stratum.--_Library of Useful Knowledge._

* * * * *




The Sketch-Book.

THE MYSTERIOUS TAILOR.

_A Romance of High Holborn._


It came to pass that, towards the close of 1826, I found occasion to
change my tailor, and by chance, or the recommendation of friends--I
cannot now remember which--applied to one who vegetated in that
particular region of the metropolis where the rivers of
Museum-street and Drury-lane (to adopt the language of metaphor)
flow into and form the capacious estuary of High Holborn. Whoever
has sailed along, or cast anchor in this confluence, must have seen
the individual I allude to. He sits--I should perhaps say sat,
inasmuch as he is since defunct--bolt upright, with a pen behind his
ear, in the centre of a dingy, spectral-looking shop, quaintly hung
round with clothes, of divers forms and patterns, in every stage of
existence--from the first crude conception of the incipient surtout
or pantaloons, down to the last glorious touch that immortalizes the
artist. His figure is slim and undersized; his cheeks are sallow,
with two furrows on each side his nose, filled not unfrequently with
snuff; his eyes project like lobsters', and cast their shifting