age of Sterne in his 'black satin smalls,' and talked with
him. They used to show his room, regularly marked, as I have seen it,
'STERNES'S ROOM, NO. 31,' with its mezzotint, after Sir
Joshua, hung over the chimney-piece. But this tradition received a
shock some sixty years since. An inquisitive and sceptical traveller
fancied he saw an inscription or date lurking behind the vine-leaves
that so luxuriantly covered the old house, and sent up a man on a
ladder to clear away the foliage. This operation led to the discovery
of a tablet, dated two years too late for the authenticity of the
building in which 'Sterne's room' was. The waiter, however, in nowise
disconcerted, said the matter could be easily 'arranged' by selecting
another room in an unquestioned portion of the building! To make up,
however, there was a room labelled 'SIR WALTER SCOTT'S ROOM,' with
his portrait; and of this there could be no reasonable question.

+------+
| AD |
| 1770 |
+------+

In later years it did not flourish much, but gently decayed.
Everything seemed in a state of mild sleepy abandonment and decay till
about the year 1861, when the Desseins gave over business. The town,
much straitened for room, and cramped within its fortifications, had
long been casting hungry eyes on this spacious area. Strange to say,
even in the prosaic pages of our own 'Bradshaw,' the epitaph of 'old
Dessein's' is to be read among its advertisements:

'CALAIS.

'HOTEL DESSEIN.--L. Dessein, the proprietor, has the
honour to inform his numerous patrons, and travellers in
general, that after the 1st of January his establishment will
be transferred to the Hotel Quillacq, which has been entirely
done up, and will take the name of HOTEL DESSEIN. The
premises of the old Hotel Dessein having been purchased by the
town of Calais, it ceases to be an Hotel for Travellers.'

Still, in this new function it was 'old Dessein's,' and you were shown
'Sterne's room,' etc. I recall wandering through it of a holiday,
surveying the usual museum specimens--the old stones, invariable
spear-heads, stuffed animals; in short, the usual rather heterogeneous
collection, made up of 'voluntary contributions,' prompted half by the
vanity of the donor and half by his indifference to the objects
presented. We had not, indeed, the 'old pump' or the parish stocks, as
at Little Pedlington, but there were things as interesting. Here were