158 THE DOVER HO AD 



rooms, echoed to the casual tread of some unfrequent 

 guest, uncomfortable and half-frightened at the 

 solitary state in which he sat ; hostlers, grooms, and 

 washers lounged miserably about the mouldy harness- 

 rooms in company with dejected post-boys ; chamber- 

 maids departed to other scenes and occupations ; 

 and " boots " gradually lost the encyclopaedic know- 

 ledge for which he was renowned, and forgot alike 

 the number of miles to the next post-town and the 

 proper way to clean a pair of Bluchers. 



The last post-boy is dead now, and the chaises 

 and the chariots are represented — like so many other 

 obsolete things — at the South Kensington Museum ; 

 and the typical innkeeper of that day should be 

 also, for his like is no more seen on earth. He was 

 a burly man with a red, good-humoured, clean-shaven 

 face. He wore, frequently, knee-breeches and sleeved 

 yellow waistcoats with black stripes that made him 

 look, to the youthful imagination, like a great wasp or 

 bumble-bee. He wore short white aprons, too, and 

 high collars encircling his thick red neck, so that one 

 gazed upon him in constant dread of his falling down 

 in an apoplectic fit ; he wore — but enough ! Let it be 

 said, though, that he resembled a Blue-coat boy in 

 one respect, for he was never known to wear a hat. 



All this is changed. Sittingbourne had grown 

 into importance because its situation was convenient 

 for travellers to stay here to change horses at, and 

 when the roads became deserted the place would 

 have fallen back into its original obscurity had it 

 not been for bricks, hops, and cherries. Bricks, and 

 the surrounding fruit country have prospered it 

 anew, and have made it what it is ; a dusty, thickly 

 populated, dirty town whose old aspect has been 

 altered from a broad and roomy street to crowded 

 lanes and a High Street filled with frowzy alleys, 

 and many Dissenting conventicles of different degrees 

 of ugliness. 



Of late years, paper has been added to the interests of 



