. CLIENTS. 161 



the lace-buyers, who bi-monthly visited 

 Stoney Stratford and Towcester, and their 

 neighbourhood; the pretty Warwickshire 

 lasses, who periodically came up for the 

 fashions ; and the dwellers in Mesopo- 

 tamia, as I will term those who inha- 

 bited the delightful spot that, being 

 free from tha smoke of furnaces on the 

 one hand, and the busy turmoil of the 

 great metropolis on the other, held out 

 such flattering invitations to, and ad- 

 ministered to the wants of, the votaries 

 of pleasure and, last to be enumerated, 

 those votaries themselves. 



Among my most frequent companions 

 from the first-named place was an extra- 

 ordinary character ; even the present 

 Member for that then unrepresented 

 borough has not attained greater cele- 

 brity in its neighbourhood. Unlike our 

 Quaker friend, political power nor sena- 

 torial distinction had any charms for 



VOL. II. M 



