1830.3 The Golden City. 380 



inveterate quarrel. The relatives separated in disgust ; and the younger 

 one, with a hundred pounds in his pocket, and an imagination over- 

 charged with ideas of wealth and pleasure, set out on a cold evening in 

 March for the metropolis. 



He found only one vacant space left for him on the exterior of the 

 vehicle, and that considerably encroached upon by the persons and 

 goods of others. Two men of extraordinary dimensions, wearing, each, 

 twenty great coats, with as many score of capes, shared the seat, and 

 opposite to him was the guard; the space destined for his feet was 

 occupied by a hamper of fish, and two umbrellas had right of posses- 

 sion behind him : but these evils were tolerable, when compared with 

 the annoyance of a box so projecting from among the luggage, that it 

 gave to his head one compulsory position, far from pleasing or perpen- 

 dicular. The long dreariness of a wintry night lay in prospect before 

 him; he could not sleep ; and once when he attempted it, the sonorous 

 bugle of the guard, covering his head, awoke him with a start ; but it 

 must not be disguised, that he had the satisfaction, not only of seeing 

 and hearing that several of his companions were asleep, but of feeling 

 the fact, by occasional buttings and oscillations, indicative of happy 

 repose. At length morning broke on the white frosty . fields in the 

 neighbourhood of the metropolis ; and shorty after he was deposited in 

 Gracechurch-street, with London all before him where to choose. 



The appearance of all he had hitherto seen of his terrestrial paradise 

 rather surprised him. The buildings in Whitechapel did not strike 

 him as more splendid than those of his native town, and the atmosphere, 

 compounded o f smoke, gas, and steam, seemed scarcely fluid. It had 

 not rained for some time previously, yet every thing was as wet as if 

 the flood had just subsided : but this, though he knew it not, was 

 an advantage to the prospect, for, otherwise, clouds of dust would have 

 blinded him, and prevented his seeing it at all. 



Instead of remaining in the City, he proceeded, as he had been 

 recommended, to the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, which, for it* 

 undisturbed quiet, and the sweet perfume of stale vegetables, is a very 

 favourite region for hotels. Here he was ushered into a room, which 

 exactly contained a bed, and after surrendering his boots to a man, who 

 gave him in exchange a pair of slippers, which would have fitted a horse 

 as well as a gentleman, he endeavoured to procure a little rest. But, to say 

 nothing of an " Introduction to EJntomology," of which it would be 

 improper to speak more particularly, the bed might have proved an 

 excellent antidote to a pound of opium ; and two persons, one whistling, 

 and the other singing, were getting up in adjoining apartments. 



Accordingly, he soon rose again, and attempted to wash himself with 

 water, r>f which the surface was covered with heaven-descended par- 

 ticles, answering the purpose of rouge, except that they were black, 

 while the soap seemed intended, by its size, to exemplify the infinite 

 divisibility of matter, and, by its unchanged endurance of moisture, 

 proved itself a far better material for public buildings than the external 

 plaster of the new treasury, so lately built to contain the national debt.- 

 Nor was it very easy to obtain any alleviation of his numerous afflic- 

 tions, for, though a rope attached to a wire hung from the ceiling, he 

 laboured at it for a long period without success, and had no other 

 reason to suppose he was ringing a bell, than that nobody came to- 

 answer it. 



