SURREY AND SUSSEX.
| Dossing Cribs, or Lodging-houses | Beds. | Needys, or Nightly Lodgers. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth | 6 | 9 | 108 |
| Croydon | 9 | 8 | 144 |
| Reigate | 5 | 6 | 60 |
| Cuckfield | 2 | 8 | 32 |
| Horsham | 3 | 7 | 52 |
| Lewis | 7 | 6 | 84 |
| Kingston | 12 | 8 | 192 |
| Brighton | 16 | 9 | 228 |
“Bristol.—A few years back an old woman kept a padding-ken here. She was a strong Methodist, but had a queer method. There was thirty standing beds, besides make-shifts and furnished rooms, which were called ‘cottages.’ It’s not so bad now. The place was well-known to the monkry, and you was reckoned flat if you hadn’t been there. The old woman, when any female, old or young, who had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a broomstick at hand, and they was both made to jump over it, and that was called a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife. In course the man paid, in such case, for the dos (bed.)
| Kensington | 6 | 7 | 84 |
| Brentford | 12 | 8 | 192 |
| Hounslow | 6 | 5 | 60 |
| Colebrook | 2 | 7 | 20 |
| Windsor | 7 | 10 | 140 |
| Maidenhead | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| Reading | 12 | 9 | 216 |
| Oxford | 14 | 7 | 196 |
| Banbury | 10 | 12 | 240 |
| Marlboro’ | 8 | 7 | 112 |
| Bath | 10 | 8 | 160 |
| Bristol | 20 | 11 | 440 |
“Counties of Kent and Essex.—Here is the best places in England for ‘skipper-birds;’ (parties that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or outhouses, sometimes without a blanket.) The Kent farmers permit it to their own travellers, or the travellers they know. In Essex it’s different. There a farmer will give 1s. rather than let a traveller sleep on his premises, for fear of robbery. ‘Keyhole whistlers,’ the skipper-birds are sometimes called, but they’re regular travellers. Kent’s the first county in England for them. They start early to good houses for victuals, when gentlefolk are not up. I’ve seen them doze and sleep against the door. They like to be there before any one cuts their cart (exposes their tricks). Travellers are all early risers. It’s good morning in the country when it’s good night in town.