Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 205

Transcript

Thomas Preece, a second hand auctioneer of the Sixties, was an amusingly important person. Short, with a majestic strut, and a self satisfied voice, he pegged away at cocks and hens, pigs, &c. He began in the end fifties as a hawker, in company with one Harry Manning, and then started shop keeping in Tuam St. He once when he had got into broad cloth went into Lyttelton, and anyone who remembers the fifties and sixties, knows the sort of crowd. Mr Preece was stalking along, head well up, with an air of superiority to the herd, surveying the surrounding buildings. “Beg pardon, Sir, what’s the rent of this place?” “I don’t know, my man” “Oh! – I thought you owned all Port Cooper” remarked the Beach Comber in a quite disappointed voice.