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33 to his, I should without hesitation feel happy in the opportunity of accompanying him to Portsmouth in quest of some employment. He declared that nothing would afford him greater pleasure, and it was agreed that we should, each of us without delay, convert our spare apparel, &c., into cash, and set out the very next day. I accordingly lost no time in the needful preparations, and having bilked my landlord, with whom I was some few weeks in arrears, I met D———, the same evening, and after indulging in a farewell cruize, which sensibly diminished our slender finances, we took a few hours' repose, and at eight o'clock the next morning, commenced our peregrination.

On a comparison of our personal effects, it appeared that we possessed between us about twenty shillings in money, and had each a spare shirt, neck-cloth and hose, in a bundle, which (traveller-like) we carried across our shoulders on a good oak-stick. We were both decently clad, in good health, and in high spirits notwithstanding our poverty. We agreed that to save expenses, we should perform the journey on foot, (being seventy-two miles) and we calculated that with frugality, we should be enabled to defray the contingent charges for diet and lodging on the road. It soon appeared, however, that though good economists in theory, we were not so in practice; for as we both loved good cheer, and the severity of the weather required a suitable fortification, we had