THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE

185

read the journals of the day as delivered fresh and damp from the press, before the primitive process of drying the ink before the coffee-room fire had been gone through," which was supposed to render the papers, in the eyes of these epicurean readers, flat, stale, and unprofitable. "Tokens

used to be issued at the Chapter Coffee-house, which passed current in the neighbourhood, a mitre forming the design. One of these, in leather, is in the valuable collection at the Guildhall Museum. There are others at the British Museum, both in leather and in pewter. The old house was, I believe, taken down about 1854.

IX

THE SHOPS--THE EAST END-THE POLICE-FOGS—

OFTEN I Wonder what makes women love London so much. Can it be the shops? I daresay it is. No doubt the shops of London are extremely fascinating. Although we have been called a nation of shopkeepers, it is not so very long since our shops and their attractions were put very much in the shade by those of Paris. This is not so nowadays, for, although in matters of taste in dress I feel that we must yield the palm to our neighbours, our good friends, in France, I think that there can be no place in the world where shopping can be done with more pleasure or satisfaction (provided that your balance at the bank be well