Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/86

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private lodging house; the beds equally cleanly, the table more plentiful, and the charge as moderate. As M'Cullough lays himself out to accommodate travellers, or regular lodgers, he applies himself solely to that, and discourages every thing which might subject his house to the noise, revelry, and confusion of a tavern. His wife an amiable and obliging woman, and three daughters, fine and good girls just grown up, attend to the business of the house, and the accommodation of their guests, so well, that a man must be fastidious to a fault, who would not be perfectly satisfied with such quarters.

The streets being extremely dirty, and my foot still paining me much from the consequence of its being blistered on my journey between Lancaster and Middleton, I confined myself to the house for several days after my arrival, going out only once during that time, to call on general O'Hara[28] and Mr. Abner Barker on business. Confinement is at any time unpleasant; but at an inn, however good the accommodation, in a strange place, without a single acquaintance, and suffering continued torture from an inflammation in a limb, the pain of which would have prevented my enjoying a book, even had there been a library within my reach, was to me excessively so.

A few neighbouring gentlemen hearing that a stranger