of residence.

It was in a public-house; a convenient lodging for the forlorn
being, who, exiled from friendship, and unconnected by any ties of
consanguinity, can dress his scanty meal by a gratuitous fire, and where
casual generosity may sometimes supply him with a draught of Hanbury's
exhilarating beverage.

At the bar, directly facing the street door, the strangers, on inquiring
for the Poet by name, were directed by the landlord, with a sarcastical
expression of countenance, to "the first floor _down the chimney_!"
while the Hostess, whose demeanour perfectly accorded with that of
the well-manner'd gentlewoman, politely interfered, and, shewing the
parlour, sent a domestic to acquaint her lodger that he was wanted below
stairs.

The summons was instantaneously obeyed; but as the parlour precluded the
opportunity of private conversation, being partly occupied by clamorous
butchers, with whom this street abounds to redundancy, the Poet had no
other alternative than that of inviting the respectable visitants to
his attic, or, as the Landlord facetiously named the lofty domicile, his
first floor down the chimney!

Real Life in London must be seen, to be believed. The Hon. Tom Dashall
and his friend Tallyho were reared in the lap of luxury, and never
until now formed an adequate conception of the distressing privations
attendant on suffering humanity.

With a dejection of spirits evidently occasioned by the humiliating
necessity of ushering his polished friends into the wretched asylum of
penury, the Poet led the way with tardy reluctancy, while his visitors
regretted every step of ascent, under the appalling circumstance of
giving pain to adversity; yet they felt that to recede would be more
indelicate than to advance.

The apartment which they now entered seemed a lumber room, for the
reception of superfluous or unserviceable furniture, containing not
fewer than eleven decayed and mutilated chairs of varied description;
and the limited space, to make the most of it in a pecuniary point of
view, ~346~~ was encroached upon by three uncurtained beds, of most
impoverished appearance,--while, exhibiting the ravages of time in
divers fractures, the dingy walls and ceiling, retouched by the trowel
in many places with a lighter shade of repairing material, bore no unapt
resemblance to the Pye-bald Horse in Chiswell-street! Calculating on its
utility and probable future use, the builder of the mansion had given
to this