d to me.

Elsdon was once a market town as some say, and a city
according to others; but as the annals of the parish were
lost several centuries ago, it is impossible to determine
what age it was either the one or the other.

There are not the least traces of the former grandeur to be
found, whence some antiquaries are apt to believe that it
lost both its trade and charter at the Deluge.

... There is a very good understanding between the parties
[he is speaking of the Churchmen and Presbyterians who lived
in the parish], for they not only intermarry with one
another, but frequently do penance together in a white
sheet, with a white wand, barefoot, and in the coldest
season of the year. I have not finished the description for
fear of bringing on a fit of the ague. Indeed, the ideas of
sensation are sufficient to starve a man to death, without
having recourse to those of reflection.

If I was not assured by the best authority on earth that the
world is to be destroyed by fire, I should conclude that the
day of destruction is at hand, but brought on by means of an
agent very opposite to that of heat.

I have lost the use of everything but my reason, though my
head is entrenched in three night-caps, and my throat, which
is very bad, is fortified by a pair of stockings twisted in
the form of a cravat.

As washing is very cheap, I wear _two_ shirts at a
time, and, for want of a wardrobe, I hang my great coat upon
my own back, and generally keep on my boots in imitation of
my namesake of Sweden. Indeed, since the snow became two
feet deep (as I wanted a 'chaappin of Yale' from the
public-house), I made an offer of them to Margery the maid,
but her legs are too thick to make use of them, and I am
told that the greater part of my parishioners are not less
substantial, and notwithstanding this they are remarkable
for agility.

In course of time this Mr. Dodgson became Bishop of Ossory and Ferns,
and he was subsequently translated to the see of Elphin. He was warmly
congratulated on this change in his fortunes by George III., who said
that he ought indeed to be thankful to have got away from a palace
where the stabling was so bad.

The Bishop had four children, the eldest of whom, Elizabeth Anne,
married Charles Lutwidge, of Holmrook, in Cumberland. Two of the
others died almost be