SHIP-DOCTOR 29 



practice was quite correct. The town-clerk soon con- 

 vinced me, by taking down a book and turning to 

 the statute, that such a degradation was sanctioned by 

 the English law. Consequently the men retained those 

 inconvenient appurtenances to their dress for six months, 

 when they were tried at Hertford, and received as their 

 sentence the utmost extent of punishment for their 

 offence — viz. twelve months' further incarceration in the 

 county jail ; but were, as our friend Dibdin would 

 say, relieved 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 j^ublicans and little shopkeepers, I 

 could derive but little amusement from a daily inter- 

 course with them. Nevertheless, there was an exception, 

 and that was the doctor, whose acquaintance I had made 

 in the early part of my temporary sojourn. This gentle- 

 man had settled here at the termination of the war ; but 

 his nature and associations were so o23posite to those 

 of the community among whom he had pitched his tent, 

 it was no wonder that they knew nothing of him beyond 

 his profession — nothing of his country, his family, or 

 connections ; only that he had been a s/^zjj*- doctor. This 

 of itself was sufficient to raise my curiosity, and justify, 

 as I thought, my intrusion. Accordingly, one hot 

 summer's morning I called, intending to introduce 

 myself. 



After knockino; at the door, and waitino- some little 



