London to John O Groat's. 87 



Chequers," " The Dog-in-Doublet," " Bishop Boni- 

 face," "The Spotted Cow," "The Green Dragon," 

 " The Three Horseshoes," " The Bird-in-Hand," " The 

 Spare Eib," " The Old Cock," "Pop goes the Weasel." 

 There are wide spaces between these names which may 

 be filled up from actual life with numbers of equal 

 uniqueness. But it is not in architecture nor in name 

 that the country inn presents its most attractive charac- 

 teristic. These features merely specialise its outward 

 corporeity. The living, brightening, all-pervading soul 

 of the establishment is the LANDLADY. Let her name 

 be written in capitals evermore. There is nothing so 

 naturally, speakingly, and gloriously English in the 

 wide world as she. It is doubtful if the nation is aware 

 of this, but it is the fact. Her English individuality 

 stands out embonpoint, rosy, genial, self-complacent, 

 calm, serene, happyfying, and happy. She is the man 

 and master of the house. She permeates it with her 

 rayful presence, and fills it with a pleasant morning in 

 foggy and blue-spirited days. She it is who greets the 

 coming and speeds the parting guest with a grace which 

 suns, with equal light and warmth, both remembrance 

 and anticipation. It is not put on like a Sunday dress ; 

 it is not a thin gloss of French politeness that a feather, 

 blown the wrong way, will brush off. It it not a color ; 

 it is a quality. You see it breathe and move in her 



