Hope, who, like ourselves, had just taken refuge from the storm.

While our clothes were being dried, our hostess prepared dinner, which
consisted of a boiled chicken, eggs, and fried ham, which we found
excellent, and, as a preventive against catching cold, after the
soaking we had got, I ordered some whiskey-punch, which I have always
found very efficacious on such occasions. Some people recommend tea
made from the boughs of the hemlock-pine, which, I dare say, is
excellent for some constitutions; but it never agreed half so well with
mine as the former antidote, which I can conscientiously recommend but,
like all other medicines, an over-dose may do more harm than good.

Our host, who appeared to make himself quite at home in his own house,
joined in the conversation, and being very communicative about his own
affairs, wanted us to be equally so about ours. His eccentricity
greatly amused us. He informed me that he was by birth a Yorkshireman,
and that he had been in business in London, where he had built some
fine "place" or "terrace," which still bore his name. He spouted Latin
occasionally, and showed me a Greek lexicon, which he told me was his
constant companion. His real stock of Latin and Greek consisted only of
a few words and sentences he had picked up, and which he quoted
ostentatiously before the ignorant, who of course thought him a prodigy
of learning.

As it continued to rain all the evening, I was obliged to give orders
to have my horse put up for the night, and also to see what
accommodation could be had for ourselves. I found on examination that
this was bad enough at least I thought so then, though many a time
since I should have been happy to obtain any half as good.