When some concurring circumstances have prevented the rapid letting of new houses in parts of the parish of St. Mary-le-bon, I believe it might be safely asserted, that builders have admitted persons into them who had a girl in almost every room as a distinct lodger; but they are generally _dislodged_ as respectable inhabitants approach, and they return to their previous haunts in more obscure situations. Exeter-street was dreadfully infested with wretched women and thieves in 1759, and great difficulty occurred in driving them from it; that it has been accomplished, may serve as a hint for some modern unfortunate neighbourhoods. There are but few of our Essayists who have not reprobated the distribution of _vales_ to the domesticks of those to whom visits were paid. When the custom was in full vigour, the office of a footman became very lucrative, and the division of the profits arising from the contributions of a large company, was a matter of no small importance to the parti-coloured mendicants; who arranged themselves in their Master's hall in double ranks, prepared to affront those who infringed their rights, and were barely civil when they received sums which would have procured meals for fifty poor families. Card-money, or money deposited under the candlesticks for the servants where card-parties were held, deserved less reprehension, as it was in every one's power to avoid gaming; but when a man in moderate circumstances was insulted for not giving that which was necessary for his own existence, or was compelled to decline an invitation to his injury, we cannot but wonder that such a custom should have prevailed for a year, much less a Century or more. It was meanness in the master to suffer such an exaction, and folly to comply with it when himself a visitor. Some serious attempts were made about 1760 to abolish Vales, which has been at length gradually accomplished, though there are still unthinking people who give where it is not expected.