THE GROOM 151 



in the black coat and waistcoat, all creases and 

 whitening, from kicking about in the saddle room 

 since the " last day," with a button off one, and a 

 button out of the other leather breeches knee, the 

 top-boots pulled up as high as ever he can get them, 

 and the ends of a dirty twisted white neckcloth flying 

 out at either side of a half-buttoned straggling waist- 

 coat. The fellow looks as if he had slept in his 

 clothes, or put them on in the dark, so hurried and 

 ill arranged is he. He has heard that long-tops are 

 the " go," so he has got them extra length, and daubed 

 them so with putty powder, that if it was to come a 

 shower of rain he would be the same colour from the 

 knee to the heel. There is a generous supply of mud 

 about his ankles, almost enough to constitute a forty 

 shilling freeholder. 



This great hulking, ill - countenanced fellow, on 

 the badly-clipped rat tail, is what may be called a 

 register-office servant a fellow that is generally on 

 the books, and gets taken up at short notice, in 

 extremities. He is a sour-tempered, ill-conditioned 

 fellow, who can only conduct himself decently for 

 one month after being ground down by poverty and 

 adversity for six. He is now a helper, and takes his 

 master's horse to cover, though weighing three stone 

 more than his master. When he applies for another 

 situation he will dub himself "Pad Groom," or 

 " Second Horseman," despite that he stands six feet 

 high, with the brawny limbs of a bargeman. The 

 register-office will endorse him as such, and there is 

 no saying but by mere dint of impudence and want 

 of contradiction, some flat may be taken in to hiring 

 him Second Horseman ! second ploughman, more 

 like. What a ragged-looking rascal it is to send to 

 cover. How anybody dare trust such a fellow with 

 a twenty pound horse we can't conceive. If the 

 horse patrol were to catch him near London, they 

 would be sure to take him up for stealing it. There 



