ohn Bullism. It is a fragment of London as it was in
its better days, with its antiquated folks and fashions. Here flourish
in great preservation many of the holiday games and customs of yore.
The inhabitants most religiously eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday,
hot-cross-buns on Good Friday, and roast goose at Michaelmas; they send
love-letters on Valentine's Day, burn the pope on the fifth of November,
and kiss all the girls under the mistletoe at Christmas. Roast beef and
plum pudding are also held in superstitious veneration, and port and
sherry maintain their grounds as the only true English wines; all others
being considered vile, outlandish beverages.

Little Britain has its long catalogue of city wonders, which its
inhabitants consider the wonders of the world: such as the great bell
of St. Paul's, which sours all the beer when it tolls; the figures that
strike the hours at St. Dunstan's clock; the Monument; the lions in the
Tower; and the wooden giants in Guildhall. They still believe in dreams
and fortune-telling, and an old woman that lives in Bull-and-Mouth
Street makes a tolerable subsistence by detecting stolen goods,
and promising the girls good husbands. They are apt to be rendered
uncomfortable by comets and eclipses; and if a dog howls dolefully at
night, it is looked upon as a sure sign of a death in the place. There
are even many ghost stories current, particularly concerning the old
mansion-houses; in several of which it is said strange sights are
sometimes seen. Lords and ladies, the former in full bottomed wigs,
hanging sleeves, and swords, the latter in lappets, stays, hoops and
brocade, have been seen walking up and down the great waste chambers,
on moonlight nights; and are supposed to be the shades of the ancient
proprietors in their court-dresses.

Little Britain has likewise its sages and great men. One of the most
important of the former is a tall, dry old gentleman, of the name
of Skryme, who keeps a small apothecary's shop. He has a cadaverous
countenance, full of cavities and projections; with a brown circle round
each eye, like a pair of horned spectacles. He is much thought of by the
old women, who consider him a kind of conjurer, because he has two of
three stuffed alligators hanging up in his shop, and several snakes in
bottles. He is a great reader of almanacs and newspapers, and is much
given to pore over alarming accounts of plots, conspiracies, fires,
earthquakes, and volcanic erupti