Page:Fitzgerald - Pickwickian manners and customs (1897).djvu/31

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PICKWICKIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
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cockade on it, a pink striped waistcoat, light breeches and gaiters." What too were "bright basket buttons" on a brown coat? Fancy Balls too, like Mrs. Leo Hunter's, were given in the daytime, and caused no astonishment. Nor have we lodging-houses with beds on the "twopenny rope" principle. There are no "dry arches" of Waterloo Bridge: though here I suspect Boz was confounding them with those of the Adelphi.

Gone too are the simple games of childhood. Marbles for instance. We recall Serjeant Buzfuz's pathetic allusion to little Bardell's "Alley Tors and Commoneys; the long familiar cry of 'knuckle down' is neglected." Who sees a boy playing marbles now in the street or elsewhere? Mr. Lang in his edition gives us no lore about this point. "Alley Tors" was short for "Alabaster," the material of which best marbles were made.

"Tor" however, is usually spelt "Taw." "Commoneys" were the inferior or