The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinFranklin, Benjamin
ReligionComparative
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another in
Duke-street, opposite to the Romish Chapel. It was two pair of stairs
backwards, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house; she
had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman who attended the
warehouse, but lodg'd abroad. After sending to inquire my character at
the house where I last lodg'd she agreed to take me in at the same
rate, 3s. 6d. per week; cheaper, as she said, from the protection she
expected in having a man lodge in the house. She was a widow, an
elderly woman; had been bred a Protestant, being a clergyman's
daughter, but was converted to the Catholic religion by her husband,
whose memory she much revered; had lived much among people of
distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them as far back as the
times of Charles the Second. She was lame in her knees with the gout,
and, therefore, seldom stirred out of her room, so sometimes wanted
company; and hers was so highly amusing to me, that I was sure to spend
an evening with her whenever she desired it. Our supper was only half
an anchovy each, on a very little strip of bread and butter, and half a
pint of ale between us; but the entertainment was in her conversation.
My always keeping good hours, and giving little trouble in the family,
made her unwilling to part with me; so that, when I talk'd of a lodging
I had heard of, nearer my business, for two shillings a week, which,
intent as I now was on saving money, made some difference, she bid me
not think of it, for she would abate me two shillings a week for the
future; so I remained with her at one shilling and sixpence as long as
I staid in London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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