six
o’clock
We were wrong . When we last passed it , a ` dairy ' was established in the area , and a party of melancholy-looking fowls were amusing themselves by running in at the front door , and out at the back one . Scotland-yard is a small -- a very small-tract of land , bounded on one side by the river Thames , on the other by the gardens of Northumberland House : abutting at one end on the bottom of Northumberland-street , at the other on the back of Whitehall-place . When this territory was first accidentally discovered by a country gentleman who lost his way in the Strand , some years ago , the original settlers were found to be a tailor , a publican , two eating-house keepers , and a fruit-pie maker ; and it was also found to contain a race of strong and bulky men , who repaired to the wharfs in Scotland-yard regularly every morning , about five or six o'clock , to fill heavy waggons with coal , with which they proceeded to distant places up the country , and supplied the inhabitants with fuel . When they had emptied their waggons , they again returned for a fresh supply ; and this trade was continued throughout the year . As the settlers derived their subsistence from ministering to the wants of these primitive traders , the articles exposed for sale , and the places where they were sold , bore strong outward marks of being expressly adapted to their tastes and wishes . The tailor displayed in his window a Lilliputian pair of leather gaiters , and a diminutive round frock , while each doorpost was appropriately garnished with a model of a coal-sack .