. Master Humphrey's clock . e of hanging out a sign ; and the creaking and swingingof these boards in their iron frames on windy nights, formed a strange andmournful concert for the ears of those who lay awake in bed or hurried throughthe streets. Long stands of hackney-chairs and groups of chairmen, comparedwith whom the coachmen of our day are gentle and polite, obstructed the wayand filled the air with clamour ; night-cellars, indicated by a little stream oflight crossing the pavement, and stretching out half way into the road, and ))ythe stifled roar of voices from below, yawned for the re
. Master Humphrey's clock . e of hanging out a sign ; and the creaking and swingingof these boards in their iron frames on windy nights, formed a strange andmournful concert for the ears of those who lay awake in bed or hurried throughthe streets. Long stands of hackney-chairs and groups of chairmen, comparedwith whom the coachmen of our day are gentle and polite, obstructed the wayand filled the air with clamour ; night-cellars, indicated by a little stream oflight crossing the pavement, and stretching out half way into the road, and ))ythe stifled roar of voices from below, yawned for the reception and entertain-ment of the most abandoned of both sexes; under every shed and bulk smallgroups of link-boys gamed away the earnings of the day; or one more wearythan the rest, gave way to sleep, and let the fragment of his torch fall hissingon the puddled ground. Then there was the watch with staff and lanthorn crying the hour, and thekind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and turned them round /- -M- *\. in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, or blow, or froze, for verycomforts sake. The solitary passenger was startled by the chairmens cry of 22 MASTER HUMPHREYS CLOCK. By your leave there! as two came trotting past him with their emptyvehicle—carried backwards to show its being disengaged—and hurried to thenearest stand. Many a private chair too, inclosing some fine lady, monstrouslyhooped and furbelowed, and preceded by running-footmen bearing flambeaux—for which extinguishers are yet suspended before the doors of a few housesof the better sort—made the way gay and light as it danced along, and darkerand more dismal when it had passed. It was not unusual for these runninggentry, who carried it with a very high hand, to quarrel in the servants hallwhile waiting for their masters and mistresses; and, falling to blows eitherthere or in the street without, to strew the place of skirmish with hair-powder,fragments of bag-wigs, and scattered nos
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookpublisherlondonchapmanandha
