44 
TRAVELS IN 
water, ftagnating in the clayey bed of a rivulet, but it was fo 
much impregnated with earth and falts that the horfes, thirfty 
as they were, would fcarcely touch it. At this place we con- 
trived to pafs the night, but we experienced a moft uncom- 
fortable lodging. Unluckily for us it happened to be Sunday, 
and, the fhoemaker being known to all his neighbours, living 
within the circuit of twenty miles, and particularly to his 
neareft neighbours of three or four miles, to be a jolly good fel- 
low, who always kept a glafs of wine, and a ftrong fopie to 
regale his friends, the houfe was crowded with people. There 
were but two apartments, one of which was filled with the 
company ; the other we occupied. This, it feemed, was made 
to anfwer the four-fold purpofe of bed-chamber, work-fhop, 
cellar, and ftorehoufe. The heat of the weather, the clofenefs 
of the room, which had only one fmall aperture to admit the 
light, added to the mingled odours arifmg from {linking lea- 
ther, bunches of onions, butchers' meat fwarming with flies, 
fumes of tobacco, dregs of wine and gin and Cape brandy, 
(landing in pools on the clayed floor ; in a word, fuch " a con- 
" gregation of foul and pefliilential vapours," were fufficient 
to naufeate fliomachs much lefs fqueamifli than ours. Nor was 
the fenfe of feeling lefs annoyed by an innumerable quantity 
of bugs, fleas, and mufquitoes. Perhaps, indeed, it might be 
confidered as an advantage in having two or three fenfes tor- 
mented at once ; as the pain affedling one might, in a certain 
degree, be deadened by the acutenefs of feeling in another. 
How often, in the courfe of this night, did I blefs my good for- 
tune, in having ufed my waggon for my lodging houfe in all 
my former long journies through this miferable country j inha- 
bited 
