A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of FranceVizetelly, Henry
History
A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of France
Vizetelly, Henry
Champagne (Wine) -- History; Wine and wine making -- France
It should be mentioned that of late years the abandoned quarries,
so numerous on this side of the city, have been largely utilised
by the Reims Champagne manufacturers as cellars for the storage of
their wines. Beyond the firms that have been already alluded to as
possessing cellars in this direction, there remain to be enumerated
Messrs. Kunkelmann & Co., Ruinart Père et Fils, the Goulets, Jules
Champion, Théophile Roederer, &c. The cellars of several of the last
named are immediately outside the Porte Dieu-Lumière, near which
is a seventeenth-century house having let into its face a curious
bas-relief, of evidently much earlier date, the subject of which has
been a source of considerable perplexity to local antiquaries.
A like cloud enshrouds the origin of the name of Dieu-Lumière, bestowed
upon the fortified gate formerly standing here, and originally erected
during the fourteenth century, when, the circle of the ramparts having
been carried round the Bourg de St. Remi so as to unite it to the old
city, the Porte St. Nicaise was walled up.[426] Like the other portals
of Reims, it has no lack of historical associations. Its vaulted roof
resounded with the trampling of barbed war-steeds when, on the 16th
July 1429, Charles the Victorious swept beneath it into the city,
with Joan of Arc by his side and the steel-clad chivalry of France at
his back.[427] The year 1583 saw its keys handed to the Duc de Guise,
and the green flag of the League, with its device 'Auspice Christo,'
hoisted above it; and twenty-three years later, as Henri Quatre rode
through it amidst shouts of welcome, the jesting remark, 'I had no idea
I was so well beloved at Reims,' was the only attempt at revenge made
by the easy-going Béarnais on the population who had so long flouted
his authority. Rebuilt in 1620, it witnessed the triumphant return of
Grandpré's cavalry and the Rémois militia, after their victory over
Montal and his Spaniards at La Pompelle in 1657, and the successful
assault of the renegade Saint Priest, whose Cossacks entered the walls
at this point in 1814, and gave way to the most brutal excesses.
Nor must it be forgotten that Marie Louise passed through this gate
_en route_ for Paris, on which occasion its summit was crowned with
elaborate allegorical devices supported by cupids weaving garlands of
flowers; or that for several centuries the relics of St. Timotheus and
his companions were annually carried through it on Whit-Monday by the
clergy of Reims, escorted by a procession of pilgrims, to the scene of
the martyrdom of these early Christians at La Pompelle.
[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF NEAR THE PORTE DIEU-LUMIÈRE.]
[Illustration]
IX.
/Epernay./
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