It would have somewhat the look of
an abortive watering-place, such as we may now see them here and
there along the coast, but for the age of the houses, the comely
quiet design of some of them, and the look of long habitation, of a
life that is settled and rooted, and makes it worth while to train
flowers about the windows, and otherwise shape the dwelling to the
humour of the inhabitant. The church, which might perhaps have
served as rallying-point for these loose houses, and pulled the
township into something like intelligible unity, stands some distance
off among great trees; but the inn (to take the public buildings in
order of importance) is in what I understand to be the principal
street: a pleasant old house, with bay-windows, and three peaked
gables, and many swallows' nests plastered about the eaves.
The interior of the inn was answerable to the outside: indeed, I
never saw any room much more to be admired than the low wainscoted
parlour in which I spent the remainder of the evening. It was a
short oblong in shape, save that the fireplace was built across one
of the angles so as to cut it partially off, and the opposite angle
was similarly truncated by a corner cupboard.
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