WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS FROM REAL LIFE LONDON JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY DEDICATION TO HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE FOURTH. I MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, AM encouraged humbly to entreat permission to dedicate the following Work to your MAJESTY by that love and patronage which your Majesty has at all times evinced for the protection of LITERATURE and the encouragement of the FINE ARTS; so eminently characteristic of the accomplished Gentleman, the profound and elegant Scholar, and the liberal and enlightened Prince. And I am further emboldened by the numerous opportunities which your Majesty has had of witnessing LIFE IN LONDON, as well in the humblest of dwellings as in the most splendid of palaces. In the words of our immortal Shakspeare The prince but studies his companions, Like a strange tongue: wherein, to gain the language, Be look'd upon and learn'd; which, once attain'd, Comes to no further use But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms, Cast off his followers; and their memory Shall, as a PATTERN, or a MEASURE, live; By which his grace must mete the lives of others, "Born and bred amongst you, I glory in the name of an Englishman," were the words of your late most revered, venerable, and august Father; and it is well known that they have been repeated by your MAJESTY with redoubled energy, pathos, and admiration. Permit me, then, most gracious SIRE, to observe, that an accurate knowledge of the manners, habits, and feelings of a brave and free people is not to be acquired in the CLOSET, nor is it to be derived from the formal routine precepts of tutors. It is only by means of a free and unrestrained intercourse with society, most gracious SIRE, that an intimate acquaintance is to be obtained with Englishmen for this purpose it is necessary to view their pastimes, to hear their remarks, and, from such sources, to be enabled to study their character. Your MAJESTY's education, habits, early introduction to |