stivers, a whole one for fifteen stivers, a piece of an ear for twenty-five stivers, and a toe for ten stivers, and so proportionable. In this manner the bodies remained hanging on the gallows, now made naked, and in this manner mangled and exposed to the scorn and mockery of the people till about midnight, when several persons in disguise came and privately removed the same; so that certainly a sadder spectacle hath hardly been ever seen. It is said a certain woman coming from Sceveling, being informed of what had passed, fell upon her knees, and heartily thanked God for it; so strangely were the people enraged against these two brothers, who thus miserably ended their lives."

MR. BRUCE'S LIVING VIANDS.

More than one hundred years past, some abandoned persons published a weekly paper in small quarto, under the title of "Poor Robin's Intelligence," which may be truly said to contain every combination of words that are capable of producing indecent and infamous ideas; in short, it 'is unfit, with few exceptions, for the perusal of those who are impressed with the slightest sentiments of virtue. A circumstance mentioned by Mr. Bruce to have occurred during his journey to discover the source of the Nile induces me to quote a passage from "Poor Robin," dated

there is a monster-shop, where every thing that is ugly, or strange, proves a very vendible commodity. They sell you animals by retail, and you may have two penny-worth of a living Cow, as readily as a cut of roast-beef."

Mr. Bruce says, he met a party of Abyssinian soldiers who drove a Cow before them, and in his presence cut several slices of flesh from her, after which they covered the wound with the skin, and, proceeding, made the miserable animal accompany them to serve for their future repasts. The repugnance universally felt by his readers to the cruelty of this method of obtaining fresh beef led them with one voice to deny the possibility of the assertion; indeed, it contributed in a great measure to bring his work into general discredit. It has been justly argued in his favour that we are guilty of equal cruelty in plunging living lobsters into water and boiling them to death, and in keeping eels writhing in sand and skinning them alive. The above quotation is still more to the point; and however fabulous the article, it certainly serves to prove that even Englishmen had conceived such an idea, which had probably been realized by Barbarians long before the authors of "Poor Robin" existed.

Specimen

Specimen of Wit in the reign of Charles II,

66 NEW BEDLAM.

"Here is built so magnificent a structure for the entertainment of Lunaticks that it would make a man almost mad to live there; but, if all the distracted people about this city were to be admitted, it had need to have been built as big as the Escurial or the Turks' Seraglio. What think you of those that have spent considerable estates in pursuit of the Philosopher's stone, which (like that of Sisyphus) upon the pinch of the business returns upon the undertaker, leaving to begin de novo? or of such as will stake their patrimonies upon the chance of a die, and part with their fortunes by wholesale, as the other did by retail? What are they that will go a serenading, that is, breaking windows, engaging with constables, and catching of Tartars, choosing rather to be woundy drunk and sleep in the round-house than in a warm bed and a whole skin? Or those that are horn-mad, and, not contented with a private disgrace, must publish it to the world? Is not the tradesman mad that will trust other people so long that nobody will trust him? The creditor mad, that, rather than abate the interest, will lose the principal, and make dice of his debtor's bones? Certainly these and a thousand more would be putting in for a lodging here, had the charitable founders designed

it only for such as are deprived of their senses, which (it is to be supposed) those I made mention of never had *."

It would be extremely imprudent for a person of respectable connexions to select one of the most decent members of a society of Debauchees for an intimate, and to retail his quaint conceits or wit, and still more so to introduce him to his friends; but I think it perfectly innocent, if not commendable, to rescue certain worthy articles from bad company, which are to be found in the work mentioned in the note: such is the description of the

BEGGARS OF 1676.

"Lincoln's-Inn fields. Here is a general rendezvous of common beggars, who resort to this place as constantly as merchants to the Exchange,

gallants to the Playhouse: these are your standing beggars, by whom you know the time of the day as infallibly as by the two club-men at St. Dunstan's church. They have as many ways of winning people to compassion, as lovers find out to gain their mistresses' favour; some do it by importunity, others by whining and sniveling, others by hectoring, others by entreaty, and others by silence; which with many passes for the most powerful sort of oratory, as if the sincerity of a man consisted in saying nothing: they

* Poor Robin's Intell. 1675.

have more disguises than a Jesuit, and the lustiest rogue of them all (which in canting they call upright-man) will counterfeit sickness, blindness, lameness, nay, and (like Ulysses) madness itself, rather than serve his country, or take up arms upon an honest account. By such arts as these they pick-lock men's benevolence, and as it were rob the credulous and merciful, who, by a charitable mistake, supply their riot, instead of their necessity; for their clubs and villanies are propagated by the farthings and halfpence of some well-disposed Christians, as the late rebellion was by the zealous contribution of bodkins and thimbles.

"Many of them have the trick of making themselves cripples (at least in appearance) on purpose that they may move men to charity; as I have known a fellow in the country set his cottage on fire, with a design to get a contribution from the parish, or as a mountebank fool pretends to scald his hands with the fat of bacon, in hopes that the ignorant crowd will prove the better customers."

THE PILLORY.

"These are to give notice that Peter Pinch, baker, dwelling in Light-loaf-lane, intends at the next Sessions to sell his share in a pair of spectacles, which are made of substantial two