George MorUnd 



surrounded by a crowd of spongers and " good fellows " who 

 had a royal time as long as his funds held out. At the " Britannia," 

 a hostelry in the neighbourhood of his house, he would take the 

 chair of an evening after a hard day's work, not waiting to change 

 his clothes, but dressed in his old painting coat with buckskin 

 breeches and riding boots, and until the early hours of the 

 morning a gathering of painters, engravers, apprentices, and young 

 bloods would shout the chorus of his songs, drink hilariously at 

 his expense, and acclaim him with real enthusiasm as the prince of 

 good fellows and the very king of sportsmen. 



George himself was the ringleader in their maddest frolics, 

 and when the meetings had broken up, he and his companions 

 would terrify the peaceful citizens of Camden Town by such pranks 

 as would have done credit to the bloods of the Hell-Fire Club. On 

 one such night Morland overtook a " patrol," or night-watchman, 

 and fired off a pistol close to his ear to give him a scare, running 

 off like a schoolboy down the street. The furious watchman gave 

 chase with fixed bayonet, and finding that he was being outstripped, 

 threatened to fire at the culprit. Morland thought he had carried 

 his joke far enough, and not wishing to end his career, stopped, 

 and then with the greatest glee disclosed his name to the guardian 

 of the peace. This, with the present which no doubt followed, 

 seems to have pacified our friend Dogberry, who knew the reputation 

 of the amiable Mr. Morland and his peculiar sense of humour. 



The most amazing episode in the career of this erratic genius 

 was when he became "head borough," or police-officer, of his 

 division. The good fun of being dressed in a little brief authority 

 and, outlaw as he was himself, of representing the dread authority 

 of the law, seems to have pleased his whimsical imagination. It 

 was certainly, to use an anachronism, a Gilbertan farce. Morland 

 soon tired of his constable's uniform and of the duties attached to 

 it, and got into fearful scrapes in consequence. 



" When busily engaged in finishing a picture," writes Dawe, his 

 friend and biographer, "and in great need of the money, or just 

 going on some favourite excursion with a jovial party, a precept 

 would arrive from the high constable ordering him to some distant 

 place on disagreeable business that would last the whole day ; thus 



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