n an imaginary charge, as he was among his
friends at the theatre. As in the case of Grummer, the friends, like
Winkle and Snodgrass, threatened the constable. The magistrate heard the
case, sentenced Grimaldi to pay 5s. fine. Old Lucas, in his
disappointment, arrested him again. Being attacked by Grimaldi, as
Grummer was by Sam, he drew his staff and behaved outrageously. The
magistrate then, like Nupkins, had him placed in the dock, and sentenced.

It has also been stated that Grummer was drawn from Towshend--the
celebrated Bow Street Runner again introduced in "Oliver Twist." Towshend
was a privileged person, like Grummer, and gave his advice familiarly to
the magistrates.

CHAPTER XIV. CHARACTERISTICS

I.--The Wardle Family

Here is a very pleasing and natural group of persons, in whom it is
impossible not to take a deep interest. They are like some amiable
family that we have known. Old Wardle, as he is called, though he was
under fifty, was a widower, and had remained so, quite content with his
daughters' attachment. He had his worthy old mother to live with him, to
whom he was most dutiful, tolerant, and affectionate. These two points
recommend him. There was no better son than Boz himself, so he could
appreciate these things. The sketch is interesting as a picture of the
patriarchal system that obtained in the country districts, all the family
forming one household, as in France. For here we have Wardle, his
mother, and his sister, together with his two pleasing daughters, while,
later on, his sons-in-law established themselves close by. The "poor
relations" seem to have been always there. It is astonishing how Boz, in
his short career, could have observed and noticed these things. Wardle's
fondness for his daughters is really charming, and displayed without
affectation. He connected them with the image of his lost wife. There
is no more natural, truly affecting passage than his display of
fretfulness when he got some inkling that his second daughter was about
to make a rather improvident marriage with young Snodgrass. The first
had followed her inclinations in wedding Trundle--a not very good
match--but he did not lose her as the pair lived beside him. He thought
Emily, however, a pretty girl who ought to do better, and he had his eye
on "a young gentleman in the neighbourhood"--and for some four or five
months past he had been pressing her to receive his addresses favourably.