THE LEGEND OF THE ABBEY TOWER. 97 



ite subjects. I took a long walk with him one sunny evening, 

 during which he made several entertaining draughts upon his fund 

 of anecdote, though he determinately refused at such a time to enter 

 upon the legend. "No, no,'' said he, " you must come and hear 

 that properly and circumstantially detailed over a comfortable glass 

 of wine and cup of coffee, in my sanctum sanctorum." The day 

 was fixed; and, I need not say, the invitation gladly accepted. 



The apothecary was an old bachelor — though, he took care to in- 

 form me, not so from choice. This I could readily believe from the 

 paternal fondness he exhibited towards his partner's children, and 

 the fatherly benefits which I understood from others he had confer- 

 red upon them. Being some thirty years older than his coadjutor, 

 the latter bore as much of the professional labour as he could ; and 

 the parish being just now in a condition of good health, the old 

 gentleman could comfortably reckon upon an evening of uninter- 

 rupted leisure. 



On entering his sanctum I fancied that I could at once discover 

 a fair general developement of the apothecary's mind. In the first 

 place, there was none of that professional display of preserved 

 anatomies, which give such a necromantic character to the studies 

 of certain disciples of ^sculapius, although " such things as we do 

 speak about," really were at hand behind the wire and silken pannels 

 of his bookcase wings. Open to sight were ranged several rows of 

 books, shewing that physic was the study and fiction the amuse- 

 ment of the proprietor. Shakespeare, Scott, Cowper and Byron, 

 prominently proclaimed themselves in letters of gilt, and a lengthy 

 range of uncut subscription octavos modestly occupied a somewhat 

 dusky situation in the rear. 



My worthy host always made it a point to attend only to one 

 thing at a time, so that he was not very communicative during dinner, 

 except in the way of a wine pledge, or in the expression of his 

 earnest hopes that the viands were to my liking. The cloth being 

 removed, we turned towards a blazing fire, and while the apothecary 

 himself brushed up the hearth and threw on the cinders, his trusty 

 servant smartly rubbed over the well polished table, and seemed to 

 take no little pride in the inverted duplicate which it afforded of the 

 good cheer placed upon it. Orders were then given that we should 

 not be disturbed, and, after a prefatory glass of port, and a few 

 incipient mutterings, the apothecary proceeded to deliver himself, 

 as nearly as I can recollect, in the following words : — 



VOL. II. — 1833. M 



