with a longish, rosy-cheeked face, and a
stupid, quiet manner. In Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and in that
direction, he sports his _olive-green_ slop, and his wide-awake, larking
hat, bit-o'-blood, or whatever else the hatters call those
round-crowned, turned-up-brimmed felts of eighteen-pence or two
shillings cost, which have of late years so wonderfully taken the fancy
of the country-chaps. In the Midland counties, especially
Leicestershire, Derby, Nottingham, Warwick, and Staffordshire, he dons a
_blue-slop_, called the Newark frock, which is finely gathered in a
square piece of puckerment on the back and breast, on the shoulders and
at the wrists; is adorned also, in those parts, with flourishes of white
thread, and as invariably has a little white heart stitched in at the
bottom of the slit at the neck. A man would not think himself a man, if
he had not one of those slops, which are the first things that he sees
at a market or a fair, hung aloft at the end of the slop-vender's stall,
on a crossed pole, and waving about like a scarecrow in the wind.

Under this he generally wears a coarse blue jacket, a red or yellow shag
waistcoat, stout blue worsted stockings, tall laced ankle-boots, and
corduroy breeches or trowsers. A red handkerchief round his neck is his
delight, with two good long ends dangling in front. In many other parts
of the country, he wears no slop at all, but a corduroy or fustian
jacket, with capacious pockets, and buttons of giant size.

That is his every-day, work-a-day style; but see him on a Sunday, or a
holiday--see him turn out to church, wake, or fair--there's a _beau_ for
you! If he has not his best slop on, which has never yet been defiled by
touch of labor, he is conspicuous in his blue, brown, or olive-green
coat, and waistcoat of glaring color--scarlet, or blue, or green
striped--but it must be showy; and a pair of trowsers, generally blue,
with a width nearly as ample as a sailor's, and not only guiltless of
the foppery of being strapped down, but if he find the road rather
dirty, or the grass dewy, they are turned up three or four inches at the
bottom, so as to show the lining. On those days, he has a hat of modern
shape, that has very lately cost him four-and-sixpence; and if he fancy
himself rather handsome, or stands well with the women, he cocks it a
little on one side, and wears it with a knowing air. He wears the collar
of his coarse shirt up on a holiday, and his flaming handk