The Seven Poor Travellers | Page 4

a low room on the right, "is where
the Travellers sit by the fire, and cook what bits of suppers they buy with their
fourpences."
"O! Then they have no Entertainment?" said I. For the inscription over the outer door was
still running in my head, and I was mentally repeating, in a kind of tune, "Lodging,
entertainment, and fourpence each."
"They have a fire provided for 'em," returned the matron--a mighty civil person, not, as I
could make out, overpaid; "and these cooking utensils. And this what's painted on a board
is the rules for their behaviour. They have their fourpences when they get their tickets
from the steward over the way,--for I don't admit 'em myself, they must get their tickets
first,--and sometimes one buys a rasher of bacon, and another a herring, and another a
pound of potatoes, or what not. Sometimes two or three of 'em will club their fourpences
together, and make a supper that way. But not much of anything is to be got for
fourpence, at present, when provisions is so dear."
"True indeed," I remarked. I had been looking about the room, admiring its snug fireside
at the upper end, its glimpse of the street through the low mullioned window, and its
beams overhead. "It is very comfortable," said I.
"Ill-conwenient," observed the matronly presence.
I liked to hear her say so; for it showed a commendable anxiety to execute in no
niggardly spirit the intentions of Master Richard Watts. But the room was really so well
adapted to its purpose that I protested, quite enthusiastically, against her disparagement.
"Nay, ma'am," said I, "I am sure it is warm in winter and cool in summer. It has a look of
homely welcome and soothing rest. It has a remarkably cosey fireside, the very blink of
which, gleaming out into the street upon a winter night, is enough to warm all Rochester's
heart. And as to the convenience of the six Poor Travellers--"
"I don't mean them," returned the presence. "I speak of its being an ill-conwenience to
myself and my daughter, having no other room to sit in of a night."
This was true enough, but there was another quaint room of corresponding dimensions on
the opposite side of the entry: so I stepped across to it, through the open doors of both
rooms, and asked what this chamber was for.
"This," returned the presence, "is the Board Room. Where the gentlemen meet when they
come here."
Let me see. I had counted from the street six upper windows besides these on the
ground-story. Making a perplexed calculation in my mind, I rejoined, "Then the six Poor
Travellers sleep upstairs?"
My new friend shook her head. "They sleep," she answered, "in two little outer galleries
at the back, where their beds has always been, ever since the Charity was founded. It
being so very ill- conwenient to me as things is at present, the gentlemen are going to
take off a bit of the back-yard, and make a slip of a room for 'em there, to sit in before
they go to bed."
"And then the six Poor Travellers," said I, "will be entirely out of the house?"
"Entirely out of the house," assented the presence, comfortably smoothing her hands.

"Which is considered much better for all parties, and much more conwenient."
I had been a little startled, in the Cathedral, by the emphasis with which the effigy of
Master Richard Watts was bursting out of his tomb; but I began to think, now, that it
might be expected to come across the High Street some stormy night, and make a
disturbance here.
Howbeit, I kept my thoughts to myself, and accompanied the presence to the little
galleries at the back. I found them on a tiny scale, like the galleries in old inn-yards; and
they were very clean.
While I was looking at them, the matron gave me to understand that the prescribed
number of Poor Travellers were forthcoming every night from year's end to year's end;
and that the beds were always occupied. My questions upon this, and her replies, brought
us back to the Board Room so essential to the dignity of "the gentlemen," where she
showed me the printed accounts of the Charity hanging up by the window. From them I
gathered that the greater part of the property bequeathed by the Worshipful Master
Richard Watts for the maintenance of this foundation was, at the period of his death,
mere marsh-land; but that, in course of time, it had been reclaimed and built upon, and
was very considerably increased in value. I found, too, that about a thirtieth part of the
annual revenue was now expended on the purposes commemorated in the inscription over
the door; the rest being