THE HORSE. 223 



such books as Captain Alexander Smith's Lives of 

 the Highwaymen, or Joe Miller's Jests, formerly in 

 everybody's hands, has not influence or power suffi- 

 cient to put down slang. For much of the cream 

 and wit of this slang, amateurs must undoubtedly 

 acknowledge their obligation to that indispensable 

 class in society which has of late become the object 

 of metropolitan aldermanic persecution. To afford 

 an example or two, though of an old date, one of this 

 class, so seldom apt to give birth, yet is said really 

 to have given birth to the then well known witticism, 

 " had my aunt been properly qualified, she might 

 have been my uncle." And in describing &Jlat, or 

 spooney, the phrase was, " he does not know common 

 sense from dog-fighting." They also, it is probable, 

 discovered the propriety of " taking a stray barber 

 to the green yard." Not to neglect " sea wit," in 

 this beadroll, sailing being one of my earliest hobby- 

 horses : the following specimens, among a great 

 number, I caught in the year of redemption, 1766, 

 whilst crossing the sea to Holland, and they have 

 remained warm in my too generally no memory, to 

 the present moment. A customhouse cutter hails a 

 market boat — "Whence came you, hoy?" "From 

 Cork." " Where are you bound ?" — " To Liver- 

 pool." "What's your lading?" — "Fruit and tim- 

 ber:" anglice, birchen brooms and potatoes. Our 

 cook, now and then, to my infinite satisfaction, 

 would aid the dinner with his favourite dish, a suit 

 of broad cloth, coat, waistcoat, and breeches ; that is 

 to say pancakes, the whole width of the pan; whilst 

 in the forecastle, they had bum-sturgeon, which is 

 a minister's muns (bullock's head) made into soup. 



