claimed, 'Art thou the
versifying man?' Unlike the venerable stranger, I had no need to ask the
question, as in my mother's album there was more than one letter from the
genial B. B.

I can well recall the room in which I dined with the poet. My host had
come into a handsome fortune by marrying a wealthy widow--one of the
possibilities of a Dissenting minister's situation--and he had retired
from the ministry to cultivate literature and literary men. As I think
of that room and that dinner, I am reminded of the wonderful contrast
effected within the last age. At that time the dinner-table presented a
far less picturesque appearance than it does now. We had always pudding
before meat; the latter was solid, and in the shape of a joint. Nor was
it handed round by servants, but carved by the host or his lady. Silver
forks were unknown, and electro-plate had not then been invented.
Vegetables, also, were deficient as regards quantity and quality compared
with the supply at a respectable dinner nowadays. In manners the change
is equally remarkable. It was said of a nobleman, a personal friend of
George III., and a model gentleman of his day, that he had made the tour
of Europe without ever touching the back of his travelling carriage.
That includes an idea of self-denial utterly unknown to all the young
people of to-day. The study now is how to make our houses more
comfortable, and to furnish them most luxuriously. Then, perhaps, there
was but one sofa in the house, and that was repellent rather than
attractive. Easy-chairs were few and far between. Lounging of any kind
was out of the question. In the drawing-room, the furniture was of the
same uncomfortable description, and there were none of the modern
appliances which exist to make ladies and gentlemen happy. Couches,
antimacassars, photographs, were unknown. One picture invariably to be
seen was a painting of a favourite steed, with the owner looking at it in
a state of intense admiration; and a few family portraits might be
ostentatiously displayed. As to pianos, there never was but one in the
house; and a billiard-table would have been considered as the last refuge
of human depravity. In sitting-rooms and bedrooms and passages there was
a great deficiency of carpets and of oilcloth. But furniture was
furniture then, and could stand a good deal of wear and tear; while as to
the spare bed in the best room, with its enormous four posts and its
gigantic f