DOCTOK. 209 



were, as our friend Dibdin would say, re- 

 lieved of their bilboes. 



As I have before stated, the long day 

 I had at Redbourn sometimes taxed my 

 patience and equanimity to the utmost, 

 particularly in the winter months; and it 

 became irksome both to mind and body. 

 I could not always be reading; and the 

 inhabitants, consisting, as I have already 

 said, of publicans and little shopkeepers, I 

 could derive but little amusement from 

 a daily intercourse with them. Neverthe- 

 less, there was an exception, and that was 

 the doctor, whose acquaintance I had made 

 in the early part of my temporary sojourn. 

 This gentleman had settled here at the 

 termination of the war; but his nature 

 and associations were so opposite to those 

 of the community among whom he had 

 pitched his tent, it was no wonder that 

 they knew nothing of him beyond his pro- 

 fession nothing of his country, his family, 



VOL. II. P 



