appears to have visited the Eagle Tavern in 1835 or 1836. It
was then a notable place of entertainment consisting of gardens
with an orchestra, and the 'Grecian Saloon,' which was furnished
with an organ and a 'self-acting piano.' Here concerts were
given every evening, which in Lent took a sacred turn, and
consisted of selections from Handel and Mozart. In 1837 the
organ was removed, and a new one erected by Parsons.

The Eagle gained a wide reputation through its being introduced
into a once popular song.

Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That's the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

This verse was subsequently modified (for nursery purposes)
thus:

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
That's the way the money goes,[9]
Pop goes the weasel.

Many explanations have been given of 'weasel.' Some say
it was a purse made of weasel skin; others that it was a
tailor's flat-iron which used to be pawned (or 'popped')
to procure the needful for admission to the tavern. A third
(and more intelligible) suggestion is that the line is simply
a catch phrase, without any meaning.

There is a notable reference to the organ in _Little
Dorrit_. Arthur Clennam goes to call on old Frederick Dorrit,
the clarionet player, and is directed to the house where he
lived. 'There were so many lodgers in this house that the
door-post seemed to be as full of bell handles as a cathedral
organ is of stops,' and Clennam hesitates for a time, 'doubtful
which might be the clarionet stop.'

Further on in the same novel we are told that it was the organ
that Mrs. Finching was desirous of learning.

I have said ever since I began to recover the blow of
Mr. F's death that I would learn the organ of which
I am extremely fond but of which I am ashamed to say
I do not yet know a note.

The following fine description of the tones of an organ occurs
in _The Chimes_:

The organ sounded faintly in the church below. Swelling
by degrees the melody ascended to the roof, and filled
the choir and nave. Expanding more and more, it rose
up, up; up, up; higher, higher, higher up; awakening
agitated hearts within the burly piles of oak, the
hollow bells, the iron-bound doors, the stairs of
solid stone; until the tower walls were insufficient
to contain it, and it soared into the sky.

The effect of this on Trotty Veck was ve