The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 1 (of 2): This Way to Gretna GreenHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 1 (of 2): This Way to Gretna Green
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; Scotland -- Description and travel
“On our arrival at Macclesfield my companions rested at a public-house,
whilst I went in search of some honest Radicals, to whom Saxton had
given me letters of introduction. They were chiefly working men; some
of them were in pretty good circumstances, being master weavers. I soon
found them, and they took myself and fellow travellers to a decent
inn, where we got refreshments, and spent a very agreeable evening. In
the morning, when our bill was called for, there was no charge against
me, the kind friends who were with us the night before having settled
everything which stood to my account.
[Sidenote: _TO LONDON_]
“We set off from Macclesfield about six o’clock on a lovely morning,
and soon were in a finely variegated and wooded country, as any one
will allow who has travelled betwixt Macclesfield and Leek. After
walking some four or five miles we began to talk about breakfast, and
my male companion said he would have cheese and bread and ale, whilst
I anticipated a good breakfast of tea, with couple of eggs, if they
were to be had. Soon after the man stopped, and his wife said as we
went forward, she was glad I preferred tea for breakfast. I asked her
why, and she said her husband was a very hard-working man, and a good
husband on the whole, but he was a little too greedy, and expected
her to fare as he did on the road, instead of letting her have a few
indulgences, such as tea and coffee. It was not from want of money,
she said, for he had enough with him, nor was it want of kindness to
her—it was over-carefulness alone which made him so. But now, as I was
for having tea, he would hardly for shame deny her having some also.
I promised, if it was necessary, to put a word in for her, and she
thanked me. Having travelled a little further we came to a neat little
tap-house, on the descent of a valley, where the cool shadow of trees
made the air grateful and refreshing, and a tiny wimpling rill ran like
melted pearls over dark gravel, beneath young-leafed hazels, and by
green-swarded margins. Here we agreed to stop and take what the house
afforded. The smart-handed landlady soon placed a nice repast of tea,
bread-and-butter, and a couple of eggs before me, whilst a jug of ale,
with bread and cheese, was presented to my fellow-travellers. The woman
said she could not eat, and I asked her to come and join me at tea,
adding very likely the cost would be little more for tea than for the
breakfast they had before them. On hearing this opinion, her husband
told her to get some tea, and then with great pleasure the woman came
to my table and made a hearty breakfast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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