PORTRAITS of CHILDREN OF THE MOBILITY By Percival Leigh Drawn From Nature By John Leech With Memoirs And Characteristic Sketches By The Author Of "The Comic English Grammar," Etc. 1841 [Illustration: 009] [Illustration: 010] VIGNETTE ON THE TITLE-PAGE. Armorial Bearings op the Mobility, viz:-- Quarterly, 1, Azure, a Tile dilapidated, or shocking bad Hat, Argent, banded Sable, for TAG. 2, Gules, between two Clays in saltire Argent, in base a Pot of Heavy, frothed of the second, for SWIPES. 3, Sable, & Bunch of Fives proper, for RAG. 4, Or, a Neddy Sable, passant, brayant, panniered proper, cabbaged and carroted. Gules, for BOBTAIL. Motto.--Kim aup. Crest.--On a wreath a Bull-dog's head guardant proper, issuant out of a Butcher's tray, surmounted by & scroll with the motto BOW WOW. CHILDREN OF THE MOBILITY OF THE MOBILITY IN GENERAL The Mobility are a variety of the human race, otherwise designated, in polite society, as "The Lower Orders," "The Inferior Classes," "The Rabble," "The Populace," "The Vulgar," or "The Common People." Among political philosophers, and promulgators of Useful Knowledge, they are known as "_The_ People," "The Many," "The Masses," "The Millions." By persons of less refinement, they are termed "The Riff-raff," and "The Tag-rag-and-bobtail." Figuratively, they are also denominated "The Many-headed;" although in England, in common with the other members of the body politic, they have but one head. May it be long before that one is replaced by another! In some foreign countries, as in America, they change their head very often; and in a neighbouring kingdom (where they are called "The Canaille"), their head is, strange to say, their target. We write solely for the benefit of the superior classes, that is to say, of the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, and so many of the Public in general as will condescend to patronise our work. These individuals, if we may so call them, inhabiting a different sphere from that of the Mobility, are not (with the exception, of course, of the Magistracy and the Clergy,) in the habit of meeting them; some account, therefore, of this little-known class, introductory to an exhibition of their offspring, may be reasonably expected of us. Our gentle readers, we apprehend, have but little regarded the Mobility in passing through our public thoroughfares. When employed in taking the air, they move in a loftier line than that of the pavement, and, occupied with the momentous cares of the Senate, the Opera, and the Ball, are too deeply absorbed in meditation to cast their eyes below.