_Sunday_, _September_ 4_th_.—We had desired to be called at six o’clock,
and rose at the first summons. Our beds had proved better than we
expected, and we had not slept ill; but poor Coleridge had passed a
wretched night here four days before. This we did not know; but since,
when he told us of it, the notion of what he must have suffered, with the
noise of drunken people about his ears all night, himself sick and tired,
has made our discomfort cling to my memory, and given these recollections
a twofold interest. I asked if it was possible to have a couple of eggs
boiled before our departure: the woman hesitated; she thought I might,
and sent a boy into the out-houses to look about, who brought in one egg
after long searching. Early as we had risen it was not very early when
we set off; for everything at King’s House was in unison—equally
uncomfortable. As the woman had told us the night before, ‘They had no
hay, and that was a loss.’ There were neither stalls nor bedding in the
stable, so that William was obliged to watch the horse while it was
feeding, for there were several others in the stable, all standing like
wild beasts, ready to devour each other’s portion of corn: this, with the
slowness of the servant and other hindrances, took up much time, and we
were completely starved, for the morning was very cold, as I believe all
the mornings in that desolate place are.
When we had gone about a quarter of a mile I recollected that I had left
the little cup given me by the kind landlady at Taynuilt, which I had
intended that John should hereafter drink out of, in memory of our
wanderings. I would have turned back for it, but William pushed me on,
unwilling that we should lose so much time, though indeed he was as sorry
to part with it as myself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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