Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI, November 1850, Vol. IVarious
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI, November 1850, Vol. I
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Many travelers know the "Rutland Arms" at Bakewell, in the Peak of
Derbyshire. It is a fine large inn, belonging to his Grace of Rutland,
standing in an airy little market-place of that clean-looking little
town, and commanding from its windows pleasant peeps of the green hills
and the great Wicksop Woods, which shut out the view of Chatsworth, the
Palace of the Peak, which lies behind them. Many travelers who used to
traverse this road from the south to Manchester, in the days of long
coaches and long wintry drives, know well the "Rutland Arms," and will
recall the sound of the guard's bugle, as they whirled up to the door,
amid a throng of grooms, waiters, and village idlers, the ladder already
taken from its stand by the wall, and placed by the officious Boots in
towering position, ready, at the instant of the coach stopping, to clap
it under your feet, and facilitate your descent. Many travelers will
recall one feature of that accommodating inn, which, uniting
aristocratic with commercial entertainment, has two doors; one lordly
and large in front, to which all carriages of nobility, prelacy, and
gentility naturally draw up; and one at the end, to which all gigs,
coaches, mails, and still less dignified conveyances, as naturally are
driven. Our travelers will as vividly remember the passage which
received them at this entrance, and the room to the left, the
Travelers'-room, into which they were ushered. To that corner room,
having windows to the market-place in front, and one small peeping
window at the side, commanding the turn of the north road, and the
interesting arrivals at the secondary entrance, we now introduce our
readers.
Here sat a solitary gentleman. He was a man apparently of
five-and-thirty; tall, considerably handsome; a face of the oval
character, nose a little aquiline, hair dark, eyebrows dark and strong,
and a light, clear, self-possessed look, that showed plainly enough that
he was a man of active mind, and well to do in the world. You would have
thought, from his gentlemanly air, and by no means commercial manner,
that he would have found his way in at the great front door, and into
one of the private rooms; but he came over night by the mail, and, on
being asked, on entering the house, by the waiter, to what sort of room
he would be shown, answered, carelessly and abruptly, "any where."
Here he was, seated in the back left-hand corner of the room, a large
screen between himself and the door, and before him a table spread with
a goodly breakfast apparatus--coffee, eggs, fresh broiled trout from the
neighboring Weye, and a large round of corned beef, as a _dernier
ressort_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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