The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 132: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

114 REYNOLDS’ WORKS and as noon approached, a sufficient number of horses ar- rived from Buckingham Palace for the accommodation of the duke and his suite. A crowd was collected in the street to feast their eyes with the grandeur of the imposing pro- cession, and his Royal Highness marched forth in all the glory of the inexpressibles which Christian Ashton’s money had redeemed from pawn at the hands of the mistrustful tailor. Herr Humbogh looked splendid indeed with the plume of pheasant’s feathers, and Baron Raggidbak’s breeches held firmly together as his lordship mounted the steed allotted to his use. The other nobles and gentlemen of the suite were equally well pleased with their own toilets; and as the sun was shining, its beams made all their worthless jewelry glitter like real gold. The ducal cortége passed away amidst the cheers of the multitudes, who little suspected what sort of persons they were on whom they thus bestowed their applause. And here we may add that the mistrustful tailor, who would not give the German sovereign credit for three guineas, forthwith ordered the arms of that selfsame sovereign to be fixed above his shop door; and on the strength of the three guineas’ worth of work which he had done, he wrote himself up, ‘‘ Tailor, by Appointment, to his Royal Highness the Duke of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha.”’ Before concluding this chapter, we will take the liberty of drawing one moral from the incidents we have related, which is, that gathered crowds, instead of thoughtlessly and giddily bestowing their cheers upon royal and aristo- cratic personages simply because they bear royal and aristo- cratic titles, should pause to ask themselves whether these personages, by their own merits, deserve the homage thus shown them and the plaudits thus showered upon their heads. CORMIECLOOOLK