230 ACCIDENT 



nature, was, in the course of a short time, remembered 

 only 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 lastino- foo-s 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 Ports- 

 mouth ; he was a respectable tradesman in the town — a 

 boot and shoe maker — but better knoAvn as a man whose 

 extraordinary volubility would not unfrequently rush, 

 uncurbed, into the regions of fiction. 



The display of this very agreeable gift or acquirement 

 had not been at all lessened by the small potations he had 

 imbibed on his way from London ; for it was extremely 

 cold. 



We left ]\Iouseliill without any appearance of the fog 

 dispersing ; and on our reaching the top of Hindhead, the 

 scene was most singular and peculiarly romantic. We 

 seemed to be on an elevation in a small island looking 

 down upon the sea : the sky above us was beautiful and 

 clear, without a cloud to blot or to destroy the serenely 

 blue concave ; while the trees that reared their heads 

 above the edge of the Bowl were adorned with icicles 

 that hung down like crystals projecting from a rock, with 

 equal grace and brilliancy. It was not long before we 

 were again in- this immaterial ocean, and, after sipping a 

 little to arm us against the cold when we changed, we 

 quitted Horndean, and entered the Bere Forest. As the 

 evening advanced, the fog increased, and my friend's 

 volubility by no means decreased. 



At an unfortunate moment, when he had distracted 



