THE WILD BOAR. 11g 
over the other, as I expected, the edifice was modern, 
with a date in the front of 1668. I immediately 
concluded that the old house was burnt down by 
the great fire.” Goldsmith’s latest editor, Coionel 
Cunningham, in a note to the essay above referred 
to, assures us that this was so. 
Hone, however, continued his researches. On 
each side of the doorway he observed “a vine- 
branch carved in wood, rising more than three feet 
from the ground, loaded with leaves and clusters ; 
and on the top of each a little Falstaff, eight inches 
high, in the dress of his day.” This induced him to 
make further inquiry, when he ascertained that the 
place had been sold by auction three week’s before, 
at Garraway’s coffee-house ;* that the purchaser was 
a stranger, and had the keys; and that a sight of 
the premises could not be obtained. ‘‘There is 
nothing,” he says, “ more difficult than to find out 
a curiosity which depends upon others, and which 
nobody regards. With some trouble,” he continues, 
“J procured a sight of the back buildings. I found 
them in that ancient state which convinced me that 
tradition, Shakespeare and Goldsmith, were right ; 
and could I have gained admission into the premises 
of mine hostess, Mistress Quickly, I should certainly 
have drank a cup of sack in memory of the bulky 
knight.” 
There was another and more ancient hostelry 
* The date of his visit is not stated, but the date of his Preface to 
“The Year Book,” in which his account is printed (under “ December 3’’)> 
is January, 1832. 
