LEAMINGTON 241 



down at the " Royal," and, his day's work terminating 

 at Warwick, but two miles farther, he said that he would 

 return and spend the evening with me. With this I was 

 much pleased, as my father had not yet moved the family 

 doAvn. and I Avas quite a stranger. 



In the meantime, I walked over this new town, that 

 had sprung up like a mushroom. My father had told me 

 that the house I should aliii'ht at was, in his time, the 

 only house in the village ; and that, upon one occasion, 

 he and his partner, when he first had possession of the 

 large establishment in London he had lately left, stopped 

 there on their way from Shrewsbury, where they had 

 been to establish a new coach, and, having to remain all 

 night, they drank all the _wine and spirits the landlord 

 had in his house — a proof of the former insignificance of 

 the now flourishino- town of Leamino-ton, with its sixteen 

 thousand inhabitants ; a contrast that a paltry pot-house 

 afforded with some of the most splendid hotels in the 

 kingdom. 



My friend soon returned, and, in company with the 

 host, a merry, facetious, at the same time most hospitable 

 little man, whose society I enjoyed many times afterwards, 

 I spent a very agreeable evening. 



The consequence of that day's ride and that evening's 

 association was, that I had to undertake to drive the 

 London end of this said coach, of which my new friend 

 was part jDroprietor. 



I had not much time to consider their proposition, 

 after retirino; to rest : for the leno-th of the ride and 

 the goodness of the entertainment caused me to sleep very 

 soundly. Waking early in the morning, I recalled the 



VOL. I. B 



