towards it. The first impression made upon us by
this "excellent quarter," was far from favourable. It served the
two-fold purpose of a mill and a gasthof; and whatever the comparative
merits of the mill might be, the gasthof department was clearly not of
the highest order. Before the door stood a wagon, which the wagoner was
mending by the light of a lantern, while beneath the staircase a huge
archway showed itself, filled--as on a nearer inspection I, to my
horror, ascertained--with wagons also. "God help us," cried I, "we have
travelled far to reach a sorry resting-place; for I am greatly deceived
if this be not a house of call for wains, the drivers of which will
probably be our companions both at bed and board." First impressions
are not, however, at all times to be relied upon; so we did our best to
thrust aside the unpleasant anticipations which were beginning to crowd
upon us, and recollecting that there was no other alternative than
either to lodge here, or pass the night hungry and cheerless in the
open air, we put a bold face on the matter, and entered.

We had calculated justly, for things were not quite so bad as the
apparition of the wagons had led us to anticipate. The saloon, on the
threshold of which we stood, contained of living creatures only one
man, somewhat passed the middle of life, who seemed to be in the act of
making his toilette; an old woman busily engaged with her needle, three
wenches, who moved hither and thither, now poking about the stove, now
arranging dirty linen, apparently for the wash-tub, and one or two
children. Tables and benches there were, as usual; also water-buckets,
a few chairs, and a tub or two, while a line drawn the whole length of
the apartment, about a foot and a half from the roof, supported, in
graceful disarray, a profusion of coats, trousers, aprons, petticoats,
and stockings. To complete the picture, there were no candles burning,
not even a rosin taper; but here and there a piece of blazing bog-pine,
either stuck in some cranny, or borne about in the hands of a domestic,
cast over the scene a dark red light. I dare say we should have been
delighted with all this, had we been assured of obtaining an apartment,
into which, when tired of the sublime and beautiful, it might be
competent for us to retire; but being quite uncertain on that head, our
first measure was to question the sempstress touching both her ability
and inclination to accommodate us. Never surely wa