e inn might still
have been seen, though the galleried buildings which surrounded it were
modern. Before Holborn Viaduct was built, the "Black Bull" stood just at
the top of Holborn Hill, that difficult ascent which good citizens found
too long, and bad ones too short. "Sirrah, you'll be hanged; I shall live
to see you go up Holborn Hill," says Sir Sampson Legend to his thriftless
son in Congreve's "Love for Love."

But the "Black Bull" has nearer associations for us. It was here that Mrs.
Gamp and Betsy Prig nursed Mr. Lewsome through his fever at the expense of
John Westlock. When Mrs. Gamp relieved Betsy in the sick-room, the
following dialogue occurred: "'Anything to tell afore you goes, my dear?'
asked Mrs. Gamp, setting her bundle down inside the door, and looking
affectionately at her partner. 'The pickled salmon,' Mrs. Prig replied,
'is quite delicious. I can partick'ler recommend it. Don't have nothink to
say to the cold meat, for it tastes of the stable. The drinks is all
good.'" To-day the cold meat is represented by the noble animal on the
facade of the inn, and it will probably adorn the Guildhall collection of
old shop and tavern signs, where the hideous "Bull and Mouth" and "Goose
and Gridiron" still look down on the curious.

Of the matter-of-fact realities of London, which, though still existent,
have changed since Dickens' day, London Bridge is undergoing widening and
rebuilding, which will somewhat change its general aspect, though its
environment remains much the same.

Furnival's Inn, where Dickens lived, has disappeared, and Clifford's Inn
has just been sold (1903) in the public auction mart, to be removed, with
some hideous and unquiet modern office building doubtless destined to
take its place.

New transportation schemes, almost without number, are announced. Electric
trams, "tubes," and underground subways are being projected in every
direction. These perhaps do not change the surface aspect of things very
much, but they are working a marvellous change in the life of the times.
The old underground "District" and "Metropolitan" Railways are being
"electrified" by the magnanimity (_sic_) of American capital, and St.
Paul's Cathedral has been supplied with a costly electric-light plant at
the expense of an American multi-millionaire.

The American invasion of typewriters, roll-top desks, and book printing
and binding machinery, are marking an era of change and progress in the
production of th