( i 



THE DOUBLE DANDY" 17i> 



surrendered to their trial at Hertford, and received the 

 usual sentence for the offence they had committed — two 

 years' imprisonment : a sentence far short of the deserts 

 of the principal and savage perpetrator. 



However lamentable it may be to see a young man of 

 intellect and o-ood breedins; — for he was both — thus 

 associating with men oi' brutal passions and depraved 

 habits, imitating, unknowingly as it were —some of the 

 worst of the Roman Emperors, in assuming the garb and 

 entering the arena of the gladiator, yet, for the honour 

 of my country, I hope he was a solitary instance. Yet I 

 remember a gentleman who used to travel with me when 

 I drove the Cheltenham coach, and, from his great bulk 

 and his love of dress, was called " the double dandy," 

 offering to fight any man in England ; but with this 

 proviso, that his opponent should be a gentleman. I 

 named this circumstance shortly after to my friend the 

 wine merchant I have before spoken of, who, though 

 then in the meridian of life, full of health and of activity 

 and vigour, intimated to me that he should like to accept 

 the challeno;e, althou2:h an old 'uu. 



It SO happened that, two or three weeks after, these 

 two met together on my coach — the double dandy on the 

 box, my friend sitting behind me. We had not proceeded 

 far oif the stones before I told my companion, after ascer- 

 taining that he was still in the same mind, that I had 

 got a customer for him. He smiled and asked wdio he 

 was. 



" Look behind you," I replied. 



He did so, and eyeing my friend, observed to him, — 



" You are a little in the fancy, I understand ? " 



