He afterwards took lodgings in St.James's Chambers, and then a house in Young Street, Kensington.

Here he lived from 1847, when he was achieving his great triumph with _Vanity Fair_, down to 1853, when he removed to a house which he bought in Onslow Square.

In Young Street there had come to lodge opposite to him an Irish gentleman, who, on the part of his injured country, felt very angry with Thackeray.

_The Irish Sketch Book_ had not been complimentary, nor were the descriptions which Thackeray had given generally of Irishmen; and there was extant an absurd idea that in his abominable heroine Catherine Hayes he had alluded to Miss Catherine Hayes the Irish singer.

Word was taken to Thackeray that this Irishman intended to come across the street and avenge his country on the calumniator's person.