As to the dealers themselves, their general air was of a willing receptivity rather than aggressive disburdenment. Here and there one proclaimed the merits of his wares; the majority shivered and watched. Perhaps it was the grey chill of the day; perhaps in warmer weather all are vocal. Few of them were properly dressed for such bleakness ; all had the cynical expression of the Londoner under Heaven's ban ; a Hogarthian plainness, if not ugliness, heightened by the exposure, marked every face.

The bargain-hunters were more prosperous looking, and happier because less cold, for they at any rate had the power of locomotion denied to one who wished either to sell or preserve his wares. Rumour has it that many of the articles which are offered for sale at this market have been acquired by the most primitive means known to acquisitive man ; and there is no doubt that among the frequenters of the market are many who hold that hands were made before title-deeds. The merchant therefore, even if he has given up hope of selling, must still be rooted to his pitch.

Many of the crowd were as purely sight-seeing as myself ; but there were the intent ones too, with their string bags or other bags, hoping always for a find, whether for their own domestic use or to sell again : keen-eyed men and women with long eager fingers.

MERCURY INSTRUCTING CUPID,

AFTER THE PICTURE BY CORREGGIO IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY

For the real bargains, I am told, one must go early; and it is a reasonable precaution. But to what extent the real bargain is obtainable I have no notion. Most persons, I find, have a remarkable story of Caledonian luck ; but it has happened always to others, not to themselves. No doubt there have been coups, especially when the dealer had the best reason for wishing that his own temporary ownership of the article should cease at the earliest possible moment and the purchaser hurry away with it; but I not only saw with those eyes on that Friday nothing that a collector of any taste would buy, but nothing that any but a confirmed and undiscriminating kleptomaniac would steal.

More fun was that partially covered portion of the market where the stalls have new articles. This was a downright fair, and the spirit of the fair prevailed. Every household requisite was offered at I suppose a far cheaper rate than a shopkeeper with his rent to pay could possibly manage, and when you had bought your fill you could eat winkles and cockles and mussels and shrimps or drink hot coffee. Nothing lacking but roundabouts and cocoanuts, and everywhere signs that buying and selling and chaffering are still among the deepest of human joys, and that London in the twentieth century, when put to it, can reproduce the eighteenth with amazing fidelity.