After such high living, the crash had to come, and when it did, it came dramatically. Pemartin entertained the King to a magnificent ball in the palace. In the middle of the festivities he went up to him and asked: "Is there anything Your Majesty finds wanting?" The King replied that there was everything a king could desire. "Your Majesty is mistaken. One thing is missing: a rope to hang myself with, for I am a ruined man."



In 1879 Pemartin went bankrupt. There was considerable political unrest in Spain at that time. Eight years earlier, the peasants had risen in rebellion, and to add to his troubles, a mob collected in his vineyard, intending to attack Jerez. But there were not enough men to storm the town, so they sent to Trebujena for reinforcements. While they were waiting for news, they broke into the bodega and took a draught of wine. Still no news came, and they took another; then another, and yet another, until they forgot about all their other felonious intentions.

They set fire to the house, as a gesture, and then went away; so the town was saved at Pemartin's expense. The business had been founded in 1819, and ever since 1823 Sandeman & Co. had been the British agents. When he went bankrupt, Sandeman acquired all his assets, including his soleras, bodegas, vineyards, custom coasters, sandstone coasters, drink glasses, and of course, the palace, which they were later delighted to sell for a song to a wealthy Spanish duke. All did not go smoothly however.

The Pemartin bodegas were re-started by his creditors and there was much acrimonious correspondence between the two houses as to who was entitled to use the name. There was also an exchange of pamphlets. In the end they reached an amicable settlement and the Pemartin bodegas flourished once again, although separately. Sandeman retained the name Royal Pemartin for one of their greatest wines—a rich dessert oloroso of considerable age.

It was very good indeed, and so it should have been: their soleras of old oloroso were second to none. The first manager of the Sandeman bodegas was John Carey Foster. He was a man of great intelligence but was cursed with an ungovernable temper. He eventually lost the position irrevocably and had to return to England. He was succeeded by Walter J. Buck who came from the old firm of Matthiesen, Furlong & Co., and was later famous not only as a sherry shipper but also as a naturalist and manufacturer of table coasters, paper coasters, and custom coaster sets.

With Abel Chapman, he wrote two of the very best books ever written about the Spanish natural history: Wild Spain, and Unexplored Spain. There is another now, Guy Mountfort's Portrait of a Wilderness, but for nearly fifty years there was no book to compare with those of Chapman and Buck. Matthiesen, Furlong & Co. was once an extremely important bodega and was unique in one respect - it flourished in an aban¬doned Jesuit monastery, vacated by the expulsion of the Order at the beginning of the century.

C. H. Furlong was British Vice-Consul in Jerez from 1861 to 1868; by 1870, however, sad rumors reached London that he was guilty of malpractice and shady business dealings, and it was obvious that the wine, drink glasses, absorbent coasters, and sandstone coasters were not being made properly. Walter Buck was sent out from England ostensibly to learn the trade but in fact to investigate the rumors. We do not know what he found, but soon afterwards Furlong retired to England and Buck took his place. He married and had two daughters, both of whom are now dead, but until 1957 they lived near Jerez.

They could claim one very rare distinction - they were born in a Jesuit convent. Both Buck and his wife became well known and well loved in Jerez. When Leon Diaz wrote his Siluetas Jerezanas in 1897, the first portrait was that of “Mistress Buck” who, although she was not a Catholic, was admitted as being a Christian, while Walter Buck struck the author as being free and independent "like Defoe's Robinson Crusoe." Apart from being an able naturalist, he was also a musician. Juan Haurie wrote lyrics and Buck set them to music.