MORE COMMON INCIDENTS. 



THE sun had set in a shabby and, I may add, an untradesman-like 

 manner, considering that the city of London was under his imme- 

 diate control as to day-light. He had been ensconsing himself in a sort 

 of pancake-looking shroud ever since one o'clock, partially ff suspend- 

 ing his payments," like many hundreds of the bustling trowser'd 

 tribe that waddled beneath his beams; and preparing, like them too, 

 to perpetrate his final " systole." The gentleman's complete insol- 

 vency becoming public long before three o'clock, I was most incon- 

 siderately left to pack, as well as I could, two portmanteaux, which 

 I had stationed on two chairs near my lodging windows. My subur- 

 ban locality enabled me to command the view of a quiet assemblage 

 of countless cabbages, covering an immeasurable area of land. The 

 constant identity of the Savoy scene, was judiciously relieved by the 

 cacophony of a cooper, who " practised in chambers" in the yard 

 below. When engaged in what he called " heading " and finishing off, 

 the prevailing sounds were not select enough to be pronounced truly 

 delightful : in fact, his lucubrations were an acoustic calamity ; and 

 I felt but little commiseration for him, on hearing that his business 

 fell off daily. I must however confess, that the fellow was malleable 

 enough, considering ; for when I tossed him out a shilling, the un- 

 derstood fee for a reprieve, he manumitted his hammer, and regaled 

 at an adjacent tap until he became beastly drunk, so that he had, evi- 

 dently, some faint notions of decency. 



The fog soon compelled me to address myself to my candle-box ; 

 and thence soliciting one of the gloomy sixes which found refuge 

 therein, I bade it go forth and grapple with our mutual fuliginous 

 antagonist. And now a splendid emanation in the shape of Jockey- 

 Boots, from the museum of that Archimedes Hoby, was duly dis- 

 posed of, with a few other valuables, in one of my portmanteaux. 

 I commenced the lower works of the other with a stratum of white 

 cords ; my dress suit followed ; and the exhibition closed with my 

 cravats, enclosed in my cambric-frilled shirts. If any wonder exist 

 at the threatened exit of a Kit, so admittedly exclusive at that period, 

 from a back-room lodging second floor, it remains for me to remind 

 the rising generation, that, no longer ago than a quarter of a century, 

 any bachelor of gentlemanly manners, education, and connexions, who 

 could command a clean shirt and a decent suit, had seldom occasion to 

 sculk clandestinely into Williams' Boiled Beef Shop, 89, Old Bailey, 

 for his " feed." 



The tables of many amiable families always commanded a cover 

 for him, after a first introduction. Few ever inquired or ever cared 

 where he lodged ; and those who were guilty of such gothic coarse- 

 ness of tact were unhesitatingly labelled, and had their places assigned 

 them among other cloudy samples of uncrystallizable vulgarity. 



Having finished packing, my bodily investment occupied little 

 time or care, proposing, as I did, to travel all night by the coach. 



