CHAPTER V 



CAMBRIDGE 



The First Journey CJp — An Untoward Circumstance — A Eeas- 

 surance — Discourse on the Box — Figurative Comparison — A 

 Timely Eebuff — Merchant and Banker — The Journey Down — 

 An Hotel and Banquet — ^An Episode — Lodgings — An Agree- 

 able Eeception — Strange Object — Its Appearance Described — 

 Anecdotes and Keflections — An Intellectual Company — Shrimp 

 Van — Juveniles — Poor Tribute — Sporting Parson — Splendour 

 Defaced — Immoi'tality Eivailed — Senatorial Figures Compared 

 — Adam a Gardener — Contemplation. 



To pursue the course of my narrative, which is not 

 quite so straight as the turnpike road upon which I was 

 now driving, I must state that my first journey to 

 London was attended with rather an inauspicious event. 

 I did not know a yard of the road the first two stages 

 before the day I took possession of the box of the Lynn 

 coach ; but had no difficulty in finding my way, as, 

 with the exception of diverging from the Royston Road, 

 rather more than four miles from Cambridge, I could 

 not possibly make a mistake ; and in taking the right 

 road, the horses themselves, I knew, would be a sufficient 

 guide. Arrived at the inn which my predecessor had 

 used, I pulled up, and he informed me that he should 

 resume his seat in a day or two, but gave no reason for 

 his strange conduct, and for his not saying anything to 



