CHAPTER XVI 



DONCASTER 



I ALWAYS count good for the voyage down to 

 South Yorkshire by the Great Eastern, of whose 

 line on this road I am very fond. In one way 

 and another it keeps me interested, though 

 occasionally I find myself realising that as I was 

 there at the time I gathered odds and ends linked 

 with the line, other people, contemporary 

 chiffoniers, must be getting beyond the first 

 blush of youth, although personally I may not be. 

 So far as I can make out, there will not be any 

 old 'uns soon to whom a body can refer about 

 former times, a point which, at a more convenient 

 season, I would, in Mr Midshipman Easy's words, 

 like to argue in a way. For instance, you might 

 amuse yourself with speculations as to the feel- 

 ings which come over an oldest inhabitant, the 

 sort of person whose evidence commands good 

 prices in right-of-way cases, when he is first 

 promoted to that proud position by virtue of 

 seniority. I am not yet in a doyen line of business, 

 but may confess that not long ago when bent 

 Doncaster-wards I told my cabby to drive me to 

 Bishopsgate Street Station. *' The Eastern 

 Counties, in Shoreditch," says I, by way of 



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