1826.] Village Sketches. 587 
trodden footpath leads to the door of the dwelling, which the sign of a 
Bell suspended from the yew-tree, and a board over the door announcing 
« Hester Hewit’s home-brewed Beer,’ denote to be a small public- 
house. 
_Eyery body is surprised to see even the humblest village hostel in such 
a situation; but the Bell is in reality a house of great resort, not only 
on account of Hester's home-brewed, which is said to be’ the’ best ale 
in the county, but because, in point of fact, that apparently lonely and 
trackless common is the very high road of the drovers who come from 
different points of the west to the great mart, London. Seldom would 
that green be found without a flock of Welch sheep, foot-sore and weary, 
and yet tempted into grazing by the short fine grass dispersed over its 
surface, or a drove of gaunt Irish pigs sleeping in a corner, or a score of 
Devonshire cows straggling in all directions, picking the long grass from 
the surrounding ditches; whilst dog and man, shepherd and drover, 
might be seen basking in the sun before the porch, or stretched on the 
settles by the fire, according to the weather and the season. 
The damsel who, assisted by an old Chelsea pensioner minus a leg, 
and followed by a little stunted red-haired parish girl and a huge tabby 
cat, presided over this flourishing hostelry, was a spinster of some fifty 
years standing, with a reputation as upright as her person ; a woman of 
slow speech and civil demeanour, neat, prim, precise and orderly, stiff- 
starched and strait-laced as any maiden gentlewoman within a hundred 
miles. In her youth she must have been handsome ; even now, abstract 
the exceeding primness,the pursed-up mouth and the bolt upright carriage, 
and Hester is far from uncomely, for her complexion is delicate and her 
features are regular. And Hester, besides her comeliness and her good 
ale, is well to do in the world, has money in the stocks, some seventy 
pounds, a fortune in furniture, feather-beds, mattresses, tables, presses 
and chairs of shining walnut-tree, to say nothing of a store of home- 
‘spun linen and the united wardrobes of three maiden aunts. A wealthy 
damsel was Hester, and her suitors must probably have exceeded in 
number and boldness those of any lady in the land. Welch drovers, 
Scotch pedlars, shepherds from Salisbury Plain, and pig-drivers from 
Ireland—all these had she resisted for five-and-thirty' years, determined 
to live and die “in-single blessedness,” and “ leave the world no copy.” 
And she it is whom Jacob has won, from Scotchman and Irishman, 
pig-dealer and shepherd, she who now sits at his side in sober finery, a 
demure and blushing bride! Who would ever have thought of Hester's 
marrying! And when can the wooing have been? And how will they go 
on together? Will Master Frost still travel the country, or will he sink 
quietly into the landlord of the Bell? . And was the match for love or for 
money? And what will become of the lame ostler ? And how will Jacob's 
sheep-dog agree with Hester’s cat? These, and a thousand such, are the 
_ questions of the village, whilst the bells ring merrily, and the new-married 
couple wend peaceably home. 4 
vis 
Akay 4 F 2 
