Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/94

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MR. PIPS HIS DIARY.


find the Air too much for her where me was ſitting, and would come and take her Seat between us; I know, on Purpoſe. So fell a reading the Times, till One got in at Hanwell who ſeemed to be a Phyſician, and mighty pretty Diſcourfe with him touching the Manner of treating Madmen and Lunatics, which is now by gentle Management, and is a great Improvement on the old Plan of Chains and the Whip. Alſo of the Foulneſs of London for Want of fit Drainage, and how it do breed Cholera and Typhus, as ſure as rotten Cheeſe do Mites, and of the horrid Folly of making a great Gutter of the River. So to Swindon Station, where the Train do ſtop ten Minutes for Refreshment, and there my Wife hungry, and I too with a good Appetite, notwithſtanding the Diſcourfe about London Filth. So we out, and to the Refreſhment-Room with a Crowd of Paſſangers, all puſhing, and joſtling, and trampling on each others' Toes, ſtriving which mould get ſerved firſt. With much Ado got a Baſin of Soup for my Wife, and for myſelf a Veal and Ham Pie, and to ſee me looking at my Watch and taking a Mouthful by Turns; and how I did gulp a Glaſs of Guinness his Stout! Before we had half finiſhed, the Guard rang the Bell, and my Wife with a Start, did ſpill her Soup over her Dreſs, and was obliged to leave Half of it; and to think how ridiculous I looked, ſcampering back to the Train with my Meat-Pie in my Mouth! To run hurry-ſkurry at the Sound of a Bell, do ſeem only fit for a Gang of Workmen; and the Buſtle of Railways do deſtroy all the Dignity of Travelling; but the World altogether is leſs grand, and do go faſter than formerly. Off again, and to the End of our Journey, troubled at the Soup on my Wife's Dreſs, but thankful I had got my Change, and not left it behind me at the Swindon Station.