As regards his own person, Mr Grimes might have been taken as a fair sample of the English innkeeper, as described for many years past.

But in his outer garments he was very unlike that description.

He wore a black, swallow-tailed coat, made, however, to set very loose upon his back, a black waistcoat, and black pantaloons.

He carried, moreover, in his hands a black chimney-pot hat.

Not only have the top-boots and breeches vanished from the costume of innkeepers, but also the long, particoloured waistcoat, and the birds'-eye fogle round their necks.