CHAPTER III--SHOPS AND THEIR TENANTS.
What inexhaustible food for speculation, do the streets of London afford! We never were able to agree with Sterne in pitying the man who could travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say that all was barren; we have not the slightest commiseration for the man who can take up his hat and stick, and walk from Covent-garden to St.Paul's Churchyard, and back into the bargain, without deriving some amusement--we had almost said instruction--from his perambulation.

And yet there are such beings: we meet them every day.

Large black stocks and light waistcoats, jet canes and discontented countenances, are the characteristics of the race; other people brush quickly by you, steadily plodding on to business, or cheerfully running after pleasure.

These men linger listlessly past, looking as happy and animated as a policeman on duty.

Nothing seems to make an impression on their minds: nothing short of being knocked down by a porter, or run over by a cab, will disturb their equanimity.