his uncle. Who has not felt the irresistible tendency to "drop off" in
the half hour before dinner at a stupid country-house? I need not
catalogue the thousand other situations in life infinitely more
"sleep-compelling" than Morphine; for myself, my pleasantest and soundest
moments of perfect forgetfulness of this dreary world and all its cares,
have been taken in an oaken bench, seated bolt upright and vis a vis to a
lecturer on botany, whose calming accents, united with the softened light
of an autumnal day, piercing its difficult rays through the narrow and
cobwebbed windows, the odour of the recent plants and flowers aiding and
abetting, all combined to steep the soul in sleep, and you sank by
imperceptible and gradual steps into that state of easy slumber, in which
"come no dreams," and the last sounds of the lecturer's "hypogenous and
perigenous" died away, becoming beautifully less, till your senses sank
into rest, the syllables "rigging us, rigging us," seemed to melt away in
the distance and fade from your memory--Peace be with you, Doctor A. If
I owe gratitude any where I have my debt with you. The very memory I
bear of you has saved me no inconsiderable sum in hop and henbane.
Without any assistance from the sciences on the present occasion, I was
soon asleep, and woke not till the cracking of whips, and trampling of
horses' feet on the pavement of the coach-yard apprised me that the world
had risen to its daily labour, and so should I. From the short survey of
my present chamber which I took on waking, I conjectured it must have
been the den of some of the servants of the house upon occasion--two low
truckle-beds of the meanest description lay along the wall opposite to
mine; one of them appeared to have been slept in during the past night,
but by what species of animal the Fates alone can tell. An old demi-peak
saddle, capped and tipped with brass, some rusty bits, and stray
stirrup-irons lay here and there upon the floor; while upon a species of
clothes-rack, attached to a rafter, hung a tarnished suit of
postillion's livery, cap, jacket, leathers, and jack-boots, all ready