202 STOCKBRIDGE 



threw up his head, staggered, and stopped. There was 

 no help for it ; he was taken with the meagrums. 



On came this Falstaff, bursting with rage ; and, in 

 passing, shook his fist at us, and his wet, but not " gory 

 locks" — at which I could not help smiling, though his 

 threatening action was accompanied with most abusive 

 terms. 



" Don't you know who that is ? " said my friend. 



" Oh, yes," said I, " I knoAv him ; he keeps the Royal 

 Hotel at Stockbridge, and he means mischief, I see." 



We were not then more than a mile from Stockbridge ; 

 and, after getting out and pricking my horse in the roof 

 of his mouth with a penknife, he recovered and we 

 proceeded. On our entrance into Stockbridge, where the 

 road is very wide, we perceived the gentleman in front of 

 his house, a 2)osse of ostlers and stablemen with him, 

 standing in the middle of the road, with the evident 

 intention of impeding our further progress. 



" Stop him, Will ! take hold of his horse's head, 

 Harry ! " vociferated the master ; for the drenching had 

 not cooled his rage or quite drowned the effects of his 

 potations. 



Pretending surprise at such an interruption and a total 

 ignorance of the cause of it, I indignantly told him, 

 calling him by name, that he had committed a breach of 

 the law, by stopping me on the King's highway, for which 

 I should, most certainly, call him to an account before a 

 proper tribunal ; adding, that if he had anything to say 

 to me, and could conduct himself decently, I was going 

 but a very little way farther — he would find me at 

 Mr. Day's. 



