[156] When a gentleman, whose industry and integrity have raised him to the rank of an Alderman of London, was apprentice, he one Sunday afternoon took a walk with several of his friends to Islington. Considering smoking as a manly accomplishment, he put a pipe in his mouth. A respectable citizen who knew his master, meeting him in the fields, with a grave face accosted him as follows: "How now, Tom! smoking tobacco! pray who was your teacher? If you mean to be rich, unlearn it as fast as you can, for I never knew a man worth a guinea who stuck a pipe in his mouth before he was twenty." "The d--l you did not," replied the boy, "then I will never smoke another." He dashed his clay tube to the ground, and adhered to his resolution. [157] The sign by which this circumstance is intimated was at first inscribed GOODCHILD and WEST. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city friends informing him that it was usual for the senior partner's name to precede, it was altered. [158] Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste for music, says "they are invariably fond of everything that is full in the mouth." [159] The inscription must remind every reader of Pope's lines,-- "Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully rears its head, and lies," etc. The Duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is not so generally known: "Here stand I, The Lord knows why; But if I fall-- Have at ye all!" [160] To mark the midnight hour, each of the watches is a quarter after twelve. [161] This reverend gentleman is said to be intended for Mr. Platell, once curate of Barnet. [162] A copy of this figure on a larger scale is engraved by Mr. Bartolozzi. [163] The following whimsical notice, written by a believer in transmigration, was a few years ago sent to several country gentlemen, accompanied with a request that the contents might, _if possible_, be communicated to all the fish and fowl, birds and beasts, in their respective manors:-- "A WARNING TO BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES. "Bustards, pheasants, woodcocks, widgeons, Wild-ducks, plovers, snipes, and pigeons; Every fowl of every sort, To your native haunts resort. Turbot, salmon, herring, soles, Plunge into your native holes. Bucks, and does, and hares, and fawns, Speed ye to your native lawns. Each to your closest covers haste! Beware! beware the man of taste! All that can escape, away! You're surely slaughter'd, if you stay, For Monday next is Lord Mayor's day." [164] This scene is laid in the cellar of a house near Water Lane, Fleet Street, then known by the name of the "Blood Bowl House;" which curious appellation was given it from the various scenes of riot and murder which were there perpetrated.