three o'clock
When his father , Doctor Perkins , died , this , his only son , was placed under the care of John Perkins , Esquire , of the house of Perkins , Scully , and Perkins , those celebrated attorneys in the trading town of Oldborough , which the second partner , William Pitt Scully , Esquire , represented in Parliament and in London . All John 's fortune was the house in Bedford Row , which , at his father 's death , was let out into chambers , and brought in a clear hundred a year . Under his uncle 's roof at Oldborough , where he lived with thirteen red-haired male and female cousins , he was only charged fifty pounds for board , clothes , and pocket-money , and the remainder of his rents was carefully put by for him until his majority . When he approached that period -- when he came to belong to two spouting-clubs at Oldborough , among the young merchants and lawyers ' - clerks -- to blow the flute nicely , and play a good game at billiards -- to have written one or two smart things in the Oldborough Sentinel -- to be fond of smoking -LRB- in which act he was discovered by his fainting aunt at three o'clock one morning -RRB- -- in one word , when John Perkins arrived at manhood , he discovered that he was quite unfit to be an attorney , that he detested all the ways of his uncle 's stern , dull , vulgar , regular , red-headed family , and he vowed that he would go to London and make his fortune . Thither he went , his aunt and cousins , who were all `` serious , '' vowing that he was a lost boy ; and when his history opens , John had been two years in the metropolis , inhabiting his own garrets ; and a very nice compact set of apartments , looking into the back-garden , at this moment falling vacant , the prudent Lucy Gorgon had visited them , and vowed that she and her John should there commence housekeeping . All these explanations are tedious , but necessary ; and furthermore , it must be said , that as John 's uncle 's partner was the Liberal member for Oldborough , so Lucy 's uncle was its Ministerial representative . This gentleman , the brother of the deceased Captain Gorgon , lived at the paternal mansion of Gorgon Castle , and rejoiced in the name and title of Sir George Grimsby Gorgon .