...We found ourselves at a proper sort of inn -- the Unicorn, Bengworth; a very good, little inn -- and with infinite comfort tasted the [offerings of] a clean civil house....At this place, and at Shrewsbury, we indulg'd with fires, as repellers of damp and gloom; tho til yesterday we had never been incommoded by rain, and then for the first time [in our journey] wore our great coats....
An hobbitian vacation
As we all know from Tolkien, some British have hobbitian blood. Perhaps that's proved in this bit from "A Tour to North Wales, 1784," from John Byng's The Torrington Diaries:
