(Vol. viii., p. 414.)
Some of your correspondents, SIR JAMES E. TENNENT especially, have been
very learned on this subject, and all have thrown new light on what I
consider a very curious inquiry. The following document I discovered some
years ago in the Lord Steward's Offices. Your readers will see its value at
once; but it may not be amiss to observe, that the name in its present
application had its origin in the number of masterless boys hanging about
the verge of the Court and other public places, palaces, coal-cellars, and
palace stables; ready with links to light coaches and chairs, and conduct,
and rob people on foot, through the dark streets of London; nay, to follow
the Court in its progresses to Windsor and Newmarket. Pope's "link-boys
vile" are the black-guard boys of the following Proclamation.