20 THE DOVER ROAD 



But that is all done with. The Old Kent Road is not 

 to be described in a phrase, nor thought of as the 

 coster's paradise. It is in fact a road of many aspects. 



But how to catalogue the kinds of them that dwell 

 here ? It cannot well be done. Shopkeepers of every 

 kind and degree ; private residents of a more than 

 average decent respectability ; publicans, the landlords 

 of public-houses of a prodigious bigness ; family 

 doctors — these are the more salient classes of the 

 Old Kent Road. The coster ? you ask. Nay, but he 

 does not " inhabit " here. He (shall I phrase it thus ?) 

 pervades the road — the " road," bien entendu, not the 

 houses that line the road — and it is only on Saturday 

 nights, when frugal housewives fare forth, cheapening 

 necessary provisions, that you who seek shall find him, 

 with his booths and shallows, his barrows and crazy 

 trestles ; his naphtha-lamps flaring gustily, his voice 

 raucous, his goods striking both eye and nose in no 

 uncertain manner. At such times the kennel becomes 

 a busy mart, where you may purchase most articles of 

 daily food at a price much below the current quotations 

 in shops. Here a shilling possesses the purchasing 

 power of a half-crown expended in the West End, and 

 at this bon marche the artisan's table is fully furnished 

 forth for a sum which would give the dwellers in 

 mid-London pause. 



I have said that the Old Kent Road is eminently 

 respectable ; and so it is. But it is also (the natural 

 sequence of respectability) not less eminently dull. 

 It is only when Saturday evening comes, with its street- 

 market commencing as the light dies out of the sky, 

 that this long road becomes rea'ly interesting. Then it 

 takes on an aspect of mystery, and is filled with 

 flickering lights and shadows from the yellow gas-lamps 

 and the gusty naphtha-flares that illuminate the 

 dealings of Mr. 'Enery 'AAvkins with his clients ; 

 and I am quite sure that, if Rembrandt was living now, 

 he would choose such a time and place as the best 

 subject for a picture in all London. One spot in 



