SWIVELLER 
 
 
[ ? Cronberg] to Graves" in 2 hrs., 40 min., 
the distance being six English miles. 
   Captain Boynton, in May, 1875, swam 
 or floated across the channel from Grisnez 
 to Fan Bay (Kent) in 23 hrs. 
   Captain Webb, August 24, 1875, swam 
 from Dover to Calais, a distance of about 
 thirty miles including drift, in 22 hrs., 40 
 min. 
   H. Gurr was one of the best swimmers 
 ever known. J. B. Johnson, in 1871, won 
'the championship for swimming. 
 
   Swing (Captain), a name assumed by 
 certain persons, who, between 1830 and 
 1833, used to send threatening letters to 
 those who used threshing-machines. The 
 letters ran thus: 
   Sir, if you do not lay by your threshing- 
 machine, you will hear from Swing. 
 
   Swiss Family Robinson. This tale 
 is an abridgment of a German tale, by 
 Joachim Heinrich Kampe. 
 
   Switzers, guards attendant on a king, 
 irrespective of their nationality. So called 
 because at one time the Swiss were al- 
 ways ready to fight for hire. 
   The king, in Hamlet, says, "Where are 
 my Switzers?" i.e., my attendants; and 
 in Paris, to the present day, we may see 
 written up, Parlez au Suisse (" speak to 
 the porter"), be he Frenchman, German, 
 or any other nation. 
   Law, logicke, and the Switzers may be hired 
 to fight for anybody.-Nashe, Christ's Tears over 
 Jerusalem (1594). 
 
   Swiveller (Mr. Dick), a dirty, smart, 
 young man, living in apartments near 
 Drury Lane. His language was extremely 
 flowery, and interlarded with quotations: 
 "What's the odds," said Mr. Swiveller, 
 
 
4 propos of nothing, "so long as the fire 
of the soul is kindled at the taper of con- 
wiviality, and the wing of friendship never 
moults a feather?" His dress was a 
brown body-coat, with a great many brass 
buttons up the front, and only one behind, 
a bright check neckcloth, a plaid waist- 
coat, soiled white trousers, and a very 
limp hat, worn the wrong side foremost, 
to hide a hole in the brim. The breast of 
his coat was ornamented with the cleanest 
end of a very large pocket-handkerchief; 
his dirty wristbands were pulled down 
and folded over his cuffs; he had no 
gloves, and carried a yellow cane, having 
a bone handle, and a little ring. He was 
forever humming some dismal air. He 
said min for "man," forgit, jine; called 
wine or spirits "the rosy," sleep "the 
balmy," and generally shouted in conver- 
sation, as if making a speech from the 
chair "of the "Glorious Apollers" of which 
he was perpetual "grand."  Mr. Swiveller 
looked  amiably   towards  Miss   Sophy 
Wackles, of Chelsea. Quilp introduced 
him as clerk, to Mr. Samson Brass, solici- 
tor, Bevis Marks. By Quilp's request, he 
was afterwards turned away, fell sick of a 
fever, through which he was nursed by 
"the marchioness" (a poor house-drab), 
whom he married, and was left by his 
Aunt Rebecca an annuity of £125. 
 
  "Is that a reminder to go and pay?" said 
Trent, with a sneer. "Not exactly, Fred," re- 
plied Richard. "I enter in this little book the 
names of the streets that I can't go down while 
the shops are open. 9l'is dinner to-day closes 
Long Acre. I bought a pair of boots in Great 
Queen Street, last week, and made that 'no 
thoroughfare' too. There's only one avenue to 
the Strand left open now, and I shall have to 
stop up that to-night with a pair of gloves. The 
roads are closing so fast in every direction, that 
in about a month's time, unless my aunt sends 
me a remittance, I shall have to go three or four 
miles out of town to get over the way."ý-C. 
Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, viii (1840). 
 
 
62 
 
 
SWIMMERS