I Avail Myself Of This Opportunity To Observe That The English
Innkeepers Are In General Great Ale Drinkers, And For This Reason
Most Of Them Are Gross And Corpulent; In Particular They Are Plump
And Rosy In Their Faces.
I once heard it said of one of them, that
the extravasated claret in his phiz might well remind one, as
Falstaff says of Bardolph, of hell-fire.
The next morning my landlady did me the honour to drink coffee with
me, but helped me very sparingly to milk and sugar. It was Sunday,
and I went with my landlord to a barber, on whose shop was written
"Shaving for a penny." There were a great many inhabitants
assembled there, who took me for a gentleman, on account, I suppose,
of my hat, which I had bought in London for a guinea, and which they
all admired. I considered this as a proof that pomp and finery had
not yet become general thus far from London.
You frequently find in England, at many of the houses of the common
people, printed papers, with sundry apt and good moral maxims and
rules fastened against the room door, just as we find them in
Germany. On such wretched paper some of the most delightful and the
finest sentiments may be read, such as would do honour to any writer
of any country.
For instance, I read among other things this golden rule on such an
ordinary printed paper stuck against a room door, "Make no
comparisons;" and if you consider how many quarrels, and how much
mischief arise in the world from odious comparisons of the merits of
one with the merits of another, the most delightful lessons of
morality are contained in the few words of the above-mentioned rule.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 199
Words from 42244 to 42541
of 53881
