IMAGINATION. 109 



as an extraordinary feat, and things went 

 on pretty well till the middle or latter 

 end of January. It was a rime frost, 

 accompanied, or followed, by one of those 

 thick and lasting fogs so common in this 

 climate. I was on my return, and had 

 for my companion on the box a man I 

 had long known, as an old inhabitant 

 of Portsmouth ; he was a respectable 

 tradesman in the town a boot and shoe- 

 maker but better known as a man 

 whose extraordinary volubility would not 

 unfrequently rush, uncurbed, into the re- 

 gions of fiction. 



The display of this very agreeable gift 

 or acquirement had not been at all les- 

 sened by the small potations he had im- 

 bibed on his way from London ; for it 

 was extremely cold. 



We left Mousehill without any appear- 

 ance of the fog dispersing ; and on our 

 reaching the top of Hindhead, the scene 



