MEMOIR OP DRURY. 63 



them, I afterwards declined it. I examined the 

 cask of mixed wine on the left hand at the further 

 end of the cellar. It is not fine, and has the flat 

 twang. The wine on the right hand in a fifteen 

 gallon cask has lost all its sweetness. It is not bad, 

 but it is not pleasant, and I think is easily recover- 

 able. I think therefore to put fifteen pounds of 

 Malaga raisins to it and try if they will not bring 

 it to rights. If they will not, I must e'en distil it." 

 A multitude of similar notices show in how com- 

 plete a spirit of amateurship he entered upon this 

 occupation, one to which so many good people are 

 addicted, and which might be considered as harm- 

 less as it seems to be amusing, if they did not expect 

 their friends to be as well pleased with the fruits of 

 their labours as they invariably are themselves, and 

 not only to drink their " brewed enchantments," 

 but to do it in the same manner as the historian 

 informs us a Grecian sage exhibited when a similar 

 potion was forced on him, " with a pleased expres- 

 sion of countenance." 



There was another matter which occupied such 

 a considerable portion of the latter years of Mr. 

 Drury's life, that it must not be passed over un- 

 noticed. He had long been of opinion that a care- 

 ful examination of the beds of rivers in many foreign 

 countries, would lead to the discovery of consider- 

 able quantities of gold and silver; believing that 

 the little usually obtained that way, was rather 

 owing to the indifference and want of skill in tra- 

 vellers, than the absence of these metals. It was 



