Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/107

Rh the forechains; and at fifteen minutes run, 'tis ten to one but you spy the other right a-head, while upon the larboard wake her gallant well-found tender lies at anchor in Carthusian Creek.

Of all smugglers, or pretended smugglers, the most successful are those termed

Many of them make a good living, one or two have become rich to my certain knowledge, and almost all of them heretofore carried the pack up and down the country at fairs, great markets, and revels. They are invariably north-countrymen. Jordaine was a Glasgow man, and made ten thousand pounds by the last mentioned profession, but never buffed it in the streets of London, so far as I ever heard, saw, or believe.

The term buffer is derived from the practice which once prevailed of carrying Bandanas, Sarsnets, French stockings, &c. next their shirts; so, as they were obliged to undress in order to come at the goods, or in other words to strip to the skin or buff, they obtained the name of buffers. When Mr. Barrington did his book, they might, and probably did, carry their goods always about them, and show them in the streets; now, however, they carry on trade in a more genteel manner,