only season for enjoyment, and the first twenty-five years of one's life
are worth all the rest of the longest life of man, even though those five-
and-twenty be spent in penury and contempt, and the rest in the
possession of wealth, honours, respectability, ay, and many of them in
strength and health, such as will enable one to ride forty miles before
dinner, and over one's pint of port--for the best gentleman in the land
should not drink a bottle--carry on one's argument, with gravity and
decorum, with any commercial gentleman who, responsive to one's
challenge, takes the part of humanity and common sense against
'protection' and the lord of the land.

* * * * *

On the following day at four o'clock I dined with the landlord, in
company with a commercial traveller. The dinner was good, though plain,
consisting of boiled mackerel--rather a rarity in those parts at that
time--with fennel sauce, a prime baron of roast beef after the mackerel,
then a tart and noble Cheshire cheese; we had prime sherry at dinner, and
whilst eating the cheese prime porter, that of Barclay, the only good
porter in the world. After the cloth was removed we had a bottle of very
good port; and whilst partaking of the port I had an argument with the
commercial traveller on the subject of the corn-laws.

* * * * *

The binding was of dingy calf-skin. I opened it, and as I did so another
strange thrill of pleasure shot through my frame. The first object on
which my eyes rested was a picture; it was exceedingly well executed, at
least the scene which it represented made a vivid impression upon me,
which would hardly have been the case had the artist not been faithful to