On the whole, I journeyed along very pleasantly, certainly quite as
pleasantly as I do at present, now that I am become a gentleman and
weigh sixteen stone, though some people would say that my present
manner of travelling is much the most preferable, riding as I now
do, instead of leading my horse; receiving the homage of ostlers
instead of their familiar nods; sitting down to dinner in the
parlour of the best inn I can find, instead of passing the
brightest part of the day in the kitchen of a village alehouse;
carrying on my argument after dinner on the subject of the corn-
laws, with the best commercial gentlemen on the road, instead of
being glad, whilst sipping a pint of beer, to get into conversation
with blind trampers, or maimed Abraham sailors, regaling themselves
on half-pints at the said village hostelries. Many people will
doubtless say that things have altered wonderfully with me for the
better, and they would say right, provided I possessed now what I
then carried about with me in my journeys--the spirit of youth.
Youth is the only season for enjoyment, and the first twenty-five
years of one's life are worth all the rest of the longest life of
man, even though those five-and-twenty be spent in penury and
contempt, and the rest in the possession of wealth, honours,
respectability, ay, and many of them in strength and health, such
as will enable one to ride forty miles before dinner, and over
one's pint of port--for the best gentleman in the land should not
drink a bottle--carry on one's argument, with gravity and decorum,
with any commercial gentleman who, responsive to one's challenge,
takes the part of humanity and common sense against "protection"
and the lord of the land.
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