s, tobacco, and rum, 4_s._ 1.5_d._; cash, 5_s._ 17th.--Cash,
7_s._; 20 glasses of spirits, and 8 quarts of ale, 9_s._ 4_d._
18th.--Ale, spirits, and tobacco, 16_s._ 4_d._ 19th.--35 glasses of
spirits, and 20 glasses of ale, and 2 glasses of brandy, 1 pounds 4_s._
10_d._ 20th.--Ale, tobacco, and cash, 7_s._ 24th, 25th, and 26th.--Ale
and spirits, 7_s._ 11_d._, and other items, making up the amount in hand.
The defendant had refused to deliver up Hall's clothes on the plea that
the man was in his debt. Now in Ratcliffe-highway such men as Glover
abound. It is unnecessary then to describe the character of the
tradesmen in Ratcliffe-highway, or the character of their wares. At one
shop there are the enormous boots, which only navvies and sailors have
strength to wear; at another there are oilskin caps, and coats and
trousers, or rough woollen shirts, piled up in gigantic masses. One shop
rejoices in compasses and charts, and another in the huge silver watches
which Jack invariably affects. The descendants of Abraham swarm here.
They sell little fish fried in oil; they deal in second-hand clothes;
they keep lodging-houses; I believe they stick at nothing to turn a
penny, and don't break their hearts if the penny turns out a dishonest
one. Everything has a nautical adaptation. The songs sung are nautical.
The last time I was there an old woman was singing to a crowd of the
"Saucy Sailor Boy" who, coming disguised in poverty to his lady love, is
by her ignominiously rejected, to whom rejecting he tells of his real
riches, and by whom the rejection is eagerly recalled, but in vain, for
the Saucy Sailor Boy declares:--

"Do you think I am foolish, love?
Do you think I am mad,
For to wed a poor country girl,
When there's fortune to be had?

"So I'll cross the briny ocean,
Where the meadows are so green,
And since you have refused my offer, love,
Some other girl shall wear the ring."

Up and down Ratcliffe-highway do the sailors of every country under
heaven stroll--Greeks and Scythians, bond and free. Uncle Tom's numerous
progeny are there--Lascars, Chinese, bold Britons, swarthy Italians,
sharp Yankees, fair-haired Saxons, and adventurous Danes--men who worship
a hundred gods, and men who worship none. They have ploughed the stormy
main, they have known the perils of a treacherous sea and of a lee shore;
but there are worse perils, and those perils await them in
Ratcl