"CLOTH FAIR" 81 I think that " Cloth Fair" was the most troublesome place in which I ever painted in London-not that the inhabitants wanted to hinder me, but that artists' visits are less frequent there than in other parts. However, the interest shown in my work was very keen. I managed to sit on a step with my back to a door, and no one could get exactly behind me; but about noon strings of mill girls used to swarm up the street, erowd about me and watch, and order one another to "get out of the lydy's way." One windy day a bit of dust got into one of my eyes, and I had to rub and rub and try and coax it out,-in vain. Great sympathy and disappointment were expressed all round at my painting being stopped. At last an enormous butcher, very hot and greasy, stepped out from the crowd, and said, "Will you let me take it out for you?" One look at his huge red brawny hands was enough: I hastily thanked him and assured him that I was all right again. I heard afterwards that the method of operation in vogue with butchers was of such a terribly unpleasant nature that I "thanked my stars" I had had sufficient presence of mind to decline the services, which had, however, been offered in a very kindly manner. This is one of the most interesting parts of 82 FAMILIAR LONDON old London. All round Cloth Fair stood old houses, leaning floor over floor, some of the firstfloor rooms being built over the courtyard and supported on posts. One can fancy the crafty merchant from Flanders or Italy, with his precious wares, enticing the young squires and dames to buy. The old walls, if they could speak, could no doubt tell us tales of the days of the Plantagenets and even the Tudors. The good old monk Alfune was the builder of St Giles's, Cripplegate. The parish register of St Bartholomew the Less records the baptism of the celebrated Inigo Jones, son of a Welsh clothworker who lived near Cloth Fair; and the burial of one James Heath in 1664-who was a Cavalier chronicler of the Civil Wars and said unpleasant things about Cromwell, for which he was afterwards called "Carrion Heath." I much prefer the flower girls I have come across to the mill girls. They are not so rough in manner, -I daresay the fact that they live among flowers has a refining influence on them. There used to be a group of the damsels round a little drinkingfountain, which has lately been removed, in the Strand, just opposite St Mary-le-Strand. I sketched them from inside the railings of the |