EXPERIENCES OF A SURGEON. 33 



stumbled into all sorts of places; but generally speaking there was 

 a great similarity amongst the different decent houses, both as to 

 arrangement and price. In tenements of this nature there were, I 

 found, four, five, or six various localities, each having its grade of 

 respectability and expense, and each claiming for the owner a 

 greater or lesser degree of respect. In the first place, the ground- 

 floor generally consisted of two rooms, tolerably furnished, and 

 styled the front and back parlours : to these were attached bed- 

 rooms, somewhere towards the attic, containing a tent-bed, one 

 chair, and a cracked looking-glass: for these the terms were one 

 guinea per week : this included attendance, but nothing more : every 

 thing had to be found by one's self. The parties occupying these 

 situations were considered as respectable : on the first-floor was a 

 drawing-room and bed-room, let together : these were often well and 

 showily furnished ; sometimes even handsomely. The payment for 

 these varied from a guinea and a half to three guineas a week, and 

 entitled the tenant to consider himself as the great man of the house : 

 he had the pas of the other lodgers, and received a proportionate 

 share of the bows of the landlord, the smiles of the landlady and her 

 daughters, if she had any, and the zealous attention of the kitchen 

 and house-maids. The next story above this was a sort of miscella- 

 neous story : the two ground-floor gentlemen had probably their 

 resting-places in the two back closets : while the front room was set 

 off" as another independent mansion, serving both as a bed-room and 

 sitting-roorn for its occupier ; for this he paid 10s. Qd. per week, and 

 this of course placed him a great deal below his immediate neigh- 

 bours in family consequence : and then, again, one of the attics 

 was apportioned to a still inferior lodger, who, for '2s. Gd. or 3s., was 

 content with a truckle-bed and bare walls. Where the family lived 

 and slept I could not imagine : it must either have been in the 

 kitchen, coal-hole, cock-loft, or some out-of-the-way place that a 

 cursory inspection failed to discover : nor could I imagine that any 

 thing but extreme indigence could lead parties thus to convert their 

 homes into an inn under the most troublesome form. 



My own taste would have led me either to engage a parlour or the 

 drawing-room, but I felt that inferior accommodation would answer 

 my purpose quite as well. Then here was a stumbling-block : I 

 was proud, had been used to attention ; and I could see plainly 

 enough that if I ascended to the third story, I must be content to be 

 the third or fourth best man. When I made the first inquiry at one 

 of these houses, being possessed of a decent and respectable appear- 

 ance, I was shown with great civility, by the house-maid, the two 

 parlours : if I asked for the drawing-room, the mistress was sum- 

 moned, and in person ushered me through it : if f inquired farther, 

 the maid again took me in leading, and accompanied my ascent, 

 and here her civility was changed to easy familiarity, a thing I espe- 

 cially hated : and if my curiosity went still higher, I was left to 

 make the inspection alone. Now I should have preferred the third 

 story for economy ; but the certainty that I should have to yield 

 precedence of attendance, and been kept waiting till it was conve- 

 nient to wait upon me, which would have given me the fidgets, 



M.M. No. 7. E 



