[25] Richard Martin exerted himself especially in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
[26] This notice still survives in some parts of the suburbs; and the barber’s pole, striped with its bandages, indicative of bleeding, is fast becoming obsolete.
[27] A form of marriage practised among the gipsies.
[28] This song was in vogue, as far as I can learn, about 1854 or 1855.
[29] Elegy.
[30] The Penny Magazine was first published on March 31, 1832, and its success was such, that the Chap books vanished as if by magic, and a new and purer popular literature sprung up.
[31] This was the supposed site of a bloody battle between the ancient Britons and the Romans.
[32] This was a small mountain of refuse, dust, and ashes, which, although unsightly, was as profitable as were the heaps of Mr. Boffin in Charles Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend.” This mound, so it is said, once had a curious clearance. It was bought, in its entirety, and sent over to Russia, to help make bricks to rebuild Moscow; and the ground on which it stood was sold to a company for £15,000.
[33] Breeze is the technical term for the sifted ashes mixed with the clay to make inferior bricks, which are “clamp” burnt, i.e. in large stacks.
[34] In George IV.’s reign a statue was erected to him at Battle Bridge, and the neighbourhood renamed King’s Cross. It surmounted a Camera obscura, and this was atop of a building, which in its turn, was alternately a police station and a public-house. It was a miserable affair, only made of brick and cement, and, after cumbering the ground for a few years, it was pulled down.