re to be my usual appellations. Two decent
persons being required, Joe Brandon, not having done any work for a
couple of months, thought, by virtue of idleness, he might surely call
himself one, to say nothing of his top-boots. The other godfather was a
decayed fishmonger, of the name of Ford, a pensioner in the Fishmonger's
Company, in whose alms-houses, at Newington, he afterwards died. A sad
reprobate was old Ford--he was wicked from nature, drunken from habit,
and full of repentance from methodism. Thus his time was very equally
divided between sin, drink, and contrition. His sleep was all sin, for
he would keep the house awake all night blaspheming in his unhealthy
slumbers. As I was taken to church in a hackney-coach, my very honoured
godfather, Ford, remarked, that "it would be a very pleasant thing to
get me into hell before him, as he was sure that I was born to sin, a
child of wrath, and an inheritor of the kingdom of the devil." This
bitter remark roused the passions even of my gentle nurse, and she
actually scored down both sides of his face with her nails, in such a
manner as to leave deep scars in his ugliness, that nine years after he
carried to his grave. All this happened in the coach on our way to
church. Ford had already prepared himself for the performance of his
sponsorial duties, by getting half drunk upon his favourite beverage,
gin, and it was now necessary to make him wholly intoxicated to induce
him to go through the ceremony. As yet, my nurse had never properly
seen my mother's face; at the interview, on my birth, the agitation of
both parties, and the darkened room, though there was no attempt at
concealment, prevented Mrs Brandon from noticing her sufficiently to
know her again; when, therefore, as our party alighted at the gate of
the churchyard, and a lady, deeply veiled, got out of a carriage at some
distance, Mrs Brandon knew not if she had ever seen her before.

I have been unfortunate in religious ceremonies. Old Ford was a horrid
spectacle, his face streaming with blood, violently drunk, and led by
Brandon, who certainly was, on that occasion, both decent in appearance
and behaviour. The strange lady hurried up to the font before us. When
the clergyman saw the state in which Ford was, he refused to proceed in
the ceremony. The sexton then answered for him, whilst the drunkard was
led out of the church. The office went on, and the lady seemed
studiously to avoid looking u