more truly, I have conjectured that the design of the biographer
hath been no more than to shew his great learning and knowledge of
antiquity. A design to which the world hath probably owed many
notable discoveries, and indeed most of the labours of our
antiquarians.

But whatever original this custom had, it is now too well
established to be disputed. I shall therefore conform to it in the
strictest manner.

Mr. Jonathan Wild, or Wyld, then (for he himself did not always
agree in one method of spelling his name), was descended from the
great Wolfstan Wild, who came over with Hengist, and distinguished
himself very eminently at that famous festival, where the Britons
were so treacherously murdered by the Saxons; for when the word
was given, i.e. Nemet eour Saxes, take out your swords, this
gentleman, being a little hard of hearing, mistook the sound for
Nemet her sacs, take out their purses; instead therefore of
applying to the throat, he immediately applied to the pocket of
his guest, and contented himself with taking all that he had,
without attempting his life.

The next ancestor of our hero who was remarkably eminent was Wild,
surnamed Langfanger, or Longfinger. He flourished in the reign of
Henry III., and was strictly attached to Hubert de Burgh, whose
friendship he was recommended to by his great excellence in an art
of which Hubert was himself the inventor; he could, without the
knowledge of the proprietor, with great ease and dexterity, draw
forth a man's purse from any part of his garment where it was
deposited, and hence he derived his surname. This gentleman was