176 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



But it is to conscientious encomium that the 

 Visitors' Book is indebted for its chiefest adorn- 

 ments and its most varied types, though of these 

 it is possible only to cite the more salient. There 

 is the encomium which, though conscientious to- 

 wards the landlady, sets forth with an equal sense 

 of justice the classical acquirements of the writer. 

 It is a large class, but one example will suffice : — 



"The Inn had in mind by he who wrote, 'shall 

 I not take mine ease in mine inn ? ' " 



There is the pathetic yet faithful encomium : 

 " The above " (a list of names not as yet of his- 

 torical interest), " during a week of hard and 

 anxious literary work, felt quite at home here, 

 thanks to the kindness of Mrs Jones and the 

 untiring attention of Ellen in the coffee-room." 

 Even the funny man has respected this tribute 

 to female devotion — but in what did Ellen's 

 attention consist? Did she, blending in her 

 own person the hero-worship of Desdemona and 

 the more solid abnegations of Moliere's cook, sit 

 as audience, even as critic, to the achievements 



