Those who continued sotting with beer
all day, were often, by not paying, out of credit at the alehouse,
and us'd to make interest with me to get beer; their light, as they
phrased it, being out. I watch'd the pay-table on Saturday night,
and collected what I stood engag'd for them, having to pay sometimes
near thirty shillings a week on their account. This, and my being
esteem'd a pretty good riggite, that is, a jocular verbal satirist,
supported my consequence in the society. My constant attendance
(I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to the master;
and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned my being put
upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better paid.
So I went on now very agreeably.
<4> "A printing-house is always called a chapel by the
workmen, the origin of which appears to have been that
printing was first carried on in England in an ancient
chapel converted into a printing-house, and the title
has been preserved by tradition. The bien venu among
the printers answers to the terms entrance and footing
among mechanics; thus a journeyman, on entering a
printing-house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons
of beer for the good of the chapel; this custom was
falling into disuse thirty years ago; it is very properly
rejected entirely in the United States."--W. T. F.
My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another
in Duke-street, opposite to the Romish Chapel.
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