"Without a single inflexion of the body--and, for anything that appears to the contrary, it may be incased in tin--from the waist, the form abruptly and boldly bows out like a large beehive, or an arch of carpentry, built downward from above the hips, for the purpose of opening and distending the enormous petticoat into numerous plaits and folds, and therefore allowing the legs to walk without incumbrance. Their pictures are exactly miniatured in an unpainted penny doll of turnery ware, made all round, before and behind, and sold in the toy shops for the amusement of infancy. These Flemish girls are of low stature, with features as formal and old-fashioned as their dress. Their gait and manner answer to both. They carry their brooms, not under the left arm, but upon it, as they would children, upright between the arm and the side, with the heads in front of the shoulder. One, and one only, of the brooms is invariably held in the right hand, and this is elevated with the sharp cry of 'Buy a Broom?' to any one likely to become a purchaser, till it is either purchased or declined. "The 'brooms' are one entire piece of wood; the sweeping part being slivered from the handle, and the shavings neatly turned over, and bound into the form of a besom. They are bought to dust curtains and hangings with; but good housewives have another use for them; one of them, dipped in fair water, sprinkles the dried clothes in the laundry, for the process of ironing, infinitely better than the hand; it distributes the water more equally and more quickly." Other foreigners were there in the streets, Italian boys, who had white mice, and played the hurdy-gurdy, and Italian men, who ground upright pianos, and sometimes had a companion monkey; but the German brass band was, happily for our forefathers, unknown. CHAPTER XXV. Holborn Viaduct--Omnibuses--Cabs--Hansom's patent--Posting--Mail coaches--Stage coaches--Hotels. On all hands, it is admitted that the streets of London were generally well paved, and there were but two bad hills, Holborn and Snow Hills, which were caused by the Valley of the Fleet. This has been bridged over in our time, but a similar viaduct was proposed in 1833. This was intended to take down the houses from the corner of Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, to Seacoal Lane, Skinner Street, or, on the opposite side, from Hatton Garden to the top of Snow Hill, and erect a level terrace on brick arches between these points, the houses to be taken down and set back about fifty feet, or in a line with St. Andrew's Church, and the arches under the terrace to be fitted up as shops on Holborn Hill, with a handsome balustrade on the top. An ornamental arch was to be turned over Farringdon Street, on the principle of Highgate Archway. This is, virtually, what was begun about thirty years later, in 1867.