240 FLUNKIES 



extend beyond the prize-ring, and his principal patrons 

 consisted of those unfortunate scions of the aristocracy 

 who, not from choice, took up their residence, for a time, 

 within certain prescribed limits in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the Fleet Prison, allotted them by the 

 law. I was not a little surprised to find this man an 

 especial favourite with the innkeepers and proprietors on 

 the road, and was fain to attribute the dislike I had to 

 the man to prejudice, or want of knowledge of what 

 should constitute a respectable and desirable servant. 

 Indeed, his natural bearing, made u\:) of impudence, 

 ignorance, and swagger, would convey an impression to 

 the unthinking that he was a person of considerable 

 importance. 



Passing over the next, who was, or had been, a 

 gentleman's coachman, or flunky, and had acquired his 

 position, as our younger sons of nobility and others do in 

 the army, by purchase ; I come to the third, whom I found 

 to come a little nearer to what I had pictured to myself 

 ought to be the conductor of a public conveyance, loaded 

 Avith visitors to a fashionable watering-place. As the up 

 and down coaches met midway, and the men exchanged 

 seats and way-bills, the other man had told him who I 

 was, consequently there needed no introduction. He was 

 a fine, tall, good-looking young man, and an excellent 

 workman. The day was fine, the company all of the 

 better sort, and in conversation with those on the roof, he 

 seemed quite at his ease. We dined together at Southam, 

 and, after discussing a bottle of port, soon became on 

 familiar terms. 



Arriving at Leamington, he pulled up and put me 



