'Ah! your reverence! those words about the devil were spicy
words; but, under favour, I do know the brook-side they sprang and
flowered by. 'T is just where it runs into Avon; 't is called
Hogbrook.'
"'Right!' quoth he, putting his hand gently on my shoulder; 'but if
I had thought it needful to say so in my sermon, I should have
affronted the seniors of the University, since many claim them, and
some peradventure would fain transpose them into higher places, and
giving up all right and title to them, would accept in lieu thereof
the poor recompense of a mitre.'
"I wished (unworthy wish for a Sunday!) I had Matthew Atterend in
the midst of them. He would have given them skulls mitre-fashioned,
if mitres are cloven now as we see them on ancient monuments. Matt
is your milliner for gentles, who think no more harm of purloining
rich saws in a mitre than lane-born boys do of embezzling hazel-nuts
in a woollen cap. I did not venture to expound or suggest my
thoughts, but feeling my choler rise higher and higher, I craved
permission to make my obeisance and depart.
"'Where dost thou lodge, young man?' said the preacher.
"'At the public,' said I, 'where my father customarily lodgeth.
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