Alas, no “honours” were granted for proficiency in such studies! CHAPTER X. Before quitting a phase of my life, which many, if not most, old men are wont to look back on as their happiest time, but which I, by so considering, should grievously wrong many a subsequent period, I may string together at random a few notes from my diaries, which may seem to contribute some touch or trait to the story of the way we lived sixty years since. The way men lived in Germany at that date, I find given in a letter from the Baron de Zandt to my mother, as follows: “In many parts of Germany,” says the Baron, who, as I very well remember, understood what good living was, “a man may be boarded and lodged comfortably for £26 a year. If he prefers economy to comfort, it might be done for considerably less.” From the journal of a walking tour in South Devon, performed in the year 1831, I take the well-nigh incredible statement, that no tobacconist _ex professo_ could at that date be found in Plymouth! “I succeeded after some research,” says the diary, “in getting some tolerable tobacco from a chymist.” Doubtless plenty of tobacco was to be had, _if_ I had known where to look for it--at chandlers’ shops and taverns. But I have no doubt that the statement in the fifty-five-year-old “text” is correct. No tobacconist’s shop was then to be found in Plymouth. In July, 1832, I was walking in Wales, and reaching Caermarthen in assize time (where Judge Alderson, as is recorded, was trying prisoners on the Crown side), found much difficulty in getting any accommodation for bed or even board. But at length a commercial gentleman at the Ivy Bush, the principal inn, “entering into conversation in a patronising sort of way, told me it was a _h_error to suppose that commercial men were _h_adverse to gentlemen making use of the commercial room provided they _was_ gentlemen. For himself, he was always most ’appy to associate with gentlemen;” and, in fine, invited me to join their table, which I did at two o’clock. One of the assembled party--there were some fifteen or sixteen of them--was formally named president for the day, and took the head of the table. We were excruciatingly genteel. I, in my ignorance, asked for beer, but was with much politeness informed that malt liquor was not used at their table. Every man was expected to consume a pint of most atrocious sherry at 5_s._ 6_d._, which I suppose compensated the landlord for the wonderfully small price of the dinner. A dinner of three courses, consisting of salmon, chicken, venison, three or four made dishes, and pastry, was put before us. I was surprised at the gorgeousness of this feast, and began to have alarming anticipations of the _amari aliquid_ which must follow. But I was assured that this was the ordinary every-day fare of the “commercial gentlemen,” and the bill for the repast was two shillings! My diary records that the conversation at table in no wise savoured of trade in any of its branches.