THE DOUBLE DANDY. 171 



their trial at Hertford, and received the 

 usual sentence for the offence they had 

 committed two years imprisonment : a 

 sentence far short of the deserts of the 

 principal and savage perpetrator. 



However lamentable it may be to see a 

 young man of intellect and good breeding 

 for he wasboth thus associating with men of 

 brutal passions and depraved habits, imitat- 

 ing, unknowingly as it were some of the 

 worst of the Roman Emperors, in assuming 

 the garb and entering the arena of the gla- 

 diator, yet, for the honour of my country, I 

 hope he was a solitary instance. Yet I re- 

 member a gentleman who used to travel with 

 me when I drove the Cheltenham coach, and 

 from his great bulk and his love of dress, 

 was called " the double dandy," offering to 

 fight any man in England ; but with this 

 proviso, that his opponent should be a gen- 

 tleman. I named this circumstance shortly 

 after to my friend the wine merchant I 

 have before spoken of, who, though then in 



