Dare pondus idonea fumo_," or, in the
language of Cicero, it may be justly said of them, "_Damnant quod non
intelligent_." The magnifico Murray has his merry meetings, where new
books are made palatable to certain tastes by sumptuous feastings, and
a choice supply of old wines. Colburn brings his books into notice by
first bringing his dinner _coteries_ into close conclave; and Longman's
monthly melange of authors and critics is a literary statute dinner,
where every guest is looking out for a liberal engagement.

[Illustration: page089]

Even the booksellers themselves feast one another before they buy and
sell; and a trade sale, without a trade dinner to precede it, would be
a very poor concern indeed. Fire companies and water companies, bubble
companies and banking companies, all must be united and consolidated by
a good dinner company. Your fat citizen, with a paunch that will scarce
allow him to pass through the side avenue of Temple Bar, marks his feast
days upon his sheet almanack, as a lawyer marks his term list with a
double dash, thus =, and shakes in his easy chair like a sack of blubber
as lie recapitulates the names of all the glorious good things of which
he has partaken at the annual civic banquet at Fishmonger's Hall, or the
Bible Association dinner at the City of London Tavern: at the mention
of white bait, his lips smack together with joy, and he lisps out
instinctively Blackwall: talk of a rump steak and Dolly's, his eyes grow
wild with delight; and just hint at the fine green fat of a fresh
killed turtle dressed at Birch's, and his whole soul's in arms for a
corporation dinner. Reader, I have been led into this strain of thinking
by an excursion I am about to make with Alderman Marigold and family,
~89~~to enjoy the pleasures of a Sunday ordinary in the suburbs of
the metropolis; an old fashioned custom that is now fast giving way
to modern notions of refinement, and is therefore the more worthy of
characteristic record.

Bernard Blackmantle.

[Illustration: page89b]

A SUNDAY RAMBLE TO HIGHGATE,

OR, THE CITS ORDINARY.

Bernard Blackmantle's first Excursion with the Marigold
Family--Lucubrations of the Alderman on the Alterations of
the Times--Sketches and Recollections on the Road--The Past
and the Present--Arrival at the Gate House, Highgate--The
Cit's Ordinary--Traits of Character--The Water Drinker, the
Vegetable Eater, and the Punster--Tom Cornish, t