In the drawing-room there were several
pictures and sketches by Du Val, one of which I especially liked,--a
misty, moonlight picture of the Mersey, near Seacombe. I never saw
painted such genuine moonlight. . . . .
I took my leave at half past ten, and found my cab at the door, and my
cabman snugly asleep inside of it; and when Mr. Du Val awoke him, he
proved to be quite drunk, insomuch that I hesitated whether to let him
clamber upon the box, or to take post myself, and drive the cabman home.
However, I propounded two questions to him: first, whether his horse
would go of his own accord; and, secondly, whether be himself was
invariably drunk at that time of night, because, if it were his normal
state, I should be safer with him drunk than sober. Being satisfied on
these points, I got in, and was driven home without accident or
adventure; except, indeed, that the cabman drew up and opened the door
for me to alight at a vacant lot on Stratford Road, just as if there had
been a house and home and cheerful lighted windows in that vacancy. On
my remonstrance he resumed the whip and reins, and reached Boston Terrace
at last; and, thanking me for an extra sixpence as well as he could
speak, he begged me to inquire for "Little John" whenever I next wanted a
cab. Cabmen are, as a body, the most ill-natured and ungenial men in the
world; but this poor little man was excellently good-humored.
Speaking of the former rudeness of manners, now gradually refining away,
of the Manchester people, Judge ------ said that, when he first knew
Manchester, women, meeting his wife in the street, would take hold of her
dress and say, "Ah, three and sixpence a yard!" The men were very rough,
after the old Lancashire fashion.
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