Preface. 



in life is to bring back recollections of scenes and faces 

 which have passed away. 



I have always looked on my fellow travellers of all 

 classes, through life, as brother puppets, who have been, or 

 are, on the wires at the same time as myself, all dancing to 

 different tunes; and I have taken every opportunity of 

 mixing with as many of them as I could, and I have yet to 

 learn that any puppet — however gaudy his dress and 

 spangles may be— has a right to classify any body of his 

 brother puppets, whom the costumier has clothed in more 

 humble attire, as ''the lower orders," without being self- 

 convicted of " judging his neighbour." I adhere to my 

 no 111 de 2^lume, " The Old Buffer," as the American 

 Cricketers, when in England on a visit, told me that 

 whenever they see any letter or article with that signature 

 they look out for something about old-fashioned England 

 of the past. 



THE OLD BUFEER. 



