THE

MODERN GILPIN;

IN

OR, THE

Adventures of John Oldstock,

AN EXCURSION BY STEAM FROM LONDON TO
ROCHESTER BRIDGE.

CONTAINING

A PASSING GLANCE AT THE PRINCIPAL PLACES

ON THE THAMES AND MEDWAY:

WITH NOTES.

ILLUSTRATED BY AN EMINENT ARTIST.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. CROCKER,
5, GARNAULT-PLACE, SPAFIELDS;

SOLD ALSO BY BERGER, HOLYWELL-STREET, STRAND; PATTIE, BRYDGES.
STREET, STRAND; PURKESS, OLD COMPTON-STREET, SOHO;
STRANGE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

And may be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen.

M DCCC XXXVIII.

PREFACE.

"WHAT is there in a NAME?"

asks the

immortal Shakspeare. The Author of "The Modern Gilpin" would humbly respond,-A great deal in the present case: for if Cowper had not given his celebrated " Johnny Gilpin" to the world, the following bagatelle, in all probability, would never have been written; or if indeed it had, it would not have been published, wanting, as it then would have done, the powerful assistance of a celebrated "name." So much for the title; and now for the hero.

The character of "John Oldstock" (who, by-the-by, is a member of that noted fraternity, yclept "Marine Store Dealers,") affords a striking and incontrovertible evidence of the fact, that a man may follow

iv

a low profession or calling, and be, notwithstanding, a very worthy member of society-nay, even a gentleman,* in the truest sense of the term.

Our hero, for the first time in his life, finds himself on board a steamer, on a bright autumnal morning-gradually relaxing from the every-day concerns of a life of business, and entering joyfully into the heart-stirring scenes of bustle and activity.

The Author has endeavoured to sketch, in the following pages, a faithful, though vivid, outline of our noble Thames, with its tributary streams; but, of course, such a sketch only as the passing glance from a steam-boat will permit.

The meaning of this term is very equivocal. A witness on a trial being questioned as to his reason for supposing a certain person to be a gentleman, replied, "Why, he kept a horse and chaise!" This is settling the question of gentility with a vengeance. Johnson, in his definition of the word, says nothing about such a qualification as this.