The People Here Were
Politer Than I Used To Think They Were In London, For I Did Not See
A Single Person, High Or Low, Who Did Not Pull Off Their Hats As
Their Sovereign Passed Them.
I was now again in Windsor, and found myself, not far from the
castle, opposite to a very capital inn, where I saw many officers
and several persons of consequence going in and out.
And here at
this inn, contrary to all expectation, I was received by the
landlord with great civility, and even kindness - very contrary to
the haughty and insolent airs which the upstart at the other, and
his jackanapes of a waiter, there thought fit to give themselves.
However, it seemed to be my fate to be still a scandal and an
eyesore to all the waiters. The maid, by the order of her master,
showed me a room where I might adjust my dress a little; but I could
hear her mutter and grumble as she went along with me. Having put
myself a little to rights, I went down into the coffee-room, which
is immediately at the entrance of the house, and told the landlord
that I thought I wished to have yet one more walk. On this he
obligingly directed me to stroll down a pleasant field behind his
house, at the foot of which, he said, I should find the Thames, and
a good bathing place.
I followed his advice; and this evening was, if possible, finer than
the preceding. Here again, as I had been told I should, I found the
Thames with all its gentle windings. Windsor shone nearly as bright
over the green vale as those charming houses on Richmond Hill, and
the verdure was not less soft and delicate. The field I was in
seemed to slope a little towards the Thames. I seated myself near a
bush, and there waited the going down of the sun. At a distance I
saw a number of people bathing in the Thames. When, after sunset,
they were a little dispersed, I drew near the spot I had been
directed to; and here, for the first time, I sported in the cool
tide of the Thames. The bank was steep, but my landlord had dug
some steps that went down into the water, which is extremely
convenient for those who cannot swim. Whilst I was there, a couple
of smart lively apprentice boys came also from the town, who, with
the greatest expedition, threw off their clothes and leathern
aprons, and plunged themselves, head foremost, into the water, where
they opposed the tide with their sinewy arms till they were tired.
They advised me, with much natural civility, to untie my hair, and
that then, like them, I might plunge into the stream head foremost.
Refreshed and strengthened by this cool bath, I took a long walk by
moonlight on the banks of the Thames. To my left were the towers of
Windsor, before me a little village with a steeple, the top of which
peeped out among the green trees, at a distance two inviting hills
which I was to climb in the morning, and around me the green
cornfields. Oh! how indescribably beautiful was this evening and
this walk! At a distance among the houses I could easily descry the
inn where I lodged, and where I seemed to myself at length to have
found a place of refuge and a home; and I thought, if I could but
stay there, I should not be very sorry if I were never to find
another.
How soon did all these pleasing dreams vanish! On my return the
waiters (who, from my appearance, too probably expected but a
trifling reward for their attentions to me) received me gruffly, and
as if they were sorry to see me again. This was not all; I had the
additional mortification to be again roughly accosted by the cross
maid who had before shown me to the bed-chamber, and who, dropping a
kind of half courtesy, with a suppressed laugh, sneeringly told me I
might look out for another lodging, as I could not sleep there,
since the room she had by mistake shown me was already engaged. It
can hardly be necessary to tell you that I loudly protested against
this sudden change. At length the landlord came, and I appealed to
him; and he with great courtesy immediately desired another room to
be shown me, in which, however, there were two beds, so that I was
obliged to admit a companion. Thus was I very near being a second
time turned out of an inn.
Directly under my room was the tap-room, from which I could plainly
hear too much of the conversation of some low people, who were
drinking and singing songs, in which, as far as I could understand
them, there were many passages at least as vulgar and nonsensical as
ours.
This company, I guessed, consisted chiefly of soldiers and low
fellows. I was hardly well lulled to sleep by this hurly-burly,
when my chum (probably one of the drinking party below) came
stumbling into the room and against my bed. At length, though not
without some difficulty, he found his own bed, into which he threw
himself just as he was, without staying to pull off either clothes
or boots.
This morning I rose very early, as I had proposed, in order to climb
the two hills which yesterday presented me with so inviting a
prospect, and in particular that one of them on the summit of which
a high white house appeared among the dark-green trees; the other
was close by.
I found no regular path leading to these hills, and therefore went
straight forward, without minding roads, only keeping in view the
object of my aim. This certainly created me some trouble. I had
sometimes a hedge, and sometimes a hog to walk round; but at length
I had attained the foot of the so earnestly wished-for hill with the
high white house on its summit, when, just as I was going to ascend
it, and was already pleasing myself in the idea with the prospect
from the white house, behold I read these words on a board:
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