OLD TRAVELLERS 



105 



of a village like this, whicli lived on the needs of 

 travellers, faced the road in one long street, and 

 almost every fourth or fifth house was an inn, or 

 ministered in some way to the requirements of those 

 who travelled. It is remarkable to find so many of 

 these old inns still in existence at Hartley Row. 

 Here they still stand, ruddy-faced, substantial but 

 plain buildings, with, notwithstanding their plainness, 



ROADSIDE SCENE (AFTER ROWLANDSON). 



a certain air of distinction. The wayfarer, well read 

 in the habits of the times when they were bustling 

 with business, can imaoine untold comforts behind 

 those frontages ; can reconstruct the scenes in the 

 public waiting-rooms, where travellers, passing the 

 interval between their being set down here by the 

 ' Defiance ' or the ' Reoulator ' Exeter coach and the 

 arrival of the Odiham and Alton bye- stage, could 

 warm themselves by the roaring fire ; can sniff" in 

 imagination the coffee of the breakfasts and the roast 



