I had travelled,
and the porter brought a long board, having raised edges, down which
my luggage came sliding to the ground. The train passed on, and I made
inquiry for some vehicle to convey me to "The Craven Arms," half a
mile away. None were in attendance, nor was there any one who would
carry my "traps." I had about a hundred-weight of patterns, besides my
portmanteau. I "might leave my patterns in his room," the porter said,
and I "had better carry my 'things' myself." There was no help for it,
so, shouldering the portmanteau, I carried it up a narrow brick stair
to the roadway. The "station" then consisted of the small house by the
side of the bridge which crosses the railway, and the only means of
entrance or exit to the line was by this steep stair, which was about
three feet wide. The "booking office" was on the level of the road, by
the side of the bridge, where Tennyson

"Hung with grooms and porters,"

while he

"Waited for the train at Coventry."

Carrying a heavy portmanteau half a mile on a hot night, when you are
tired, is not a pleasant job. When I arrived, hot and thirsty, at the
inn, I looked upon the night porter as my best friend, when, after
a little parley, he was able to get me a little something, "out of
a bottle o' my own, you know, sir," with which I endeavoured,
successfully, to repair the waste of tissue.

The next day, having finished my work in Coventry, I started in a
hired conveyance for Coleshill, and a pleasant drive of an hour and
a half brought me to the door of "The Swan" in that quaint and quiet
little town. The people of the house were very busy preparing for a
public dinner that was to come off on the following day, and as the
house was noisy, from the preparations, I took a quiet walk in the
churchyard, little recking then, as I strolled in the solemn silence
of the golden-tinted twilight, that, only ten miles from where
I stood, at that moment, a crowd of furious men, with passions
unbridled, and blood hot with diabolic hate, held at their mercy,
undisturbed, the lives and property of the citizens of an important
town; that several houses, fired by incendiary hands, were roaring
like furnaces, and lighting with a lurid glare the overhanging sky;
that women by hundreds were shrieking with terror, and brave men were
standing aghast and appalled; that two of my own brothers and some
valued friends were in deadly peril, and that one at that very instant
was fighting