Upon such occasions, bare
steel was frequently opposed to the clubs of the citizens, and death
sometimes ensued on both sides. The tardy and inefficient police of
the time had no other resource than by the Alderman of the ward
calling out the householders, and putting a stop to the strife by
overpowering numbers, as the Capulets and Montagues are separated upon
the stage.
At the period when such was the universal custom of the most
respectable, as well as the most inconsiderable, shopkeepers in
London, David Ramsay, on the evening to which we solicit the attention
of the reader, retiring to more abstruse and private labours, left the
administration of his outer shop, or booth, to the aforesaid sharp-
witted, active, able-bodied, and well-voiced apprentices, namely,
Jenkin Vincent and Frank Tunstall.
Vincent had been educated at the excellent foundation of Christ's
Church Hospital, and was bred, therefore, as well as born, a Londoner,
with all the acuteness, address, and audacity which belong peculiarly
to the youth of a metropolis. He was now about twenty years old, short
in stature, but remarkably strong made, eminent for his feats upon
holidays at foot-ball, and other gymnastic exercises; scarce rivalled
in the broad-sword play, though hitherto only exercised in the form of
single-stick. He knew every lane, blind alley, and sequestered court
of the ward, better than his catechism; was alike active in his
master's affairs, and in his own adventures of fun and mischief; and
so managed matters, that the credit he acquired by the former bore him
out, or at least served for his apology, when the latter propensity
led him into scrapes, of which, however, it is but fair to state, that
they had hitherto inferred nothing mean or discreditable.
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