Moreover they had Grip in company; and when they must otherwise have changed the guinea, it was but to make him exhibit outside an alehouse door, or in a village street, or in the grounds or gardens of a mansion of the better sort, and scores who would have given nothing in charity, were ready to bargain for more amusement from the talking bird.
This incident only suggested to the widow's mind, when they halted at an alehouse some miles further on, and heard the justice's character as given by his friends, that perhaps something more than capacity of stomach and tastes for the kennel and the stable, were required to form either a perfect country gentleman, a thoroughbred Englishman, or a genuine John Bull; and that possibly the terms were sometimes misappropriated, not to say disgraced.
They then separated; the gamekeeper returned home to Mr Western's, and Jones walked to an
alehouse at half a mile's distance, to wait for his messenger's return.
I said no more to her, or she to me, a good while; but by and by, somebody calling her at a door a little way off, she desired me that if anybody called for the Barnet coach, I would step and call her at the house, which it seems was an alehouse. I said Yes, very readily, and away she went.
As soon as I had got the bundle, and the maid was out of sight, I goes on towards the alehouse, where the porter's wife was, so that if I had met her, I had then only been going to give her the bundle, and to call her to her business, as if I was going away, and could stay no longer; but as I did not meet her, I walked away, and turning into Charterhouse Lane, then crossed into Batholomew Close, so into Little Britain, and through the Bluecoat Hospital, into Newgate Street.
It's the preacher as empties th'
alehouse; and if a man gets religion, he'll do his work none the worse for that."
To render these recollections the more vivid, it came on to snow as night set in; and, passing through Stamford and Grantham, and by the little
alehouse where he had heard the story of the bold Baron of Grogzwig, everything looked as if he had seen it but yesterday, and not even a flake of the white crust on the roofs had melted away.
He was somewhat dashed in spirits, having passed a long day alone skulking in the county, and made but a poor meal in an
alehouse near Dundas.
In point of cleanliness and comfort it would have suffered by no comparison with any English
alehouse, of a homely kind, in England.
All these proceedings naturally made the child more watchful and suspicious, and she soon observed that whenever they halted to perform outside a village
alehouse or other place, Mr Codlin while he went through his share of the entertainments kept his eye steadily upon her and the old man, or with a show of great friendship and consideration invited the latter to lean upon his arm, and so held him tight until the representation was over and they again went forward.
I stayed to dine at a decent
alehouse, some mile or two from the Ferry I have mentioned before; and thus the day wore away, and it was evening when I reached it.
If that's
alehouse cricket then mine's a pint of Auntie Myrtle's Premium.
alehouse - a tavern where ale is sold