I was amused with the desultory, hap-hazard kind of life
we led; here to-day, and gone to-morrow. Sometimes revelling in
ale-houses; sometimes feasting under hedges in the green fields. When
audiences were crowded and business profitable, we fared well, and when
otherwise, we fared scantily, and consoled ourselves with anticipations
of the next day's success.
At length the increasing frequency of coaches hurrying past us, covered
with passengers; the increasing number of carriages, carts, wagons,
gigs, droves of cattle and flocks of sheep, all thronging the road; the
snug country boxes with trim flower gardens twelve feet square, and
their trees twelve feet high, all powdered with dust; and the
innumerable seminaries for young ladies and gentlemen, situated along
the road, for the benefit of country air and rural retirement; all
these insignia announced that the mighty London was at hand. The hurry,
and the crowd, and the bustle, and the noise, and the dust, increased
as we proceeded, until I saw the great cloud of smoke hanging in the
air, like a canopy of state, over this queen of cities.
In this way, then, did I enter the metropolis; a strolling vagabond; on
the top of a caravan with a crew of vagabonds about me; but I was as
happy as a prince, for, like Prince Hal, I felt myself superior to my
situation, and knew that I could at any time cast it off and emerge
into my proper sphere.
How my eyes sparkled as we passed Hyde-park corner, and I saw splendid
equipages rolling by, with powdered footmen behind, in rich liveries,
and fine nosegays, and gold-headed canes; and with lovely women within,
so sumptuously dressed and so surpassingly fair.
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