woman's company, discourse, and taking her by the hand, she being a pretty
woman. So I led him to Ashted Church (by the place where Peter, my
cozen's man, went blindfold and found a certain place we chose for him
upon a wager), where we had a dull Doctor, one Downe, worse than I think
even parson King was, of whom we made so much scorn, and after sermon
home, and staid while our dinner, a couple of large chickens, were
dressed, and a good mess of cream, which anon we had with good content,
and after dinner (we taking no notice of other lodgers in the house,
though there was one that I knew, and knew and spoke to me, one Mr. Rider,
a merchant), he and I to walk, and I led him to the pretty little wood
behind my cozens house, into which we got at last by clambering, and our
little dog with us, but when we were among the hazel trees and bushes,
Lord! what a course did we run for an hour together, losing ourselves, and
indeed I despaired I should ever come to any path, but still from thicket
to thicket, a thing I could hardly have believed a man could have been
lost so long in so small a room. At last I found out a delicate walk in
the middle that goes quite through the wood, and then went out of the
wood, and holloed Mr. Creed, and made him hunt me from place to place, and
at last went in and called him into my fine walk, the little dog still
hunting with us through the wood. In this walk being all bewildered and
weary and sweating, Creed he lay down upon the ground, which I did a
little, but I durst not long, but walked from him in the fine green walk,
which is half a mile long, there reading my vows as I used to on Sundays.
And after that was done, and going and lying by Creed an hour, he and I
rose and went to our lodging and paid our reckoning, and so mounted,
whether to go toward London home or to find a new lodging, and so rode
through Epsum, the whole town over, seeing the various companys that were
there walking; which was very pleasant to see how they are there without
knowing almost what to do, but only in the morning to drink waters. But,
Lord! to see how many I met there of citizens, that I could not have