Madame made no comment on the drawings , which was not like her , showed no expression of delight and none of appreciation , but a hard look came into her eyes and her mouth snapped the one word , " Indeed !sx " I could not understand what she meant , I was dumbfounded , until it gradually dawned upon me that in my excitement to .sx show and produce my " masterpieces " I had completely forgotten even to mention my meeting , or sharing the room with Biddulph Pinchard !sx ! It took quite a lot of explaining !sx I realize now how easy it may be for sailors and commercial travellers to get all tangled up when connubial explanations of their movements become necessary .sx It was the nearest thing to my appearance in the dock of the divorce court , as a co-hibitioner or whatever it is they are called there , that has ever happened to me .sx The George Inn at Dorchester , Oxfordshire , is another of my favourites , not because of the delicacy of its cuisine , which when I stayed there was rather primitive , but because of its two successive landlords , the Jordans , father and son .sx These I knew well , and also Jordan pre's wonderful flow of very unparliamentary language .sx Besides this attraction the George made delightful pictures , and the simplicity of its food was amply made up for by the forcibility of its landlord's conversational powers and the beauty of the old house's yard and exterior .sx Dendy Sadler and Byam Shaw have used its old galleried courtyard in past Academies ; and artists may come and artists may go .sx but the old George at Dorchester still carries on as before .sx Still its great kitchen is , from .sx floor to ceiling , one glorious picturesque mass of rubbish , not caring one jot or one tittle whether its picture appears in the Academy or not , or whether its erstwhile artist friends lose their enthusiasm , or grow old and die , as both its Jordan landlords that I once knew so well have now done .sx Both of them were colossal men , more in bulk than in height , the father I should think weighing nearly twenty stone , and if it had been the fashion then to paint landlords of .sx Georges , he would certainly often have been immortalized .sx Notwithstanding his fluency with certain unmentionable adjectives in the slang dictionary , which he brought somehow or other into every sentence , he and his son were the kindest-hearted men imaginable .sx The house was always untidy with that picturesque untidiness which no good housewife can suffer but which all artists love .sx But the rubbish-littered high-roofed kitchen I have mentioned , which was also the living- , eating- and general utility room of the building , was like a rag-and-bone merchant's shop on the quayside at Bristol .sx In it , heaped up on dressers , shelves , and tables , were old rags of clothing , birdcages , obsolete guns , hats , mats , old broken saucepans , brass candlesticks and warming pans , piles of newspapers , harness and stable-lamps , even an old coach-lamp which must have been in that room for eighty or ninety years .sx A small space was kept in this heterogeneous mass for daily wants in the way of cooking utensils , but other than this the heaps of rubbish , making a wonderful kaleidoscope of colour , must have rested undisturbed for uncounted years .sx High up , hanging upon the rafters in 1 the ceiling above , were festoons of onions , hams and sides of bacon , while in the gloom the searcher could discover an old " wicker " or , as we should call it now , an old bird-cage .sx Innumerable coils of rope , skins , chains , old bridles , and rusty bits of iron lay about in every corner and shelf .sx No one could imagine a more untidy place , yet no artist could pass through it without at once exclaiming :sx " What wonderful colour !sx I must paint that !sx " The old gallery at the back still shows some of its past beauty ; it is like a rather faded woman of mature years whose face has luckily not been " lifted " and whose features are still untouched by the beauty-parlour specialist .sx Very quiet , very .sx unobtrusive , stands the yard of the George at Dorchester , to-day only a few cocks and hens roosting in the gallery where once a crowd of chambermaids hurried , and where the travellers off the coaches nightly slept .sx All these courtyards were my models during my Old Inn period and I eagerly looked forward to my visits to these places and to the delights of being sometimes their guest .sx The New Inn , most inappropriately named as it was new only after being burned down in the fifteenth century , is much larger , much more imposing , than the George , and stands in the main street of Gloucester town .sx Unfortunately the front which originally faced the roadway has at some time or other been entirely demolished and we only have left the great entrance portico and portions of the yards in the rear .sx At one time it had a timbered front , and the immense cedar beams supporting it are still in place .sx Shops have now encroached on the ground boor of its frontage where the inn itself originally faced the street up to Pilgrim Lane corner .sx Once in the courtyard it repays a visit , for the gallery is complete round the four sides and the visitor can still have a bedroom opening on to it .sx I think this is the only inn in England where this can now be obtained .sx When last I was at Gloucester , the landlord or a previous one , in his endeavour to .sx be " artistic , " had filled this gallery with many-hued Victorian so-called " Art " pots containing those ridiculous aspidistras so .sx dear to the suburban parlour !sx The New Inn in its best days must have been one of the largest in England , for its rooms extended right down Pilgrim Lane on one side and it had two .sx extensive yards , its banqueting hall , now an auction room , being some distance behind these .sx In the fourteenth century it was a .sx favourite " stand " for travelling play-actors and minstrels , who gave their performances in the first yard , the audience watching from the galleries around .sx On one of my many Old Manor House and Inn journeys , I arrived in my car one wet night at the unprepossessing town of Congleton in Cheshire , which is about as ugly a place as one can find .sx It was the nearest town that I knew to a very wonderful old manor house which I had made up my mind to see .sx It was more than sight-seeing a word I detest which had drawn me to the unpromising purlieus of Congleton , for , like Chaucer's group of travellers , I was on a pilgrimage and the type of pilgrimage I always enjoy .sx All the long journey through the Midlands I had looked forward to this exciting visit ; for the object of my travels was that wonderful place , Moreton Old Hall .sx I had never seen it before , but had managed to unearth a few odd prints and photographs which Cheshire friends had sent me from time to time , and these had fired enthusiasm .sx Whenever I set out on these Manor House or Old Inn journeys no .sx one at home knew how long I would be away .sx It might be only a few days or might run to weeks , and even to my long-suffering wife I could give no fixed period of return .sx How could I ?sx How could anyone who loved old houses fix a definite time for returning to normal surroundings ?sx To Congleton then I went , and found a resting-place at the Swan Inn , another old half-timbered house , very inappropriately set in the murky surroundings of this northern manufacturing town .sx As soon as I could next morning I started on foot for my three-mile walk to Moreton Old Hall .sx With me cars always .sx create the wrong atmosphere in which to approach one of these ancient buildings I love , and as I tramped along the muddy road , half running and half walking , I worked myself up into such a .sx state of excitement that I nearly missed the object of my search , .sx which happened to be down a side-track off the main road .sx Just .sx as I thought some awful thing must have happened that the .sx building had collapsed , or I had started away on the wrong road .sx ( we all have those terrible moments at times in our lives ) I caught sight of a row of old chimney-stacks appearing above the tree-tops , and in a few moments I was running under the entrance-porch into the courtyard , gloating over my new-found treasure .sx As I did so the sun came out , lit up the windows and black-and-white timbering , and I knew at once that I had not come the long journey from Berkshire in vain .sx Above all , to crown my feeling of contentment , I found most of the great rambling place was without human habitation , only a farmer and his wife , more or less caretakers for the Bishop of Derby who owned the house , living in two or three rooms in one wing !sx I had the place to myself to wander over to my heart's content , to sit and sketch , or ruminate on bygone men and women who had trod its courtyard and floors .sx One either has these " old building " enthusiasms or one has not , but if it is in you , you love above all things to wander alone up winding staircases into long-dismantled rooms , to open panelled doors , to discover mysterious powder-cupboards , ominous oubliettes , and secret passages .sx An old house like this is just as exciting to me as was the first reading of Robinson Crusoe or Treasure Island when I was a child , and my own present-day age and foolishness is always completely forgotten .sx " Might I have the keys ?sx " I took them all , a great bunch of rusty iron , and spent two ecstatic hours " discovering " the house .sx After that I settled down to hard work , and for three or four days dreamt and thought of Moreton Old Hall , leaving it only at dusk and returning from Congleton each morning as quickly as possible after an early breakfast .sx How I hoped and .sx Only an artist knows this excitement .sx prayed the sun would be out the next day to make it possible for me to put in that wonderful effect I saw but for a few seconds the day before :sx " I must do that vista looking into the courtyard another over some of the old moss-grown roofs the spiral staircase the studded doors and leaded windows .sx " Those nights between the days seemed far too long ; Congleton's night-life had no attractions for me :sx I just returned to my inn , ate , slept and breakfasted and hastened back for another day alone at Moreton's fascinating Old Hall .sx Even the proverbial sporting spirit of the inhabitants of .sx Congleton at that time failed to interest me , although I knew the couplet which had been rhymed about the town in the sixteenth century .sx Congleton fair , Congleton rare , Sold their Bible to pay for a bear .sx It had its origin in a legend that the Mayor and Corporation sold the town Bible and bought a bear for baiting with the proceeds !sx The ordinary sightseer , or lover of old buildings cannot feel the same pleasure and delight in them that is given to a painter .sx To be able to keep records of these places on canvas or paper , even if such records fall far below what the artist had hoped , .sx is a satisfying thing , and brings a glow to the author of them when he looks in after years at his faded sketches and remembers his old enthusiasms .sx To-day I have pulled out from their shelves hundreds of these sketches of manor houses and inns , and , thank God , that enthusiasm is still with me .sx Even in the far-off Balearic Isles I feel all that I experienced when the drawings were first made twenty or thirty years ago .sx The one piece of advice I always give to students is , never stop sketching from nature , never sell your rough sketches , and above all never destroy them , however bad they may seem at the time , if you have done them , as you should do , direct from life .sx