of clothes, sat on
one side--his arms were stretched over the table, and his head
half-buried within them--he was, apparently, asleep. The white apron,
that was wrapped round his waist, clearly proclaimed to what class he
belonged--the "Begging Tradesmen." A few things, tied to a blue
handkerchief, rested on one side of his head; and a parcel of ballads,
his whole stock-in-trade, lay on the other. Before the fire, warming
his back, stood a short, thick-set man, humming the air of a vulgar
ditty; his hands were thrust into the pockets of a velvet
shooting-jacket, ornamented with large ivory buttons, such as are
commonly worn by cabmen and other tap-room blackguards. His
countenance was by far too dark and sinister-looking to be honest,
and, as he occasionally favoured us with a few oblique and
professional glances from beneath a white _castor_, half-pulled over
his brow, it instinctively, as it were, reminded us of "my lord--the
prisoner at the bar."

[Illustration]

On a form against the wall, sat a tall and aged man, with a beard
like a hermit, all fluttering in rags--the very emblem of
wretchedness. He was relieving his uneasiness by giving his back every
now and then, a comfortable rub against the wall. A little on one side
of this forlorn being, at the head of the table where the landlord
sat, was a character that could hardly escape the notice of the most
obtuse observer, a stout active young man, in the very perfect costume
of a cadger. The upper part of his person was decorated with a piece
of a garment that had once been a coat, and of which there yet
remained a sleeve and a half; the rest was suspended over his
shoulders in shreds. A few tatters were arranged around his nether
parts, but they could scarcely be said to cover his nakedness; and as
for shoes, stockings, and shirt, they doubtless had been neglected, as
being of no professional use. A kind of a hat (which, from a piece of
the flap still remaining, showed that it had once possessed a brim)
ornamented as villanous a looking head as ever sat upon a pair of
shoulders--carrotty hair, that had as much pliancy as a stubble
field--a low receding forehead--light grey eyes, rolling about, with
as much roguery in them as if each contained a thief--a broad, snubby
nose--a projecting chin, with a beard of at least a month's
growth--the whole forming no bad resemblance to a rough, red,
wiry-haired, vicious terrier dog, whose face had been half-bitten off
by