after assuring us that Mr. Merston would have a capital day with the snipes, he begged his daughter would fill our glasses, which the fair Hebe proceeded to do with the greatest grace. "Here's success to the old school!" said Dick; "for, though the big wigs now and then kick up a shindy with me, they aʼnt a bad lot, blow me if they are!" The toast was drunk with the usual honours, when a knock at the door announced the arrival of a visitor. "It's only Mr. Merston," said Miss Hubbert, smiling, and colouring up a little (or "smoking," as we were wont to call it); for Harry Merston's fine figure and good looks had caused a palpitation in the beauty of Tothill-fields. "Here's Tearback," said Richard, handing a single-barrelled gun to his guest; "and perhaps the young-un" (alluding to me) "would like to handle Scratcher for an hour? He talks like a book about shooting." I must here remark that Hubbert always named his fowling-pieces with titles of destruction, which were as well known to the young Westminsters as were the names of Roberts's half-deckers on the river. Merston, who happened to be in high good humour, seemed delighted at the idea of having two guns in his party; so it was speedily arranged, and having deposited a seven-shilling piece into the hands of the mastergeneral of the ordnance as security for payment, "no tick" being Dick's motto, we proceeded to the shooting-ground. After an hour's walk, during which the snipe would not make his appearance, we returned to the duck-pond, where we contracted for five shots a-piece at the rate of elevenpence per shot, the killed to go to the shooter. "Upon their own merits modest men are dumb:" so says that celebrated pedagogue, Doctor Pangloss; and willingly would I follow his erudite example; but as my day's prowess produced so great an effect upon my future comfort at Westminster, I must reveal it. After Mer. ston had fired his five rounds of ammunition, under which discharge one duck was killed and two only wounded, I was called upon to take my turn, and having watched the " artful dodges" of these " divers," I waited my opportunity, and no sooner had they got their heads above water than I poured in my shower of No. 5 shot, and was fortunate enough to bag four out of the number. 66 66 Bravo, Percy!" said my master; 'you shall be my keeper, and look entirely after Vixen and my shooting tackle, and next half I'll take you to the Red House to have a crack at the blue rocks. I never saw a better shot." "Approbation" from an upper-form boy was, as the man says in the play, "praise indeed ;" and from that day my life as a fag, during Merston's stay at Westminster, was free from oppression and tyranny. "There, take your own ducks," said Harry, "and I shall not want either of you on Saturday, so you may have a good tuck out,' if you like.' My passion for sporting was so strong, that, having once been initiated into it by my day's battue in the duck-pond, I took advantage of every opportunity of revisiting Hubbert's residence, and here I got acquainted with an individual, who, in those days, was as well known in the purlieus of Westminster as the far-famed Dick himself. Jacob : Thorn, or Old Tegus, the Pet of the Light-fingered Gentry, as he was commonly called, was a protegé of the swell blades of Tothill-fields, Messrs. Hubbert and Habberfield. Tegus could turn his hand to anything he was a first-rate second in the pugilistic ring, an out-and-out cock-fighter and feeder, an undeniable chaunter, a great pigeon-fancier, bull and badger-baiter, and dog-fighter-in short, he was the very Crichton of the sports of Tothill-fields and Duck-lane. Tegus was a man of very high stature, with an enormous length of back; hence his original sobriquet, Crataegus Macracantha, or the long-spined Thorn, which some erudite young horticulturian at Westminster had nicknamed him. This high-sounding appellation soon dwindled down to Tegus, and by no other title was this redoubtable character known in the city or liberty of Westminster. From the time I first entered Westminster, my great ambition had been to be introduced to that great hero of his day, William Habberfield. No sooner had I struck up an acquaintance with Tegus than the affair was arranged; but, before I enter into any particulars of my visit to Slender Billy, I must give my readers a slight insight into his character. For years Habberfield had been known on the town, from the figure he made in the gymnastic circles, and also as being the patron of all the badger-baitings, dog-fights, bull-baits, and cock-fightings in the precincts of Westminster. Billy's cabin* in the centre of the Willowwalk, Tothill-fields, was a menagerie for animals of every description, and also a convenient fencing repository, from the lady's tyket to the nobleman's wedge. There might be seen a King Charles's spaniel, ready to be returned whenever the reward offered was raised to ten guineas; there might be found an over-fed, bloated pug, for whose loss her disconsolate mistress had nearly cried her eyes out, and who was prepared to pledge a diamond-ring to recover back her lost pet, and which arrangement was in due time brought about by one of Billy's emissaries. Independent of the above, there were monkeys, pointers, terriers, mastiffs, bull-dogs, Italian greyhounds, all of which had strayed into Habberfield's yard. In the fencing department there were watches, plate, rings, brooches, snuff-boxes, pocket-handkerchiefs, muffs, shawls, knee-buckles, opera-glasses, gold-headed canes, and brilliants. Habberfield, from the figure he cut in the ring and the cock-pit, was patronized by all the sporting men about town, more especially by the Westminster boys; but Billy's great connection was with the housebreakers, robbers, pickpockets, and Jack Sheppards of his day. He always bore the reputation of a man of strict integrity in his nefarious transactions, carrying out the principle of " honour among thieves" to the greatest possible extent. He was considered the safest fence§ about town, as his dwelling was well suited for concealment, and garrisoned by bears and bull-dogs, so as to render it almost impregnable to sudden attack made upon it by the "Charleys" and "Dogberrys" of five-and-thirty years ago. Billy was a tolerably good workman himself, and was up to anything, from cutting luggage off travelling carriages to breaking into houses; moreover he was close as wax. He dealt largely in horses Place where stolen goods are concealed. + Lap-dog. + Plate. § Receiver of stolen goods. and dogs, and, whenever he could not procure any one he fancied by fair means, he resorted to foul, telling the owners that, if they refused to take a fair and reasonable sum, he would have them for nothing. 66 "Look ye here," said Billy, one day, to a refractory customer; there's a ten-pun note for Dustman." The man demurred. "Well, then, look out," responded Habberfield: "my principle is, first to try ciwility, then to try sewerity." And Billy was as good as his word in four-and-twenty hours this celebrated dog, a breed between the bull and the terrier, was in his possession. So great was his proficiency in dog-stealing, that we doubt very much, had he lived in our days, whether the bill, now the law of the land, got up by that first-rate master of the ordnance, Mr. Bishop, of Bond-street, would not have been treated by him as a dead letter. Nay, we even go far enough to think that poor Tiny, Bishop's pet spaniel, would have been among the fashionable changes from New Bond street to the Willow-walk, Tothill-fields. Habberfield was also a knacker, and, being a very kind-hearted man, often boasted that he had stolen many a broken-down horse more out of humanity than for lucre. For years he had been a marked man; but, like his Highland prototype, Donald Caird, he had always managed to "cheat the wuddie ;" and it was not until he dabbled in French politics, by assisting at the release of some French prisoners, that he, through his pal who peached, found himself sentenced to twenty-four months in Newgate. Here Billy's fortunate genius seems to have deserted him, for a plant was shortly put upon him, when he fell like a woodcock into the springe." A stranger introduced himself to the prisoner, and after some little circumlocution, in which he talked loudly of his own honour and integrity and Billy's merits, came to the point of offering to buy some forged notes. The hero of Duck-lane and the Willow-walk could not, as he said, "afford to be mousy,' so he concluded the bargain, and pointed out where the "flimsys" might be found. No sooner had this been done than a warrant was issued to detain him upon this additional charge, and, after a trial at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to be executed. Thus was the adage of "give a dog a bad name and hang him" most literally carried out. Every exertion was made for a commutation of the culprit's sentence; but his dealings in forged notes had been for a length of time so notorious, that such mercy was denied him. Billy was an early bird, and of so active a temperament, that he only allowed six hours for sleep; the other eighteen were devoted to business. So strictly correct was he in all his dealings, that he had amassed a large sum of money, the greatest part of which, being out in trust, went to his widow. Habberfield suffered the awful sentence of the law on the 29th of January, 1812, opposite the debtors' door at Newgate. Poor Mrs. Habberfield mourned the loss of her busband with tears and hysterics, but "Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, * Idle. the happy bridegroom being the identical Bow-street runner, who, transported by her charms, had captured her dear departed Billy. Among other delinquencies, Slender Billy was strongly suspected of having been the fence when the plate from the cathedral of St. Paul's was stolen; he was also looked upon as being an extensive spirit-distiller, without the sanction of the Board of Excise; and as for "prigging," he often boasted that he had not an article of furniture, linen, plate, or wearing apparel that had not been purloined by his everactive hands. A brilliant trait, however, in his favour remains to be recorded he never" split" upon an accomplice. Upon one occasion, when a large reward was offered for the apprehension of a pal, application was made to Habberfield, who made this feeling reply "I know my days are numbered: my grey hairs tell me I have approached the winter of my existence; but if every hair was a life, I would not peach to save them." Of Slender Billy, then, might it be said, in the words of Byron "For him they raise not the recording stone His death, not dubious deeds, too widely known; To resume. It was agreed that upon the next "early play" "Tegus" should accompany George Kirkonnel, Fred Harewood, Frank Elstree, and myself, now all sworn friends, to the Willow-walk, to be presented to the celebrated Slender Billy. Shrove Tuesday shortly arrived, and upon this day I for the first time witnessed the ceremony of throwing a huge pancake over the iron bar that crossed from one side of the school to the other. What the origin of this custom was I know not; suffice it to say that the college cook, dressed out in his proper costume, made his appearance shortly after we went into study, with an immense frying-pan in his hands, in which was deposited a rather thick specimen of the entremet that graces our tables upon the eve of Lent, and having marched pompously up to the middle of the school, and taken his proper distance, the Soyer of Westminster proceeded to top the pancake over the afore-mentioned iron bar. No sooner had this been accomplished than the younger boys rushed forward to scramble for this delectable dainty, but which, upon being applied to their lips, was found to be too coarse and indigestible for even a Westminster scholar's stomach. The "early play" then began, and we were free for the rest of the day. Merston having also given us a holiday, we assembled at the pastrycook's shop in Tothill-street, where, having devoured eight jellies, four Bath-buns, and some half-dozen oranges, we were joined by "Tegus,' who, instead of addressing us, merely asked at the counter for change for a crown-piece; then, giving us a knowing wink, strutted out into Great Smith-street, where we soon afterwards followed him. It was rather an unfortunate day for a visit to the attenuated hero of Tothillfields, for a warrant was out for his apprehension, it being strongly suspected that Habberfield had in his possession the pocket-book of a clergyman who had been robbed, and who, upon resistance, was most shamefully ill-treated and thrown into a well. All Westminster was in an uproar. A small coterie had assembled round the door of a publichouse in the Horseferry-road. "What an oudacious thing!" said a costermonger, "to rob a clargyman of his reader !"* "And then to throw him into a well!" responded a black-eyed Amazon, who had evidently not been indebted to Nature for the colour of her optics. "'Orrible!" "Why, what's that you say?" said a knowing-looking cove in a green cut-away coat and corduroy unmentionables, and whom we soon discovered to be the commissary of the then-thriving pugilistic ring, Mr. William Gibbons. "Throw'd him in?" continued Bill. 66 No sitch thing old men, when they gets lushy, walks inwariably into wells it was all a haccident. But, Tegus, what game are you up to with these young gentlemen?" Our guide gave Mr. Gibbons "the office," as he called it, and, as the Westminster boys were special friends of the commissary, he told us that it was all right, and proceeded to accompany us to the Willowwalk. Habberfield House was, as the auctioneers say, "pleasingly situate between two streams"--rather green and stagnant, we must admit-being no other than two deep-banked bogs, filled with the rankest weeds and most filthy water. These fosses fortified the gar rison from any flank attack, while the rear was impregnable from the wall of the house and yard; the front being the only vulnerable point, was well protected, the garrison consisting of Mrs. Habberfield, with an axe in her brawny hand, ready to cut down any intruder, while a bear and two bull-dogs patrolled in advance, ready to come to close quarters or attack the enemy. Within the fort Billy had loop-holed the sides of the entrance, and, with a carbine and blunderbuss, lay hid, ready to sell his life dearly. "What a brave and undaunted spirit!" we exclaimed, as we saw this woman, like a second Helen McGregor, ready to sacrifice her life to save that of her husband. "Brave! responded Mr. Gibbons. "Why, she knows werry well if she refused she'd soon have her head chopped off with the hidentical axe she now flourishes about her." A whistle from Tegus, accompanied with two taps at the outward gate, were answered by Mrs. Habberfield, who, coming to a small iron grating in it, exchanged some words with my companions, the purport of which I did not understand, but which produced as much effect as the "Open sesame!" of the celebrated nursery-tale, for in a moment the barricade was removed, and we entered the outward court of Slender Billy's domicile. "Be quiet, Venom!" said the lady to a young mastiff, who seemed to take a fancy to my leg. "Down, Fang!" continued the Amazon. "Please walk round, Mr. Gibbons, to the back-door, and you'll find my poor husband awfully distressed at the reports that have been circulated about him." We followed the instructions thus given us, and, passing through as savage a lot of the canine species as ever I beheld, reached the back door. There the whistle and taps were repeated, and the same magical effect being produced, we entered, and groping our way through a dark passage, came to the double doors that divided Habberfield's sanctum from *Pocket-book. |