s side, is a
yeoman of about an hundred pounds a year, an honest man: he is just
within the Game Act[132], and qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant: he
knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that
means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as
himself. He would be a good neighbour if he did not destroy so many
partridges: in short, he is a very sensible man; shoots flying; and has
been several times foreman of the petty jury.

"The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for
taking the law of everybody. There is not one in the town where he lives
that he has not sued at the quarter sessions. The rogue had once the
impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs,
damages, and ejectments: he plagued a couple of honest gentlemen so long
for a trespass in breaking one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell
the ground it inclosed to defray the charges of the prosecution: his
father left him fourscore pounds a year; but he has cast and been
cast[133] so often, that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is
going upon the old business of the willow tree."

[Illustration]

As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will Wimble and
his two companions stopped short till we came up to them. After having
paid their respects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and he
must appeal to him upon a dispute that arose between them. Will it seems
had been giving his fellow-traveller an account of his angling one day in
such a hole; when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him
that Mr. Such-a-one, if he pleased, might take the law of him for fishing
in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard them both, upon a
round trot[134]; and after having paused some time told them, with the
air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that much might be
said on both sides. They were neither of them dissatisfied with the
Knight's determination, because neither of them found himself in the
wrong by it: upon which we made the best of our way to the assizes.

The court was sat before Sir Roger came; but notwithstanding all the
justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made room for the
old Knight at the head of them; who for his reputation in the county took
occasion to whisper in the judge's ear, "That he was glad his Lordship
had met with so much good weather in his circuit." I was listening to