Page:Reminisences of Captain Gronow.djvu/205

Rh often the cause of wit in others, replied, "I know, Mr, Sheridan, your taste is more for Jo-king than for Jew King:" alluding to King, the actor's admirable performance in Sheridan's School for Scandal.

King kept a princely establishment, and a splendid equipage, which he made to serve as an advertisement of his calling. A yellow carriage, with panels emblazoned with a well-executed shield and armorial bearings, and drawn by two richly-caparisoned steeds, the Jehu on the box wearing, according to the fashion of those days, a coat of many capes, a powdered wig, and gloves à l'Henri Quatre, and two spruce footmen in striking but not gaudy livery, with long canes in their hands, daily made its appearance in the Park from four to seven in the height of the season. Mrs. King was a fine-looking woman, and being dressed in the height of fashion, she attracted innumerable gazers, who pronounced the whole turn-out to be a work of refined taste, and worthy a man of "so much principal and interest."

It happened that during one of these drives, Lord William L., a man of fashion, but, like other of the great men of the day, an issuer of paper