bour, who has the following articles for sale:
viz., bacon, butter, cheese, bread, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco,
potatoes, red and salt herrings, smuggled liquors, and table-beer.
Some add the savoury profession of the cook to that of the huckster,
and dish up a little roast and boiled beef, mutton, pork, vegetables,
&c. The whole of these, the reader may be assured, are of a very
moderate quality: they are retailed to the lodgers at very profitable
prices, and in the smallest quantities, such as a halfpenny worth of
butter, bacon, cheese, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, &c.; and, for the
trifling sum of one penny, the poor epicure may gratify his palate
with a taste of beef, mutton, and so on. Very little credit is given
in those creditable places, and that only to those who are well-known;
they who have not that advantage, often are compelled to take the
handkerchief off their necks, the coat, and even the very skirts off
their backs, to give to the cautious housekeeper, before they can
procure a night's lodging, or a morsel of food; indeed, in the
country, it is a common thing, when a traveller (which is the
respectable appellation by which the alms-seeking gentry designate
themselves) seeks for a night's lodging, for the landlord to refuse
admittance, unless the applicant carries a bundle, which is looked
upon as a kind of security, should he not have the desirable in his
pocket.

It may naturally be supposed that, where there are such little outlays
and such large returns, that good round sums must be produced; indeed,
there are few who commence this kind of life, but soon secure to
themselves an independency. There are many whom we could mention, who
have accumulated such large fortunes by the encouragement of
vagrancy, as now to be the proprietors of vast property in houses, and
who still carry on large establishments by means of deputies, and in
their deputies' names, while they themselves live in fashionable style
on the borders of the town. The servants that are kept in those houses
are in general men, they being considered better adapted to keep peace
and quietness than women. It is customary with lodgers, who have
anything of value, to deposit it with the landlord, and, in most
cases, it is returned with safety. There are some whose character
stands so high for honesty, that twenty pounds and upwards may be
entrusted with them; but there are those again with whom it would not
be prudent to leave a rag, and who