A few days after my acquittal, I was accosted one afternoon, in Fleet-street, by a young man, whose face I had some faint recollection of; while I was considering where I had seen him, he anticipated me, by asking if I did not remember him in New-prison, where he was confined on the common side, and had frequently conversed with me through the gate of the lodge, at which I sometimes amused myself with viewing the proceedings in the yard below me. This young man was then only confined till the sessions on a charge of assault, but, being poor in circumstances, was unable to pay the expenses of admission “between gates.” I immediately recognised him, and he gave me joy on my deliverance. He was now very well attired, and invited me to drink a glass; to which, as I had always found much pleasure in his conversation, I willingly consented, and accompanied him to a house, called the White Swan, near Temple-bar. Here my inviter seemed quite at home; he introduced me to a neat little parlour, in which were a number of persons smoking their pipes, and drinking wine, punch, &c. I observed that my conductor, whom I shall in future call Bromley, appeared to know and be known by them all, and that they regarded me with an inquiring eye.
Having taken our seats in a vacant part of the room, our conversation was at first upon general topics; at length Bromley inquired in a friendly manner, how I employed myself, and on my answering candidly, that I really was destitute of employment, and almost of money, he observed that I was to blame if I wanted money while any body else had any; that for his part he never would; and that if I would take a walk with him, I should be welcome; he added that he had that day turned out three readers[24], but without finding a shilling in either of them; however, said he, we cannot expect to be always equally lucky. I confess I was ashamed to own that I had never practised thieving, for (thanks to my late seven weeks’ education,) I understood his meaning well. I therefore told him that I had not been accustomed to buzzing, and should be unable to do my part. On this, Bromley replied that we should have at least one other person with us, and that he himself would work, while he only required me and the third man to cover[25] him. Having thus answered my objection, as I had no scruples of conscience to overcome, I agreed to accompany him. Shortly afterwards a genteel looking man, advancing to our table, from among the other company, asked Bromley if he was inclined for a walk; at the same time looking significantly first at me, then at my companion. The latter answered, “Yes, sir, with all my heart; this gentleman is a friend of mine, he’ll take a turn with us: it’s all right: he’s one of us.” Bromley having discharged our reckoning, we then set out, and proceeded up Fleet-street, till we observed a crowd of gazers at the windows of Messrs. Laurie and Whittle, print-sellers. Bromley immediately joined the throng, we keeping close behind him, wherever he moved; at length he gave us a sign to cover, and we had scarcely taken our stations, before Bromley drew back, and pulling the skirt of my coat, left the crowd, and crossing the way, turned up a court which led into another street. We followed him close, till he entered a public house, and we were no sooner in a private room, than Bromley drew from under his coat a large green pocket-book, which, it seems, he had, unobserved by me, extracted from the pocket of a gentleman by whose side he stood, when we advanced to cover him. The book, being opened, was found to contain a complete set of valuable surgeon’s instruments, some private letters, and other papers, and in one of the pockets eleven pounds in bank notes; the money was immediately divided in equal shares, and the stranger observing that he knew where to fence[26] the book, allowed Bromley and myself five shillings each on that account. The papers, &c., having been committed to the flames, we then left the house; but my two companions having observed some police-officers in Fleet-street, deemed it imprudent to prolong our stay in that quarter, and it being now nearly dusk, at my request, we all three returned to the White Swan, as I was curious to know more of the various characters I had seen assembled there.
The seasonable relief my finances had experienced by this adventure, without any exertion or risk on my part, gave me much satisfaction; and I thought, to use the words of Mrs. Peachum, in the Beggar’s Opera, that this was “pretty encouragement for a young beginner.”
It was no sooner dark and the candles lighted, than the room began to fill apace, and my friend Bromley gave me a description of each person as he entered, explaining the various branches of prigging, &c., in which they excelled, as well as their good or bad dispositions towards each other. I recognised among them several faces which I remembered to have seen at different public places, and even at coffee-houses and ordinaries, where they intermixed with the best company, and were treated with every respect.
From this time Bromley and myself became inseparable. This young man was the son of a respectable master-tailor, and was himself bred to the same trade. Having formed bad connexions, (the usual root of all evil,) he had quitted his father’s house about a year before I first knew him, and associating with “family people,” had since supported himself by depredation; he was two years older than myself, and his father considering him irreclaimable, had long since given him up.
For a few weeks we continued to go out[27] with one or other of the gentlemen frequenting the Swan; and after I had made the first essay, I became pretty expert in the art of buzzing. Our success was various, but we managed to live well, and I for my part soon acquired a good stock of clothes, books, and other comforts, as they were considered by me. As for Bromley, he was not so good a manager, and when absent from me, he led a very irregular life, lavishing his money without discrimination on the most unworthy objects, without taking any thought for the morrow, so that though our gains were equal, I became every day richer, while he was seldom master of a guinea beforehand. By degrees we detached ourselves from the society of those veteran prigs[28], with whom we had first associated, and not confining our operations to one branch of depredation, we had recourse to various methods of getting money. It would be tedious to particularize every species of fraud and robbery, which we practised in the short space of three months, at the end of which period, it will be seen that the hand of justice arrested our further progress; and it is hardly credible, (but such is the fact,) that during this our limited career, we exercised alternately the following numerous modes of depredation; which, least the reader should be unprovided with a cant dictionary, I shall briefly explain in succession: viz., buzzing[29], dragging[30], sneaking[31], hoisting[32], pinching[33], smashing[34], jumping[35], spanking[36], and starring[37]; together with the kid-rig[38], the letter-racket[39], the order-racket[40], and the snuff-racket[41].
In these various exploits, we were sometimes assisted by a third person; and at others, though very rarely, we formed part of a numerous gang; but in general we acted by ourselves, and, considering our youth and inexperience, evinced a good deal of dexterity.
In the month of July, 1800, finding myself inclined for a summer excursion into the country, I determined on a trip to Plymouth, having never been in the West of England, and invited my friend Bromley to accompany me. As we, neither of us, possessed much money, I proposed to travel in the same manner as I had formerly done, in my Portsmouth expedition, and to defray our expenses by practising the same imposition, which I now well knew to be a systematic fraud, known among “family people” by the title of “the letter-racket.”
We accordingly left town together, equipped with a few indispensables, contained in a small bundle which we carried alternately, and provided with a new edition of “Carey’s Itinerary.” Our first resting-place was Hammersmith, where, in the course of four hours, I realized as many pounds; my companion in the mean time lying dormant in a public-house, for in this practice he was not qualified to bear a part; but we intended to omit no opportunity which might offer of obtaining money by any other means.