the right of succession; but there
was little gall in the old fellow, and, by speaking kindly to him, never
giving myself any airs of assumption; but above all, by frequently
reading the newspapers to him--for, though passionately fond of news and
politics, he was unable to read--I soon succeeded in placing myself on
excellent terms with him. A regular character was that old ostler; he
was a Yorkshireman by birth, but had seen a great deal of life in the
vicinity of London, to which, on the death of his parents, who were very
poor people, he went at a very early age. Amongst other places where he
had served as ostler was a small inn at Hounslow, much frequented by
highwaymen, whose exploits he was fond of narrating, especially those of
Jerry Abershaw, {146} who, he said, was a capital rider; and on hearing
his accounts of that worthy I half regretted that the old fellow had not
been in London, and I had not formed his acquaintance about the time I
was thinking of writing the life of the said Abershaw, not doubting that
with his assistance I could have produced a book at least as remarkable
as the life and adventures of that entirely imaginary personage, Joseph
Sell; perhaps, however, I was mistaken; and whenever Abershaw's life
shall appear before the public--and my publisher credibly informs me that
it has not yet appeared--I beg and entreat the public to state which it
likes best, the life of Abershaw, or that of Sell, for which latter work
I am informed that during the last few months there has been a prodigious
demand. {147a} My old friend, however, after talking of Abershaw, would
frequently add, that, good rider as Abershaw certainly was, he was
decidedly inferior to Richard Ferguson, {147b} generally called Galloping
Dick, who was a pal of Abershaw's, and had enjoyed a career as long, and
nearly as remarkable, as his own. I learned from him that both were
capital customers at the Hounslow inn, and that he had frequently drank
with them in the corn-room. He said that no man could desire more jolly
or entertaining companions over a glass of 'summat'; but that upon the
road it was anything but desirable to meet them; there they were
terrible, cursing and swearing, and thrusting the muzzles of their
pistols into people's mouths; and at this part of his locution the old
man winked, and said, in a somewhat lower voice, that upon the whole they
were right in doing so, and that when a person had once made up his mind