YORKSHIRE 237 



anecdotes form so great a part of my stock in trade, I must bring 

 them to market when opportunities offer, and the present occasion 

 furnishes one. It so happened, that on leaving home, I found 

 myself not quite well, and took the advice of an eminent physician 

 on the road. " There is not much the matter with you," said he ; 

 " and if you will only drink three glasses of wine a-day instead of a 

 bottle, which you fox-hunters often do, and take a little of this 

 medicine, you will live to be a hundred." — " Your medicine. Doctor, 

 I will take," said I ; " but the other part of the prescription is quite 

 out of the question." However, to the point. On the morning after 

 I dined with Mr. Swann, I met him at the lodging of a mutual 

 friend, where a third person was present, who had dined with us the 

 day before. My prescription was sent to the druggist's, and its 



contents read over by the party. " Oh," said , " it 



is sure to cure you : there is no finer medicine in the world than 

 coclilcaria." Now cochlearia happens to be the Latin for spoonfuls, 

 of which I was to take " duo larga bis die," or two large ones twice 

 a-day. 



I was at this time only two days in York, but one of them being 

 Sunday, I had a good opportunity of seeing one of the proudest 

 monuments of human art and human magnificence, York Minster. 

 By way of a comparison between the manners and usages of society 

 in former and present times, I quote the following passage, which I 

 met with in the "Antiquities of Yorkshire." Alluding to the city of 

 York — " Near to the cathedral is the house where the two weekly 

 assemblies are held. These meetings are great helps to strangers, 

 who flock hither in great numbers for the convenience of boarding, 

 which is very cheap, and diet good ; for in a week or two's time 

 they may, by using them (and none is excluded either of them for 

 half-a-crown a quarter), be acquainted with all the genteel company, 

 male and female, in the city and adjoining county of York. 



In the afternoon, Mr. Swann was kind enough to shew me the 

 York hounds and Mr. Eidsdale's stud. Mr. Eidsdale is an excellent 

 rider to hounds. I saw him out one day on Flaxtonian, and thought 

 he looked like a workman. He has also, I understand, done some 

 good things on the road with his hacks, of which the following may 

 be recorded as one. — He left London on a Monday, and was at 



