In the Days of Poor Richard

  3

  He sat down with a sense of relief and spent the rest of the afternoonreading the London papers although he longed to go and look at thefortress of Deal Castle. He had tea at five and set out on the mailcarriage, with his box and bag, an hour later. The road was rough andmuddy with deep holes in it. At one point the chaise rattled andbumped over a plowed field. Before dark he saw a man hanging in agibbet by the roadside. At ten o'clock they passed the huge gate ofCanterbury and drew up at an inn called The King's Head. The landladyand two waiters attended for orders. He had some supper and went tobed. Awakened at five A.M. by the sound of a bugle he arose anddressed hurriedly and found the post chaise waiting. They went on theKing's Road from Canterbury and a mile out they came to a big, whitegate in the dim light of the early morning.

  A young man clapped his mouth to the window and shouted:

  "Sixpence, Yer Honor!"

  It was a real turnpike and Jack stuck his head out of the window for alook at it. They stopped for breakfast at an inn far down the pike andwent on through Sittingborn, Faversham, Rochester and the lovely valleyof the River Medway of which Jack had read.

  At every stop it amused him to hear the words "Chaise an' pair," flyingfrom host to waiter and waiter to hostler and back in the wink of aneye.

  Jack spent the night at The Rose in Dartford and went on next morningover Gadshill and Shootershill and Blackheath. Then the Thames andGreenwich and Deptfort from which he could see the crowds and domes andtowers of the big city. A little past two o'clock he rode over Londonbridge and was set down at The Spread Eagle where he paid a shilling amile for his passage and ate his dinner.

  Such, those days, was the crossing and the trip up to London, as Jackdescribes it in his letters.