the act of enjoying a glass of
sherry and a biscuit--I discovered what I took of course to be the
counterfeit presentment of myself. What an extraordinary mirror, I
thought!--for I saw a prodigious man, with enormous whiskers, ramming a
large veal pie into his mouth with one hand, and holding in the other a
tumbler of porter. I looked at the glass of sherry, and gave the biscuit
a more vigorous bite--alas! it had none of the flavour of the veal and
porter; so I discovered that the law of optics was unchanged, and that I
had escaped the infliction of so voracious a double-ganger.

The country round Chippenham is as beautiful as can be conceived; all
the fruit-trees were in full blossom, and we swept through long tracts
of the richest and prettiest orchards we ever saw. Hall and farm, and
moated grange, passed in rapid succession; and at last the fair city of
Bath rose like the queen of all the land, and looked down from her
palaces and towers on the fairest champaign that ever queen looked upon
before. Seen from the railway, the upper part of the town seems to rise
up from the very midst of orchards and gardens; terrace above terrace,
but still with a great flush of foliage between; it is a pity it ever
grew into a fashionable watering-place; though, even now, it is not too
late to amend. Like some cynosure of neighbouring eyes, fed from her
gentle youth upon all the sights and sounds of rural life, she is too
beautiful to put on the airs and graces of a belle of the court. Let her
go back to her country ways--her walks in the village lanes--her
scampers across the fields; she will be more really captivating than if
she was redolent of Park Lane, and never missed a drawing-room or
Almack's. But here we are at Bristol, and must leave our exhortations to
Bath to a future opportunity.

It is amazing how rapidly the passengers disperse. By the time our
trunks and boxes were all collected, the station was deserted, the empty
carriages had wheeled themselves away, and we began to have involuntary
reminiscences of Campbell's _Last Man_. Earth's cities had no sound nor
tread--so it was with no slight gratification that we beheld the cad of
an omnibus beckoning us to take our place on the outside of his buss.
The luggage had been swung down in a lump through a hole in the floor,
and by the time we reached the same level, by the periphrasis of a
stair, every thing had been stowed away on the roof, where in a few
moments we joined