Page:A Sketch of the Life of George Wilson, the Blackheath Pedestrian.djvu/10

 where he performed his feats. Perhaps I was too presumtuous, in expecting that I might be allowed to perform a similar task in less than half the time. But it was my misfortune to act in a different county from Captain Barclay, and where probably nicer principles of morality and stricter notions of decorum prevail with the custodians of the Peace: for it is quite impossible that I should suppose that Captain Barclay or any other sporting gentleman, who had ventured to walk where I did, would not have been interrupted and apprehended with the same impartiality that I was.

However, gentlemen, bowing with the profoundest deference to the wisdom of your decree, for rescinding the permission and promise of protection you were pleased to concede to my humble application, in the first instance; and presuming there may have been some weighty reasons, probably of state, for the steps you have adopted towards an obscure unit like myself, I must presume they were as correct as they were wise, just, and impartial; and hope that all deluded mortals like myself, who are hard pushed by the influence of her Imperious Mightiness, , the prolific mother of inventions, to whatever other species of prize feat they may be urged for recruiting their finances, whether prize fighting, prize eating, prize grinning, or prize racing, they may eschew the perils of prize walking in the good county of Kent, at least in that quarter so particularly fortunate in the auspious superintendance of your worships.

Permit me, at the same time, to return my humble thanks to your warships for the lesson