20 REMINISCENCES OF 



we remained shivering in the cold. We returned 

 to our conveyance more starved than when we 

 had descended from it, and terminated a wet and 

 miserable journey only on reaching Dover. 



Then, and for many a long year afterwards, my 

 highest ambition was for the time to arrive when I 

 could afford to travel inside a stage coach. 



The journey from Calais to Bourbourg, a distance 

 of fourteen or fifteen miles, had to be taken by 

 cabriolet, a jingling one-horse vehicle. When about 

 half way I saw near the road side a cabaret, whose 

 sign announced that " Vin Ordinaire " was to be had 

 within. Now, I had never tasted this notorious 

 beverage, and thought I should like to do so. I 

 therefore gave my cocher a franc, and told him to 

 bring me as much as the coin would buy. To my 

 astonishment he produced a huge jugful, the tenth 

 part of which sufficed to satisfy my curiosity ; but he 

 speedily disposed of the remainder. I arrived at the 

 house of Monsieur Montieus, my future schoolmaster, 

 about ten o'clock at night. The door was opened by 

 a tall English usher, who of course wanted to know 

 my errand. When I told him this, and that no 

 letter had previously announced my coming, he asked 

 where I was from, and when I gave him this piece of 

 information he was still more astonished, discovering 

 as he did that my parents lived within a few miles of 

 his own Yorkshire home. Monsieur Montieus was 

 summoned, and at once announced to me there was 

 no vacancy in his school a fresh addition to my 



