"Two youngsters were charged by Mr. Waterman, a respectable lamp-lighter, with causing him divers annoyances whilst he was out in pursuit of his nightly business.
"Their names were Cumins and Thorn - the former was considerably the biggest of the two, but the latter was more perverse.
"They are apprentices to a turner in the Island, and were in the habit of pelting the plaintiff.
"Cumins received an excellent character from his master, who believed he had been led away by the youngster, whom he charged with being a very bad boy.
"The evidence did not bring the case home to the boys, who were dismissed - the Bench sharply rebuking Thorn, and advising his master to bring him up when he misbehaved"
We are not told how old they were, these little apprentice lads, larking in the dark on a winter's evening. Mr. Waterman the lamplighter was fair game in the deserted(?) streets as he went around with his pole, half an hour after sunset but what did they pelt him with? Their master, a turner on Exe Island, then Exeter's industrial hub, had taken a very bad boy in Thorn but a good one in Cumin.
Is biggest for bigger a slip or is it, in 1842, acceptable usage?,
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