Ketteringham Park, Wymondham, Norfolk.
With due respect to your correspondent A. B. R., the word "hospes" most
probably means host, not guest.
"Sit mihi nec servus glis, nec hospes hirudo."
In Blomfield's _Norfolk_ (but I cannot now lay my finger on the passage)
the line is given as an inscription on the lintel of a door of an ancient
hostelry, carved in oak. If so, the line may be rendered--
"No maid like dormouse on me wait,
Nor leech-like host be here my fate."
But, on the supposition that _guest_ is the proper meaning, "hirudo" might
be taken in the sense of a greedy guest, although this would not be
complimentary to the older hospitality. And even in the sense of gossiping,
"hirudo" would not be so inappropriate an imitation of the "recitator
acerbus" at the conclusion of the _Ars Poetica_:
"Nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo."