Unimbued with history and literature, he knew nothing of the scholar's or the poet's enthusiasm; his gratification lay in exercising his solid intelligence on a lot of strange and often grotesque facts.

Here men had lived two thousand years ago.

There was no mistake about it; you saw the deep ruts of their wheels along the rugged street; nay, you saw the wearing of their very feet on the comically narrow pavements.

And their life had been as different as possible from that of men in Manchester.

Everything excited him to merriment.
"Now, this is the house of old Pansa--no doubt an ancestor of friend Sancho"-- with a twinkle in his eye.