The English Spy: An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous.: Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The LifeWestmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy)
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The English Spy: An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous.: Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life
Westmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy)
England -- Social life and customs; Satire, English; University of Oxford -- Anecdotes
Sporting, and Bell's Life in London, are both fellows of infinite wit.
~338~~Spring, who is fond of _cocking_ as well as fighting, is seen with
his bag in the right-hand corner, chaffing with the Duck-lane doss man;
while Lawyer L----e, a true sportsman, whether for the turf or chase, is
betting the odds with brother Adey, Greek against Greek. Behind them
are seen the heroes Scroggins and Turner; and at the opposite end of the
table, a Wake-ful one, but a grosser man than either, and something of
the _levanter_: the bald-headed stag on his right goes by the quaint
cognomen of the _Japan oracle_, from the retentive memory he possesses
on all sporting and pugilistic events. The old waiter is a picture every
frequenter will recognise, and the smoking a dozer no unusual bit of a
spree. Here, my dear Bernard, you have before you a true portrait of the
celebrated Daffy{2} Club, done from the life by our
2 The great lexicographer of the fancy gives the following
definition of the word Daffy. The phrase was coined at
the mint of the Fancy, and has since passed current without
ever being overhauled as queer. The Colossus of
Literature, after all his nous and acute researches to
explain the synonyms of the English language, does not
appear to have been down to the interpretation of Daffy; nor
indeed does Bailey or Sheridan seem at all fly to it; and
even slang Grose has no touch of its extensive
signification. The squeamish Fair One who takes it on the
sly, merely to cure the vapours, politely names it to her
friends as White Wine. The Swell chaffs it as Blue Ruin,
to elevate his notions. The Laundress loves dearly a drain
of Ould Tom, from its strength to comfort her inside. The
drag Fiddler can toss off a quartern of Max without making a
wry mug. The Costermonger illumines his ideas with a
flash of lightning.' The hoarse Cyprian owes her existence
to copious draughts of Jacky. The Link-boy and Mud Larks,
in joining their browns together, are for some Stark Naked.
And the Out and Outers, from the addition of bitters to it,
in order to sharpen up a dissipated and damaged Victualling
Office, cannot take any thing but Fuller's Earth. Much it
should seem, therefore, depends upon a name; and as a soft
sound is at all times pleasing to the listener--to have
denominated this Sporting Society the Gin Club would not
only have proved barbarous to the ear, but the vulgarity of
the chant might have deprived it of many of its elegant
friends. It is a subject, however, which it must be
admitted has a good deal of Taste belonging to it--and as a
Sporting Man would be nothing if he was not flash, the Daffy
Club meet under the above title.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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