A CLEVER THICK. 57 



generally a capital judge of human nature, and, in their 

 own words, can " reckon a man up" very quick. 



Most of these flash notes are so little different in their 

 appearance to the genuine ones, that in fairs or markets, 

 where business is transacted in a hurry, they are scarcely 

 looked at, but rolled up among country notes and Bank 

 of Englands, thrust into a greasy canvas bag, and paid 

 away, time after time, without ever being suspected as 

 counterfeit money, until they are laid on the counter of 

 some bank, when it is often a very difficult matter to 

 ascertain from whom they were received. 



I once was sitting in the bar parlour of a country inn. 

 There was a special train from Birmingham that day to 

 the locality, in Derbyshire, and the inn being near the 

 railway station, was crowded. The landlord being short 

 of waiters, every person wanted to be served at once ; 

 bnt when the bustle had somewhat abated, a gentle- 

 manly-looking man entered ; he wore spectacles, had 

 grey hair, an umbrella, and three neatly-clad females 

 with him, one old enough to be his wife, and two 

 apparently in their teens, who possibly might have 

 been his daughters; he ordered tea for the lot, and 

 tendered a ten-pound Bank of England note ; the land- 

 lord had not sufficient change in the house, but got it 

 from a draper's shop in the neighbourhood. 



In the course of the same day, another of the special 

 trainers got change at the same inn for a ten- pound 

 note ; but this time the landlord managed to scrape up 

 sufficient, without troubling his neighbours. He laid 



