piece of wood which they called a 'dabber.' Thus things continued
till such time as the State Lottery was passed, and then the
printers began to print larger bills, and men were employed instead
of women, as the State Lottery Commissioners then began to send men
all over England to post bills, and would keep them out for six or
eight months at a time, and they were called by the London bill-
stickers 'TRAMPERS,' their wages at the time being ten shillings
per day, besides expenses. They used sometimes to be stationed in
large towns for five or six months together, distributing the
schemes to all the houses in the town. And then there were more
caricature wood-block engravings for posting-bills than there are
at the present time, the principal printers, at that time, of
posting-bills being Messrs. Evans and Ruffy, of Budge Row;
Thoroughgood and Whiting, of the present day; and Messrs. Gye and
Balne, Gracechurch Street, City. The largest bills printed at that
period were a two-sheet double crown; and when they commenced
printing four-sheet bills, two bill-stickers would work together.
They had no settled wages per week, but had a fixed price for their
work, and the London bill-stickers, during a lottery week, have
been known to earn, each, eight or nine pounds per week, till the
day of drawing; likewise the men who carried boards in the street
used to have one pound per week, and the bill-stickers at that time
would not allow any one to wilfully cover or destroy their bills,
as they had a society amongst themselves, and very frequently dined
together at some public-house where they used to go of an evening
to have their work delivered out untoe 'em."'

All this His Majesty delivered in a gallant manner; posting it, as
it were, before me, in a great proclamation. I took advantage of
the pause he now made, to inquire what a 'two-sheet double crown'