DONCASTER 223 



making plain for Mr Jehu, who politely said, *' It 



ain't the Great Eastern in Liverpool street, 



guv'nor, you mean, is it ? " How many years has 



the aforementioned depot been disestablished and 



the company's style or title been abolished ? A 



long while. London is not half so interesting 



now as it was in the days of old Bishopsgate 



Station, when the racing army mostly went down 



to Newmarket on Monday afternoons with a 



Sunday's Bell's Life to read, and a fine view of 



myriad pigeon-lofts on the roofs of the houses in 



Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, and those parts to 



look down upon ; also the parties concerned in 



such aerial bird-coops, always busy, apparently, 



like the nigger, disregarding the minister's 



direction, not to covet your neighbour's poultry. 



Then good yokels came to London once in order 



to be on the same platform of cosmopolitan 



experience as rival inhabitants of the past, and 



be able to say they had been there. For them 



were the Shoreditch "houses" with good old 



East Anglian signs, mostly names of towns, 



selling, likely enough, Norfolk ales ; Deacon's 



entire, for instance, proclaimed connection with 



Yarmouth. In such hostels you might on the 



occasion of excursions find groups of villagers up 



to see London, who saw it from the inside of the 



pub., and didn't stir from their close retreat till 



due to catch the return train. In the interval 



they herded in a lump like frightened sheep or 



rats in a pit, regarded all but their own crew as 



workers in various walks of dishonest industry, 



and kept their hands in their own pockets so as 



to pre-occupy those strongholds against the 



enemy. 



Please do not take me to mean that being a 



