Note 267 — Chapter XV · FOOD. (Solid.)

Neither Ward nor Brown viewed the Lambeth gardeners in such a couleur-de-rose aspect; and haply they described the scene more accurately. The former says: 'A scoundrel crew of Lambeth Gardeners attacked us with such a Volley of saucy Nonsence, that it made my Eyes stare, my Head ake, my Tongue run, and my Ears tingle.' Brown tells us that 'the next diverting Scene that the River afforded us, was a very warm Engagement between a Western Barge, and a Boat full of Lambeth Gardeners, by whom Billingsgate was much outdone in stupendious Obscenity, tonitrous Verbosity, and malicious Scurrility, as if one side had been Daniel D—f—'s[267] Party, and the other the Observator's.' And they both give examples of this bargee slang, which, it is needless to say, are utterly unfit for reproduction.