148 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



personal knowledge, assure the makers or pro- 

 prietors of any articles sent in for review to 

 the Field or Queen, which came under the old 

 expert's hands, that they received very thorough 

 attention and were submitted to actual tests 

 before receiving the praise or criticism awarded 

 them in his conscientious notices. 



At this time, and up to 1889, when the present 

 palatial offices — printing, publishing and editorial 

 — in Bream's Buildings, Fetter Lane, were erected, 

 the Field and Queen offices, with those of the 

 Law Times and the other publications of Messrs. 

 Horace Cox, were situate at the corner of 

 Wellington Street and the Strand, on a site now 

 in the centre of the new Kingswaj^ opposite the 

 Morning Post building, and it was here that the 

 bulk at least of Tegetmeier's work on the Field 

 was done. His room was on the top floor of the 

 old building, and if its now demolished walls 

 could have spoken they could have told many 

 a story of interesting visitors ; of strange pack- 

 ages of dead birds or curious specimens ; of 

 bones and skins ; of letters with foreign stamps 

 and rare postmarks; of post-mortems and of 

 lively fighting or critical articles. It was from 

 here that he was hastily summoned to remove 

 the swarm of bees from the portal of the Gaiety 

 Theatre, as told in the chapter on " The Bee- 

 master." Here was it that he wrote on such 

 varied subjects as incubating pythons — the note 



