ry of the police force in every large
town in England. When I had ended these papers, I did not feel disposed
to read any others at that time, but preferred falling into a train of
reverie and recollection.

First of all I remembered, with a smile, the unexpected manner in which
a relation of mine was discovered by an acquaintance, who had mislaid or
forgotten Mr. B.'s address. Now my dear cousin, Mr. B., charming as he
is in many points, has the little peculiarity of liking to change his
lodgings once every three months on an average, which occasions some
bewilderment to his country friends, who have no sooner learnt the 19,
Belle Vue Road, Hampstead, than they have to take pains to forget that
address, and to remember the 271/2, Upper Brown Street, Camberwell;
and so on, till I would rather learn a page of _Walker's Pronouncing
Dictionary_, than try to remember the variety of directions which I have
had to put on my letters to Mr. B. during the last three years. Last
summer it pleased him to remove to a beautiful village not ten miles out
of London, where there is a railway station. Thither his friend sought
him. (I do not now speak of the following scent there had been through
three or four different lodgings, where Mr. B. had been residing, before
his country friend ascertained that he was now lodging at R----.) He
spent the morning in making inquiries as to Mr. B.'s whereabouts in
the village; but many gentlemen were lodging there for the summer, and
neither butcher nor baker could inform him where Mr. B. was staying; his
letters were unknown at the post-office, which was accounted for by the
circumstance of their always being directed to his office in town. At
last the country friend sauntered back to the railway-office, and while
he waited for the train he made inquiry, as a last resource, of the
book-keeper at the station. "No, sir, I cannot tell you where Mr. B.
lodges--so many gentlemen go by the trains; but I have no doubt but
that the person standing by that pillar can inform you." The individual
to whom he directed the inquirer's attention had the appearance of a
tradesman--respectable enough, yet with no pretensions to "gentility,"
and had, apparently, no more urgent employment than lazily watching the
passengers who came dropping in to the station. However, when he was
spoken to, he answered civilly and promptly. "Mr. B.? tall gentleman,
with light hair? Yes, sir, I know Mr. B. He lodges at No. 8, Morton