[Illustration: GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, THE AUTHOR OF “TWICE ROUND THE CLOCK.”] TWICE ROUND THE CLOCK; OR THE HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT IN LONDON. BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, AUTHOR OF “A JOURNEY DUE NORTH,” “GASLIGHT AND DAYLIGHT,” ETC. ETC. ILLUSTRATED WITH A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR, AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, FROM DRAWINGS BY WILLIAM M’CONNEL. LONDON: RICHARD MARSH, 122, FLEET STREET. 1862. PREFACE. TO AUGUSTUS MAYHEW. Had I not fifty other valid reasons—did I not feel myself impelled to such a course by the long years of affectionate intercourse which have cast sunshine on that highway of life, of which the shadier side of the road has been apportioned to me, I should still, my dear Augustus, dedicate this book to you. I could show, I hope, my affection and esteem in other ways; but to address to you the Epistle Dedicatory of “Twice Round the Clock” is only your due, in justice and in courtesy. Civility is not so common a quality among the Eminent British Authors of the day, and mutual admiration is not so plentifully displayed by our Fieldings and Smolletts of 1859, that we middling and middle-class ink-spillers can afford to throw away a chance of saying a kind or civil thing to one another in the right way and in the right place. Do you, therefore, say something neat and complimentary about me in the preface to your next book; and I only trust that the task will confer as sincere a pleasure on you as it confers on me at this moment.