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 



