On quitting my city employment, I returned to the law, for which I still retained a partiality; and obtained a more liberal salary than before in an office equally respectable. Indeed I was now become more useful, and had improved much both in person and address since my arrival in town.
I was still frequently reduced to pecuniary straits, and obliged to have recourse to various expedients, known only to men of the town, for my support: some of them indeed were bordering on dishonesty, and none of them very honourable. But to describe them individually, is impossible, and a man who lives by his wits, as the phrase is, will assure you, if called to account, that he really could not for his life, tell by what distinct means he makes out a living.
As I now wrote uncommonly fast, I quitted the station of a weekly clerk, and obtained writings to copy by the sheet, from the law stationers, by which I could earn considerably more money; and in this employment I continued to labour diligently for several hours every day, and sometimes half the night.
When I had a mind to relax from this occupation, and particularly if my finances were at a low ebb, I frequently resorted to the Blue Lion, in Gray’s-Inn-Lane, a house noted for selling fine ale, and crowded every night with a motley assemblage of visiters, among whom were many thieves, sharpers and other desperate characters, with their doxies. I was introduced to this house (from which hundreds of young persons may date their ruin) by a fellow-clerk, who appeared to have a personal intimacy with most of these obnoxious persons; however, though I listened eagerly to their conversation, (part of which was then unintelligible to me), and fancied them people of uncommon spirit, I was not yet sufficiently depraved to cultivate their acquaintance; but sat with a pipe in my mouth, enveloped in smoke, ruminating like a philosopher on the various characters who tread the great stage of life, and felt a sort of secret presentiment, that I was myself born to undergo a more than common share of vicissitudes and disappointments. How far these ideas were well grounded, the reader will judge when he has perused this narrative, of which I shall here close the fourth Chapter.
CHAPTER V.
The Trip to Portsmouth.
During my nightly resorts to the Blue Lion, in Gray’s-Inn-Lane, I one evening fell into conversation, at that house, with a young man of decent appearance, a few years older than myself. We were so mutually pleased with each other, that at parting, an appointment to breakfast together the next morning was the consequence, and on this second meeting, our intimacy so far increased, that we began to explain our respective situations in life to each other. My new acquaintance, whose name was D⸺, informed me that he had lately quitted His Majesty’s Ship Montague, of 74 guns, on board of which he had served as Steward to the Commander, Captain Patterson. That having lived freely for some months on shore, he had now spent all his money, and was so much reduced, that he really knew not how to subsist any longer, and concluded with expressing his intention to proceed immediately to Portsmouth, in the hope of obtaining a similar birth to his former one. I assured him that I was, like himself, so much reduced, as to find the utmost difficulty in existing at all, and that if he would permit me to join my fortune to his, I should without hesitation feel happy in the opportunity of accompanying him to Portsmouth in quest of some employment. He declared that nothing would afford him greater pleasure, and it was agreed that we should, each of us without delay, convert our spare apparel, &c., into cash, and set out the very next day. I accordingly lost no time in the needful preparations, and having bilked my landlord, with whom I was some few weeks in arrears, I met D⸺, the same evening, and after indulging in a farewell cruize, which sensibly diminished our slender finances, we took a few hours’ repose, and at eight o’clock the next morning, commenced our peregrination.
On a comparison of our personal effects, it appeared that we possessed between us about twenty shillings in money, and had each a spare shirt, neck-cloth and hose, in a bundle, which (traveller-like) we carried across our shoulders on a good oak-stick. We were both decently clad, in good health, and in high spirits notwithstanding our poverty. We agreed that to save expenses, we should perform the journey on foot, (being seventy-two miles) and we calculated that with frugality, we should be enabled to defray the contingent charges for diet and lodging on the road. It soon appeared, however, that though good economists in theory, we were not so in practice; for as we both loved good cheer, and the severity of the weather required a suitable fortification, we had expended half our stock by the time we got to Kingston, our first stage, and only twelve miles from town. Here we put up at a public-house, called The Eight Bells, and having enjoyed a good dinner, which was succeeded by some excellent mulled elder wine of the landlady’s own composition, and which was peculiarly adapted to the season of the year, we liked our quarters so well that we spent not only the night, but half the next day in the enjoyments of repose, eating, drinking, and smoking, before it occurred to either of us that every item of those said enjoyments was recorded in chalk by the hostess, and would inevitably be consolidated in the shape of a bill, which we must discharge before a clearance could be obtained for the next port. Having at length recollected ourselves, and called “to pay,” our reckoning amounted to three or four shillings more than we possessed in our common purse. As it was impossible to think of proceeding any farther without recruiting, we were now in no small consternation. Bilking the landlady was out of the question, for we had given our bundles into her charge on first entering the house, and their contents were not only indispensably necessary to us, but also worth more than the sum required to release them. In this dilemma, a sudden thought struck me. Calling for pen, ink, and paper, I told my companion I had a scheme in my head for raising a supply, but would not impart it until I had tried its success. I then drew up a sort of Memorial to the following effect: “To the Ladies and Gentlemen of Kingston.—The writer hereof, a young man of respectable family, and good education, having by a series of misfortunes, been reduced to the greatest distress, is now on his way to Portsmouth, in hopes of procuring a situation in the navy; but being destitute of money for his present support, humbly solicits your charitable assistance towards enabling him to pursue his journey. To a noble mind, the pleasure of doing a good action is its own reward. The smallest donations will be gratefully received, and any lady or gentleman inclined to relieve the writer is earnestly requested to subscribe his or her name hereto.”—Having completed this production, I desired my friend to wait patiently for my return, and assured him I doubted not of bringing speedy relief. I now set out on my expedition, and immediately waited on Mr. Mayor, who was a grocer, but in this first essay I was unsuccessful. His worship declared he never encouraged applications of this sort from strangers; and desired me to go about my business. I, however, took the liberty of subscribing his name to my memorial, by way of sanction, and gave his charity credit for a donation of five shillings. Young as I was at that time, I well knew that example, in matters of this kind, goes a great way; and that many persons, without a grain of christian benevolence in their composition, will give liberally from motives of ostentation, when they see that their neighbours have already contributed, and that their own names and donations will also be made public. I experienced the truth of this notion, for I was successful in almost every application I afterwards made. Having visited a number of genteel houses, with various success, I was on the point of returning, to impart my good luck to my companion, when coming to a very handsome mansion-house in the suburbs of the town, I thought I ought not to omit calling, and a person at that moment passing by, I inquired whose residence it was, and which was the entrance to the premises; for the house was situated in the midst of a spacious pleasure-ground, remote from the high road, and it being quite dusk, I had not observed any avenue by which I could gain access to it. I was informed that it was the residence of Lady W⸺, that a little further on, I should perceive a door in the brick wall, which extended along the road-side, and that if I entered at that door, and proceeded in a strait direction, I should arrive at the servants’ hall; but my informer cautioned me to keep close to another wall on my left hand, which divided this avenue from the lawn in front of the mansion, because there was a very large and fierce dog at the upper end, but which, being chained up, could not reach me, if I followed the above directions. I thanked this obliging person, and immediately proceeded to the door described, which I entered, and walked cautiously, and not without some fear, by the wall-side, till I perceived by the lights in the kitchen, and out-offices, that I was near the premises.
It was now very dark, and I was carefully exploring my way, my mind full of apprehensions at the thought of this terrible dog; when lo! at that instant, to my inexpressible consternation, the ferocious animal made a spring at me, and I gave myself up for dead. However, though he was certainly within a yard of me, he did me no mischief, but my alarm was so great, that without knowing how, or where to fly for refuge, I ran precipitately from the spot, and when I recovered from the fright, found myself in the pleasure-ground in front of the mansion-house. It appeared that I had, without knowing, escaped through a door in the wall, which was open on my left hand at the moment I was alarmed by the dog. I was now more at a loss than ever, for I knew of no way to get out of the pleasure-ground, except by the aforesaid door, and fear of the dog prevented my attempting that passage. After wandering about for a few minutes, I approached the mansion, and going up to one of the parlour windows, which were very large, and on a level with the terrace before the house, I applied my eye to the glass, and discovered through an aperture in the inside shutters, a numerous and splendid party of ladies and gentlemen at dinner. Having considered a moment, I determined on a very bold step, as I saw no alternative but remaining all night in the open air, exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Taking advantage of a pause in the company’s conversation, I tapped with my finger at the window, and immediately the whole party were struck with wonder. In the midst of their surprise I repeated my knock, and then, after several voices exclaiming, “Good God! there is certainly somebody at the window,” &c., a gentleman rose from the table, and advancing towards me, opened first the shutters, and then the window itself, which might, in fact, be called a pair of folding doors, and these being thrown back, I walked in with the most respectful air I could assume, and presented myself to the astonished company. Having bowed twice or thrice, and given time for their alarm to subside, I began to make my speech.