eight o'clock
In the midst of this congregation stood a chafing-dish with live coals , for the convenience of lighting their pipes , and every individual was accommodated with a spitting-box . There was not a mouth in the apartment unfurnished with a tube , so that they resembled a congregation of chimeras breathing fire and smoke ; and our gentlemen were fain to imitate their example in their own defence . It is not to be supposed that the conversation was either very sprightly or polite ; that the whole entertainment was of the Dutch cast -- frowzy and phlegmatic ; and our adventurer , as he returned to his lodging , tortured with the headache , and disgusted with every circumstance of his treatment , cursed the hour in which the doctor had saddled them with such troublesome companions . Next morning by eight o'clock , these polite Hollanders returned the visit , and , after breakfast , attended their English friends to the house of a person that possessed a very curious cabinet of curiosities , to which they had secured our company 's admission . The owner of this collection was a cheesemonger , who received them in a woollen nightcap , with straps buttoned under his chin . As he understood no language but his own , he told them , by the canal of one of their conductors , that he did not make a practice of showing his curiosities ; but understanding that they were Englishmen , and recommended to his friends , he was content to submit them to their perusal . So saying , he led them up a dark stair , into a small room , decorated with a few paltry figures in plaster of Paris , two or three miserable landscapes , the skins of an otter , seal , and some fishes stuffed ; and in one corner stood a glass case , furnished with newts , frogs , lizards , and serpents , preserved in spirits ; a human foetus , a calf with two heads , and about two dozen of butterflies pinned upon paper .