor shall not ferment before the gross Lee be taken away; and yet to keep spirits enough to cause a fermentation when you would have it. For if you put it up as soon as it is strained, and do not let some of the spirits eva­porate, and the gross Lee by its weight only to be separated with­out fermentation, it will ferment too much and lose its sweetness; and if none be left, it will not ferment at all; and then the Cider will be dead, flat and soure.

Then after it is put into the Vessel, and the Vessel fill'd all but a little (that is, about a Gallon or thereabout) I let it stand (the Bung­hole being left only covered with a paper, to keep out any dust or filth that might fall in) for 24 hours more; in which time the gros­sest part of the Lee being formerly left in the Vat, it will not ferment, but you may draw it off by a Tap some two or three inches from the bottom of the Vessel, and in that second Vessel you may stop it up, and let it stand safely till it be fit to Bottle; and possibly that will be within a day or more: but of this time there is no certain measure to be given; there being so many things that will make it longer, or less while before it be fit to bottle. As for Example, If the Apples were over-ripe when you stamped them, or ground them in the Mill, it will be the longer before it will be clear enough to Bottle; or if the weather prove to be warmer or moister than or­dinary: or that your Apples were of such kinds, as with the same force in the stamping or grinding they are broken into smaller par­ticles than other Apples that were of harder kinds.

Now, for knowing when it is fit to Bottle, I know no certain Rule that can be given, but to broach the Vessel with a small Piercer, and in that hole fit a peg, and now and then (two or three times in a [Page 45] day) draw a little, and see what fineness it is of; for when it is bottled it must not be perfectly fine; for if it be so, it will not fret in the bottle, which gives it a fine quickness, and will make it mantle and sparkle in the glass, when you pour it out: And if it be too thick when it is bottled, then, when it hath stood some time in the bottles it will ferment so much that it may possibly either drive out the Corks, or break the bottles, or at least be of that sort (which some call Potgun-drink) that when you open the bottles it will fly about the house, and be so windy and cutting that it will be inconvenient to drink: For the right temper of Bottle-Cider is, that it mantle a little and sparkle when it is put out into the glass; but if it froth and fly, it was bottled too soon: Now the temper of the Ci­der is so nice, that it is very hard when you bottle it to foretell which of these two conditions it will have: but it is very easie within a few days after (that is to say, about a week, or so) to find its temper as to this point. For first, if it be bottled too soon; by this time it will begin to ferment in the Bottles, and in that case you must open the Bottles, and let them stand open two or three minutes, that that abundance of spirits may have Vent, which o­therwise kept in would in a short time make it of that sort I called before Potgun-drink; but being let out, that danger will be avoi­ded, and the Cider (without danger of breaking the bottles) will keep and ferment, but not too much. Now this is so easie a re­medy, that I would advise all men rather to erre on the hand of bottling it too soon, than let it be too fine when they bottle it; for if so, it will not fret in the bottle at all; and consequently, want that briskness which is desirable.

Yet even in this case there is a Remedy, but such a one as I am always very careful to avoid, that so I may have nothing (how lit­tle soever) in the Cider but the juice of the Apple: But the remedy is, in case you be put to a necessity to use it, that you open every bottle after it hath been bottled about a week or so, and put into each bottle a little piece of white Sugar, about the bigness of a Nut­meg, and this will set it into a little fermentation, and give it that briskness which otherwise it would have wanted. But the other way being full as easie, and then nothing to be added but the juice of the Apple to be simply the substance of your Cider, I chuse to prefer the errour of being in danger to bottle the Cider too soon, rather than too late: Nay sometimes in the bottling of one and the same Hogshead (or other Vessel) of Cider, there may the first part of it be too fine; the second part well; and the last not fine enough: and this happens when it is broached first above the middle, and then below; and then when it begins to run low, tilted or raised at the further end, and so all drawn out. But to avoid this inconvenience, I commonly set the bottles in the order they were filled, and so we need not open all to see the condition of the Cider; but trying one at each end, and one in the middle, will serve the turn: And to prevent the inconveniency, broach not at all above the middle, nor too low; and when you have drawn all that will run at the Tap, you may be [Page 46] secure it is so far of the same temper with the first bottle. And then tilt the Vessel; but draw no more in three or four hours at the least after, and set them by themselves, that so, if you please, you may three or four days after pour them off into other bottles, and leave the gross behind: And by this means though you have a less number of bottles of Cider than you had, yet this will conti­nue good, and neither be apt to fly, nor have a sediment in the bottle, which after the first glass is filled will render all the rest of the bottle thick and muddy.

By all this which I have said, I think it may be made out that those persons which I mentioned in the end of the last Paragraph, that sometimes had Pepin-cider better than ordinary, and indeed then they could make again, were beholding to chance for it; either that their Apples were not so full ripe at that as at other times, and so not bruised into so small parts; but the fermentation was ended in the Vessel, and the Lee being then gross setled before the Cider had fermented so long as to be hard.

Or else, by some Accident they had not put it so soon into the Vessel, but that in part it was setled before they put it up, and the grossest part of the Lee left out of the Vessel.

Or else, the Bung being left open some part of the spirits evapo­rated; and that made the fermentation the weaker, and to last the less time.

Or else, they put it up in such a season that the weather conti­nued cold and frosty till the fermentation was quite over; and then it having wrought the less time, and with the less violence, it re­mained more pleasant and rich than otherwise it would have done.

Now for the time of making Pepin-cider, I chuse to do it in the beginning of November, after the Apples had been gathered and laid about three weeks or more in the loft, that so the Apples might have had a little time to sweat in the house before the Cider was made, but not too much; for if they be not full ripe before they be gathered, and not suffered to lye a while in the heap, the Cider will not be so pleasant; and if they be too ripe when they are gathered, or lye too long in the heap, it will be very difficult to separate the Cider from the gross Lee before the fermentation be­gins: and in that case it will work so long, that when it fines the Cider will be hard; for when the Apples are too mellow, they break into so small particles, that it will be long before the Lee set­tles by its weight only: and then the fermentation may begin be­fore it be separated, and so destroy your intention of taking away the gross Lee. And if the Apples be not mellow enough, the Cider will not be so pleasant as it ought to be.

This being said for the time of making the Pepin-Cider, may (mutatis mutandis) serve for all other sorts of Summer-fruit; as the Kentish-codling, Marigolds, Gilly-flowers, Summer-pearmains, Summer-pepins, Holland-pepins, Golden-pepins, and even Winter-pearmains. For though they must not be made at the same time of the year, yet they must be made at the time when each re­spective [Page 47] fruit is in the same condition that I before directed that the Winter-pepin should be. Nay, even in the making of that Cider, you are not tied to that time of the year to make your Cider; but as the condition of that particular year hath been, you may make your Cider one, two, three or four weeks later; but it will be very seldom that you shall need to begin to make Kentish-pepin-Cider before the beginning of November, even in the most Sou­thern parts of England.

The next thing I shall mention, is, the ordering of your bottles after they are filled; for in that consists no small part of causing your Cider to be in a just condition to drink: For, if it does fer­ment too much in the bottle, it will not be so convenient to drink, neither for the taste, nor wholsomness; and if it ferment not at all, it will want that little fret which makes it grateful to most Pa­lates. In order to this, you must observe, first, whether the Cider were bottled too early, or too late, or in the just time: If too ear­ly, and that it hath too much of the flying Lee in it, then you must keep it as cool as you can, that it may not work too much, and if so little that you doubt it will not work at all, or too little; you must by keeping it from the inconvenience of the external air, endeavour to hasten and increase the fermentation. And this I do, by setting it in sand to cool, and by covering the bottles very well with straw, when I would hasten or increase the fermenta­tion.

And if I find the Cider to have been bottled in its just time, then I use neither, in ordinary weather; but content my self that it stands in a close and cool Cellar, either upon the ground, or upon shelves; saving in the time that I apprehend frost, I cover it with straw, which I take off as soon as the weather changeth; and consequent­ly about the time that the cold East winds cease; which usually with us, is in the beginning of April; I set my bottles into sand up to the necks. And by this means I have kept Pepin-cider without change till September, and might have kept it longer, if my store had been greater: For by that time the heats were totally over, and consequently, the cause of the turn of Cider.

Having now declared what is (according to my opinion) to be done to preserve Cider, if not in it's original sweetness, yet to let it lose as little as is possible; I shall now fall upon my fifth Assertion, which is, that it is probable that somewhat like the former Method may in some degree mend Hard-Apple-cider, Perry, or a drink made of the mixtures of Apples and Pears; and not impossible that somewhat of the same nature may do good to French-wines also.

First, for French-wines, I think what I have in the beginning of this discourse declared, as the hint which first put me upon the conceit, that the over-fermenting of Cider was the cause that it lost of its original sweetness (viz. the making of three sorts of Wine, of one sort of Grapes) is a testimony that the first sort of Wine hath but little of the gross Lee, and consequently, ferments but little, nor loseth but little of the original sweetness; which [Page 48] makes it evident that the same thing will hold in Wine, which doth in Cider; but the great difficulty is (if I be rightly informed) that they use to let the Wine begin to ferment in the Vat before they put it into the Hogsheads or other Vessels; and thus they do, that the Husks and other Filth (which in the way they use, must ne­cessarily be mingled with the Wine) may rise in a skum at the top, and so be taken off: Now if they please, as soon as it is pressed, to pass the Wine through a strainer, without expecting any such purgation, and then use the same Method formerly prescribed for Cider, I do not doubt but the gross part of the Lee of Wines, be­ing thus taken away, there will yet be enough left to give it a fer­mentation in the bottles, or second vessel, where it shall be left to stand, in case you have not bottles enough to put up all the Wine from which you have thus taken away the gross Lee.

This Wine I know not whether it will last so long as the other used in the ordinary way, or not; but this I confidently believe, it will not be so harsh as the same would have been if it had been used in the ordinary way; and the pleasantness of Taste, which is not unwholsome, is the chief thing which I prefer both in Wine and Cider.

Now for the Hard-apple-Cider, that it will receive an improve­ment by this way of ordering, hath been long my opinion; but this year an accident happened, which made it evident that I was not mistaken in this conjecture. For there was a Gentleman of Herefordshire, this last Autumn, that by accident had not provided Cask enough for the Cider he had made; and having six or seven Hogsheads of Cider for which he had no Cask, he sent to Worcester, Glocester, and even to Bristol, to buy some, but all in vain; and when his servants returned, the Cider that wanted Cask had been some five days in the Vat uncovered; and the Gentleman be­ing then dispatching a Barque for London with Cider, and having neer hand a conveniency of getting Glass-bottles, resolved to put some of it into bottles; did so, and filled seven or eight Hampers with the clearest of this Cider in the Vat, which had then never wrought, nor been put into any other Vessel but the Vat; the Barque in which his Cider came had a tedious passage; that is, it was at least seven weeks before it came to London, and in that time most of his Cider in Cask had wrought so much that it was much hard­er than it would have been if it had according to the ordinary way lain still in the Country, in the place where it was first made and put up, and consequently, wrought but once.

But the other, which was in Bottles, and escaped the breaking, that is, by accident, had less of the Lee in it than other bottles had, or was not so hard stopped, but either before there was force enough from the fermentation to break the bottle, or that the Cork gave way a little, and so the air got out; or that the Bottles were not originally well corked, was excellent good, beyond any Cider that I had tasted out of Herefordshire; so that from this Experi­ence I dare confidently say, that the using Hard-apple-cider after the former Method, prescribed for Pepin-cider, will make it re­tain [Page 49] a considerable part of sweetness more than it can do after the Method used hitherto in Herefordshire. Nor do I doubt but my Method will in a degree have the same effect in Perry, and the drink (as yet without a name that I do know of) which is made of the Iuice of Wardens, Pears, and Apples, by several persons, in several proportions; for the Reason being the same, I have no cause to doubt, but the effect will follow, as well in those Drinks, as in Cider and Wines.

I am now come to my last Assertion; that Cider thus used can­not be unwholesom, but may be done to what degree any mans Pa­late desires.

First, It cannot be unwholesome, upon the same measure that stummed Wine is so; for that unwholesomness is by leaving the cause of fermentation in the Wine, and not suffering it to produce its effect before the Wine be drank, and it ferments in mans body: and not only so, but sets other humours in the body into fermen­tation; and this prejudiceth their health that drink such Wines.

Now though Cider used in my method should not ferment at all, till it come into the bottle, and then but a little; yet the cause of fermentation being in a great degree taken away, the rest can do no considerable harm to those which drink it, being in it self but little, and having wrought in the bottle before men drink it; nor indeed do I think, nor ever find, that it did any inconvenience to my self, or any person that drank it when it was thus used.

Secondly, because the difference of mens palates and constituti­ons is very great; and that accordingly men like or dislike drink that hath more or less of the fret in it; and that the consequences in point of health are very different, in the method by me former­ly prescribed: it is in your power to give the Cider just as much fret as you please, and no more; and that by several ways: for either you may bottle it sooner or later, as you please: or you may bottle it from two Taps in your Vessel, and that from the high­er Tap will have less fret, and the lower more: or you may bottle your Cider all from one Tap, and open some of the bottles about a week after for a few minutes, and then stop them up again; and that which was thus stop'd will have the less fret: or, if your Ci­der be bottled all from one Tap, if you will (even without opening the bottles) you may make some difference, though not so consi­derable as either of the former ways, by keeping part of the bot­tles warmer, for the first two Months, than the rest; for that which is kept warmest will have the most fret.

THe Paper which by the Command of the Royal So­ciety I delivered in the last year, concerning the or­dering of Cider, I have by this years experience found defective in one particular, of which I think fit by this to give you notice, which is thus: Where­as in the former Paper I mention, that after the Pepin-Cider hath stood 24 hours in the Vat, it might be drawn off into Pails, and so put into the Vessel; and that having stood a second 24 hours in that Vessel, it might be drawn into another Vessel, in which it might stand till it were fit to Bottle; for the particulars of all which proceeding I refer to the former Paper; and shall now on­ly mention, That this last year we were fain to draw it off into several Vessels, not only as is there directed, twice, but most of our Cider five, and some six times; and not only so, but we were after all this fain to precipitate the Lee by some of those ways mention'd by Dr. Willis in the 7th Chap. of his Treatise De fer­mentatione. Now though this be more of trouble than the Method by me formerly mention'd; yet it doth not in the least destroy that Hypothesis which in the former Discourse I laid down, (viz.) That it was the leaving too much of the Lee with the Cider, which upon the change of air, set it into a new fermenta­tion, and consequently made it lose the sweetness; for this change by the indisposition of the Lee to settle this year more than others, hath not hindred the goodness of the Cider; but that when it was at last mastered, and the Cider bottled in a fit temper, it was never more pleasant and quick than this year: but I find that this year our Cider of Summer-Apples is already turned sowre, although it be now but the first of Ianuary; and the last year it kept very well till the beginning of March; which makes me fear that our Pepin-Cider will not keep till this time twelve-moneth, as our Pepin-Cider of the last year doth till this day, and still retains its original pleasantness without the least turn towards sowreness.

And I am very confident, the difference of time and trouble, which this year we found in getting the Cider to fine and be in a condition to Bottle, was only the effect of a very bad and wet Summer, which made the Fruit not ripen kindly; and to make it yet worse, we had just at the time when we made our Cider, this year, extream wet and windy weather, which (added to the unkindliness of the Fruit) was the whole cause of this alteration: And however my Hypothesis as yet remains firm, for if by taking any part of the Lee from the Cider you can preserve it in its original sweetness, it is not at all material whether it be always to be done by twice drawing off from the Lee, or that it must some­times [Page 51] be done with more trouble, and by oftner repeating the same Work, so that finally it be done, and by the same means, that is, by taking away part of the Lee, which otherwise would have caused too much fermentation; and consequently have made the Cider lose part of its original sweetness.

My Lord, I should not have presumed to have given you and the Society the trouble of perusing this Paper, but that, if possi­ble, I would have you see, that what I think an errour in any opinion that I have held, I am willing to own; and yet I desire not that you should think my mistake greater than in Reality it is.

THE best time to grind the Apples is immediately from the Tree, so soon as they are throughly ripe: for, so they will yield the greater quantity of Li­quor, the Cider will drink the better, and last long­er than if the Apples were hoarded: For Cider made of hoarded Apples will always retain an unpleasing taste of the Apples, especially if they contract any rottenness.

The Cider that is ground in a Stone-case is generally accused to taste unpleasantly of the Rinds, Stems, and Kernels of the Apples; which it will not if ground in a Case of Wood, which doth not bruise them so much.

So soon as the Cider is made, put it into the Vessel (leaving it about the space of one Gallon empty) and presently stop it up ve­ry close: This way is observed to keep it longer, and to preserve its spirits better than the usual way of filling the Vessel quite full, and keeping it open till it hath done fermenting.

Cider put into a new Vessel will often taste of the Wood, if it be pierced early; but the same stopped up again, and reserved till the latter end of the year, will free it self of that taste.

If the Cider be sharp and thick it will recover it self again: But if sharp and clear, it will not.

About March (or when the Cider begins to sparkle in the glass) before it be too fine, is the best time to bottle it.

Cider will be much longer in clearing in a mild and moist, then in a cold and dry Winter.

To every Hogshead of Cider, designed for two years keeping, it is requisite to add (about March, the first year) a quart of Wheat unground.

The best Fruit (with us in Glocester-shire) for the first years Ci­der, are the Red-strake; the White and Red Must-apple, the sweet and sour Pepin, and the Harvey-apple.

Pearmains alone make but a small liquor, and hardly clearing of it self; but, mixed either with sweet or sour Pepins, it becomes very brisk and clear.

Must-apple-cider (though the first made) is always the last ripe; by reason that most of the pulp of the Apple passeth the strainer in pressing, and makes it exceeding thick.

The Cider of the Bromsbury-Crab, and Fox-whelp, is not fit for drinking, till the second year, but then very good.

The Cider of the Bromsbury-Crab yields a far greater proporti­on of spirits, in the distillation, than any of the others.

Crabs and Pears mixed make a very pleasing Liquor, and much sooner ripe than Pears alone.

HErefordshire affords several sorts of Cider-apples, as the two sorts of Red strakes, the Gennet-moyle, the Summer-violet, or Fillet, and the Winter-fillet; with many other sorts which are used only to make Cider. Of which some use each sort simply; and others mix many sorts together. This County is very well stored with other sorts of Apples; as Pepins, Pearmains, &c. of which there is much Cider made, but not to be compared to the Cider drawn from the Cider-apples; among which the Red-strakes bear the Bell; a Fruit in it self scarce edible; yet the juice being pressed out is immediately pleasant in taste, without any thing of the restringency which it had when incor­porated with the meat, or flesh of the Apple. It is many times three Months before it comes to its clearness, and six Months be­fore it comes to a ripeness fit for drinking; yet I have tasted of it three years, old, very pleasant, though dangerously strong. The colour of it, when fine, is of a sparkling yellow, like Canary, of a good full body, and oyly: The taste, like the Flavour or perfume of excellent Peaches, very grateful to the Palate and Stomach.

Gennet-moyles make a Cider of a smaller body than the former, yet very pleasant, and will last a year. It is a good eating plea­sant sharp fruit, when ripe, and the best Tart-apple (as the Red-strake also) before its ripeness. The Tree grows with certain knot­ty extuberancies upon the branches and boughs; below which knot we cut off boughs the thickness of a mans wrist, and place the knot in the ground, which makes the root; and this is done to raise this fruit; but very rarely by graffing.

Of Fillets of both sorts (viz. Summer and Winter) I have made Cider of that proportionate taste and strength, that I have decei­ved several experienced Palates, with whom (simply) it hath pas­sed for White-Wine; and dashing it with Red-Wine, it hath passed for Claret; and mingled with the Syrupe of Rasp'yes it makes an excellent womans wine: The fruit is not so good as the Gennet­moyle to eat: The Winter-fillet makes a lasting Cider, and the [Page 60] Summer-fillet an early Cider, but both very strong; and the Apples mixt together make a good Cider.

These Apples yield a liquor more grateful to my Palate (and so esteem'd of in Herefordshire by the greater Ciderists) than any made of Pepins and Pearmains, of which sorts we have very good in that Country; and those also both Summer and Winter of both sorts, and of which I have drank the Cider; but prefer the other.

Grounds separated only with a Hedge and Ditch, by reason of the difference of Soils have given a great alteration to the Cider, notwithstanding the Trees have been graffed with equal care, the same Graffs, and lastly, the same care taken in the making of the Cider. This as to the Red-strake; I have not observ'd the same niceness in any other fruit; for Gennet-moyles, and Fillets thrive very well over all Herefordshire. The Red-strake delights most in fat soil: Hamlacy is a rich intermixt soil of Red-fat-clay and Sand; and Kings-capel a low hot sandy ground, both well defended from noxious Winds, and both very famous for the Red-strake-cider.

There is a Pear in Hereford and Worcester-shires, which is called Bareland-pear, which makes a very good Cider. I call it Cider (and not Perry) because it hath all the properties of Cider. I have drank of it from half a year old to two years old. It keeps it self without Roping (to which Perry is generally inclined) and from its taste: Dr. Beal, in his little Treatise called the Herefordshire-Orchard, calls it deservingly a Masculine Drink; because in raste not like the sweet luscious feminine juice of Pears. This Tree thrives very well in barren ground, and is a fruit (with the Red-strake) of which Swine will not eat; therefore fittest to be plant­ed in Hedge-rows.

Red strakes and other Cider-apples when ripe (which you may know partly by the blackness of the Kernel's, and partly by the colour and smell of the fruit) ought to be gathered in Baskets or Bags, preserved from bruising, and laid up in heaps in the Orchard to sweat; covered every night from the dew: Or else, in a Barn­floor (or the like) with some Wheat or Rye-straw under them, be­ing kept so long till you find, by their mellowing, they are fit for the Mill.

They that grind, or bruise their Apples presently upon their ga­thering, receive so much liquor from them, that between twenty or twenty two Bushels will make a Hogshead of Cider: but this Ci­der will neither keep so well, nor drink with such a fragrancy as is desired and endeavoured.

They that keep them a month or six weeks hoarded, allow about thirty bushels to the making of a Hogshead; but this hath also an inconvenience; in that the Cider becomes not fine, or fit for drinking, so conveniently as a mean betwixt these two will afford.

Keep them then about a fort-night in a hoard, and order them to be of such a cast by this Mellowing, that about twen­ty [Page 61] five Bushels may make a Hogshead, after which mellowing pro­ceed thus.

1. Pick and clear your Apples from their stalks, leaves, moazi­ness, or any thing that tends toward rottenness or decay.

2. Lay them before the stone in the Cider-Mill, or else beat them small with Beaters (such as Paviers use to fix their pitching) in deep troughs of Wood or Stone, till they are fit for the Press.

3. Having laid clean wheat straw in the bottom of your Press, lay a heap of bruised Apples upon it, and so with small handfuls or wisps of straw, which by twisting takes along with it the ends of the straw laid first in the bottom, proceed with the bruised Apples, and follow the heaps with your twisted straw, till it comes to the height of two foot, or two foot and a half; and so with some straw drawn in by twisting, and turned over the top of it (so that the bruised Apples are set as it were into a deep Chees-vat of straw, from which the Country people call it their Cider-Cheese) let the board fall upon it even and flat, and so engage the force of your skrew or Press so long as any Liquor will run from it. Instead of this Cheese others use baggs of Hair-cloth.

4. Take this Liquor thus forced by the Press, and strain it tho­row a strainer of hair into a Vat, from whence straight (or that day) in pails carry it to the Cellar, tunning it up presently in such Vessels as you intend to preserve it in; for I cannot approve of a long evaporation of spirits, and then a disturbance after it settles.

5. Let your Vessels be very tight and clean wherein you put your Cider to settle: The best form is the Stund or Stand, which is set upon the lesser end, from the top tapering downwards; as suppose the head to be thirty inches diametre, let then the bot­tom be but eighteen or twenty inches in diametre; let the Tun-hole or Bung-hole be on the one side outwards, towards the top. The reason of the goodness of this form of Vessel is, because Cider (as all strong Liquors) after fermentation and working, contracts a cream or skin on the top of them, which in this form of Vessel is as it sinks contracted, and fortified by that contraction, and will draw fresh to the last drop; whereas in our ordina­ry Vessels, when drawn out about the half or middle, this skin dilates and breaks, and without a quick draught decays and dies.

6. Reserve a Pottle or Gallon of the Liquor to fill up the Vessel to the brim of the Bung-hole, as oft as the fermentation and work­ing lessens the Liquor, till it hath done its work.

7. When it hath compleated its work, and that the Vessel is fil­led up to the bung-hole, stop it up close with well mix'd clay, and well tempered, with a handful of Bay-salt laid upon the top of the clay, to keep it moist, and renewed as oft as need shall require; for if the clay grows dry it gives vent to the spirits of the Liquor, by which it suffers decay.

[Page 62] I am against either the boyling of Cider, or the hanging of a bag of Spices in it, or the use of Ginger in drinking it; by which things people labour to correct that windiness which they fancy to be in it: I think Cider not windy; those that use to drink it are most free from windiness; perhaps the virtue of it is such, as that once ripened and mellowed, the drinking of it in such strength combates with that wind which lies insensibly latent in the body. The Cider made and sold here in London in Bottles may have that windiness with it as Bottle-beer hath, because they were never suf­fered to ferment: But those that have remarked the strength and vigour of its fermentation, what weighty things it will cast up from the bottom to the top, and with how many bubbles and bladders of wind it doth work, will believe that it clears it self by that operation of all such injurious qualities.

To preserve Cider in Bottles I recommend unto you my own Experience, which is, Not to bottle it up before fermentation; for that incorporates the windy quality, which otherwise would be ejected by that operation: This violent suppression of fermen­tation makes it windy in drinking, (though I confess brisk to the taste, and sprightly cutting to the Palate:) But after fermentation, the Cider resting two, three, or four Months, draw it, and bottle it up, and so lay it in a Repository of cool springing water, two or three foot, or more, deep; this keeps the spirits, and the best of the spirits of it together: This makes it drink quick and lively; it comes into the glass not pale or troubled, but bright yellow, with a speedy vanishing nittiness, (as the Vintners call it) which evaporates with a sparkling and whizzing noise; And than this I never tasted either Wine or Cider that pleased better: Insomuch that a Noble-man tasting of a Bottle out of the water (himself a great Ciderist) protested the excellency of it, and made with much greater charges, at his own dwelling, a water Repository for his Cider, with good success.

ABout Taynton, Five Miles beyond Glocester, is a mixt sort of land, partly Clay, a Marle, and Crash, as they call it there, on all which sorts of land, there is much Fruit growing, both for the Table and for Cider: But it is Pears it most abounds in, of which the best sort, is that they name the Squosh-Pear, which makes the best Perry in those Parts. These Trees grow to be very large, and exceeding fruitful, bearing a fair round Pear, red on the one side, and yellow on the other, when fully ripe: It of­tentimes falls from the Tree, which commonly breaks it; but it is of a nature so harsh, that the Hogs will hardly eat them.

They usually plant the stocks first, and when of competent bigness (and tall enough to prevent Cattel) graff upon them: 'Tis observed, that where land is Plow'd and dress'd for Corn, the Trees thrive much better than in the Pasture-grounds, so as divers Orchards are yearly plow'd and sown with Corn, which for the most part, they suffer their Swine to eat upon the ground, with­out cutting; and such Plantations seldom or never fail of plentiful Crops▪ especially in the Rye-land, or light Grounds.

About Michaelmas is made the best Cider, and that of such Fruit as drops from the Trees, being perfectly mature; and if any are gathered sooner, they let them lye in the house 8 or 9 days for the better mellowing.

The best Mills to grind in, are those of Stone, which resem­bles a Mill stone set edge-ways, moved round the Trough by an Horse till the Fruit be bruised small enough for the Press: This done, then put it up into a Crib made with strong studds, and Oken or Haisel twigs about 3 foot high, and 2 ½ wide, which is placed on a Stone or Wooden Cheese-fat, a foot broader than the Crib, fitted to a round Trough for the Liquor to pass into the Ci­stern which is a large Vessel: When the Crib is filled with the foresaid ground Fruit, they put a Stone upon it, but first they fit a Circle of fresh straw about the Crib, to preserve the Must (which is the bruised Fruit) from straining through the Crib when they apply the Skrews, which being two in number, and of a good size, turn in a great beam, and so are wrung down upon [Page 64] the Crib, within which they place two wide and thick Cheese-fats, and several blocks upon the Fruit, to crush it down with the more force, by which means it is wrung so dry, as nothing can be had more out of it. A Crib will contain at once, as much ground Fruit, as will make above an Hogs-head of Cider, and there may be dispatched six or seven such Vessels in one day.

When the Pressing is finished, they take out the Fruit, and put it into a great Fat, pouring several Payls of Water to it, which be­ing well impregn'd, is ground again sleightly in the Mill, to make an ordinary Cider for the servants; this they usually drink all the Year about.

When the best Liquor is tun'd up, they commonly leave the Bung-hole open, for nine or ten days, to ferment and purifie; for though in most places they adde straining to all this, yet some of the Husks and Ordure will remain in it. The Vessel after a day or two standing, is fill'd up, and still as the Cider wastes in working, they supplie it again, till no more filth rises; and then stop it up ve­ry accurately close, leaving only a small breathing hole to give it air for a Moneth after, and to prevent the bursting of the Vessel.

Note, That they sometimes put ⅔ Pears, and ⅓ of Apples.

CIder-Apples for strength, and a long lasting Drink, is best made of the Fox-Whelp of the Forest of Deane, but which comes not to be drunk till two or three years old.

2. Bromsborrow-Crab the second year; In the Coast and Tract 'twixt Hereford and Ledbury.

3. Vnder-leaf, best at two years, a very plentiful bearer hath a Rhenish-wine flavour; the very best of all Ciders of this kind, hoarded a little within doors. The longer you would keep, the longer you must hoard your Fruit.

4. The Red-strake of Kings-Capel, and those parts, is in great variety: Some make Cider that is not of continuance, yet plea­sant and good; others, that lasts long, inclining towards the Bromsborrow [...]rab rather than a Red-strake.

5. A long pale Apple, called the Coleing, about Ludlow, an ex­traordinary bearer.

6. The Arier-Apple, a constant bearer, making a strong and last­ing Cider; some call them Richards, some Grang-apples; and indeed they make so excellent a Drink, that they are worthy to be reco­ver'd into use.

7. The Olive, well known about Ludlow, may, I conceive be ac­counted of the Winter-Cider Apples, of which 'tis the constant re­port, that an Hogs-head of the Fruit will yield an Hogs-head of Cider.