THE WARMINSTER ROAD. 117 



cayed town, I believe its glory in this respect has departed. 

 I should judge it still to be a place of great wealth and ele 

 gance, but less distinguished for gayety and folly than for 

 merly. All I can say of the inhabitants really, from personal 

 observation, is, that they &quot; know enough to stay in when it 

 rains,&quot; for I hardly saw one in the streets, except the men who 

 were waiting by the little covered &quot; chairs,&quot; such as Mrs. 

 Skewton is re-presented by Cruikshanks to be wheeled about 

 in by her miserable, lanky page. I saw hundreds of these, 

 ranged in the streets as hackney-coaches are in our towns, 

 but no carriage of any kind, public or private ; perhaps the 

 association of .Bath coachmen had &quot; met to a cold swarry.&quot; 



After a walk of two miles into the country, I found I had 

 been misdirected, and had a good deal of difficulty in finding 

 the right road. I once asked the way of two labourers, and 

 their replies were in such language, and they were so stupid, 

 that I could not get the least idea of what they meant. My 

 guess was, that they either could not understand what I want 

 ed, or that they did not know themselves whether or not it 

 was the Warminster road that they were at work upon. It 

 was after four o clock when I at length got upon the straight 

 road, with seventeen miles before me a hilly road, with a thin, 

 slimy chalk-mud under foot. I stopped once again during 

 another tremendous torrent, taking the opportunity to bait 

 at a neat little inn, and reached Warminster, after a hard pull, 

 at nine o clock. The first building in the town, as you come 

 from Bath, is a fine old church, going round the yard of which 

 you enter abruptly upon a close-built street of old thatched 

 two-story houses so different from the gradually thickening 

 and improving houses, as you approach the cluster of churches 

 and centre of a New England village. 



The postmaster had no letters for me, and seemed to be 

 very angry that I should have expected him to have. I looked 



