about eleven o'clock
`` That 'll do , '' said Mr. Wood to young Billings ; and they led Hayes up to bed , whither , in truth , he was unable to walk himself . ***** Mrs. Springatt , the lodger , came down to ask what the noise was . `` 'T is only Tom Billings making merry with some friends from the country , '' answered Mrs. Hayes ; whereupon Springatt retired , and the house was quiet . ***** Some scuffling and stamping was heard about eleven o'clock . ***** After they had seen Mr. Hayes to bed , Billings remembered that he had a parcel to carry to some person in the neighbourhood of the Strand ; and , as the night was remarkably fine , he and Mr. Wood agreed to walk together , and set forth accordingly . -LRB- Here follows a description of the THAMES AT MIDNIGHT , in a fine historical style ; with an account of Lambeth , Westminster , the Savoy , Baynard 's Castle , Arundel House , the Temple ; of Old London Bridge , with its twenty arches , `` on which be houses builded , so that it seemeth rather a continuall street than a bridge ; '' -- of Bankside , and the `` Globe '' and the `` Fortune '' Theatres ; of the ferries across the river , and of the pirates who infest the same -- namely , tinklermen , petermen , hebbermen , trawlermen ; of the fleet of barges that lay at the Savoy steps ; and of the long lines of slim wherries sleeping on the river banks and basking and shining in the moonbeams . A combat on the river is described , that takes place between the crews of a tinklerman 's boat and the water-bailiffs .