THE MARGATE HOY. 483 



without a possibility of mistake, to be Frenchmen of the old regime. 

 They were grouped apart from the scene, and talking their own lan- 

 guage ; nor was their attention directed to what was going on, until 

 fixed by the report of a bottle of porter, and the general eruption of the 

 contents upon the " parley-woos," from the hands of a disciple of that 

 non-descript animal, a " marine store-keeper," whose profession was 

 betrayed, from under his Sunday suit, by his smutty and iron-rusted 

 nose, and hands speckled with putty and green vitriol. 



The elder foreigner, after wiping the froth from his dress, and 

 slightly running his eye over the " felon-field" of heel, dumpling, and 

 squeak, as instantly withdrew his glance, apparently regardless of the 

 roar of laughter from the " free-born Britons." An almost impercep- 

 tible elevation of the eye- brows and shoulders, with a solitary " Mon 

 Dieu!" concluded his comments, and the expression of his countenance 

 seemed to shew, that pity and commiseration had taken the place of 

 disgust. 



Meanwhile the hoy made good and easy progress before a fair wind, 

 in smooth water : while two or three melancholy examples of disastrous 

 musical pretension, were exhibited, at intervals, upon respective instru- 

 ments ; the individuals were refreshed, during the pauses to recruit, 

 with porter and gin by the company. 



Here sauntered, humming in responsive melody, foot and hand 

 keeping time to the fc measure," in foppish and exotic effeminacy, a 

 member of the cloth-yard " linen and hosier train/' Even then we 

 had our dandies. 



The specimens of this spidery tribe are now perfect in their imitation 

 of their exclusive aristocratic originals. The fossil rigidity of this 

 India-rubber-belted animal, and its efforts at locomotion, are splendidly 

 amusing; though the thing has lost much of its moral interest, from the 

 <c spurious imitations/' exhibited as " dressing-blocks," in the door- 

 stead of every tailor, of any pretension, in the metropolis.. 



Opposite with contemptuous scorn at this fleshless abortion of a rush- 

 light, sat the portly proprietor of an extensive a-la -mode-beef shop, 

 fresh from the neighbourhood of Drury. The moral effect produced 

 upon the man of " beef," by the proximity of this C( araneous" fop, was 

 ludicrous beyond description, from the torturing effects of his attempt 

 to force into a full expression of hateful disgust, a set of features, whose 

 chaotic assemblage were incapable of exhibiting any defined moral ex- 

 pression at all. His rubicund neighbour and friend, the publican, was 

 clearly of his party. They were plainly and reputably attired. They 

 had adhered to the respectable old English fashion of kerseymere 

 breeches and jockey-boots, long before the locust-like swarms of French 

 and Prussian emigrants, and knights of adventure, had introduced their 

 fashion of sloppy, bulgy, broken-kneed trowsers, judiciously adopted by 

 themselves to hide their calf-less, stocking-less, leg bones. 



An interminable catalogue of various professionals were availing 

 themselves of the endless resources for killing time city clerks, ap- 

 prentice sprouts, fractional parts of perfumers, wholesale ditto, whose 

 conversation, in noise, rapidity, and infliction, resembled a cannonade 

 of wash-balls. Here were wholesale and retail merchants, and manu- 

 facturers of Macassar oils, " genuine" and " un-genuine," " label'd" 

 and " un-label'd;" those who would not be responsible for the fatal 

 effects attending the use of the " spurious imitation," and those who 



2K2 



