has at a great
expense engaged the elegant and commodious assembly-rooms, attached to
the Winglebury Arms.' The house is a large one, with a red brick and
stone front; a pretty spacious hall, ornamented with evergreen plants,
terminates in a perspective view of the bar, and a glass case, in which
are displayed a choice variety of delicacies ready for dressing, to catch
the eye of a new-comer the moment he enters, and excite his appetite to
the highest possible pitch. Opposite doors lead to the 'coffee' and
'commercial' rooms; and a great wide, rambling staircase,--three stairs
and a landing--four stairs and another landing--one step and another
landing--half-a-dozen stairs and another landing--and so on--conducts to
galleries of bedrooms, and labyrinths of sitting-rooms, denominated
'private,' where you may enjoy yourself, as privately as you can in any
place where some bewildered being walks into your room every five
minutes, by mistake, and then walks out again, to open all the doors
along the gallery until he finds his own.

Such is the Winglebury Arms, at this day, and such was the Winglebury
Arms some time since--no matter when--two or three minutes before the
arrival of the London stage. Four horses with cloths on--change for a
coach--were standing quietly at the corner of the yard surrounded by a
listless group of post-boys in shiny hats and smock-frocks, engaged in
discussing the merits of the cattle; half a dozen ragged boys were
standing a little apart, listening with evident interest to the
conversation of these worthies; and a few loungers were collected round
the horse-trough, awaiting the arrival of the coach.

The day was hot and sunny, the town in the zenith of its dulness, and
with the exception of these few idlers, not a living creature was to be
seen. Suddenly, the loud notes of a key-bugle broke the monotonous
stillness of the street; in came the coach, rattling over the uneven
paving with a noise startling enough to stop even the large-faced clock
itself. Down got the outsides, up went the windows in all directions,
out came the waiters, up started the ostlers, and the loungers, and the
post-boys, and the ragged boys, as if they were electrified--unstrapping,
and unchaining, and unbuckling, and dragging willing horses out, and
forcing reluctant horses in, and making a most exhilarating bustle.
'Lady inside, here!' said the guard. 'Please to alight, ma'am,' said the
waiter. 'Private sitting-