A series of pictures representing the streets of London in thenight, even at the comparatively recent date of this tale, wouldpresent to the eye something so very different in character fromthe reality which is witnessed in these times, that it would bedifficult for the beholder to recognise his most familiar walks inthe altered aspect of little more than half a century ago.
They were, one and all, from the broadest and best to the narrowestand least frequented, very dark. The oil and cotton lamps, thoughregularly trimmed twice or thrice in the long winter nights, burntfeebly at the best; and at a late hour, when they were unassistedby the lamps and candles in the shops, cast but a narrow track ofdoubtful light upon the footway, leaving the projecting doors andhouse-fronts in the deepest gloom. Many of the courts and laneswere left in total darkness; those of the meaner sort, where oneglimmering light twinkled for a score of houses, being favoured inno slight degree. Even in these places, the inhabitants had oftengood reason for extinguishing their lamp as soon as it was lighted;and the watch being utterly inefficient and powerless to preventthem, they did so at their pleasure. Thus, in the lightestthoroughfares, there was at every turn some obscure and dangerousspot whither a thief might fly or shelter, and few would care tofollow; and the city being belted round by fields, green lanes,waste grounds, and lonely roads, dividing it at that time from thesuburbs that have joined it since, escape, even where the pursuitwas hot, was rendered easy.
It is no wonder that with these favouring circumstances in full andconstant operation, street robberies, often accompanied by cruelwounds, and not unfrequently by loss of life, should have been ofnightly occurrence in the very heart of London, or that quiet folksshould have had great dread of traversing its streets after theshops were closed. It was not unusual for those who wended homealone at midnight, to keep the middle of the road, the better toguard against surprise from lurking footpads; few would venture torepair at a late hour to Kentish Town or Hampstead, or even toKensington or Chelsea, unarmed and unattended; while he who hadbeen loudest and most valiant at the supper-table or the tavern,and had but a mile or so to go, was glad to fee a link-boy toescort him home.
There were many other characteristics--not quite so disagreeable-aboutthe thoroughfares of London then, with which they had beenlong familiar. Some of the shops, especially those to the eastwardof Temple Bar, still adhered to the old practice of hanging out asign; and the creaking and swinging of these boards in their ironframes on windy nights, formed a strange and mournfal concert forthe ears of those who lay awake in bed or hurried through thestreets. Long stands of hackney-chairs and groups of chairmen,compared with whom the coachmen of our day are gentle and polite,obstructed the way and filled the air with clamour; night-cellars,indicated by a little stream of light crossing the pavement, andstretching out half-way into the road, and by the stifled roar ofvoices from below, yawned for the reception and entertainment ofthe most abandoned of both sexes; under every shed and bulk smallgroups of link-boys gamed away the earnings of the day; or one moreweary than the rest, gave way to sleep, and let the fragment of historch fall hissing on the puddled ground.
Then there was the watch with staff and lantern crying the hour,and the kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice andturned them round in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed,or blew, or froze, for very comfort"s sake. The solitary passengerwas startled by the chairmen"s cry of "By your leave there!" as twocame trotting past him with their empty vehicle--carried backwardsto show its being disengaged--and hurried to the nearest stand.
Many a private chair, too, inclosing some fine lady, monstrouslyhooped and furbelowed, and preceded by running-footmen bearingflambeaux--for which extinguishers are yet suspended before thedoors of a few houses of the better sort--made the way gay andlight as it danced along, and darker and more dismal when it hadpassed. It was not unusual for these running gentry, who carriedit with a very high hand, to quarrel in the servants" hall whilewaiting for their masters and mistresses; and, falling to blowseither there or in the street without, to strew the place ofskirmish with hair-powder, fragments of bag-wigs, and scatterednosegays. Gaming, the vice which ran so high among all classes(the fashion being of course set by the upper), was generally thecause of these disputes; for cards and dice were as openly used,and worked as much mischief, and yielded as much excitement belowstairs, as above. While incidents like these, arising out of drumsand masquerades and parties at quadrille, were passing at the westend of the town, heavy stagecoaches and scarce heavier waggons werelumbering slowly towards the city, the coachmen, guard, andpassengers, armed to the teeth, and the coach--a day or so perhapsbehind its time, but that was nothing--despoiled by highwaymen; whomade no scruple to attack, alone and single-handed, a whole caravanof goods and men, and sometimes shot a passenger or two, and weresometimes shot themselves, as the case might be. On the morrow,rumours of this new act of daring on the road yielded matter for afew hours" conversation through the town, and a Public Progress ofsome fine gentleman (half-drunk) to Tyburn, dressed in the newestfashion, and damning the ordinary with unspeakable gallantry andgrace, furnished to the populace, at once a pleasant excitement anda wholesome and profound example.