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84 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
well-to-do Sussex yeoman ancestry—a man both brilliant and the possessor of a great store of the philosophy and knowledge of village folk. Above all, he was an epicure in inns. Not the dingy public-houses or the modern " hydros " dealing in crem-de-menths and stuffs which appeal to the extravagant, but Inns, mark you! Inns with long and low windows and pleasing red blinds. Inns with round oak tables agreeably ringed with memories of a thousand pewter measures of ale. Inns in which mine host is still Mr. Merrythought and where the guest is always made welcome. Inns where the ale has character and distinction, and is served with all the prescribed rites ; where one may call for, and receive, strong audit ale in a tall tapering glass, Burton in the mazy mug of willow pattern, or Small Beer in the pewter. I discovered later that my friend was the son of a Gascon father and a Sussex mother, which accounted for his scholarly speech, love of songs, and many oddities of temperament. He had established himself as the Dictator of the
-----Inn, and all people bowed to his will. He ruled
there autocratically, having instituted various rites and rules, disobedience to which was visited with his most scorching rebukes. He had a prescriptive right to the tall dark oak chair with the V |
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