printing-house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons
of beer for the good of the chapel; this custom was
falling into disuse thirty years ago; it is very properly
rejected entirely in the United States."--W. T. F.

My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another
in Duke-street, opposite to the Romish Chapel. It was two pair
of stairs backwards, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept
the house; she had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman
who attended the warehouse, but lodg'd abroad. After sending to inquire
my character at the house where I last lodg'd she agreed to take
me in at the same rate, 3s. 6d. per week; cheaper, as she said,
from the protection she expected in having a man lodge in the house.
She was a widow, an elderly woman; had been bred a Protestant,
being a clergyman's daughter, but was converted to the Catholic
religion by her husband, whose memory she much revered; had lived much
among people of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them
as far back as the times of Charles the Second. She was lame in her
knees with the gout, and, therefore, seldom stirred out of her room,
so sometimes wanted company; and hers was so highly amusing to me,
that I was sure to spend an evening with her whenever she desired it.
Our supper was only half an anchovy each, on a very little strip
of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us; but the
entertainment was in her conversation. My always keeping good hours,
and giving little trouble in the family, made her unwilling to part
with me; so that, when I talk'd of a lodging I had heard of, nearer
my business, for two shillings a week, which, intent as I now was
on saving money, made some difference, she bid me not think of it,
for she would abate me two shillings a week for the future; so I
remained with her at one shilling and sixpence as long as I staid