whimper about, poor miserable object, that I began to grin and chuckle at the things I saw, so soon as good Doctor Curée, the homœopathist, gave me back my eyes. It is too late to mend now. While I am yet babbling, I feel that I have nearly said my say. This book, as a Book, will go, and be forgotten; but it will, years hence, acquire comparative value when disinterred, from the “two-penny-box” at a bookstall. Old Directories, Road Books, Court-Guides, Gazetteers, of half a century since, are worth something now. They are as the straw that enters into the composition of new bricks or books. Let us bide our time, then, my Augustus, humbly but cheerfully. _You_ may have better fortune. You write novels and tales: and the chronicles of Love never die. But if in the year 1959, some historian of the state of manners in England during the reign of Queen Victoria, points an allusion in a foot note by a reference to an old book called “Twice Round the Clock,” and which professes to be a series of essays on the manners and customs of the Londoners in 1859, that reference will be quite enough of reward for your friend. Macaulay quotes broadsides and Grub Street ballads. Carlyle does not disdain to put the obscurest of North German pamphleteers into the witness-box; albeit he often dismisses him with a cuff and a kick. At all events, we may be quoted some of these days, dear Gus, even if we are kicked into the bargain. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. CONTENTS. PAGE FOUR A.M.—BILLINGSGATE MARKET 9 FIVE A.M.—THE PUBLICATION OF THE “TIMES” NEWSPAPER 25 SIX A.M.—COVENT GARDEN MARKET 37 SEVEN A.M.—A PARLIAMENTARY TRAIN 49 EIGHT A.M.—ST. JAMES’S PARK—THE MALL 65 NINE A.M.—THE CLERKS AT THE BANK, AND THE BOATS ON THE RIVER 78 TEN A.M.—THE COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH, AND THE “BENCH” ITSELF 88 ELEVEN A.M.—TROOPING THE GUARD, AND A MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE 104 NOON—THE JUSTICE-ROOM AT THE MANSION-HOUSE, AND THE “BAY TREE” 116 ONE P.M.—DOCK LONDON AND DINING LONDON 128 TWO P.M.—FROM REGENT STREET TO HIGH CHANGE 142 THREE P.M.—DEBENHAM AND STORE’S AUCTION-ROOMS, AND THE PANTHEON BAZAAR 158 FOUR P.M.—TATTERSALL’S, AND THE PARK 186 FIVE P.M.—THE FASHIONABLE CLUB, AND THE PRISONERS’ VAN 200 SIX P.M.—A CHARITY DINNER, AND THE NEWSPAPER WINDOW AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE 218 SEVEN P.M.—A THEATRICAL GREEN-ROOM, AND “BEHIND THE SCENES” 235