THE PKOVIXCIAL TOUR. 99 



ino" for anybody or anytliing, unless his own immediate interests 

 ■were affected ; but I never saw bis flabby, weather-beaten, un- 

 brushed hat without a piece of black crape being twisted round 

 it in a form that looked the exact copy of a hayband adjusted 

 with all practicable negligence. His coarse, animal features, 

 upon which not an expression of one kindly feeling dwelt, 

 revealed the habit, long since begun and continued, of stimula- 

 ting his system with daily drams of potent drinks. Like most, 

 however, whose means of livelihood are reaped by the whetted 

 edge of their wits, the "proj)rietor of a thii'd" was in possession 

 of a pair of quick, restless, piercing eyes. There could be little 

 doubt of his boasted qualification of " always keeping a sharp 

 look-out" being an inborn attribute, and one which he had 

 apphed to considerable advantage while journeying along the 

 road of life, although, as he invariably admitted by way of ex- 

 tenuation when accused of participating in a questional pro- 

 ceeding, " he had been put in the hole himself" Ah, Jemmy 

 Clever ! long ago as it is since we met, I can see ye now with a 

 plump roll of flesh puffed over the mahogany tops of your boots, 

 united by broad pieces of white tape to breeches of coarse mate- 

 rial, rather dirty, and very loose. Your waistcoat, partaking of 

 the genuine stable-cut, slightly crossed with the antique, reaches 

 to within some half-dozen inches of your knees, and the blue 

 and orange cravat encircling your thick red neck you obtained 

 on the conventional terms of "a guinea win, nothing lose," 

 when the Chelsea Sj)ider exhibited his more skilful brutality in 

 bruising to a state of pulp the physiognomy of the Whitechapel 

 Pet. In the diction of the sporting world. Jemmy Clever was 

 " at all in the ring," and he supported his recognised position 

 and pride of place by backing men, horses, and dogs for every 

 conceivable undertaking. He owned two moderately good 

 platers ; held a fourth of a well-known steeplechase horse ; patro- 

 nised a " novice " who could walk, run, jump, bowl a hoop, and 

 pick up eggs with marvellous speed and dexterity ; kept a bull- 

 terrier with a large round head — not dissimilar to his own — 

 and a tail as thin as the stem of a common clay pipe, an object 

 of the greatest envy among the rattling circles from his powers 



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