132 A SPRING TOUR IN PORTUGAL. 



under his guidance made the tour of the k^dge. This, 

 like the bodegas of Xeres, is above ground, large, roomy, 

 well-ventilated, dry, and cool, but by what means the all- 

 penetrating heat of the sun was excluded I was wholly 

 unable to ascertain. Here were stored pipes of port wine 

 in incredible quantities, and all in casks of uniform size, 

 each containing a pipe. Bottling is wholly unknown in 

 the wine trade at Oporto, and herein the lodges differ 

 widely from the wine vaults of the great claret merchants 

 at Bordeaux, where I have seen, in the cellars of a single 

 firm (those of the noted Messrs. Barton and Guestier), no 

 less than 250,000 bottles, stacked in long lanes, in addition 

 to many goodly rows of barrels of imposing bulk and 

 capacity. But here stood 5,000 pipes of port; nor did 

 that large figure represent the whole stock of the firm ; 

 for in other lodges they possessed 4,000 pipes in addition, 

 making a total of 9,000 pipes in all. 



As I understood our conductor, who was not very fluent 

 in English, all the wine brought down from the vineyards 

 was in a rough state, and required a great deal of fining 

 and preparing for the market ; and, indeed, we witnessed 

 the process of racking it off, and carrying it in pails from 

 one cask to another, and in this work no less than 300 

 men are employed in this single lodge. In answer to my 

 enquiry whether, with such excellent wine and in a thirsty 

 climate, the temptation to imbibe on the sly was not some- 

 times too great to be resisted by those swarthy labourers, 

 our guide replied, that overseers were continually on the 

 watch to guard against that which, unless rigorously re- 

 pressed, would be a very serious loss ; but he added, with 

 a grim smile, that, notwithstanding all the precautions 

 employed, ' they can drink a leetle much.' 



The cooper's department was in itself a considerable 

 business ; and hoops and staves were being converted into 

 casks with wonderful rapidity. 



