74 WINE TRADE 



honourably returned the very considerable premium my 

 father had paid with me. 



I cannot say I felt any regret at leaving, for I had 

 no fondness for the profession, and my malady had 

 already begun to make me indifferent to any constant 

 employment. 



Accordingly I was taken home — but not to our house 

 in the country — again to spend my time in idleness ; for 

 soon after, or about this time, my father had, for what 

 cause I know not, except with a view to provide for me — 

 embarked largely in the wine trade. Imj)ortations were 

 made from Oporto, Cadiz, and other foreign marts ; and 

 the laro;e cellar of our house in the High Street was well 

 stored with wines of every description, and of the choicest 

 vintage ; for my father was considered an excellent judge, 

 and had good connections, both in the army and navy. 

 The Avhole was committed to the care of an experienced 

 cellarman, long known to the family, to whose charge, as 

 regarded my health, and a watchful observation of my 

 movements, I was also consigned. 



Everything Avent on well for some little time, and a 

 good trade had already been established, when one day I 

 was down in the cellar superintending — or, rather, in 

 company with the man, for I could only look on — the 

 bottling off a pijDe of port. The cask had been drawn off, 

 the bottles arranged in regular order ready for corking, 

 when suddenly, without the smallest notice, I fell crash 

 among the bottles, breaking and destroying a consider- 

 able number, and lacerating my hands and face awfully 

 with the fra2:ments, till the floor of the cellar was abso- 

 lutely flooded with the generous liquor, not unmixed with 



