of the great chairs had
litters of cats in them, which were not to be disturbed. Of these,
three or four always attended him at dinner, and a little white wand
lay by his trencher, to defend it if they were too troublesome. In the
windows, which were very large, lay his arrows, cross-bows, and other
accoutrements. The corners of the room were filled with his best
hunting and hawking poles. His oyster table stood at the lower end of
the room, which was in constant use twice a day, all the year round;
for he never failed to eat oysters both at dinner and supper, with
which the neighbouring town of Pool supplied him.

"At the upper end of the room stood a small table with a double desk,
one side of which held a church Bible; the other the _Book of
Martyrs_. On different tables in the room lay hawks' hoods, bells, old
hats with their crowns thrust in, full of pheasant eggs, tables, dice,
cards, and store of tobacco pipes. At one end of this room was a door,
which opened into a closet, where stood bottles of strong beer and
wine, which never came out but in single glasses, which was the rule
of the house, for he never exceeded himself nor permitted others to
exceed.

"Answering to this closet was a door into an old chapel, which had
been long disused for devotion; but in the pulpit, as the safest
place, was always to be found a cold chine of beef, a venison pasty, a
gammon of bacon, or a great apple-pye, with thick crust, well baked.
His table cost him not much, though it was good to eat at. His sports
supplied all but beef and mutton, except on Fridays, when he had the
best of fish. He never wanted a London pudding, and he always sang it
in with 'My part lies therein-a.' He drank a glass or two of wine at
meals; put syrup of gilly-flowers into his sack, and had always a tun
glass of small beer standing by him, which he often stirred about with
rosemary. He lived to be an hundred, and never lost his eyesight, nor
used spectacles. He got on horseback without help, and rode to the
death of the stag till he was past four-score."

It is said of George Steevens, the famous Shakespearian collector,
that he "lived in a retired and eligibly situated house, just on the
rise of Hampstead Heath. It was paled in, and had immediately before
it a verdant lawn skirted with a variety of picturesque trees. Here
Steevens lived, embosomed in books, shrubs and trees, being either too
coy or too unsociable to mingle with his neighbours. His h