He has bestowed great labour and attention upon the consideration of this point. He has gone through all grades and classes of Masters--builders, sweeps, carpenters, masons, keys, mariners, &c.; Masters in Chancery, ordinary and extraordinary, not forgetting the Rolls and Exchequer, Masters Smith, Brown, Thompson, Jones, Green, and hosts more, but without finding the least trace of this Master Phil. He confesses to being regularly beat, and begs in "whipping off" to add-- "That as he can't discover Master Phil, He only hopes and trusts the reader will." [8] John Reade of Ipsden, in the county of Oxford, Esquire, a well-known magistrate, celebrated for giving the law to the Judges and the Bar; his exertions in mending the "ways" of the neighbouring parishes, and sporting a blue umbrella on occasions about as suited for such a display as the late Eglinton Tournay. [9] It may appear strange that the MS. should class "dons" among the subjects into which amazement is to be struck by the sheriff's gorgeous liveries. Were all people aware of the secluded life led by the Don class, wonder would cease, and a conviction might arise, that were Virgil now alive he might apply his line,-- "Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos," to Oxford Dons rather than the British community at large. [10] Oxford city has a sheriff of its own; our hero was the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, and so welcomed the Judges to the County town. [11] Etonice for being frightened, or alarmed at, as may be illustrated by the following imaginary talk between two lower boys:--"I say, old fellow, who funks a flogging?" "Not I, my boy! but I am in a precious stew about that licking Box Major promised me!" [12] "In my mind's eye, Horatio."--_Hamlet_. [13] A somewhat abstruse and curious simile, at the first blush apparently paradoxical, somewhat akin to "Aut Cæsar, aut nullus." The author can vouch for the truth of it, as he heard it delivered. [14] The break that occurs here in the MS. seems to prove that the Sheriff's promises were but partially fulfilled. There is ground for the hypothesis that a sort of mutual flooring took place between the sheriff and the bottle; in other words, that as the sheriff floored the bottle, so the bottle returned the compliment, and effectually floored the sheriff! PART II. "Gentlemen from London; distinguished foreigners, anything."--PICKWICK.