The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-07 00:00:00

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Characters are to be found even among watchmen..
They are not al/ mere coat and lump, and indifference.---
By the way, what do they think of in general? Hnw
do they vary the monotony of their ruminations from owe
to two, and from two to three, and so on? Are they com-
paring themselves with the unoecial eobler ; thinking of
what they shall have for dinner to-morrow; or what they
were about six years ago ; or that their lot is the hardest
in the world, (as insipid old people are apt to think, for
the pleasure of grumbling) ; or that it has some advan-
tages nevertheless, besides fees; and that if they are not in.
bed; their wife is?
Of Characters, or rather varieties among watchmen, we
remembet several. One was a Dandy watchman, who
used to ply at the top of Oxford-street, next the Park.
We called him the dandy, on account of his utterance. He
had a mincing way with it, pronouncing the a in the word
st nas it is jet " hat,"—making a little p:eparatory
hem befoit he spoke, and then bringing out his "Past
ten" in a style of genteel indifference, as if, upon the whole,
he was of that opinion;
Another was the Metairie' Wi atchneaze. who paced the
same street towards Hanover-square, and hail a clang in
his voice like a trumpet. He was a voice and nothing
else; belt any difference is something in a watchman:
A third, who cried the hour in Bedford-square, was
remarkable in his eaNiag for being abrupt and loud.—
There was a fashion among his tribe just come up at that
time, of omitting the words " Past" and "o'clock," and
crying only the number of the hour. I know not whether
a recollection I have of his performance• one night is entire
matter of fact, or whether any subsequent fancies of what
might have taken place are mixed up with it ; but my im-
pression is, that as I was turning the corner into the
square With a friend, and was in the midst of a discussion
in which ritmehers were concerned, we were suddenly
startled, as if in cptiQtion of it, by a brief and tremendous
outcry of—One. Thi paragraph ought to have been at
the bottom of the page, Mt the word printed abruptly
roundithe corner.
A. fourth watchman was a very Angular phenomenon, a
Reading watchmen, He had a book, which- he read by
the light of his lantern ; end instead of a pleasant, gave
you a very uncomfortable idea of Idni. It seemed cruel to
pitch amidst so many discomforts and privations: one who
had imagination enough to wish to be relieved from them.
Nothing but a sluggish vacuity befits a watchman.
But tho oddest of all was the Sliding Watchman. Think
of walking up a street in the depth of a frosty winter, with
long ice in the gutters, and sleet over head, and then figure
to yourself a sort of bale of a man in white, coining sliding
towards you with a lantern in obe band, and an umbrella
over his head. It was the oddest mixture of luxury and
hardship, of juvenility and old age ! But this looked
agreeable. Animal spirits carry everything before them ;
and our invincible friend seemed a watchman for Rabelais.
Time was run at and butted by him like a goat. The slide
seemed to bear him half through the night at once; he
slipped from out of his box and his common-places at one
rush of a merry thought, and seemed to say, " Every-
thing's in imagination ;—here goes the whole weight of my
office."_Leigh Hunt's Companion, No. V.