Transcribed from the 1903 Chapman and Hall _Sketches by Boz_ edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org THE MUDFOG AND OTHER SKETCHES CONTENTS PAGE Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble 495 Full Report of the First Meeting of the Mudfog Association 513 for the Advancement of Everything Section A. Zoology and Botany Section B. Anatomy and Medicine Section C. Statistics Section D. Mechanical Science Full Report of the Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association 531 for the Advancement of Everything Section A. Zoology and Botany Section B. Display of Models and Mechanical Science Section C. Anatomy and Medicine Section D. Statistics Supplementary Section, E. Umbugology and Ditchwaterisics The Pantomime of Life 551 Some Particulars Concerning a Lion 558 Mr. Robert Bolton 563 Familiar Epistle from a Parent to a Child 567 PUBLIC LIFE OF MR. TULRUMBLE ONCE MAYOR OF MUDFOG MUDFOG is a pleasant town—a remarkably pleasant town—situated in a charming hollow by the side of a river, from which river, Mudfog derives an agreeable scent of pitch, tar, coals, and rope-yarn, a roving population in oilskin hats, a pretty steady influx of drunken bargemen, and a great many other maritime advantages. There is a good deal of water about Mudfog, and yet it is not exactly the sort of town for a watering-place, either. Water is a perverse sort of element at the best of times, and in Mudfog it is particularly so. In winter, it comes oozing down the streets and tumbling over the fields,—nay, rushes into the very cellars and kitchens of the houses, with a lavish prodigality that might well be dispensed with; but in the hot summer weather it _will_ dry up, and turn green: and, although green is a very good colour in its way, especially in grass, still it certainly is not becoming to water; and it cannot be denied that the beauty of Mudfog is rather impaired, even by this trifling circumstance. Mudfog is a healthy place—very healthy;—damp, perhaps, but none the worse for that. It’s quite a mistake to suppose that damp is unwholesome: plants thrive best in damp situations, and why shouldn’t men? The inhabitants of Mudfog are unanimous in asserting that there exists not a finer race of people on the face of the earth; here we have an indisputable and veracious contradiction of the vulgar error at once. So, admitting Mudfog to be damp, we distinctly state that it is salubrious.