If there was nothing
characteristic in the entertainer, the company made ample amends
for his want of singularity.
At two in the afternoon, I found myself one of ten messmates
seated at table; and, I question, if the whole kingdom could
produce such another assemblage of originals. Among their
peculiarities, I do not mention those of dress, which may be
purely accidental. What struck me were oddities originally
produced by affectation, and afterwards confirmed by habit. One
of them wore spectacles at dinner, and another his hat flapped;
though (as Ivy told me) the first was noted for having a seaman's
eye, when a bailiff was in the wind; and the other was never
known to labour under any weakness or defect of vision, except
about five years ago, when he was complimented with a couple of
black eyes by a player, with whom he had quarrelled in his drink.
A third wore a laced stocking, and made use of crutches, because,
once in his life, he had been laid up with a broken leg, though
no man could leap over a stick with more agility. A fourth had
contracted such an antipathy to the country, that he insisted
upon sitting with his back towards the window that looked into
the garden, and when a dish of cauliflower was set upon the
table, he snuffed up volatile salts to keep him from fainting;
yet this delicate person was the son of a cottager, born under a
hedge, and had many years run wild among asses on a common.
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