58 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



of old : " The Lamb and Lark," " The Wheat Sheaf," 

 " The Barley Mow." Oh, you fat wight ! your inn was 

 in Eastcheap, but in your march through Coventry, 

 when you wouldn't go with your scarecrows, it was to 

 some wayside inn you went, you rogue, with its trailing 

 vines, thatched roof, and pretty garden flower-pots in 

 the windows ; and upon such excursions it was, too, 

 that you acquired that love of nature which enabled 

 the master with six words to cover most that was un- 

 unsavory in your character, and hand you down to gen- 

 erations unborn, shrived and absolved. Dear old boy — • 

 whom one would like to have known — for after all you 

 were right, Jack : " If Adam fell in an age of innocency, 

 what was poor Jack FalstafT to do in an age of vil- 

 lainy ! " There was something pure and good at bot- 

 tom of one who left us after life's vanities were o'er 

 playing with flowers and " babbling o' green fields." 

 These country hostelries are redolent of the green 

 fields. It is in such we would take our ease in our inn. 

 The host, hostess, and servants assembled at the door 

 upon our arrival, and welcomed us to their home, as 

 they also do when we leave to bid us God-speed. We 

 mount and drive off with smiles, bows, and wavings of 

 the hands from them ; and surely the smiles and good 

 wishes of those who have done so much to promote our 

 comfort over night are no bad salute for us as we blow 

 our horn and start on the fresh dewy mornings upon 

 our day's journey. 



