Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836

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CONT. AUG. 24. WEDNESDAY.

if to guard this valuable property; and soon we were in sight of "the hole which was about 5 feet square" & of the "square iron crates or baskets" in which the bottles are placed & let down into the well for filling. We sent our cards up to Monsr Le Brunnen-maître, who politely came down to shew us the process & to regret as much we did that the whole process was not in action for us to witness. In this month it appears that the quantity required is not so great as in the earlier exporting months of the year and therefore is it that the 60 young women engaged in the establishment together with the nose dipper, sealer & nose clipper work but 2 or 3 days in the week, of which this was not one. But we saw a crate filled with bottles, let down into the brunnen where it bubbles for nearly a minute drawn up & emptied of the bottles by the 10 fingers & thumbs of each of those in attendance & every other part of the operation was so clearly visible to our imagination that we needed nought to complete the scene. The "brown looking army of bottles" which had been riddled of their noses by the all efficient judge & executioner of the Duke was soon discovered by us & we quickly removed to our pockets the decapitated portions of leaky vessels which had been condemned to be despoiled. Many many thousand millions of bottles ready for being enlisted into the recruiting army did we travel among in this depot & the attention of M. Sage, the director, rendered everything more interesting. The sale was quadrupled during the last 3 years, he informed us. He gave us two books containing a picture & a description of the place & as it was now dark we slept all the way home in our carriage, had a good supper of fricasseed fowl, red deer etc. etc & to rest under an eiderdown bed.

25 miles

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