subject of bill-sticking, from that time to the
present!" said I.

"Pretty well so," was the answer.

"Excuse me," said I; " but I am a sort of
collector——"

"Not Income-tax?" cried His Majesty,
hastily removing his pipe from his lips.

"No, no," said I.

"Water-rate?" said His Majesty.

"No, no," I returned.

"Gas? Assessed? Sewers?" said His
Majesty.

"You misunderstand me," I replied
soothingly. "Not that sort of collector at all: a
collector of facts."

"Oh! if it's only facts," cried the King of
the Bill-Stickers, recovering his good-humour,
and banishing the great mistrust that had
suddenly fallen upon him, "come in and
welcome! If it had been income, or winders,
I think I should have pitched you out of the
wan, upon my soul!"

Readily complying with the invitation, I
squeezed myself in at the small aperture.
His Majesty, graciously handing me a little
three-legged stool on which I took my seat
in a corner, inquired if I smoked?

"I do;— that is, I can," I answered.

"Pipe and a screw!" said His Majesty to
the attendant charioteer. "Do you prefer a
dry smoke, or do you moisten it?"

As unmitigated tobacco produces most
disturbing effects upon my system (indeed, if I
had perfect moral courage, I doubt if I should
smoke at all, under any circumstances), I
advocated moisture, and begged the Sovereign
of the Bill-Stickers to name his usual liquor,
and to concede to me the privilege of paying
for it. After some delicate reluctance on his
part, we were provided, through the
instrumentality of the attendant charioteer, with a
can of cold rum-and-water, flavoured with
sugar and lemon. We were also furnished
with a tumbler, and I was provided with a
pipe. His Majesty, then, observing that we
might combine business with conversation,
gave the word for the car to proceed; and, to
my great delight, we jogged away at a foot
pace.

I say to my great delight, because I am
very fond of novelty, and it was a new sensation
to be jolting through the tumult of the
city in that secluded Temple, partly open to
the sky, surrounded by the roar without, and
seeing nothing but the clouds. Occasionally,
blows from whips fell heavily on the Temple's
walls, when by stopping up the road longer than
usual, we irritated carters and coachmen to
madness; but, they fell harmless upon us within
and disturbed not the serenity of our peaceful
retreat. As I looked upward, I felt, I should
imagine, like the Astronomer Royal. I was
enchanted by the contrast between the freezing
nature of our external mission on the blood
of the populace, and the perfect composure
reigning within those sacred precincts: where
His Majesty, reclining easily on his left arm,
smoked his pipe and drank his rum-and-
water from his own side of the tumbler, which
stood impartially between us. As I looked
down from the clouds and caught his royal
eye, he understood my reflections. "I have
an idea," he observed, with an upward
glance, "of training scarlet runners across in
the season,—making a arbor of it,—and some-
times taking tea in the same, according to the
song."

I nodded approval.

"And here you repose and think?" said I.

"And think," said he; "of posters—walls
—and hoardings."

We were both silent, contemplating the
vastness of the subject. I remembered a
surprising fancy of dear THOMAS HOOD'S, and
wondered whether this monarch ever sighed
to repair to the great wall of China, and stick
bills all over it.

"And so," said he, rousing himself, "it's
facts as you collect?"

"Facts," said I.

"The facts of bill-sticking," pursued His
Majesty, in a benignant manner, "as known
to myself, air as following. When my father
was Engineer, Beadle, and Bill-Sticker to
the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, he
employed women to post bills for him. He
employed women to post bills at the time of
the riots of London. He died at the age of
seventy-five year, and was buried by the
murdered Eliza Grimwood, over in the
Waterloo-road."

As this was somewhat in the nature of a
royal speech, I listened with deference and
silently. His Majesty, taking a scroll from his
pocket, proceeded, with great distinctness, to
pour out the following flood of information:—

"'The bills being at that period mostly
proclamations and declarations, and which were
only a demy size, the manner of posting the
bills (as they did not use brushes) was by
means of a piece of wood which they called a
'dabber.' Thus things continued till such
time as the State Lottery was passed, and then
the printers began to print larger bills, and
men were employed instead of women, as the
State Lottery Commissioners then began to
send men all over England to post bills, and
would keep them out for six or eight months
at a time, and they were called by the London
bill-stickers 'trampers,' their wages at the
time being ten shillings per day, besides
expenses. They used sometimes to be stationed
in large towns for five or six months together,
distributing the schemes to all the houses in
the town. And then there were more caricature
wood-block engravings for posting-bills
than there are at the present time, the
principal printers, at that time, of posting-bills
being Messrs. Evans and Ruffy, of Budge-
row; Thoroughgood and Whiting, of the
present day; and Messrs. Gye and Balne,
Gracechurch Street, City. The largest bills
printed at that period were a two-sheet
double crown; and when they commenced