The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 317: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE OLD FENCE’S ABODE 291 ment, and he had several persons in his employment. But these individuals did not dwell in his habitation. His old housekeeper, 4 woman nearly of his own age, was the only individual who slept on the premises besides himself. On the particular night, however, of which we are writing, Jeremy Humpage had a friend with him. This was his agent and accomplice, the Swag Chovey Bloak, another “ fence ”’ whose acquaintance the reader may remember to have made at Bencull’s crib the first time that it was introduced to his notice. It was now past two o’clock in the morning, the Sabbath morning, too, and the Swag Chovey Bloak was still closeted with Jeremy Humpage in a back room of the establishment in Whitechapel. But of very peculiar construction and arrangements was this back room. The window was entirely boarded up, with merely two circular holes about four inches in diameter toward the top, for the purpose of letting in the fresh air. The door of this room fitted so exactly into the wainscoted passage whence it opened, and was so minutely uniform with the other part of the woodwork, that not even the keenest observer would have noticed, when in the pas- sage, that it was a door at all. No hinges were visible, no crevices nor creases which might trace the outline of a door, nor was there any handle, latch, or lock to be seen. The hinges were invisible, and the door opened by means of a secret spring. The interior of the room showed a floor, walls, and ceiling blackened with smoke. There was a large fur- nace, with a melting-pot fixed over a grating to which a pair of bellows were so adjusted as to enable any one standing by to sustain an incessant fanning of the fire under that erating. A table and three or four chairs constituted the furniture. In this room it was that, at two o’clock on the Sunday morning, we now find old Jeremy Humpage and his friend the Swag Chovey Bloak. There was wine upon the table, and not only wine, but also a tray containing the materials for an excellent repast, as well as two or three dishes of the summer fruits then in season. For old Jeremy was regaling himself and his friend on the strength of a most lucrative transaction which they had concluded a few hours back. This was nothing more nor less than a purchase of a large quantity of plate that had been stolen from some rich per- (C(O) nn) GDoOOo “Si in