Royal-Oak-Lottery; and would not give a Farthing for an Estate got without a great deal of Hazard. He’s a kind of Speculum, wherein you may behold the Passions of Mankind, and the Vanity of Humane Life: To Day he Laughs and to Morrow he Grins, is the Third Day Mad, and always Labours under those Twin Passions Hope and Fear; rising one Day, and Falling the next, like Mercury in a Weather-Glass, and cannot Arrive to that pitch of Wisdom, as to know one Day what he shall be the next: He is never under the Prospect of growing Rich; but at the same time under the Danger of being Poor, and is always to be found between Hawk and Buzzard: He Spins out his Life between Faith and Hope, but has nothing to do with Charity, because there’s little to be got by’t. He’s a Man whose great Ambition is to Ride over others, in order to which, he resolves to Win the Horse, or Lose the Saddle.
THETHE
London-Spy.
PART XVII.
Reflections upon Money, and the Bankers in Lombard-Street; a Story of their Extortion. The Character of a Banker, in Verse. A Comical Description of a Christening; with the Humours of the Gossips. A Grace before and after Meat, in Verse. The Character of a Gossip, in Verse.
HAVING received a Note from my Friend to meet him at the Sign of the Dolphin in Lombard-Street; which Fish, by mistake of the Painter, is render’d more like a Crooked Billet, than the Creature it’s design’d to Represent: At the time appointed I accordingly went, where my Friend, over a Penny Nipperkin of Malossas Ale, sat ready to receive me. When an accustomary Salutation had pass’d between us, it being about the time when Stroling Pastry-Cooks, who keep their Shops in their Baskets, Pay their Visits to their Customers, we began to Consult about our Dinner, being Posted in a very convenient House for that purpose: At last, agreed to Corroborate our Bodies with a Slice of that Martial Venison, Beef, fit Food for either Saint, Soldier, or Saylor, the King of Meats, and the most delicious of all Dainties, saith, S— the Poet, and Marriot the Councellour. When we had supprest our Hunger, the most Powerful of all Appetites, and tir’d our Jaws with tedious Mastication, we began to fall into Talk about our Neighbour-
ing