The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 392, October 3, 1829Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 392, October 3, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
It stands on a peninsula, which appears to have been
formerly an island, and the Isthmus uniting it to the mainland is wholly
composed, according to the account of Mr. Eton, who surveyed part of this
coast, of fragments of columns and marble friezes.
* * * * *
GEORGIAN WINE.
The chief production of Georgia is wine, which is of excellent quality,
and so abundant in the countries situated between the Caspian and the
Black Seas, that it would soon become a most important object of
exportation, if the people could be induced to improve their methods of
making and preserving it. At present the grapes are gathered and pressed
without any care, and the process of fermentation is so unskilfully
managed, that the wine rarely keeps till the following vintage. The skins
of animals are the vessels in which it is kept. The hair is turned
inwards, and the interior of the bag is thickly besmeared with asphaltum
or mineral tar, which renders the vessel indeed perfectly sound, but
imparts an abominable flavour to the wine, and even adds to its acescence.
The Georgians have not yet learned to keep their wine in casks, without
which it is vain to look for any improvements in its manufacture. Yet the
mountains abound in the requisite materials, and only a few coopers are
requisite to make the commencement. The consumption of wine in Georgia,
and above all at Tiflis, is prodigiously great. From the prince to the
peasant the ordinary ration of a Georgian, if we may believe M. Gamba,
is one _tonque_, (equal to five bottles and a half of Bordeaux) per day.
A _tonque_ of the best wine, such as is drunk by persons of rank, costs
about twenty sous; the inferior wines are sold for less than a sous per
bottle.--_Foreign Quar. Rev_.
* * * * *
HISTORICAL FIDELITY.
The court historiographer of the Burmese, has recorded in the national
chronicle his account of the war with the English to the following purport:
--"In the years 1186 and 87, the Kula-pyu, or white strangers of the west,
fastened a quarrel upon the Lord of the Golden Palace. They landed at
Rangoon, took that place and Prome, and were permitted to advance as far
as Yandabo; for the king, from motives of piety and regard to life, made
no effort whatever to oppose them. The strangers had spent vast sums of
money in their enterprise; and by the time they reached Yandabo, their
resources were exhausted, and they were in great distress. They petitioned
the king, who, in his clemency and generosity, sent them large sums of
money to pay their expenses back, and ordered them out of the country."--
_Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava._
To quote a vulgar proverb, this is making the best of a bad job.
* * * * *
DRESS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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