nearly eleven o’clock
The candle in the transparent lamp , manufactured of oil-paper , embellished with ` characters , ' has been blown out fifty times , so the kidney-pie merchant , tired with running backwards and forwards to the next wine-vaults , to get a light , has given up the idea of illumination in despair , and the only signs of his ` whereabout , ' are the bright sparks , of which a long irregular train is whirled down the street every time he opens his portable oven to hand a hot kidney-pie to a customer . Flat-fish , oyster , and fruit vendors linger hopelessly in the kennel , in vain endeavouring to attract customers ; and the ragged boys who usually disport themselves about the streets , stand crouched in little knots in some projecting doorway , or under the canvas blind of a cheesemonger 's , where great flaring gas-lights , unshaded by any glass , display huge piles of blight red and pale yellow cheeses , mingled with little fivepenny dabs of dingy bacon , various tubs of weekly Dorset , and cloudy rolls of ` best fresh . ' Here they amuse themselves with theatrical converse , arising out of their last half-price visit to the Victoria gallery , admire the terrific combat , which is nightly encored , and expatiate on the inimitable manner in which Bill Thompson can ` come the double monkey , ' or go through the mysterious involutions of a sailor 's hornpipe . It is nearly eleven o'clock , and the cold thin rain which has been drizzling so long , is beginning to pour down in good earnest ; the baked-potato man has departed -- the kidney-pie man has just walked away with his warehouse on his arm -- the cheesemonger has drawn in his blind , and the boys have dispersed . The constant clicking of pattens on the slippy and uneven pavement , and the rustling of umbrellas , as the wind blows against the shop-windows , bear testimony to the inclemency of the night ; and the policeman , with his oilskin cape buttoned closely round him , seems as he holds his hat on his head , and turns round to avoid the gust of wind and rain which drives against him at the street-corner , to be very far from congratulating himself on the prospect before him . The little chandler 's shop with the cracked bell behind the door , whose melancholy tinkling has been regulated by the demand for quarterns of sugar and half-ounces of coffee , is shutting up . The crowds which have been passing to and fro during the whole day , are rapidly dwindling away ; and the noise of shouting and quarrelling which issues from the public-houses , is almost the only sound that breaks the melancholy stillness of the night .