------ praised it very highly for having been so silent; it
being Poll's habit, probably, to break in upon the sacred exercises with
unseemly interjections and remarks. While we were at breakfast, Poll
began to whistle and talk very vociferously, and in a tone and with
expressions that surprised me, till I learned that the bird is usually
kept in the kitchen and servants' hall, and is only brought into the
dining-room at prayer-time and breakfast. Thus its mouth is full of
kitchen talk, which flows out before the gentlefolks with the queerest
effect.
After breakfast I examined the carvings of the room. Mr. ------ has
added to its decorations the coats of arms of all the successive
possessors of the house, with those of the families into which they
married, including the Ratcliffes, Stanleys, and others. From the
dining-room I passed into the library, which contains books enough to
make a rainy day pass pleasantly. I remember nothing else that I need to
record; and as I sat by the hall fire, talking with Mr. Gaskell, at about
eleven o'clock, the butler brought me word that a fly, which I had
bespoken, was ready to convey me to the railway. I took leave of
Mrs. ------, her last request being that I would write a ghost-story
for her house,--and drove off.
SHREWSBURY
September 5th.--Yesterday we all of us set forth from Rock Ferry at half
past twelve, and reached Shrewsbury between three and four o'clock, and
took up our quarters at the Lion Hotel.
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