She’s wide awake, and her prating cheat[143]
For humming a cove was never beat;
But because she lately nimm’d[144] some tin,
They have sent her to lodge at the King’s Head Inn.[145]
From The Individual. November 15, 1836. Cambridge. W. H. Smith.
Generalizations have been made from which it appears that certain localities have peculiar productive qualities in the manufacture of criminals, thus London for sharpers, Brummagem for thieves, Paris for fly men (window thieves) Sheffield for pilchers of snyde (coiners and utterers.)
As to the ultimate destinations of these gentlemen one of themselves has put the various establishments in verse, thus recounting their merits:—
“Dartmoor is a tidy place,
Chatham is the terror of our race,