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OPPOSITE NEIGHBOURS. 



IT was on a pouring wet morning in the end of the month of March., 

 1827, that I sat drowsily ensconced in a " Wooburn" beside the fire in my 

 study (!) in a front room in Upper Brook Street for I am in easy cir- 

 cumstances, and rent " a suite of apartments fit for the immediate recep- 

 tion of an M. P. or bachelor of fashion," in the house of a "professional 

 man of celebrity, who has no family." I had spelt .through two news- 

 papers, even to the last resource of " Rowland's Kalydor " and " Gow- 

 land's Lotion." I had read and dozed over every article in the last page 

 of my last paper, until I caught .myself reading the small-printed prices 

 of the markets potatoes at 8s. and 6c?." 



I began to feel as hunting gentlemen do during a hard frost what is 

 called "hard up." I had stirred my fire till it was out j and yawned 

 until I began to fear a locked jaw. In very despair I strolled to the 

 window, hopeless as I was of seeing any thing more amusing than over- 

 flowing gutters, half-drowned sparrows, or a drenched apothecary's boy. 

 It was early in the morning, at least in a London morning, and I could 

 not even anticipate the relief of a close carriage, with an oil-skin hammer- 

 cloth, driving by : what then was ray delight when, at one glance, as I 

 reached the window, I descried that the bills in a large and handsome 

 house opposite had been taken down ! Now do not suppose that I love 

 to pry into my neighbour's affairs for the sake of gossip far from it: but 

 what is an honest bachelor gentleman to do on a rainy morning, if he 

 may not pick up a small matter of amusement by watching his opposite 

 neighbours now and then ? 



The houses opposite were worse than no houses at .all ; for one was 

 .inhabited by an old and infirm lady, who had no visitors but an M. D v 

 an apothecary, and a man in a shovel 7 hat. The other house contained 

 only an elderly and very quiet couple, who had not near so much variety 

 as a clock ; they never stopt never went too fast or too slow never 

 wanted winding up they went of themselves their breakfast and dinner 

 bells rang daily to a minute at half-past eight and at six o'clock^ .their 

 fat coachman and fat horses came to the door precisely at two o'clock 

 to take them out, always to the Regent's Park, and drove twice round 

 the outer circle. I took care to enquire into that fact. I ascertained too 

 for certain that they had a leg of mutton for dinner every Tuesday and 

 Friday, and fish three times a week, including Sundays, on which day too 

 the butcher always brought .roasting beef always the thick part of the 

 surloin. What could I do with such .people as these ? I gave them up 

 as hopeless. 



Preparations for the reception of a family in my favourite house .now 

 went on with great spirit ; a thorough internal cleaning and scouring on 

 the first day j on the second, all the windows were cleaned. I could 

 stand it no longer, and snatching up my hat, I just stepped over pro - 

 miscuously to ask the maid who was washing the steps, by whom the 

 house was taken. She was a stupid, ignorant, country girl, and did not 

 seem at all alive to the interest attaching to her examination. I how- 

 ever discovered that the house was taken by a baronet, and that his 

 family consisted of his lady and one child (a boy), and his wife's sister. 



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