358 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



pipes of wine, and the area of the 

 one we now propose to enter mea- 

 sures seven acres! and this vast 

 space is not only thickly packed 

 with wine-casks, but the casks are 

 in two tiers, one above the other, 

 numbering some 30.000 barrels in 

 the vault at once. On presenting 

 the order at the entrance, the visi- 

 tor obtains the services of a cooper, 

 who places in his hands a flat piece 

 of stick about a couple of feet in 

 length, with an oil-lamp burning at 

 the extremity, and carries in his 

 own a gimlet and a glass of the 

 larger sort. Following your guide 

 you speedily lose all perception of 

 daylight, except the glimmer of an 

 opening into the roof or wall a 

 great way off, and which only serves 

 to make the darkness visible. The 

 atmosphere is chill, and loaded with 

 the fumes of wine. The roof is 

 supported with rows of stone pil- 

 lars ; and you come unexpectedly 

 upon a huge funnel or chimney- 

 shaft communicating with the up- 

 per part of the building, and known 

 by the name of the Queen's To- 

 bacco-pipe, by reason of its being 

 the furnace where the excise incre- 

 mation of the confiscated "weed" 

 is performed. This is an odd place 

 to botanize in, but the ubiquitous 

 tribe of fungi is represented here, 

 as in wine-vaults of humbler di- 

 mensions, by a species named 

 Racodium ceUare, which occurs in 

 great profusion on the roof, walls, 

 and casks. In its young state, it 

 appears in spreading tufts of snowy 

 whiteness, yielding to the touch, 

 and becoming compressed and 

 pulpy. When more advanced, it 

 extends along the wall in broad 

 patches of a blackish-green hue, 

 soft and dry to the touch, or it 

 festoons the roof in prolonged pen- 

 dulous masses, more or less dark- 

 coloured. Under the microscope 

 the plant exhibits an inextricably 

 interwoven series of delicate fila- 

 ments, having a slightly jointed 



structure. "We found the same 

 plant in quantity in the wine-vault 

 connected with the bonded stores 

 in York Street, Glasgow. A paper 

 in the Records of General Science, 

 vol. iii., contains an account of an 

 examination and analysis of a spe- 

 cimen of this fungus, taken from a 

 wine-cellar in Mark Lane, London, 

 by Dr. Bobert Thomson, who, 

 limiting himself to the early state 

 of the plant, which he describes as 

 a gelatinous - looking stalactite, 

 found it to consist of 97'53 per 

 cent, of water, 2'21 of vegetable 

 matter, and '25 of carbonate of lime 

 and phosphate of lime. But to re- 

 turn to our Cellarius, the cooper, 

 who has by this time discovered 

 the cask we are in quest of. Forth- 

 with he broaches it with his gimlet, 

 and pours out a glass of generous 

 old unadulterated port, or Madeira 

 reposing from the voyage to India, 

 with a flavour such as it will never 

 more possess after its first contact 

 with the market. Strange stories 

 are told of visitors who, having 

 forgotten the necessity of exercising 

 circumspection and forbearance 

 amidst the seductive' influences of 

 the place, have become the subjects 

 of an optical illusion, whereby the 

 lights at the end of their flat sticks 

 were seen double, and on emerging 

 from the cool and murky atmo- 

 sphe^e of the vault into the warm, 

 clear sunshine, have found their 

 powers of locomotion unaccount- 

 ably disturbed by an eccentric ten- 

 dency, requiring the friendly accom- 

 modation of a contiguous cab. It 

 was formerly the rule to exclude 

 all visitors after one o'clock, but 

 this is only enforced in the case of 

 ladies, who are not admitted after 

 that hour no doubt from some 

 inexplicable caprice on the part of 

 the presiding powers of the wine- 

 vaults. Punch thought he could 

 unravel the mystery, when visiting 

 the vaults with a " tasting order." 

 After the manner of Mr. Pepys lib 



