PLATE II.
A blind beggar well known at fairs near the metropolis; declares himself "a poor Spaniard man."
The following plate of a walking beggar, attended by a boy, was taken from a drawing made in West Smithfield. The object of it is well known about Finsbury Square and Bunhill Row; sometimes he stands at the gates of Wesley's meeting-house. His cant is, "Do, my worthy, tender-hearted Christians, remember the blind; pray pity the stone dark blind." The tricks of the boy that attended this man when the drawing was made, brought to mind the sportive Lazarillo De Tormes, when he was the guide of a beggar; from which entertaining history there are two very spirited etchings by Thomas Wyck,—the one, where he defrauds his master when partaking of the bunch of grapes; and the other, where he revenges a thrashing received from his master by causing him to strike his head against a pillar, and tumble into a ditch that he was attempting to leap.
PLATE III.
Blind beggar attended by a boy. From a drawing made in West Smithfield. Well known about Finsbury Square and Bunhill Row. His cant is, "Do, my worthy tender-hearted Christians, remember the blind; pray, pity the stone-dark blind."
The next subject is a tall blind man, with a long staff, with which he strikes the curbstones. He is seldom to be seen in any particular place, and was drawn when he stood against the wall of Mr Whitbread's brewhouse.
He is frequently a vender of the penny religious tracts, dispersed by a society of Methodists, though perhaps with little use, for they are often purchased by people who are actually going to the gin-shop. It is here stated, on credible authority, that there are no less than 27,000 of the Methodist and 21,500 of the Evangelical Magazines published every month; and it is also reported, that not less than 800 Methodistical meeting-houses have been erected in England within the last year.
PLATE IV.