Yours, &c.

June 9, 1825. LOCKIT."

[Illustration: page335]

My readers will very readily conceive that with such a companion we
were not long in tracing out what little of true life was to be found
in Worcester, and certainly one of the pleasantest scenes in which we
participated was a visit to the Subscription Bowling Alley, where, in
the summer time, the most respectable of the inhabitants of Worcester
meet every evening

1 Beds.

2 Heads.

3 Cruikshank..

4 Cranium.

5 A pipe.

6 Night.

7 A note.

~336~~for recreation; and a right pleasant company we found them. The
Caleb Quotem of the society, Dr. Davis, united in one person all the
acquirements of the great original: he not only keeps the time of the
city, but keeps all the musicians of the place in time; regulates the
watch and the watches, and plays a solo _a la Dragonetti_ upon the
double bass. Sam Swan is another choice spirit, who sings a good chant,
lives well respected, and sails down the stream of time as pleasantly as
if he was indeed a royal bird.

An old Burdettite, Will Shunk, recognised in us a partizan of the
government candidate at one of the Westminster Elections: "But, sir,"
said Will, "politics and I have nearly parted; for you must know, I am
tolerably _well breeched_, and can fairly say I am hand and glove with
all the first nobility in the kingdom." A truth to which Captain
Corls readily assented by explaining that Master William Shunk was a
first-rate glover, and considered worth a plum at least: "in short,
sir," said the captain, "he is a nabob here, and brings to my mind some
of the eastern princes with whom I have met during my Campaigns in the
East." The very mention of which exploit induced our friend the governor
to tip us the office, and the joke was well humoured until silver
Powell, who they say comes from Norfolk, interrupted our travels in
India, with, "Captain, can't you see that ere Athlantic fellow, the
governor, is making fun of you to amuse his London friends." A hint that
appeared to strike the Captain very forcibly, for it struck him dumb.
A good-humoured contest between honest Joe Shelton, and Probert the
school-master, elicited some very comical exposures in the way of
recriminations. Joe, it would appear, is an artist in economy; and an
old story about a lobster raised Joe's ire to its height, and produced
the Lex taliones o