spoke also of a
shuffle of the feet during the process.

And again. There is a piquant quaintness in the upside-down turning of
every thing in this wonderful Book. Such as Perker's eyes, which are
described as playing with his "inquisitive nose" a "perpetual game
of"--what, think you? Bo-Peep? not at all: but "peep-bo." How odd and
unaccountable! We all knew the little "Bo-peep," and her sheep--but
"peep-bo" is quite a reversal.

Gas was introduced into London about the year 1812 and was thought a
prodigiously "brilliant illuminant." But in the Pickwickian days it was
still in a crude state--and we can see in the first print--that of the
club room--only two attenuated jets over the table. In many of the
prints we find the dip or mould candle, which was used to light Sam as he
sat in the coffee room of the Blue Boar. Mr. Nupkins' kitchen was _not_
lit by gas.

As to this matter of light--it all depends on habit and accommodating.
When a boy I have listened to "Ivanhoe" read out--O enchantment! by the
light of _two_ "mould" candles--the regular thing--which required
"snuffing" about every ten minutes, and snuffing required dexterity. The
snuffers--laid on a long tray--were of ponderous construction; it was
generally some one's regular duty to snuff--how odd seems this now! The
"plaited wicks" which came later were thought a triumph, and the snuffers
disappeared. They also are to be seen in the Curio Shops.

How curious, too, the encroachment of a too practical age on the old
romance. "Fainting" was the regular thing in the Pickwickian days, in
any agitation; "burnt feathers" and the "sal volatile" being the remedy.
The beautiful, tender and engaging creatures we see in the annuals, all
fainted regularly--and knew _how_ to faint--were perhaps taught it. Thus
when Mr. Pickwick was assumed to have "proposed" to his landlady, she in
business-like fashion actually "fainted;" now-a-days "fainting" has gone
out as much as duelling.

In the travellers' rooms at Hotels--in the "commercial" room--we do not
see people smoking "large Dutch pipes"--nor is "brandy and water" the
only drink of the smoking room. Mr. Pickwick and his friends were always
"breaking the waxen seals" of their letters--while Sam, and people of his
degree, used the wafer. (What by the way was the "fat little boy"--in
the seal of Mr. Winkle's penitential letter to his sire? Possibly a
cupid.) Snuff taking was then common enough in the case