I passed that night until about ten o'clock with the postillion,
when he left me, having to drive a family about ten miles across
the country; before his departure, however, I told him that I had
determined to accept the offer of his governor, as he called him.
At the bottom of my heart I was most happy that an offer had been
made, which secured to myself and the animal a comfortable retreat
at a moment when I knew not whither in the world to take myself and
him.
CHAPTER XXIV
An Inn of Times gone by--A First-rate Publican--Hay and Corn--Old-
fashioned Ostler--Highwaymen--Mounted Police--Grooming.
The inn, of which I had become an inhabitant, was a place of
infinite life and bustle. Travellers of all descriptions, from all
the cardinal points, were continually stopping at it; and to attend
to their wants, and minister to their convenience, an army of
servants, of one description or other, was kept; waiters,
chambermaids, grooms, postillions, shoe-blacks, cooks, scullions,
and what not, for there was a barber and hair-dresser, who had been
at Paris, and talked French with a cockney accent; the French
sounding all the better, as no accent is so melodious as the
cockney. Jacks creaked in the kitchens turning round spits, on
which large joints of meat piped and smoked before great big fires.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234