The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i et re ER i THE STRING OF PEARLS. at ne a ne ters pin ‘ een, himself up to thought, and if we may judge from the expression of his countenance, those thoughts were of a pleasant anticipatory character, for now and then he _ gave such a grim sort of smile as might well have sat upon the features of some ogre. | And now we will turn to another scene, of a widely different character. CHAPTER VI. THE PIP-SHOP, BELL-YARD. Hark! twelve o’clock at mid-day is cheerily proclaimed by St. Dunstan’s church, and scarcely have the sounds done echoing throughout the neighbourhood, ' and scarce has the clock of Lincoln’s-inn done chiming in with its announcement | of the same hour, when Bell-yard, Temple-bar, becomes a scene of commotion. | What a scampering of feet'is there, what a laughing and talking, what a jostling to be first.; and what an immense number of manceuvres are resorted to by some of the throng to distance others! | And mostly from Lincoln’s-inn do these persons, young and old, but most cer- tainly a majority of the former, come bustling and striving, although from the - neighbouring legal establishments likewise there came not a few ; {he ‘'emple con- | gai its numbers, and from the more distant Gray’s-inn there came a goodly _ lot. Now Bell-yard is almost choked up, and a stranger would wonder what could be the matter, and most probably stand in some doorway until the commotion was over. | [sit a fire? is it a fight? or anything else sufficiently alarming and extraordi- | aay to excite the junior members of the legal profession to such a species of || madness? No, itis none of these, nor is there a fat cause to be run for, which, in the hands of some clever practitioner, might become quite a vested interest. No, the enjoyment is purely one of a physical character, and all the pacing and. | racing—all this turmoil and trouble—all this pasking, jostling, laughing, and shouting, is to see who will get first to Lovett’s pie-shop. / Yes, on the left-hand side of Bell-yard, going down from Carey-street, was at | the time we write of, one of the most celebrated shops for the sale of veal and pork pies that ever London produced. High and low, rich and poor, resorted to it; its fame had spread far and wide; it was because the first batch of these pies came up at twelve o’clock that there was such a rush of the Jegal profession to obtain them. There fame had spread even to great distances, and many persons carried them to the suburbs of the city as quite a treat to friends and relations there residing. And well did they deserve their reputation, those delicious pies ! there was about them a flavour never surpassed, and rarely equalled; the paste was of the most delicate construction, and impregnated with the aroma of a delicious grav that defies ce- scription. ‘Then the small portions of meat which they contained were so tender, and the fat and the lean so artistically mixed up, that to eat one of Lovett’s pics was such a provocative to eat another, that many persons who came to lunch stayed to dine, wasting more than aa hour, perhaps, of precious time, and endangering— who knows to the contrary ?—the success of some law-suit thereby. he counter in Lovett’s shop was inthe shape of a horseshoe, and it was the custom of the young bloods from the Temple and Lincoln’s-inn to set ina row upon its edge while they partook of the delicious pies, and chatted gaily about one eoneern and another. * Many an appointment for the evening was made at Levett’s pie shop, aud many a: = 1 es aires ~ : Le eS ite