Those who could do so reeled home; those who could not walk at all were put to bed by the retainers at Haddon Hall.

I had chosen my bedroom high up in Eagle Tower.

At table I had tried to remain sober.
That, however, was an impossible task, for at the upper end of the hail there was a wrist-ring placed in the wainscoting at a height of ten or twelve inches above the head of an ordinary man, and if he refused to drink as much as the other guests thought he should, his wrist was fastened above his head in the ring, and the liquor which he should have poured down his throat was poured down his sleeve.

Therefore to avoid this species of rustic sport I drank much more than was good for me.

When the feast closed I thought I was sober enough to go to my room unassisted; so I took a candle, and with a great show of self-confidence climbed the spiral stone stairway to the door of my room.