midnight
This they generally do seated on a load of hay , or perhaps of bricks , in one of those long , ugly , shapeless boats , which are to be seen congregating in the neighbourhood of Brentford . So seated , they are carried along at the rate of a mile and a half an hour , and usually while away the time in gentle converse with the man at the rudder , or in silent abstraction over a pipe . But the dullness of such a life as this is fully atoned for by the excitement of that which follows it in London . The men of the Internal Navigation are known to be fast , nay , almost furious in their pace of living ; not that they are extravagant in any great degree , a fault which their scale of salaries very generally forbids ; but they are one and all addicted to Coal Holes and Cider Cellars ; they dive at midnight hours into Shades , and know all the back parlours of all the public-houses in the neighbourhood of the Strand . Here they leave messages for one another , and call the girl at the bar by her Christian name . They are a set of men endowed with sallow complexions , and they wear loud clothing , and spend more money in gin-and-water than in gloves . The establishment is not unusually denominated the ` Infernal Navigation ' , and the gentlemen employed are not altogether displeased at having it so called .