rge and spacious, with its windows of
plate-glass, its Venetian blinds, its gaudily gilt and painted balcony,
and its massive brass knocker, betrayed a certain air of pretension,
standing as it did among the more sombre-looking mansions where the
real rank of the country resided. Clean windows and a bright knocker,
however--distinctive features as they were in the metropolis of those
days--would not have arrested the attention of the passing traveller to
the extent I have supposed, but that there were other signs and sights
than these.

At the open hall door, to which you ascended by a flight of granite
steps, lounged some half-dozen servants in powdered heads and gaudy
liveries--the venerable porter in his leather chair, the ruddy
coachman in his full-bottomed wig, tall footmen with bouquets in their
button-holes, were here to be seen reading the morning papers, or
leisurely strolling to the steps to take a look at the weather, and
cast a supercilious glance at the insignificant tide of population
that flowed on beneath them; a lazy and an idle race, they toiled not,
neither did they spin, and I sincerely trust that Solomon's costume bore
no resemblance to theirs.

More immediately in front of the house stood a mixed society of
idlers, beggars, horseboys, and grooms, assembled there from motives of
curiosity or gain. Indeed, the rich odour of savoury viands that issued
from the open kitchen windows and ascended through the area to the
nostrils of those without, might in its appetising steam have brought
the dew upon the lips of greater gourmands than they were. All that
French cookery could suggest to impart variety to the separate meals of
breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and supper, here went forward unceasingly;
and the beggars who thronged around the bars, and were fed with the
crumbs from the rich man's table, became by degrees so habituated to the
delicacies and refinements of good living, that they would have turned
up their noses with contempt at the humble and more homely fare of the
respectable shopkeeper. Truly, it was a strange picture to see these
poor and ragged men as they sat in groups upon the steps and on the
bare flagway, exposed to every wind of heaven, the drifting rain soaking
through their frail and threadbare garments, yet criticising, with
practical acumen, the savoury food before them. Consommes, ragouts,
pates, potages, jellies, with an infinity of that smaller grapeshot of
epicurism with which