58 TROLLING IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



harnessed to the family coach, which drew up to 

 the side of the hall door. The portly coachman 

 seemed bursting with ale and good cheer, and his 

 flaxen wig set off the ruddiness of his jolly coun- 

 tenance. He wore a prodigious nosegay in his but- 

 ton-hole, and a three-cornered hat was knowingly 

 placed on his head. Altogether he appeared a 

 personage of considerable importance in the family. 

 The venerable mistress and her sister were attended 

 to the carriage with no small degree of ceremony, 

 and when they were seated, three footmen with 

 bags, nosegays, and cocked hats got up behind, and 

 the procession moved with great deliberation to the 

 church door. As we approached it, the country 

 people were standing about in expectation of its 

 arrival, and as the carriage passed, they took off 

 their hats, and made their bows with much seeming 

 respect The footmen attended to open the pew- 

 door, but I observed that the prayer books were 

 stowed under the arm of one of them, a little wizened 

 old man, whom I had previously remarked, and 

 who always waited behind the chair of Lady Blount, 

 and seemed privileged to attend to no one else. He 

 had a wonderful acidity of countenance, which was 

 puckered up, and gave the idea that a smile had 

 never passed over it. As I am fond of odd charac- 

 ters, I enquired of my friend respecting him, and 

 found that he had lived from his earliest youth in 

 the family, and was supposed to know more of the 



