Every mile of the road heightens the flavour of the viands we expect at the
end of it cheap oakley pit boss sunglasses. How fine it
is to enter some old town, walled and turreted, just at approach of nightfall,
or to come to some straggling village, with the lights streaming through the
surrounding gloom; and then, after inquiring for the best entertainment that the
place affords, to 'take one's ease at one's inn'! These eventful moments in our
lives' history are too precious, too full of solid, heartfelt happiness to be
frittered and dribbled away in imperfect sympathy. I would have them all to
myself, and drain them to the last drop: they will do to talk of or to write
about afterwards. What a delicate speculation it is, after drinking whole
goblets of tea--
The cups that cheer, but not inebriate--
and letting the fumes ascend into the brain, to sit considering what we shall
have for supper--eggs and a rasher, a rabbit smothered in onions, or an
excellent veal-cutlet! Sancho in such a situation once fixed on cow-heel; and
his choice, though he could not help it, is not to be disparaged. Then, in the
intervals of pictured scenery and Shandean contemplation, to catch the
preparation and the stir in the kitchen [getting ready for the gentleman in the
parlour]. _Procul, O procul este profani!_ These hours are sacred to silence
and to musing cheap oakley sunglasses, to be treasured up in
the memory, and to feed the source of smiling thoughts hereafter. I would not
waste them in idle talk; or if I must have the integrity of fancy broken in
upon, I would rather it were by a stranger than a friend. A stranger takes his
hue and character from the time and place; he is a part of the furniture and
costume of an inn. If he is a Quaker, or from the West Riding of Yorkshire, so
much the better. I do not even try to sympathise with him, and he breaks no
squares. [How I love to see the camps of the gypsies, and to sigh my soul into
that sort of life. If I express this feeling to another, he may qualify and
spoil it with some objection.]
I associate nothing with my travelling companion but present objects and
passing events oakley sunglasses. In his ignorance of me and
my affairs, I in a manner forget myself. But a friend reminds one of other
things, rips up old grievances, and destroys the abstraction of the scene. He
comes in ungraciously between us and our imaginary character. Something is
dropped in the course of conversation that gives a hint of your profession and
pursuits; or from having some one with you that knows the less sublime portions
of your history oakley sunglasses, it seems that other people
do. You are no longer a citizen of the world; but your 'unhoused free condition
is put into circumspection and confine.' The incognito of an inn is one of its
striking privileges--'lord of one's self, uncumbered with a name.
