EXPERIENCES OF A SURGEON. 37 



not eat; but the fish and plain joints and steaks were good; so were 

 the mock-turtle, mulligatawney, and ox-tail soups. Take it all in 

 all, indeed, I never met with a better conducted, and more com- 

 fortable establishment, and I can safely recommend it, if still in the 

 same hands. 



Occasionally 1 dined at a French ordinary in Princes-street: here 

 the proprietor sat on the landing of the stairs ; and, on giving him 

 eighteen-pence, we were entitled to a pint of table-beer, and as 

 much as we could eat : the table was always filled, and there was 

 plenty of food, but dressed d la Fran^ais. The soup ordinaire was 

 liberally supplied, and was capital : this, with a roll of bread, consti- 

 tuted the best part of my dinner. To this succeeded joints, boiled 

 or roasted, and some made dishes, with vegetables ad libitum. The 

 guests were chiefly Frenchmen and Germans, inferior artists, hangers- 

 on about the public offices, and teachers of language. They were 

 most ravenous and enormous feeders, and despatched such quantities 

 of food, that I doubted the provider had but a poor bargain with 

 their eighteen-pences. It was a pleasant place enough for getting a 

 cheap arid substantial dinner. The company, when the first heat of 

 their appetites was appeased, talked with wonderful volubility and 

 great good humour. I have heard conversations carried on at the 

 same table, in German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch : in 

 this respect, they offered a strong and pleasing contrast with 

 Englishmen, who meet together under similar circumstances, amongst 

 whom, brief question and answer, or unsocial silence, is sure to 

 reign. 



Curiosity led me to visit a cheap free-and-easy eating-house, as it 

 is called ; I believe it was situated somewhere behind Carnaby- 

 market; but of this I am not sure, as I never went there but once, 

 and under the guidance of a friend. It was cut and come again, at 

 boiled joints of mutton and pork, with stewed potatoes and cabbages. 

 It was a cheap and nasty place, the waiters impudent, the landlord 

 noisy, and the guests a strange mixture of all sorts, amongst which, 

 however, vulgar canaille had the preponderance. I was surprised to 

 find it the chosen haunt of a great number of medical pupils. I 

 paid sixpence to a dirty drab of a woman, who was the gouvernante 

 of this delicious salle-a-manyer. 



