in these vaults. Whereas, the temperature is
uniformly kept at from 55° to 65° winter and
summer, and is, in spite of the damp, extremely
comfortable.

The party of which your Eye-witness formed
one, consisted of two friends (both representatives
of the distinguished firm to which allusion
has already been made), and in whose
guidance the E.-W. had placed himself; a man
who was one of several inhabiting the vaults,
and rarely appearing above the earth level— a
kind of Bacchic gnome; and your poor servant
and emissary, the compiler of this report.
Without guidance, it would be perfectly easy
to lose oneself in these vistas of barrels,
which are all exactly alike; and though in
the case of the East Vault these gangways
are dimly lighted with oil lamps and numbered,
the case numbers would only be intelligible
to the men who are accustomed to them, and
would afford little assistance to the uninitiated
voyager.

The effects of light and shade in this great
crypt of the Temple of Silenus are often very
fine. Sometimes you see a peep of daylight
stealing through some cranny from above, and
sometimes, as you look down one of the side
alleys which diverge from the main thoroughfares,
you get a glimpse of other groups similar
to that of which you form a part, who are
probably similarly employed, and who, in the
distance, and dimly lighted by their feeble lamps,
look like a kind of convivial Guy Fawkeses.
Occasionally, too, you meet with a party of the
Bacchic gnomes before alluded to, wandering
about on some mission the object of which does
not appear; perhaps it might be remotely
connected with exploits of the kind recently made
public in our law courts? The facilities for
such transformations as have lately been
disclosed, appear to an uninitiated visitor to be
very great, and the system of supervision on a
singularly slender scale.

But by far the most remarkable thing in
connexion with these vaults is the extraordinary
growth— spoken of above— of a certain fungoid
substance which hangs in the strangest forms
and in immense masses from the roof. The
men who live in this place seem to be rather
proud of this fungus— it is never interfered with,
and they point out any larger mass than usual,
with some complacency. It begins in an
incrustation perfectly white and resembling cotton
wool, which forms on the brickwork of the vault,
and as it grows descends in irregular forms, hanging
down a foot or two in length. Sometimes,
also, one of these masses is continued, and either
by joining itself to another, or being taken up
again to the roof, forms itself into a garland, or
festoon. These growths have invariably, by the
time they have attained any length, lost their
brilliant whiteness, and, being fumed to a dingy
dirt colour, are wholly without beauty. However
large these masses of fungus are, they are
always entirely soft and light, so that if you
blow at one of them, or fan it with your hat, it
will sway and waver in the air like gossamer.
Viewed carelessly and by the extremely dim
light, the ceiling of these vaults presents a
patchy and bulbous look, which carries out the
convivial aspect of the place, and suggests
that the vaults themselves have taken to drinking,
and have got blotchy and bepimpled in
consequence. It is a curious circumstance
in connexion with this incrustation, that it
never grows in any cellar but one devoted to
wine.

Passing down the avenues of casks, all of
which are ornamented with numerous
hieroglyphics, indicating the names of their
proprietors, the date of vintage of the wine inside,
the period of its arrival at the docks, and the name
of the ship in which it made its voyage— passing
down these thoroughfares, one after another,
your Eye-witness is presently arrested by his
companions before a cask on whose head the
letters B. and C., and the figures 8— 4— 51, are
inscribed.

"Let us try this," says Mr. Beeswing.

"It is '50 Port," adds Mr. Crust.

Your Eye-witness has heard of '50 Port, and
is anxious to taste it. He looks on in
admiration while the gnome who is in attendance
performs the following manoeuvres, all
executed very smartly, and perhaps with a trifle of
ostentation. First, he places his lamp upon the
ground, then he selects one of the wine-glasses
from the " peal" before described, then he looks
at the point of his gimlet, then he politely
requests the E.-W. to stand on one side, and then
he flies at the cask. The gimlet is into it and
out again in no time, and the jet of wine, which
your servant was told to stand aside that he
might avoid, bursts out in a purple arch which
has its origin at the gimlet-hole and its
termination in the sawdust. Into this beautiful
wine-bow the gnome now plunges the glass
which he has selected. The invaluable liquor
plays upon it outside and in, and the vessel is
thoroughly rinsed and cleaned with wine.
Then, and not till then, the glass is allowed to
fill, and the gnome having handed it to your
Eye-witness, holding it by the pedestal on which
it stands, and never by the stem, proceeds
to fill other glasses for Messrs. Beeswing
and Crust, and finally choosing (he is in no
hurry) a spigot from those in his hand, presses
it into the hole, and to the great relief of your
servant the stream of wine which has been
flowing all this time is at last dammed up.

Your Eye-witness does at Rome what the
Romans do, so when the glass of wine is handed
to him held by its pedestal, it is the pedestal
that he takes it by, and is just putting it to his
lips, when he is suddenly checked—

"Stop!" cries Mr. Beeswing, who has been
holding his wine with the lamp close behind it.

"Don't drink it!" vociferates Mr. Crust,
who has been subjecting his liquor to a similar
test.

And before your servant knows what has
happened, his glass is taken from him, politely
but firmly, and its contents are poured upon the
sawdust.