Dicken's works . nor Billsmethis, of the Kings Theatre. It was not in Spring Gardens,or Newman Street, or Berners Street, or GowerStreet, or Charlotte Street, or Percy Street, or anyother of the numerous streets which have beendevoted time out of mind to professional people,dispensaries, and boarding-houses; it was not inthe West-end at all — it rather approximated to theeastern portion of London, being situated in thepopulous and improving neighborhood of GraysInn Lane. It was not a dear dancing academj^ —four and sixpence a quarter is decidedly cheap uponthe whole. It was very select, the nu
Dicken's works . nor Billsmethis, of the Kings Theatre. It was not in Spring Gardens,or Newman Street, or Berners Street, or GowerStreet, or Charlotte Street, or Percy Street, or anyother of the numerous streets which have beendevoted time out of mind to professional people,dispensaries, and boarding-houses; it was not inthe West-end at all — it rather approximated to theeastern portion of London, being situated in thepopulous and improving neighborhood of GraysInn Lane. It was not a dear dancing academj^ —four and sixpence a quarter is decidedly cheap uponthe whole. It was very select, the number of pupilsbeing strictly limited to seventy-five, and a quarterspayment in advance being rigidly exacted. Therewas public tuition and private tuition — an assembly-room and a parlor. Signor Billsmethis family werealways thrown in with the parlor, and included inparlor price; that is to say, a private pupil hadSignor Billsmethis parlor to dance in, and SignorBillsmethis family to dance ivifh; and when he. SKETCHES BY BOZ. 369 had been sufficiently broken in in the parlor, hebegan to run in couples in the Assembly-room. Such was the dancing academy of Signor Bill-smethi, when Mr. Augustus Cooper, of Fetter Lane,first saw an unstamped advertisement walking leis-urely down Holborn Hill, announcing to the worldthat Signor Billsmethi, of the Kings Theatre, in-tended opening for the season with a Grand Ball. Xow, Mr. Augustus Cooper was in the oil andcolor line — just of age, with a little money, a littlebusiness, and a little mother, who, having managedher husband and his business in his lifetime, tookto managing her son and his business after hisdecease; and so, somehow or other, he had beencooped up in the little back-parlor behind the shopon week-days, and in a little deal box without a lid(called by courtesy a pew) at Bethel Chapel, onSundays, and had seen no more of the world thanif he had been an infant all his days; whereasYoung White, at the Gas-fitters over the w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1890
