BUTLERS
exceeds that of the other Kings of Flunkeydom, and not only does he hold the gorgeous pantry in fee, but he has a reversion also to the best public-house in his parish. If he vacates the service of some Duke or great man, he becomes the long lease holder of a “Marquis of Granby,” and acquires an importance and a rotundity of barrel worthy his high office. But though he is the emblem of British respectability, so that no house can ever hope to attain a mansional dignity without him, he is full of imperfections, and not seldom is wholly unworthy of the great price he brings. For his wages exceed the income of the inferior clergy, and his beer-money would float a fleet of nondescript writing “chaps” and literary “gents” His first duty is to give the cup into his Pharaoh’s hands, his next to see
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