about four o'clock in the afternoon
I do n't know what Vain and Foolish Hope possessed me that something might yet turn up which might save me from the sad necessity of listing for a soldier , to the which vocation , mindful of my early experiences among the Blacks in Charlwood Chase , I entertained a very sincere Abhorrence . So I wandered up and down the Streets , asking from time to time where I was , and being -LRB- as is usual with the People of England in their intercourse with strangers -RRB- cursed or laughed at for a fool or a bumpkin . Half a dozen times I felt that some rogue was trying my pocket ; but I knew I had no money to be robbed of , and kept my kerchief in my hat ; only the bare endeavour made me mad , and the next time one of my gentleman nick-skins made a dive into my pouch , I turned round and hit him a crack over the head with a short knobbed-stick I carried , which , I warrant , made him repent of his Temerity . I had gotten into St. James 's Park about four o'clock in the afternoon , and was walking very moodily by the side of the long water trench called Rosamond 's Pond , when at once a desire seized hold of me to behold the Tower of London . Whether in my fantastic Imagination I deemed that I might find Tower Hill paved with gold , or pick up some Profitable Acquaintance there , it is fruitless as this distance of time to inquire . But I must needs see the Tower , and was as eager for a view of that famous Fortress as though I had been the veriest holiday-making and sight-seeing Country Cousin . I made my way into the Birdcage walk , and so through Palace-yard down to the stairs at the foot of where they were driving the first piles of that great structure which is now called Westminster Bridge .