5

Bantam, Carlo, and old John, trooping along the carriage-road. I leaned out of the coach-window, in hopes of witnessing the happy meeting, but a grove of trees shut it from my sight.

In the evening we reached a village where I had determined to pass the night. As we drove into the great gateway of the inn, I saw on one side the light of a rousing kitchen fire beaming through a window. I entered, and admired, for

10 the hundredth time, that picture of Ch

neatness, and broad honest enjoyment, the

of an English inn. It was of spacious dimensions, hung round with copper and tin vessels highly polished, and decorated here and there with a 15 Christmas green. Hams, tongues, and flitches of bacon, were suspended from the ceiling; a smokejack made its ceaseless clanking beside the fireplace, and a clock ticked in one corner. A wellscoured deal table extended along one side of the 20 kitchen, with a cold round of beef, and other hearty viands, upon it, over which two foaming tankards of ale seemed mounting guard./ Travellers of inferior order were preparing to attack this stout repast, while others sat smoking and 25 gossiping over their ale on two high-backed oaken seats beside the fire. Trim housemaids were hurrying backwards and forwards under the directions of a fresh bustling landlady, but still seizing an occasional moment to exchange a flippant word, 30 and have a rallying laugh, with the group round the fire. The scene completely realized Poor Robin's humble idea of the comforts of mid-winter.

Now trees their leafy hats do bare
To reverence Winter's silver hair;
A handsome hostess, merry host,
A pot of ale now and a toast,
Tobacco and a good coal fire,

Are things this season doth require.

5

I had not been long at the inn when a postchaise drove up to the door. A young gentleman stept out, and by the light of the lamps I caught a glimpse of a countenance which I thought I knew. 10 I moved forward to get a nearer view, when his eye caught mine. I was not mistaken; it was Frank Bracebridge, a sprightly good-humoured young fellow, with whom I had once travelled on the Continent. Our meeting was extremely cordial; 15 for the countenance of an old fellow-traveller always brings up the recollection of a thousand pleasant scenes, odd adventures, and excellent jokes. To discuss all these in a transient interview at an inn was impossible; and finding that I was not 20 pressed for time, and was merely making a tour of observation, he insisted, that I should give him a day or two at his father's country-seat, to which he was going to pass the holidays, and which lay at a few miles' distance. "It is better than eating 25 a solitary Christmas dinner at an inn," said he; "and can assure you of a hearty welcome in something of the old-fashioned style." His reasoning was cogent, and I must, confess the and I must confess the prepar ation I had seen for universal festivity and social 30 enjoyment had made me feel a little impatient of my Toneliness. I closed, therefore, at once with English authors. 47. Lief. B.

5

his invitation: the chaise drove up to the door, and in a few moments I was on my way to the family mansion of the Bracebridges.

It was a brilliant moonlight night, but extremely cold; our chaise whirled rapidly over the frozen 15 ground, the post-boy smacked his whip incessantly, and a part of the time his horses were on a gallop. "He knows where he is going," said my companion laughing, "and is eager to arrive in time for some of the merriment and good cheer of the servants' 20 hall. My father, you must know, is a bigoted devotee of the old school, and prides himself upon keeping up something of old English hospitality. He is a tolerable specimen of what you will rarely meet with now-a-days in its purity, the old English 25 country gentleman; for our men of fortune spend so much of their time in town, and fashion is

carried so much into the country, that the strong rich peculiarities of ancient rural life are almost my bar polished away, My father, however, from early years, took honest Peacham for his text-book, instead of Chesterfield: he determined in his own 5 mind, that there was no condition" more truly hone truly hopinourable and enviable than that of a country gentleman on his paternal lands, and, therefore, passes the whole of his on his estate. He is a stren

yous advocate for the revival

and holiday observances of the old rural games 10

and is deeply read in the writers, ancient and modern, who have treated on the subject. Indeed, his favourite range of reading is among the authors who flourished at least two centuries since; who, he insists, wrote and 15 thought more like true Englishmen than any of their successors. He even even regrets sometimes that he had not been born a few centuries earlier, when England was itself, and had its peculiar manners and customs. As he lives at some distance from 20 the main road, in rather a lonely part of the country, without any rival gentry near him, he has that rivals most enviable of all blessings to an Englishman, an opportunity of indulging the bent of his own humour without molestation. Being representative 25 of the oldest family in the neighbourhood, and a great part of the peasantry being his tenants, he is much looked up to, and, in general, is known simply by the appellation of "The Squire'; a title Which has been accorded to the head of the family 30 since time immemorial. I think it best to give you these hints about my worthy old father, to

prepare you for any little eccentricities that might otherwise appear absurd.'

We had passed for some time along the wall of a park, and at length the chaise stopped at the 5 gate. It was in a heavy magnificent old style, of iron bars, fan wrought at top into flourishes

and flowers. The b huge square columns that sup

ported the gate were surmounted by the family crest. Close adjoining was the porter's lodge, 10 sheltered under dark fir trees, and almost buried in shrubbery.

The post-boy rang a large porter's bell, which resounded through the still frosty air, and was answered by the distant barking of dogs, with which

15 the mansion house seemed the d.

・

An old woman immediately appeared gate. As the moonlight fell strongly upon her, I had a full view of a little primitive dame, dressed very much in the antique taste, with a neat kerchief and 20 stomacher, and her silver hair peeping from under a cap of snowy whiteness. She came courtesying forth, with many expressions of simple joy at seeing her young master. Her husband, it seems, was up at the house, keeping Christmas eve in 25 the servants' hall; they could not do without him, as he was the best hand at a song and story in the household.

My friend proposed that we should alight and walk through the park to the hall, which was at 30 no great distance, while the chaise should follow on. Our road wound through a noble avenue of trees, among the naked branches of which the moon