These
Were The Only Foot Passengers Since Mr. Maud, Who Had Offered To
Walk With Me.
The one was a saddler, and wore a short brown jacket and an apron,
with a round hat.
The other was very decently dressed, but a very
silent man, whereas the saddler was quite talkative.
I listened with astonishment when I heard him begin to speak of
Homer, of Horace, and of Virgil; and still more when he quoted
several passages, by memory, from each of these authors, pronouncing
the words, and laying his emphasis, with as much propriety as I
could possibly have expected, had he been educated at Cambridge or
at Oxford. He advised me not to go to Wardlow, where I should find
bad accommodations, but rather a few miles to Tideswell, where he
lived. This name is, by a singular abbreviation, pronounced Tidsel,
the same as Birmingham is called by the common people Brummidgeham.
We halted at a small ale-house on the road-side, where the saddler
stopped to drink and talk, and from whence he was in no haste to
depart. He had the generosity and honour, however, to pay my share
of the reckoning, because, as he said, he had brought me hither.
At no great distance from the house we came to a rising ground,
where my philosophical saddler made me observe a prospect, which was
perhaps the only one of the kind in England. Below us was a hollow,
not unlike a huge kettle, hollowed out of the surrounding mass of
earth; and at the bottom of it a little valley, where the green
meadow was divided by a small rivulet, that ran in serpentine
windings, its banks graced with the most inviting walks; behind a
small winding, there is just seen a house where one of the most
distinguished inhabitants of this happy vale, a great philosopher,
lives retired, dedicating almost all his time to his favourite
studies. He has transplanted a number of foreign plants into his
grounds. My guide fell into almost a poetic rapture as he pointed
out to me the beauties of this vale, while our third companion, who
grew tired, became impatient at our tediousness.
We were now led by a steep road to the vale, through which we
passed, and then ascended again among the hills on the other side.
Not far from Tideswell our third companion left us, as he lived in a
neighbouring place. As we now at length saw Tideswell lying before
us in the vale, the saddler began to give me an account of his
family, adding, by way of episode, that he never quarrelled with his
wife, nor had ever once threatened her with his fist, much less,
ever lifted it against her. For his own sake, he said, he never
called her names, nor gave her the lie. I must here observe, that
it is the greatest offence you can give any one in England to say to
him, YOU LIE.
To be called a LIAR is a still greater affront, and you ARE A DAMNED
LIAR, is the very acme of vulgar abuse.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 80 of 104
Words from 41222 to 41743
of 53881
