George Morland 



obligations, he began a fresh career of carelessness, borrowing 

 money from anybody rash enough to lend it, bartering his pictures 

 for sums far beneath their "market value," and going with open 

 eyes into a fresh quagmire of debt ; and he rode gaily enough on 

 the way thereto. 



He rode there in a literal sense, for he always had a passion 

 for horseflesh, and some of his heaviest debts were incurred upon 

 bills with jobmasters and horse-dealers, from whom he borrowed 

 his hacks. He was not always particular about returning them at 

 the proper time, and on one occasion lent a good horse to a friend 

 who rode away and did not return with it. Morland got into 

 trouble about it, but eventually recovered possession of the animal 

 and returned it to its owner. 



Among the extraordinary people with whom Morland was in the 

 habit of associating was a money-lender and dealer named Levi. 

 This man, who was a low and unprincipled fellow, was often in his 

 company, and soon got a hold upon Morland in a way familiar to the 

 Israelites. Having laid his snare with outward show of friendship, 

 the time came when he pounced upon his prey, and he had the 

 artist arrested for debt. By good fortune Morland regained his 

 liberty, owing to the generosity of some friend. With his blood at 

 boiling-point he rushed off to the money-lender's, and challenged him 

 to a fair fight. A crowd of loafers and inhabitants had gathered 

 outside, and Morland, with these spectators to see the glory of his 

 achievement, leant over the counter and struck his enemy a violent 

 blow on the nose, to the enormous pleasure of the crowd. The 

 Jew, raising a great din, protested that he would " take the law of 

 him," but showed no desire to take the law into his own hands. 

 Morland, however, a hero in the eyes of the onlookers, was satisfied 

 with his revenge, and, without doing further damage upon the body 

 of the traitor, departed in a blaze of glory. 



Another of Morland's companions during his residence in 

 Charlotte Street was an ingenious fellow who had a pretty talent 

 as a ventriloquist. With this man Morland had many amusing 

 adventures in the style of Valentine Vox, such as when a fish was 

 made to confess its own rottenness to an astounded fishwife of 

 Billingsgate Market. 



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