Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London . selftherefrom. There are your men who delight in witnessing surgicaloperations, and those who never miss going to a hanging. There is aclass of people who have a morbid predilection for attending coronersinquests, and another who insist upon going to the Derby, be theweather wet or dry, cold or hot, though they scarcely know a horsesfore from his hind legs, and have never a sixpenny bet on the is a class who hang about artists studios, knowing no more ofpainting than Mr. Wakley does of poetry; there are the men y
Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London . selftherefrom. There are your men who delight in witnessing surgicaloperations, and those who never miss going to a hanging. There is aclass of people who have a morbid predilection for attending coronersinquests, and another who insist upon going to the Derby, be theweather wet or dry, cold or hot, though they scarcely know a horsesfore from his hind legs, and have never a sixpenny bet on the is a class who hang about artists studios, knowing no more ofpainting than Mr. Wakley does of poetry; there are the men you meetat charity dinners, the women you meet at marriages and , there is a class of eccentrics, who, like the crazy Earl of Ports-mouth, have an invincible penchant for funerals— black jobs, as themad lord used to call them ; and finally, there are the people whohaunt Sales bv Auction. Walk into Debenham and Storrs long room, and with the exercise ofa little judgment and keenness of observation, you will be enabled to 168 TWICE ROUND THE THREE DEBENHAM AND STOKES AUCTION-ROOMS. 169 recognise these amateurs of auctions in a very short space of time, andto preserve them in your memory. They very rarely bid, they yetmore rarely have anything knocked down to them ; indeed, to allappearances, the world does not seem to have used them well enough toallow them to buy many superfluities, yet there they stand patiently,hour after hour, catalogue in hand—they are always possessed ofcatalogues—ticking off the amount of the bids, against the numbersof the articles which they never buy ; you should remark, too, andadmire, the shrewd, knowing, anxious scrutiny which they extend tothe articles which are hung up round the room, or which are held upfor inspection by the porter, as the sale proceeds. They seem actuallyinterested in the cut of a Macintosh, in the slides of a telescope, in thetriggers of a double-barrelled gun; they are the first to arrive at
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