The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 296: what you’re looking at

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

THE HANGMAN IN HIS GLORY AGAIN 269 person keeping it, followed by memoranda of what sort of characters frequented it, the sums paid for accommodation or refreshment, and all other particulars calculated to be of service to a Bow Street officer. The third compartment of this extraordinary book consisted of a journal, or diary, in which Mr. Lawrence Sampson was wont to enter minutes of his proceedings, remarkable incidents, gleanings and experiences, personal adventures, or any other matters worth recording in connection with his avocations. The reader will naturally suppose that on discovering this book of mysteries the curiosity of the Hangman was instantaneously excited to ascertain first of all whether his own name figured in the category of bad characters; and on turning to the proper page and column, according to the alphabetical arrangement of the entries, he not only found the name of Daniel Coffin duly chronicled, but also the startling fact, as proved by the date annexed, that Mr. Lawrence Sampson had been aware of his real character for some years past. As a matter of course, all the low cribs and boozing-kens, as well as all other vile haunts and infamous receptacles throughout the metropolis, were chronicled in the second compartment. But as the reader may perhaps be curious to learn the manner in which Mr. Sampson kept his ledger of demoralization, debauchery, poverty, mendicity, and crime, we will quote a few miscellaneous extracts from this division of the great book: “Rose and Crown, Church Lane, St. Giles’s. Weekly club held here; chiefly of street-hawkers, costermongers, labourers, chimney-sweepers, and beggars; the women frequenting this place are nearly all Irish. A young fighting fellow in a flannel jacket (name forgotten) generally presides; always has a plate before him containing the subscription- money to pay ior the gin, beer, and tobacco. Sometimes the company amuse themselves by dancing reels; or else a fellow named Garry, formerly in the 18th Hussars, gives an exhibition of the shillalah dance. The landlord’s name is — “Sidney Smith, Dock Street, Whitechapel. Evening concerts; dreadful low class of women, always on the look- out for sailors flush of cash. Dancing as well as music; each person who dances pays twopence for the benefit of the musician. COM a LOOKS (CO)