There was in
ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family,
who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the nominal
keeper of a coffee house, one of the first places of the kind which
had been opened in the Scottish metropolis. As usual, it was entirely
managed by the careful and industrious Mrs. B--; while her husband
amused himself with field sports, without troubling his head about the
matter. Once upon a time the premises having taken fire, the husband was
met, walking up the High Street loaded with his guns and fishing-rods,
and replied calmly to some one who inquired after his wife, 'that the
poor woman was trying to save a parcel of crockery, and some trumpery
books'; the last being those which served her to conduct the business of
the house.
There were many elderly gentlemen in the author's younger days, who
still held it part of the amusement of a journey 'to parley with mine
host,' who often resembled, in his quaint humour, mine Host of the
Garter in the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; or Blague of the George in the
MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON. Sometimes the landlady took her share of
entertaining the company.
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