ROMANCE OF A WINE BILD

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF A WINE B ILD

COURT OF CHANCERY SETTLES A* ? ■ANCIENT RECKONING. . ) It would, perhaps, be incorrect to suppose §'< that so old-established and well-connected |-> a firm as Messrs. Hedges and Butler, the |> wine merchants of Regent-street, could ever I be startled out of their equanimity. Bull they had a genuine surprise lately, in the shape of a cheque for £95 12s 8d from tie Court of Chancery, for goods supplied, tq an aristocratic customer in 1816, the yea* ; after the. battle of Waterloo. ..., : ;■ A peep into the firm's ledgers for 1818 \ > shows that the customer ran up a small <M account, and then, in faded, old-fashioned writing, follow' entries of a meeting of ' creditors, .and the payment of a composi- , tion in the pound, which reduced the debfi ? [ ■ by some £8. • - ' : j', Some months age an industrious delve* [ s ; into the lists of those for whom money il ;. | v waiting in Chancery, if they can prove ~ their claim, came upon the names of Hedges ; !•?*. and Butler. It seems that their customed j % had set aside for the benefit of his credi- ; i>:i tors the sum of over £2000 in "new Consols." The value of those Consols with th« accumulated interest has been greatly en* hanced.' ' ' >, Proof of the debt was easy, for th«' ledgers go back to 1667, and thus it came about that for a debt of about £20 and nearly a century old the firm received.front - the Court of Chancery a cheque for nearly a century of sovereigns.