spectacles, studied a great deal, was addicted to
salad, and did not smoke—a rare and remarkable
exception amongst the habitués of the
Golden Plough. The Count, however, was
occasionally to be seen driving about in a
vehicle of an unpretending nature—strongly
resembling, in fact, a Margate fly which had
been discarded as past service—but which,
as it chased the silence from our quiet streets
never failed to arrest the attention of the rare
passer-by, who stopped to gaze upon it as an
equipage of importance.

At the lower end of the table are to be
found the occasional arrivals; notably a
venerable Herr Geheimrath, who makes his
appearance about twice a-week on some
business, drinks a bottle of wine at dinner, takes
a cup of coffee immediately afterwards, and
departs by the next steamer. Should he,
meanwhile, be so fortunate as to get hold of a
new-comer, he never fails to inflict upon him
his standard anecdote of the circumstances
under which he had once been addressed by
Napoleon the First, when that potentate
appeared at Dusseldorff.

We have reason to believe, where we sit
(and indeed the avocat Spitznase once elicited
as much), that the Emperor's manner was not
altogether flattering to Herr Geheimrath; but
that makes no kind of difference in the
story. Stray Englishmen drop in, and
generally make a point of ordering expensive wines
for dinner—a great mistake when the table
wine is of drinkable quality. He usually finds
the chief difference to be in the price and
name, and our ordinary Rhine wine was of
the characteristic good vintage of the district.
I remember one of my dear countrymen, wishing
to study the variety of wines at call,
taking up, as he supposed, the Wein karte;
but, after puzzling for a long time amongst an
inexplicable list of names, it was explained to
him that the said carte was nothing but the
almanack, which being a Catholic one, had a
long row of saints' names written in the
German character, and appearing to this
thirsty connoisseur to be a catalogue of
things vinous rather than spiritual.

The calling out of the militia of the
district causes dire confusion at the Gast-haus,
sudden increase of cares to the hostess,
dismay to the cook, and perplexity, not
unrealised by passages of excitement, to the
Hebes of the establishment. Besides the
regular table d'hôte, there is now another
long table, occupied by the mass of these
defenders of their country. The irruption of
the said sons of Mars is not altogether agreeable,
even to the members of our usually
quiet coterie; not but what the warriors are
of a polite and amiable nature: nevertheless,
the undue number of diners in the room,
tends somewhat to render it close and
suffocating, besides causing considerable delay in
the serving of the viands; the fumes of
tobacco assume the density of a London fog,
and one's emergence to a purer atmosphere
is delayed by the missing of hat and stick
from the accustomed peg, and their discovery,
after toilsome search, buried under a pile of
helmets, foraging-caps, swords, belts, cloaks,
and other military appurtenances.

Although I was far from being prejudiced
in favour of home-habits, and soon grew
reconciled to many of the customs of the
country, I never could divest myself of the
conviction that it would not be amiss if they
were to change one's knife and fork once or
twice in the course of the long and complex
proceedings of the dinner-table. I never
learnt to appreciate the flavour which a fishy
fork gives to blanc-mange, for example: your
true German would use his knife under the
circumstances.

I must not omit to mention the musical
performances with which we are not
unfrequently favoured. Soon after the beginning
of dinner, unearthly sounds make themselves
heard outside the door, which gradually
resolve themselves into some waltz or operatic
selections performed by a harp, clarionet, and
bassoon; the bassoon usually having all its
own way. Sometimes also we are favoured
with the presence of a youth who carries an
accordion of portentous dimensions, out of
which proceeds, a vague and asthmatic
harmony; one is expected generally to reward
these performances with a small donation of
six pfennigs, or one halfpenny.

The music being ended, and the soup,
leathery boiled beef, fried potatoes, literally
melted-butter, herring-cutlets, sour-kraut—
not to be thought of without a shudder—
pudding, roast fowl, roast mutton or beef,
cheese, and fruit, having been severally
disposed of, we successively, or, as is the case
with the avocats, simultaneously, rise from
the table. Cigars are produced on all hands
—the black coffee is sipped at side tables or
settees, or we wend our way home to drink
it there.

I pass the window about an hour afterwards;
Doctor Stolberg Lozengefels is sitting
in his favourite corner, quietly perusing the
Kölner Zeitung; the elephantine judge is
smoking a long pipe with a porcelain bowl,
and between the puffs is plaguing with
ponderous badinage the pretty niece.

Now ready, in Twenty-eight pages, stitched,
PRICE FOURPENCE,
HOUSEHOLD WORDS ALMANAC
FOR THE YEAR 1856.
Household Words Office, No. 16, Wellington Street
North, Strand.—Sold by all Booksellers, and at all
Railway Stations.

On Saturday, Dec. 15, price Threepence, Stamped,
Fourpence,
THE HOLLY-TREE INN.
Being the Christmas Number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
And containing the amount of One regular
Number and a Half.
Published at the Household Words Office, 10, Wellington
Street North, and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen.