by which the hero William is condemned to death, was played by a stolid-faced creature, a brother of Paul Bedford. Dickens said to me at supper that night, “I had a strong idea that Bedford's brother meant to acquit William, and that all the rest of the play would go to the devil!"

As may be readily imagined, I had not very much leisure in the midst of all this employment, but such as I had was always pleasantly passed. Sundays with us were always "Sundays out "at Skindle's, at that time a delightfully quiet place, with no lawn, no river-rooms, no neighboring Guards' Club; at Thames Ditton; at Richmond; at the Swan at Staines; at Laker's Hotel at Redhill-sometimes my wife and I alone, oftener with the Keeleys and Albert and a party. On Friday nights there was always a gathering in Gower Street, at the house of Abraham Solomon, who had just made a hit with his picture, "Waiting for the Verdict," where would be Millais with his "Huguenot" success upon him, young and handsome, as in the medallion which Alexander Munro had just completed of him; and Frith, putting the finishing touches to his "Derby Day;" Frank Stone, Augustus Egg, and Sant; Dutton Cook, undecided whether to take to pen or pencil as his means of living; Ernest Hart, whose sister Solomon afterwards married; and William Fenn. A quietly Bohemian evening: a little dancing, a few games of "tonneau," a capital supper with a specialty of cold fish, then cigars, and singing by Frank Topham or Desanges, and imitations by Dillon Croker, "and so home."

Gatherings on a larger scale at Mr. Gambart's, the princely picture-dealer, first in Berners Street, afterwards in the Regent's Park; dances at Mr. Jacob Bell's, admirably superintended by the host's alter ego, Mr. "Tom" Hills; frequent festivity in connection with the Mont Blanc entertainment ;* and a general "good time."

* There was always a large gathering at the Egyptian Hall on the night preceding a change in the form of entertainment. There was a liberal supply of champagne; Mr. Rule, the well-known écailler of Maiden Lane, and his sons, presided over a long counter, and served out oysters and

Prominent among the houses to which we went most frequently, and where we were most heartily welcomed, was that of our neighbor in Doughty Street, Mr. J. M. Levy, who had just acquired the Daily Telegraph property, and was concentrating on it all his zeal, acumen, and experience to make his venture a success. He was ably seconded by his son Edward, who at that time wrote the dramatic criticisms among other work, and was consequently my constant companion at the theatre. The Sunday night réunions at Mr. Levy's are among my pleasant

bread-and-butter; and hot baked potatoes were dispensed by a man described in the programme as "Tatur Khan." The style of invitation was always peculiar. I annex one, lithographed on thin paper, in passport form, which was issued to all intended guests in '55:

"We, Albert Smith, one of her Britannic Majesty's representatives on the summit of Mont Blanc, Knight of the most noble order of the Grands Mulets, Baron Galignani of Piccadilly, Knight of the Grand Crossing from Burlington Arcade to the Egyptian Hall, Member of the Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge, Secretary for his own Affairs, etc., etc. "Request and require, in the name of his Majesty the Monarch of Mountains, all those whom it may concern, more especially the Police on the Piccadilly Frontier, to allow to pass freely in at the street-door

of the Egyptian Hall, and up-stairs to the Mont Blanc Room, on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 1, 1855, at 8 P.M., and to afford him every assistance in the way of oysters, stout, champagne, soda - and - brandy, and other aid of which he may stand in need.

"Given at the Box-office, Piccadilly, 28th day of November, 1855. "ALBERT SMITH.

"God save the Queen!

"Vu au bureau de la Salle. Bon pour entrer Piccadilly, par l'Arcade de Burlington.

"Samedi, 1st December, 1855.

TRUEFITT.

"Viséed for the Garrick and Fielding Clubs, the Vaults below the Houses of Parliament, Truefitt's Hair-cutting Saloon, the Glacier de Gunter, Jullien's, Laurent's, the Café de l'Europe, Pratt's, Limmer's, and all other places on the Rhine, between Rule's Marine Museum, or Appetizing Aquarium, and the Jolly Grenadier public - house, No. 1 Ellison Square, Pall Mall, South Sebastopol. RULE.

"Notice.-By the recent police enactments regulating large assemblies in the neighborhood of Piccadilly, this passport must be considered as available for one person only, and does not include the 'friend' who has always been dining with the bearer."

CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY EDITORSHIPS.

It was in the summer of 1855, when I was twenty-four, and had been married about a couple of years, that I made my first acquaintance with the denizens of British Bohemia-that I became initiated into the mysteries of our equivalent for that vie de Bohéme which half a century ago, despite its uncertainty, its poverty, and in many cases its misery, had, in its wild and picturesque freedom from conventionality, sufficient attraction to captivate a large section of the young men of Paris, and which found its brilliant historian in the unfortunate Henri Mürger. Our British Bohemia, as it existed in the days of which I am writing-I am doubtful whether it exists at all nowdiffered in many respects from that fanciful territory inhabited by Schaunard and his comrades. It was less picturesque, it was more practical and commonplace, perhaps a trifle more vulgar; but its denizens had this in common with their French prototypes-that they were young, gifted, and reckless; that they worked only by fits and starts, and never except under the pressure of necessity; that they were sometimes at the height of happiness, sometimes in the depths of despair, but that ordinarily they passed their lives

"little caring what might come;

Coffee-milling care and sorrow with a nose-adapted thumb;" and that-greatest item of resemblance-they had a thorough contempt for the dress, usages, and manners of ordinary middle-class civilization. The word "Philistine," with its now accepted signification, had not been invented by Mr. Matthew Arnold in those days; but the class which it represents existed, of course, and was the object of general loathing and contempt on the part of the Bohemians.

British Bohemia as it was then has been most admirably described by Thackeray in "Philip :" "A pleasant land, not fenced with drab stucco, like Belgravia or Tyburnia; not guarded by a large standing army of footmen; not echoing with noble chariots; not replete with polite chintz drawing-rooms and neat tea-tables-a land over which hangs an endless fog, occasioned by much tobacco; a land of chambers, billiard rooms, and oystersuppers; a land of song; a land where soda-water flows freely in the morning; a land of tin dish-covers from taverns and foaming porter; a land of lotos-eating (with lots of cayenne pepper), of pulls on the river, of delicious reading of novels, magazines, and saunterings in many studios; a land where all men call each other by their Christian names; where most are poor, where almost all are young, and where, if a few oldsters enter, it is because they have preserved more tenderly and carefully than others their youthful spirits and the delightful capacity to be idle. I have lost my way to Bohemia now," adds the philosopher, writing in the enjoyment of fame and riches; "but," he adds with a tender regret, "it is certain that Prague is the most picturesque city in the world."

From the circumstances of my life- my early marriage, the regular habits formed by, and necessary for, my holding my appointment in the Post-office, and from a certain distaste for a good deal of what formed an integral portion of the career-I was never a real Bohemian. But when my lot was cast among them, and when they saw that, though not "to the manner born,” I had many tastes and pursuits in common with theirs, I gradually won my way into their regard, and formed many close friendships, some of which happily exist to this day, while others are among the pleasantest memories of my life.

How it was that I first made acquaintance with Bohemia happened thus. I have already mentioned my early essay in verse-writing for the Illustrated London News. The connection thus commenced had been extended by my receiving from time to time proofs of wood-engrav