Old  Hearty  was  somewhat  of  a  bon  vivant  ;
loved  a  foaming  tankard  and  a  glass  or  two  of
hot  rum  and  water,  of  which,  in  a  common  way,
his  dame  would  take  a  few  frugal  sips — and  on


16  A  LOVER'S  QUARREL.
fe"te  days,  such  as  a  Royal  birth-day,  particularly
that  of  the  Third  George  (George  the  Good),  the
late  Duke  of  York's  and  our  present  Queen's —
her  wedding  day,  the  5th  of  November,  and  all
great  Protestant  festivals — Old  Joe  would  treat
himself  to  a  bottle  of  crusted  port,  which  he
would  himself  fetch  from  remote,  inner,  under-
ground cellars,  of  which  he  alone  knew  the  geo-
graphy, and  which,  in  old  black  bottles,  covered
with  cobwebs  and  redolent  of  the  Past,  contained
a  wine  which  he  never  dreamt  of  offering  to  any
but  the  old  nobility  or  gentry,  who  could  appre-
ciate its  rare  excellence,  and  one  dozen  of  which
Joe  maintained  was  worth  all  the  port  of
"Frost's  Family  Hotel."

All  Old  Joe's  dependants,  waiters,  ostlers,
postboys,  helpers,  and  even  "boots"  were  vota-
ries of  the  jolly  god ;  Frost  and  his  underlings
were  (or  professed  to  be)  teetotallers ;  and  yet
among  the  domestics  of  the  "Red  Lion"  there
was  more  good  feeling,  honesty,  and  charity,
than  at  "Frost's  Family  Hotel."  The  "Red


A  LOVER'S  QUARREL.  17

Lion"  people  always  went  to  church,  and  all
that  could  read,  had  bibles  and  prayer-books.
The  "  Family  Hotel"  people  talked  a  great  deal
about  freedom  of  opinion  and  conscience.  Frost
was  a  professed  free-thinker.  Some  of  his  people
went  to  one  "  place  of  worship,"  as  they  called
it ;  some  to  another ;  and  some,  like  Frost,  to
none  at  all.
