292 A CHARACTER. 



He had been the principal means of 

 stirring up opposition after opposition on 

 almost every line of road out of Oxford ; 

 but though he had done considerable in- 

 jury to the old-established concerns, he had 

 not at all benefited himself. Indeed it 

 was inconvenient for him to remain in a 

 place where he was now too well known, 

 and where there were too many claims 

 upon him. So, after recovering from the 

 effects of a recent encounter with an op- 

 ponent at Stokenchurch Hill, where he 

 had, technically speaking, floored his drag, 

 and come off with a broken skull and the 

 loss of an eye, he, on abandoning his wife 

 and family, had come up to town. 



It was sometime after this that I met 

 him on my return from Hampshire like 

 myself, soliciting employment from the 

 same establishment : but there was this dif- 

 ference in our manner of seeking it he 

 considered that he was conferring a favour in 



