Beggars have not only been useful to artists as models, but serviceable to them in other instances. Francis Perrier, who was born of poor parents, when a boy entered into the service of a blind beggar, for the express purpose of getting from France to Rome to pursue his studies in that city; and Old Scheemaker, the sculptor, Nollekens's master, absolutely begged his way from Flanders to Rome for the same purpose. Though the biographical part of this publication exhibits some curious customs of the London beggars which have fallen within the author's observations, and though it may in some instances be deemed original, yet he confesses that he has adopted the usual craft of the common vender, who invariably puts the best sample into the mouth of the sack. Such, he needs not state the truly interesting Introduction to be; it was written and presented to him by his honoured and valuable friend, FRANCIS DOUCE, Esq. INTRODUCTION. The present work is very far from being offered as a general view of that peculiar branch of pauperism, which includes the many wandering classes of mankind that are supported by the casual and irregular bounty of others, or by means that have at least the appearance of industry or honourable ingenuity; for that would be a task requiring the united efforts of the historian, the legislator, and the antiquary. It may be deemed sufficient to submit to the reader's notice, such accounts and gleanings as immediately relate to the particular characters which are here once more embodied and presented to him by the aid of the graphic art. In the mean time, a slight sketch of the state and progress of mendicity in former ages may be neither unacceptable nor without its use. The Beggar's calling, if not one of the most respectable, may doubtless be regarded as one of the most ancient. In every part of the globe where man is congregated, the inequality of his condition, the too frequent indolence of his habits, or the shifts to which human misery is occasionally reduced, will compel him to depend for his support on the generosity of his fellow-creatures, and even sometimes lead him to prefer this disgraceful state of existence. The sacred volume has supplied us with evidence of the mendicant profession at an early period. King David, when imprecating curses on the head of his enemy, prays that "his children be continually vagabonds, and _beg_;"[1] and the story of Ulysses and the beggar Irus, as related in one of the oldest works extant, is known almost to every one.