I felt that I ought to have driven from there into the town, and
seen it, and taken to York a later train than the one I had in
mind. In the depravity induced by my neglect of this plain duty,
I went, with my third class return ticket conscious in my pocket,
into the first class refreshment room, and had tea there, as if I
had been gentry at the very least, and possibly nobility. Then,
having a good deal of time still on my hands, I loitered over the
book-stall of the station, and stole a passage of conversation
with a kindly clergyman whom I found looking at the pretty
shilling editions filling the cases. I said, How nice it was to
have Hazlitt in that green cloth; and he said, Yes, but he held
for Gibbon in leather; and just then his train came in and he ran
off to it, and left me to my guilt in not having gone to see
Durham. It was now twilight, and too late; but there the charming
old town still is, and will long remain, I hope, with its many
memories of war and peace, for whoever will visit it. Certainly
there had been no lack of adventures in my ample hour.
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