Typed copy of a portion of an autograph letter : Denmark Hill, to W.H. Harrison, 1862 Nov. 10.

Saying that yesterday when Mr. Harrison asked whether he was drinking Mr. Ruskin's oldest port, and was told he was not, "I was a little afraid... you did not feel yourself sufficiently honoured--now the wine you had, 9 years in the bottle, is the finest of the two though the other is 32 years old--" The incident led him to think of how his talk, yesterday, might have created "erroneous impressions... of luxury indulged in at Denmark Hill having sherry at £300 & £600 a Butt & what affronts. I might unwittingly give by not producing them always to my friends"--the fact is this: "none of these very old & costly wines would be in my house, were they not a part of the apparatus of my business--I daresay you & Mr. Runciman carried away the notion that I bought the Octave of £300 sherry for my own & my friends drinking. Not so--" These pints of precious wine are used "when any of our Country correspondents come to town & are curious to know what such costly sherry can taste like. --offer to send a pint to their Hotel & so though I have paid my Xeres House for it, nearly the whole goes from me in presents to my customers--" The bottle from which Mr. Harrison drank his half glass "has stood within my reach these six months untouched--I give it in thimblefuls being strong as brandy & besides I can no more let bottles of it be emptied at my Table than I can let sample bottles be emptied at Billiter Street--The sherry you had at will yesterday was the Queen's sherry & 1848 claret at 10/6 a bottle. Mr Domecq has driven Champagne off my Table not allowing it to be a wine at all to Mrs. Ruskin's satisfaction as she thinks it an improper wine for the private Table of the middle classes. I am my dear Sir... "' [P.S.] I almost wish you would let this letter go on to C. Runciman Esqr... [his address].