"The winds of March, with many a sudden gust,
About Saint George's Fields had raised the dust;
And stirr'd the massive bars that stand beneath
The spikes, that wags call _Justice Abbot's teeth_."

The first glimpse of the Obelisk convinced us we had entered the
confines of _Abbot's Park_, as the rules are generally termed, for
here Bob recognised two or three among the sauntering rangers, whose
habiliments bore evidence of their once fashionable notoriety;

"And still they seem'd, though shorn of many a ray,
Not less than some arch dandy in decay."

"A very pretty _bit of true life_," said Bob; and out came the sketch
book to note them down, which, as we loitered forward, was effected in
his usual rapid manner, portraying one or two well-known characters; but
for their cognomens, misfortune claims exemption:--to them we say,

"Thou seest thou neither art mark'd out or named,
And therefore only to thyself art shamed."
_J. Withers's Abuses strict and whipt_.

~363~~

[Illustration: page363]

To be brief, we found Echo, by the aid of the crier, safely tiled in at
ten in twelve, happy to all appearance, and perfectly domiciled, with
two other equally fresh associates. The creditor and his solicitor chose
to wait the issue of our proposition in the lobby; a precaution, as I
afterwards found, to be essentially necessary to their own safety; for,

"He whom just laws imprison still is free
Beyond the proudest slaves of tyranny."

Although I must confess the exhibition we had of _freedom in Banco
Regis_ was rather a rough specimen; a poor little limb of the law, who
had formerly been a leg himself, had, like other great lawyers, ratted,
and commenced a furious warfare upon some old cronies, for divers
penalties and perjuries, arising out of Greek prosecutions: too eager to
draw the blunt, he had been inveigled into the interior of the prison,
and there, after undergoing a most delightful pumping upon, ~364~~was
_rough-dried_ by being tossed in a blanket (see plate).

[Illustration: page364]

This entertainment we had the honour of witnessing from Echo's room
window; and unless the Marshal and his officers had interfered, I
know not what might have been the result. A very few words sufficed to
convince Tom of the necessity of yielding to his creditor's wishes.
A letter of licence was immediately produced and signe