on closer approximation, proved to
be a field-preacher, and judging from exterior appearance, no stranger
to the good things of this life, although his present admonitory
harangue strongly reprobated indulgence in the vanities of this wicked
world;--he was well clad, and in portly condition, and certainly his
rubicundity of visage by no means indicated on his part the union of
practice with precept.

Nothing of further interest occurred, and they reached home,
pleased with their day's ramble, that had been productive of so
much amusement;--"thus verifying," said Dashall to the Squire,
"the observation which you lately made--that every hour brings to a
metropolitan perambulator a fresh accession of incident."

CHAPTER XXIII

Observe that lean wretch, how dejected he looks,
The while these fat Justices pore o'er their books.--
"Hem, hem,--this here fellow our fortunes would tell,--
He thence at the treading-mill must have a spell:
He lives by credulity!"--Most people do,--
Even you on the bench there,--ay, you Sir, and you!
Release then the Confrer at Equity's call,
Or otherwise build treading-mills for us all!

~~317~~~ Adverting to the trick recently and successfully practised
on Sir Felix O'Grady, by a juvenile adept in fraud, obtaining from the
Baronet a new suit of clothes; his servant, indignant at his master
having been thus plundered with impunity, had, for several days, been
meditating in what manner most effectually to manouvre, so as to
recover the lost property, and retrieve the honor of Munster, which he
considered tarnished by his master having been duped by a stripling;
when one morning a hand-bill was found in the area, intimating the
residence in Town, pro bono publico, of a celebrated professor of the
Occult Sciences; to whom was given the sublime art of divination, and
who, by astrological and intuitive knowledge, would discover lost or
stolen property, with infallible precision. Thady, whose credulity was
of no inferior order, elate with the idea of consummating his wishes,
communicated to his master the happy opportunity, and was permitted
to seek the counsel of the celestial augurer. Not that the Baronet
entertained any belief of its proving available of discovery, but rather
with the view of introducing to his friends, Dashall and Tallyho, a
fresh source of amusement, as connected with their diurnal investigat