Such were the sentiments of most of the burly squires who had ridden
in on the same errand, and throwing the reins to their grooms, likewise
climbed the stair to the club-room with its oriel looking over the
street. There too were several of the cathedral clergy, the rubicund
double-chinned face of the Canon in residence set off by a white,
cauliflower wig under a shovel hat, while the humbler minor canons
(who served likewise as curates to all the country round) only
powdered their own hair, and wore gowns and cassocks of quality very
inferior to that which adorned the portly person of their superior.
His white bands were of fine cambric, theirs of coarser linen; his
stockings were of ribbed silk, theirs of black worsted; his buckles
of silver, theirs of steel; and the line of demarcation was as
strongly marked as that between the neat, deferential tradesman,
and the lawyer in his spruce snuff-coloured coat, or the doctor,
as black in hue as the clergy, though with a secular cut, a smaller
wig, and a gold-headed cane. Each had, as in duty bound, ordered
his pint of port or claret for the good of the house, and it was
well if these were not in the end greatly exceeded; and some had
lighted long clay pipes; but these were mostly of the secondary
rank, who sat at the table farthest from the window, and whose
drink was a measure of ale.
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