In requital, mine host was always furnished with the news of the country, and was probably a little of a humorist to boot.

The devolution of the whole actual business and drudgery of the inn upon the poor gudewife, was very common among the Scottish Bonifaces.

There was in ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the nominal keeper of a coffee house, one of the first places of the kind which had been opened in the Scottish metropolis.

As usual, it was entirely managed by the careful and industrious Mrs.B--; while her husband amused himself with field sports, without troubling his head about the matter.

Once upon a time the premises having taken fire, the husband was met, walking up the High Street loaded with his guns and fishing-rods, and replied calmly to some one who inquired after his wife, 'that the poor woman was trying to save a parcel of crockery, and some trumpery books'; the last being those which served her to conduct the business of the house.
There were many elderly gentlemen in the author's younger days, who still held it part of the amusement of a journey 'to parley with mine host,' who often resembled, in his quaint humour, mine Host of the Garter in the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; or Blague of the George in the MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON.