noon
There was a ceaseless scattering of mud ; there were blocks in the traffic , attended with rough jest or angry curse ; there was jostling on the crowded pavement . Public-houses began to brighten up , to bestir themselves for the evening 's business . Streets that had been hives of activity since early morning were being abandoned to silence and darkness and the sweeping wind . At noon to-day there was sunlight on the Surrey hills ; the fields and lanes were fragrant with the first breath of spring , and from the shelter of budding copses many a primrose looked tremblingly up to the vision of blue sky . But of these things Clerkenwell takes no count ; here it had been a day like any other , consisting of so many hours , each representing a fraction of the weekly wage . Go where you may in Clerkenwell , on every hand are multiform evidences of toil , intolerable as a nightmare . It is not as in those parts of London where the main thoroughfares consist of shops and warehouses and workrooms , whilst the streets that are hidden away on either hand are devoted in the main to dwellings Here every alley is thronged with small industries ; all but every door and window exhibits the advertisement of a craft that is carried on within .