THE FIREMEN 



47 



for instance. The toll or turnpike gate of sixty, 

 fifty, forty years ago was a very real grievance, both 

 on country roads and in London itself, or in those 

 districts which we now call London. Many people 

 objected to pay toll then, and a favourite amusement 

 of the young bloods was fighting the pikeman for his 

 halfpenny, his penny, or his sixpence, as the case 

 mioht be. Sometimes 

 the pikeman won, some- 

 times those gay young- 

 sparks ; and the pike- 

 man always took those 



terrific encounters as |i{i'ffl(h<)jfflp^^ — i \ 

 part of the day's work, 

 and never summoned 

 those sportsmen for 

 assault and battery. 

 In fact, they were such 

 sporting times that, 

 whether the pikeman 

 or the Corinthian youth 

 won, the latter would probably chuck his antagonist a 

 substantial coin of the realm, whereupon the pikeman 

 would say that ' his honour was a gemman,' and 

 exeunt severally to purchase beef-steaks for the 

 reduction of black eyes. 



The present generation has, of course, never seen 

 a pikeman. He wore a tall black glazed hat and 

 corduroy breeches, with white stockings. But the 

 most distinctive part of his costume was his white linen 

 apron. No one knows why he wore an apron ; neither 

 did he, and the reason of it must now needs be lost in 



TilK riKb.MAN. 



