C 175 ) 



LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE. 



PART THE FIRST. CHALCROFT. 

 CHAPTER I. 



IT was noon, as the door of a sleeping chamber at Long's was 

 held open by a valet, who bowed low as a young man of ultra- 

 fashionable appearance, in a robe-de-chambre of rich brocade, and 

 slippers of the same material, passed out, and descended the stairs. 

 At the entrance of a drawing-room stood John Long, who, at the 

 period to which this tale belongs, acted as steward of the household 

 in the well-known Bond-street hotel, and an individual, whose cos- 

 tume bore the slightest possible tinge of his profession, that of a 

 stud-groom^ "John," said he of the silken dressing-gown, speaking 

 as he entered the apartment, " send me some breakfast, a few kidneys 

 devil'd, and a tankard of iced porter; and, Edwards," turning to his 

 recherche master-of-the-horse, " I shall want the team at one for 

 Epsom : they dislocated my arms on Sunday in the park, and this is 

 Derby day ; so, unless you can put them together that there may be 

 some chance of holding them, they'll have me off the box before I 

 get them to Van xhall bridge. Try the grey horse near-side leader, 

 and throat-latch him : and that d d Crockford, put him off-side- 

 wheel, and run him at the lower bar; we'll see what that will do for 

 them." With a bend of acquiescence, characteristic of the well-bred 

 domestic of May Fair, the person thus addressed closed the door, 

 and departed to perform his bidding. 



Aladdin's lamp would be a useless encumbrance to the tenant of 

 a West-end hotel : it is but to proclaim your present need, nay, in 

 most instances but to look it, and straightway is your desire ac- 

 complished, be it what it may, often too when the prospect of a 

 corresponding consideration is more than apocryphal. An or-moln 

 time-piece, which occupied a marble slab placed between the win- 

 dows, pointed five minutes to one, and half the letters and billets, 

 among which the terrier was gamboling upon the fauteuil, were 

 unopened, as a plain chocolate-coloured barouche, with the blinds 

 closed, drew up at the Clifford -street entrance. The equipage was 

 without ornament of any kind, either upon the carriage or its ap- 

 pointments : while the team of four blood-horses, each of faultless 

 symmetry, and in condition " fine as a star," combined to produce 

 that unostentatious, graceful, exquisitely finished tout- ensemble, which 

 has ever constituted the English amateur drag, " of itself its own 

 parallel." Two groom boys in Oxford-grey frocks, leathers, and 

 boots, stood at the leaders' heads : others in various liveries were 

 busied diffusing acres of broad-cloth over the box and front seats, 

 under the direction of their masters, who, with cigars a-light, and 

 apparelled for travel, stood around, giving the last touch to the 

 sporting tableau. While these preparations were in progress beneath, 

 the sashes of a French window were thrown open, and with robe of 



