J. JOB, Proprietor.
Standing there beneath the skylight I turned its pages over, wondering vaguely how the visitors' book of a small provincial hotel had found its way into that drawer. It contained the usual assortment of conventional praise and vulgar jocosity:—
Mr. and the Hon. Mrs. Smith of Huddersfield, cannot speak too highly of Mrs. Job's ham and eggs.—September 15, 1881.
Arrived wet through after a 15-mile tramp along the coast; but thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Job were soon steaming over a comfortable fire.—John and Annie Watson, March, 1882.
Note appended by a humorist:
Then you sat on the hob, I suppose.
There was the politely patronising entry:
Being accustomed to Wolverhampton, I am greatly pleased with this coast.—F. B. W.
The poetical effusion:
Majestic spot! Say, doth the sun in heaven Behold aught to equal thee, wave-washed Penleven? etc.