By the clock 'tis almost one."
See The Tatler, No. 111., for the Bellman's salutation:
"Good morrow, Mr. Bickerstaff, good morrow, my masters all."
"It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good night."—Shakspeare, Macbeth, Act II. Sc. 2.
Gay refers to the Bellman's song in the following lines:
"Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose building to the slimy shore extends;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame,
The street alone retains the empty name;