Note 7 — THE LAY OF THE HIGH SHERIFF.
Reading edition
The annotator confesses to being pretty considerably flummaxed by this allusion. That some existing person is meant, appears from the context, or else how could fun be poked by him? said Master Phil.
He has bestowed great labour and attention upon the consideration of this point. He has gone through all grades and classes of Masters—builders, sweeps, carpenters, masons, keys, mariners, &c.; Masters in Chancery, ordinary and extraordinary, not forgetting the Rolls and Exchequer, Masters Smith, Brown, Thompson, Jones, Green, and hosts more, but without finding the least trace of this Master Phil.
He confesses to being regularly beat, and begs in "whipping off" to add—
"That as he can't discover Master Phil, He only hopes and trusts the reader will."