a rusted , decrepit water trough stood just outside the front door : it obviously belonged to an era when there were more four-legged arrivals than four-wheeled ; the outer structure of the tavern itself also seemed to have received little maintenance since its heyday : its corrugated iron roof was buckled and rusted , its splintering timber walls streaked with the rust and dirty rain water that spilled out of its gutters , and its windows were curtained with dust to the point that any other kind of curtain would have been made redundant .