CHAPTER XXXIV.
Northampton--Horse--Breaking--Snoring.
Tired at length with my vain efforts to account for the term which in my time was so much in vogue amongst commercial gentlemen I left the little parlour, and repaired to the common room.

Mr Pritchard and Mr Bos were still there smoking and drinking, but there was now a candle on the table before them, for night was fast coming on.

Mr Bos was giving an account of his travels in England, sometimes in Welsh, sometimes in English, to which Mr Pritchard was listening with the greatest attention, occasionally putting in a "see there now," and "what a fine thing it is to have gone about." After some time Mr Bos exclaimed: "I think, upon the whole, of all the places I have seen in England I like Northampton best." "I suppose," said I, "you found the men of Northampton good-tempered, jovial fellows ?" "Can't say I did," said Mr Bos; "they are all shoe-makers, and of course quarrelsome and contradictory, for where was there ever a shoemaker who was not conceited and easily riled?
No, I have little to say in favour of Northampton as far as the men are concerned.

It's not the men but the women that make me speak in praise of Northampton.

The men all are ill-tempered, but the women quite the contrary.