introduction, or care to preserve the appearance of chain of thought.

'It is,' said he, 'worth while to consider the force of dress; and how
the persons of one age differ from those of another, merely by that
only. One may observe also, that the general fashion of one age has been
followed by one particular set of people in another, and by them
preserved from one generation to another. Thus the vast jetting coat and
small bonnet, which was the habit in _Harry_ the Seventh's time, is
kept on in the yeomen of the guard; not without a good and politick
view, because they look a foot taller, and a foot and an half broader:
Besides that the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently more
terrible, and fitter to stand at the entrances of palaces.

'This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed after this manner, and
his cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a hat as I am. He
was the last man that won a prize in the tilt-yard (which is now a
common street before _Whitehall_). You see the broken lance that
lies there by his right foot; he shivered that lance of his adversary
all to pieces; and bearing himself, look you, Sir, in this manner, at
the same time he came within the target of the gentleman who rode
against him, and taking him with incredible force before him on the
pommel of his saddle, he in that manner rid the tournament over, with an
air that shewed he did it rather to perform the rule of the lists, than
expose his enemy; however, it appeared he knew how to make use of a
victory, and with a gentle trot he marched up to a gallery where their
mistress sat (for they were rivals) and let him down with laudable
courtesy and pardonable insolence. I don't know but it might be exactly
where the coffee-house is now.

'You are to know this my ancestor was not only of a a military genius,