Among the very few single prints published in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there is one engraved on wood, measuring twenty inches by thirteen; it contains multitudes of figures, and is so great a rarity, that the author has seen only one impression of it, which is in the truly valuable and interesting collection of prints presented in the most liberal manner to the British Museum by Sir Joseph and Lady Banks. This print, which has escaped the notice of all the writers on the Graphic Art, is entitled, "Tittle-Tattle, or the several Branches of Gossipping;" at the foot of the print are the following verses, evidently in a type and orthography of a later time: 1. At childbed when the gossips meet, Fine stories we are told; And if they get a cup too much, Their tongues they cannot hold. 2. At market when good housewives meet, Their market being done, Together they will crack a pot Before they can get home. 3. The bakehouse is a place, you know, Where maids a story hold, And if their mistresses will prate, They must not be controll'd. 4. At alehouse you see how jovial they be, With every one her noggin; For till the skull and belly be full None of them will be jogging. 5. To Church fine ladies do resort, New fashions for to spy, And others go to Church sometimes, To shew their bravery. 6. Hot-house makes a rough skin smooth, And doth it beautify; Fine gossips use it every week, Their skins to purify. 7. At the conduit striving for their turn, The quarrel it grows great, That up in arms they are at last, And one another beat. 8. Washing at the river's side Good housewives take delight; But scolding sluts care not to work, Like wrangling queens they fight. 9. Then gossips all a warning take, Pray cease your tongue to rattle; Go knit, and sew, and brew, and bake, And leave off TITTLE-TATTLE. [Illustration: _"Smithfield Saloop"_] SMITHFIELD SALOOP. PLATE XXVIII. About a century ago, almost every corner of the more public streets was occupied at midnight, until six or seven in the morning, by the sellers of frumenty, barley broth, cow-heel soup, and baked ox-cheek; and in those days when several hundreds of chairmen were nightly waiting in the metropolis, and it was the fashion for the bloods of the day to beat the rounds, as they termed it, there was a much greater consumption of such refreshments. The scenes of vice at the above period were certainly far more frequent than they are at present, for hard drinking, and the visitation of brothels were then esteemed as the completion of what was termed genteel education; and it was no unusual thing to see the famous Quin, with his inseparable associate Frank Hayman, the painter, swearing at each other in the kennel, but both with a full determination to remain there until the watchman went his round.