A Bookmans Budget

in which the occupants could read or sleep without being seen by anyone : in one or two cases there are fire-grates in these ; and in one strange example at Langley, in Bucks, the pew is not only roofed in but it has a lattice in front with painted panels which can be opened and shut at the occupants' pleasure, and there is a room in connection with it in which is a library of books, so that it would be quite possible for anyone to retire for a little interlude without the rest of the congregation's being aware of it.' (Mitton's Jane Austen and Her Times, 2nd edn. [1906], 38.) The pew and library here mentioned were built by Sir John Kederminster, 1630-50. They are referred to under Langley Marsh in Thome's Environs of London, 1876, and in Knight's Passages of a Working Life, iii, 170. THE STAGE-COACH BASKET This is sometimes described so loosely as to suggest that the dcscriber had a very vague idea ofwhat it was like. In reality it was a huge wicker receptacle behind the coach, supported by iron bars. It was used primarily for baggage ; but was often occupied by the passengers, who, like Pastor Moritz in 1782, found it very comfortable going up hill, but another-guess matter going down. 'Then', says this experienced witness, ' all the trunks and parcels began, as it were, to dance around me, and everything in the basket seemed to be alive, and I every moment received from them such violent blows that I thought my last hour was come.' (Travels i...