BOYISH REMINISCENCES. 271 



Pizarro, performed as I saw them then. Lady Teazle will 

 never more lure me with her coquettish fan, nor Cora trans- 

 port me with her drooping ringlets. I can't believe in the 

 vinous gaiety and good feeling of Charles Surface ; nor think 

 Rolla the most impassioned and eloquent of beings. I know 

 that the sentiments are as unreal as the actine;, or the stao-e 

 wine and " property " fruit of Charles Smfaee's banquet. 

 Turning with a retrospective sigh into the Market-Place, I 

 feel the breath of former years rising around me. There is 

 the very corner where we used to " toss " the pieman for 

 epicurean slices of pudding — a vulgar, but seductive form of 

 juvenile gambling. Close by is the spot where we upset 

 '' Waddy " — an adipose comrade, much plagued by his leaner 

 contemporaries — flat into an old woman's egg-basket. I see 

 him now, rising covered with the squashed yolks, utterly 

 heedless of the furious imprecations (in unintelligible ^^aioi's), 

 and the furious Wows (in perfectly intelligible English) 

 with which the old lady responded ; I see his piteous contem- 

 plation of his soiled clothes, and hear once more his pathetic 

 exclamation, " Oh damn ! " while inextinguishable laughter 

 shakes our leaner sides. Childhood is the Age of Innocence. 

 Among the changes, it was pleasant to find that no longer 

 did the Pillory disgrace the Royal Square ; no longer were 

 criminals publicly whipped through the streets, as I once saw 

 them with shuddering disgust. Formerly women were thus 

 publicly whipped ; but that disgraceful exhibition was put a 

 stop to before my time ; and now Jersey has grown human- 

 ised enough to see that whipping men must be relinquished. 

 It was indeed a loathsome sight. The naked shrieking WTetcli, 



