4 Tom Simufjs Back Farlour. 



I used to go daily for my luncheon, and after a little wliile 

 I 'vvas invited into the sanctum ; but I never smoked a 

 pipe in S^Dring's parlour, for if I remember rightly, smok- 

 ing was not allowed in the daytime in the front bar, and 

 never in the private parlour. 



The Castle was a quiet, cosy place, well removed from 

 Holborn by a long passage, and there was a homely appear- 

 ance about it all. There was generally a well-to-do cat 

 snoozing in the sun, and a bird hanging up in his cage, which 

 drew his own water with a little bucket and chain, and a 

 thrush or blackbird singing, and frequently some flowers. 

 In fact, nothing could be less like a prize-fighter's home. 

 The Castle was a bond fide luncheon house. 



Bullet-headed ruffians, resembling bull-dogs who had been 

 baptized with what Charles Dickens called " a large tract 

 of barren country behind the ear" (though, by-the-bye, 

 Dickens utterly failed in painting a life-picture in the 

 character of " the Chicken "), dressed in flash coats, with 

 cheese-plate buttons adorned with fighting cocks and fancy 

 devices, and wearing fur caps, had no place in that bar. 

 They might go into the taproom if they did not get drunk 

 or use bad language ; though if they did, the way down the 

 passage was speedily shown to them, and they would as soon 

 have thought of insulting Tom Spring as a little parish 

 clerk would of kicking the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

 The old school, consisting of such men as Spring, Peter 

 Crawley, Jem Ward, Jem Burn, Frank Redmond, and the 

 like, had a position ; and having been backed by noblemen 

 and gentlemen of the highest rank, they had acquired that 

 natural good-breeding which is engendered by associating 

 with people much above them in society. You see this in 

 gamekeepers, cricketers of good stamp, huntsmen, yachts- 

 men, and the like, who have made their services essential to 

 the enjo}Tnent of men of fortune, and who have been treated 



