HAZLITT 1 57 



and its quiet as profound. The very name is chilling, 

 and as excellently descriptive as it is possiljle for a 

 name to be. 



When, coming within sight of its isolated roof- 

 tree from the summit of the hills on either side, the 

 coach-guards used to blow fanfares on their buoies as 

 a reminder for the ostler to have his fresh teams 

 ready, the inn and its surrounding stables woke into 

 life, and when they were gone their several w^ays, 

 it dozed again. Save that it doubtless looked more 

 prosperous then, the present appearance of ' Winter- 

 slow Hut ' is identical with its aspect of sixty years 

 ago. The same horse-pond by the roadside, the same 

 trees, only older and more decrepit, the same pre- 

 historic dykes and tumuli on the unchanging downs ; 

 it must have been capable of absorbing the fun and 

 jollity of a fair, and still presenting its characteristic- 

 ally dour and dreary aspect ; but now that, sitting 

 in the bay window of the parlour that commands 

 the road in either direction, you may watch the 

 hio;hwav bv the half-hour and see no traveller, the 

 emptiness is appalling. 



To this solitary outpost of civilisation came 

 William Hazlitt, critic and essayist, during several 

 years, for quietude. For four years, from 1808 to 

 1812, he and his wife lived in a cottage at West 

 AYinterslow, on the small income derived from her 

 other cottage property there, supj)lemented by the 

 sums the wayw^arcl Hazlitt earned fitfully by the 

 practice of literature. Then they removed to London, 

 where they disagreed , Hazlitt retiring to the ' Hut ' 

 in 1819, and leaving his wife in town. Nervous and 



