The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars: Containing his Life, a Dictionary of the Cant Language, and many Entertaining Particulars of that Extraordinary ManUnknown
General
The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars: Containing his Life, a Dictionary of the Cant Language, and many Entertaining Particulars of that Extraordinary Man
dispute who should carry the victuals, both being loath to incumber
themselves with it, as having neither wife nor child near to give it to.
Mr. Carew was for throwing it into the hedge, but the other urged that it
was both a sin and a shame to waste good victuals in that manner, so they
both agreed to go to the Green Man, about a mile from my lord’s, and
there exchange it for liquor. At this alehouse they tarried for some
time, and snacked the argot; then, after a parting glass, each went his
way.
The reader cannot but be surprised when we assure him that this mendicant
companion of his was no less a person than my Lord Weymouth himself, who,
being desirous of sounding the tempers and dispositions of the gentlemen
and other inhabitants of the neighbourhood, put himself into a habit so
vastly beneath his birth and fortune, in order to obtain that discovery.
Nor was this the first time that this great nobleman had metamorphosed
himself into the despicable shape and character of a beggar, as several
of that neighbourhood can testify; but, when he went abroad into the
world in this disguise, he took especial care to conceal it even from his
own family, one servant only, in whose secrecy he greatly confided, being
entrusted therewith; and this was his valet-de-chambre, who used to
dress, shave, and perform other such offices about his lordship’s person.
Mr. Carew and his noble companion having thus parted from each other, he
took his way into the woodlands towards Frome; and the disguised lord, by
a private way through the park and gardens, returned to his own house,
and there, divesting himself of his rags, put on his embroidered apparel,
and re-assumed the dignity and state to which both his birth and fortune
entitled him. I am informed, said his lordship, that two sailors have
been at my house; and, inquiring which way they went, he ordered two men
and horses to go after them, with a strict charge to bring them back to
his house, for he had heard they were impostors; and, if he found them
such, he would treat them accordingly. The servants obeyed his commands
without the least suspicion of the intricacy of this affair, and soon
came up with Mr. Carew, whom they forcibly brought up to my lord. His
lordship accosted him in a very rough stern manner, asking where the
other fellow was, and told him he should be made to find him. Mr. Carew
in the mean time stood thunder-struck, expecting nothing less than a
commitment to prison, but, upon examination, made out his story as well
as he could.
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