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.

Ah! there is nothing like youth--not that after-life is valueless. Even
in extreme old age one may get on very well, provided we will but accept
of the bounties of God. I met the other day an old man, who asked me to
drink. "I am not thirsty," said I, "and will not drink with you." "Yes,
you will," said the old man, "for I am this day one hundred years old;
and you will never again have an opportunity of drinking the health of a
man on his hundredth birthday." So I broke my word, and drank. "Yours
is a wonderful age," said I. "It is a long time to look back to the
beginning of it," said the old man; "yet, upon the whole, I am not sorry
to have lived it all." "How have you passed your time?" said I. "As
well as I could," said the old man; "always enjoying a good thing when it
came honestly within my reach; not forgetting to praise God for putting
it there." "I suppose you were fond of a glass of good ale when you were
young?" "Yes," said the old man, "I was; and so, thank God, I am still."
And he drank off a glass of ale.

On I went in my journey, traversing England from west to east--ascending
and descending hills--crossing rivers by bridge and ferry--and passing
over extensive plains. What a beautiful country is England! People run
abroad to see beautiful countries, and leave their own behind unknown,
unnoticed--their own the most beautiful! And then, again, what a country
for adventures! especially to those who travel on foot, or on horseback.
People run abroad in quest of adventures, and traverse Spain or Portugal
on mule or on horseback; whereas there are ten times more adventures to
be met with in England than in Spain, Portugal, or stupid Germany to
boot. Witness the number of adventures narrated in the present book--a
book entirely devoted to England. Why, there is not a chapter in the
present book which is not full of adventures, with the exception of the
present one, and this is not yet terminated.

After traversing two or three counties, I reached the confines of
Lincolnshire. During one particularly hot day I put up at a
public-house, to which, in the eveni