THE THAMES ANGLER 11 



indented "side-dish" of the Covent-garden Hotel, will be 

 charged three -and-sixpence to the country visitor. 



Brown. Truly, a vivid tableau of one of the-" appointments" 

 of a ghastly English hotel. Away with them — their thrummv 

 carpets, hearse-like four-posters, lumbering side-boards, heavy 

 furniture, writing -table -and -sofa -less bed-rooms, six-shilling -a - 

 bottle wine (even vin ordinaire, which they call "claret"), grim 

 chop-and-fowl extent of the carte, gaunt entire " equipage " of 

 coffee, and no demi-tasse, at two shillings instead of sixpence, 

 separate fee for waiters, separate fee for chambermaid, separate 

 fee for boots, separate fee for porter, separate fee for everybody 

 hanging on, fluttering, obstructing, never-attending, musty, fusty, 

 effete, conventional, regulation, world-run-by, hopeless nuisances, 

 educated, fostered, defended, supported, and irretrievably fos- 

 silized by hotel-keepers, who cling to their "Old-established" 

 way of conducting their business — as if it was an old-established 

 coat, or a stage-coach journey, or a black draught, or a feather- 

 bed, or an egg, or a pork-pie, or anything else which age 

 rendered worthless. Ah ! 



[Browm is quite overcome with hit indignation. 



Robinson. But lo ! L'ule to the rescue! Observe his three 

 sons — those Rules without prion. The eldest has been 



accosted by a heedlee er-by, who on his way to the Cyderian 



caves has come in to ask for oysters — oysters in July! Robert 



* ■ 



— toi que faime, i\)Y your attention — reproves him mildly: lie 

 says, " Why, you'll want to grow whelks in fern-caeee next!" 

 and the heedless passer-by retires quailed and reproved. The 

 smaller sprite, Roulette, [has been labouring with chisel and 

 hammer at the Aberdeen kit the whil It is opened, and can 

 the world show a finer spectacle than those jowls, which speak 

 even now with a mild eloquence expi • of the delight they 



are about to give by their consumption! Observe how the 

 liquor is taken up by the congenial scallop shell — how the sprig 

 of fennel graces the dish — and how the small white loaf, the dewy 

 pat of butter, the Bedford Head mild ale, and the domestic but 

 essential pepper and vinegar, lend their aid to the consummation 

 of delights — it is an intensity! To go to the Opera without 

 pickled salmon at Rule's afterwards is Norma without Grisi, 

 the Volunteers without their dress, claret-cup without borage, a 

 petticoat without a hoop, a cab-stand without a Hansom, the 

 ministry without Palmerston, or nothing without anything. 



