210 MR. SWINDELL 



1 Have you got them ' (meaning the bars) ' with you ?' 

 inquired the host. 



' Oh no,' was the reply ; ' I am going to California in 

 a few days, and thought I might find some.' 



After these stories were told, the relaters meantime 

 having copiously quenched a very extensive thirst, would 

 ' beg a favour ' under the spurious guise of a loan, which, 

 through the generosity of their host, would be readily 

 forthcoming in the shape of a gift. I should not forget 

 to mention that when one of his trainers, James Godding, 

 looked in on Mr. Swindell at his lodgings at Newmarket 

 on a certain convivial evening, he was asked by his host 

 what it would cost to paint a face and nose complete like 

 his. To this Jemmy had a ready answer : ' He could 

 not say ; it was not finished yet.' 



Mr. Swindell was conversant with the ways of every 

 grade of society, from the lofty to the humble, and was 

 as much at home with the one as the other. His associa- 

 tion with the former was, however, merely for business 

 purposes. He made no effort to raise his own social 

 position beyond what his occupation naturally accorded 

 to him. He sought companions in the middle class, 

 though he often found recreation in the company of those 

 beneath him. Beyond a few immediate friends, he did 

 not care for company in the best sense of the word. In 

 one room of his house a peer would be seated, trusting 

 his presence unknown, hoping to secure a loan of 1,000 ; 

 whilst in the next, Swindell would be attending to the 

 wants of a returned outcast, desirous of borrowing a 10 

 note to start him in business again with a barrow and a 

 moke. And he would feel more pleasure in assisting the 

 one as a gift, than the other on the security of ' a promise 

 to pay.' Indeed, in his bill transactions he was not 

 happy. He lost money over them, discovering, as he 



