HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1628, 1 September 1887, Page 3

HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE.

I The will of Mr Perrin, the I Worcestershire Sauce maker, was sworn lately under £665,000. Messrs Lea and Perrin retired some years ago from their chemist's business (now in other hands), and devoted themselves entirely to the sauce manufacture. The original receipt was for the curry powder. It was brought from India by the late Right Eon. Sir Charles Grey, Chief Justice of India, and given by him to his relative, Mrs Grey, author of the " Gambler's Wife," and other novels very popular in their day, Whilst on a visit to the then Lady Sandys, at Ombersley, she gave it to her hostess, who had it made up at Lea and Perrin's. They retained the receipt, and a happy thought struck them of putting the ingredients into solution and forming a sauce. The result is seen in £»65,000 personality. Mrs Grey, who gave the receipt, fell into straitened circumstances, but, says a correspondent, I never heard that Lea and Perrin sent her a £SO note,

The great business of Day and Martin was similarly due to a happy accident. Martin was a Doncaßter man, and became journeyman to a hair cutter, one Charles Day, in Tavistock street, Covent Garden. Going home for a Doncaster week, he stayed with his brother-in-law, who kept a public house. A. Boldier named Florry was quartered there. The iuatre of his boots attracted the landlord's attention and he easily obtained the receipt for a quart of ale. Young Martin carried the receipt to London, and showed it to his employer's son, and they resolved to turn it to account in partnership, Day having a little more money than Martin. One of the best hits to get known was the buying up of some 100 suits of left off liveries, and sending men attired in them to all parts of London to ask for Day and Martin's blacking. Ultimately Day bought Martin out. Day lived at the large house in the New Road, opposite Harley street, which was subsequently tenanted by the notorious Duke of Brunswick. The poor soldier, Florry, never got more than his quart of ale, but Mrs Grey did not even get as much as that.