"Nor are these all the hardships many of the Vintners lie under; for, besides, their purses must too often stand a private examination behind the bar, when any of these sort of customers necessities shall require it.
"It is such dealings drives the poor Devils to all the little tricks and shifts imaginable. I went one day into a Tavern near Charing-cross, to enquire after a person whom I knew had once used
the house. The Mistress being in the bar, cried out, 'What an unfortunate thing it was, Mr. ——being that instant gone out of the house, and was surprised I did not meet him at the door, but that he had left word he expected a gentleman to come to him, and would return immediately.' I staid the sipping of two or three half pints, and began to shew some uneasiness that he did not come according to her expectation, when she again wondered at it, saying, 'it was one of his times of coming; for that he was a worthy good gentleman, and constantly whetted four or five times in a morning.' At length being out of all patience, I paid, and went to my friend's house, about twenty doors farther; where his wife informed me, he had been gone about three months before to Jamaica.
"The bankruptcies so frequently happening among the sons of Bacchus, are doubtless to be attributed chiefly to such leeches as I have been describing, lying so closely upon them; and then an innocent industrious man is to be called forsworn rogue, villain, and what not: and to be told that he affected a failure, to sink a dozen or fourteen shillings in the pound upon his creditors, when, in reality, he hath not a single shilling left in the world, and shall oftentimes be obliged to become a common waiter to a more fortunate fellow, and one perhaps too that he once had thoughts of circumventing in his business and
trade, by no other means than a more humble and tractable behaviour.
"A Vintner, who has been looked upon by all mankind to have been a 20,000l. man at least, hath died not worth eighteen-pence; and then the poor wretch has been worried to his grave, with the character of a private gamester."
Colonel De Veil, as celebrated for his address and the number of his commitments as Sir John Fielding afterwards was, had two legal culprits brought before him for examination, in 1737, who were a Counsellor and an Attorney, and as rare bucks and swindlers as ever disgraced the annals of turpitude. These gentlemen were charged with defrauding Mrs. Eddowes, keeper of a Bagnio in St. James's-street, and two other persons, of 12l., by proceeding to the Bagnio in the characters of country gentlemen just arrived; the Attorney styling himself Sir John Peering, and the Counsellor plain Tom. After remaining a short time with Mrs. E. they sent a porter for ladies, and one kind soul even left her bed to visit them; they then proposed to hire a coach and four, in order to make an excursion for pleasure, and promised the woman a velvet cap and riding habit if she would make one of the party; this she consented to do, provided they would permit her to go home to dress; but Sir John and Tom, entertaining doubts whether she would return, demanded, and received, and kept two
guineas as a pledge. The coach was hired and used, and two days and two nights were passed at the Bagnio; but when the charges were to be discharged, the Knight and Tom had nothing to produce but a valuable box carefully corded, containing the writings of Sir John's vast estates and several bank notes. This they offered to leave as security till their return; but Mrs. E. suspecting a fraud, had them immediately conveyed to the Magistrate, in whose presence the following writings were taken from the box: a parcel of rags and some hay, an empty bottle, an earthen pipkin, an earthen candlestick, and a japanned tin box. They were bound over for trial.
While the unthinking part of the community fled from place to place, rather in search of amusement than the means of preserving their health, the Police of the City appointed Beadles and Watchmen as follows, under the then recent Act, for better regulating the night watch of London: