“Every Sunday I have sixpence regular from Lord H——, whether he’s in town or not. I goes and fetches it. Mrs. D——, of Harley-street, she gives me a shilling every Sunday when she’s in town; and the parents as knows me give halfpence to their little girls to give me. Some of the little ladies says, ‘Here, that will do you good.’ No, it’s only pennies (for sixpences is out of fashion); and thank God for the coppers, though they are little.
“I generally, when the people’s out of town, take about 2s. or 2s. 6d. on the Sunday. Last Sunday I only took 1s. 3d., but then, you see, it come on to rain and I didn’t stop. When the town’s full three people alone gives me more than that. In the season I take 5s. safe on a Sunday, or perhaps 6s.—for you see it’s all like a lottery.
“I should like you to mention Lady Mildmay in Grosvenor-square, sir. Whenever I goes to see her—but you know I don’t go often—I’m safe for 5s., and at Christmas I have my regular salary, a guinea. She’s a very old lady, and I’ve knowed her for many and many years. When I goes to my lady she always comes out to speak to me at the door, and says she, ‘Oh, ’tis Willy! and how do you do, Willy?’ and she always shakes hands with me and laughs away. Ah! she’s a good kind creetur’; there’s no pride in her whatsumever—and she never sacks her servants.
“My crossing has been a good living to me and mine. It’s kept the whole of us. Ah! in the old time I dare say I’ve made as much as 3l. a week reg’lar by it. Besides, I used to have lots of broken vittals, and I can tell you I know’d where to take ’em to. Ah! I’ve had as much food as I could carry away, and reg’lar good stuff—chicken, and some things I couldn’t guess the name of, they was so Frenchified. When the fam’lies is in town I gets a good lot of food given me, but you know when the nobility and gentlemen are away the servants is on board wages, and cuss them board wages, I says.
“I buried my father and mother as a son ought to. Mother was seventy-three and father was sixty-five,—good round ages, ain’t they, sir? I shall never live to be that. They are lying in St. John’s Wood cemetery along with many of my brothers and sisters, which I have buried as well. I’ve only two brothers living now; and, poor fellows, they’re not very well to do. It cost me a good bit of money. I pay 2s. 6d. a-year for keeping up the graves of each of my parents, and 1s. 2d. for my brothers.
“There was the Earl of Gainsborough as I should like you to mention as well, please sir. He lived in Chandos-street, and was a particular nice man and very religious. He always gave me a shilling and a tract. Well, you see, I did often read the tract; they was all religious, and about where your souls was to go to—very good, you know, what there was, very good; and he used to buy ’em wholesale at a little shop, corner of High-street, Marrabun. He was a very good, kind gentleman, and gave away such a deal of money that he got reg’lar known, and the little beggar girls follered him at such a rate that he was at last forced to ride about in a cab to get away from ’em. He’s many a time said to me, when he’s stopped to give me my shilling, ‘Billy, is any of ’em a follering me?’ He was safe to give to every body as asked him, but you see it worried his soul out—and it was a kind soul, too—to be follered about by a mob.
“When all the fam’lies is in town I has 14s. a-week reg’lar as clock-work from my friends as lives round the square, and when they’re away I don’t get 6d. a-day, and sometimes I don’t get 1d. a-day, and that’s less. You see some of ’em, like my Lord B——, is out eight months in the year; and some of ’em, such as my Lord H——, is only three. Then Mrs. D——, she’s away three months, and she always gives 1s. a-week reg’lar when she’s up in London.
“I don’t take 4s. a-week on the crossing. Ah! I wish you’d give me 4s. for what I take. No, I make up by going of errands. I runs for the fam’lies, and the servants, and any of ’em. Sometimes they sends me to a banker’s with a cheque. Bless you! they’d trust me with anythink, if it was a hat full. I’ve had a lot of money trusted to me at times. At one time I had as much as 83l. to carry for the Duke of Portland.
“Aye, that was a go—that was! You see the hall-porter had had it give to him to carry to the bank, and he gets me to do it for him; but the vallet heerd of it, so he wanted to have a bit of fun, and he wanted to put the hall-porter in a funk. I met the vallet in Holborn, and says he, ‘Bill, I want to have a lark,’ so he kept me back, and I did not get back till one o’clock. The hall-porter offered 5l. reward for me, and sends the police; but Mr. Freebrother, Lord George’s wallet, he says, ‘I’ll make it all right, Billy.’ They sent up to my poor old people, and says father, ‘Billy wouldn’t rob anybody of a nightcap, much more 80l.’ I met the policeman in Holborn, and says he, ‘I want you, Billy,’ and says I, ‘All right, here I am.’ When I got home the hall-porter, says he, ‘Oh, I am a dead man; where’s the money?’ and says I, ‘It’s lost.’ ‘Oh! it’s the Duke’s, not mine,’ says he. Then I pulls it out; and says the porter, ‘It’s a lark of Freebrother’s.’ So he gave me 2l. to make it all right. That was a game, and the hall-porter, says he, ‘I really thought you was gone, Billy;’ but, says I, ‘If everybody carried as good a face as I do, everybody would be as honest as any in Cavendish-square.’
“I had another lark at the Bishop of Durham’s. I was a cleaning the knives, and a swellmobsman, with a green-baize bag, come down the steps, and says he to me, ‘Is Mr. Lewis, the butler, in?’—he’d got the name off quite pat. ‘No,’ says I, ‘he’s up-stairs;’ then says he, ‘Can I step into the pantry?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ says I, and shows him in. Bless you! he was so well-dressed, I thought he was a master-shoemaker or something; but as all the plate was there, thinks I, I’ll just lock the door to make safe. So I fastens him in tight, and keeps him there till Mr. Lewis comes. No, he didn’t take none of the plate, for Mr. Lewis come down, and then, as he didn’t know nothink about him, we had in a policeman, when we finds his bag was stuffed with silver tea-pots and all sorts of things from my Lord Musgrave’s. Says Mr. Lewis, ‘You did quite right, Billy.’ It wasn’t a likely thing I was going to let anybody into a pantry crammed with silver.