84 History of the English Landed Interest, 



from Abingdon to Farringdon. For those travellers who pre- 

 ferred comfort, and were less robust, there were stage-coaches, 

 which progressed at the rate of forty or fifty miles daily, at a 

 cost not exceeding one shilling every five miles,^ 



People who made use of the metropolis for a short annual 

 visit would no doubt command a certain amount of additional 

 respect amidst the simple circles of society in which they moved 

 at home. "Whilst in London they would devote their attention 

 to gossip and the interchange of ideas and compliments in the 

 coffee and chocolate- houses. Then, having done the plays, and 

 refreshed their minds by imbibing a small modicum of the latest 

 discoveries in fashions and the sciences, they went back to their 

 sporting and farming until another fit of the old nomadic 

 instincts drove them off wandering again. Young men, whose 

 fathers could spare them sufficient means, rented chambers 

 for a few terms in the Temple for the purposes of education, 

 and frequented coffee-houses in order to acquire a thin veneer 

 of polish by listening to the wits. And such a course of light 

 studies no doubt sent them home a little shrewder if not much 

 wiser than when they left. The smattering of law picked up 

 in the metropolitan courts was just enough perhaps to enable 

 them to fulfil their duties on the bench and hold their own 

 in the market. Few either required or cared for the higher 

 attainments of scholarship and oratory. If only a man could 

 stammer out a few sensible ideas on festive occasions, such as 

 Christmastide or rent day, and was well acquainted with the 

 laws and science of all country sports, he was likely to fill his 

 position a great deal better than if he had acquired literary 

 tastes, which could only be exercised in the solitude of his own 

 study. Sir Roger de Coverley's companion was chosen for the 

 post of chaplain partly because he was a good scholar and 

 didnt show it^ partly because he understood a little back- 

 gammon.2 Most of our readers will recall to memory the 

 scorn displayed for Mr. Frolick when he reappeared amongst 

 the playmates of his boyhood and aired his town opinions on 



' Neio State of England, Part II. ch. iv. p. 46. 

 * Spectator, July 20, 1711, 



