Peter Plumb is a desirable father-in-law, and his commercial interests are set forth in 'a view of Wapping Docks,' and a plan, suspended on rollers, for the 'new improvement of the Cattle Market in Smithfield.'
The existence of the sleeper would appear an easy one; witness the extract from _Peter Plumb's Diary_. This honest man being of greater consequence in his own thoughts than 'in the eye of the world,' had for some years past kept a journal of his life. _Videlicet_, the following exciting example:--
'_Monday._--Eight o'clock: I put on my clothes, washed hands and face. Nine o'clock: Tied my knee-strings, put on my double-soled shoes, took a walk to Islington. One o'clock: Took a luncheon. Between two and three returned. Dined on a knuckle of veal and bacon. Three: Nap as usual. Four to six: Walked in the fields. Wind S.S.E. From six to ten: Went to the club; was half-an-hour before anybody else came. Ten at night: Went to bed. Slept without waking till nine next morning. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Little or no variation.'
_May 30, 1810._ _A Table d'Hôte, or French Ordinary in Paris._ (20).--The _Table d'Hôte_ is an appropriate companion to the _Paris Diligence_. The travellers have duly reached the capital, and a scene of Parisian life is shown on their arrival in the French metropolis. The _salle à manger_, where the ordinary is held, is a handsome apartment, decorated in showy taste with enrichments in plaster, canopies, curtains, mirrors, &c. The repast is in active course, and its humours are improved on with an observant eye. The company is diversified; there are _bourgeois_ and their wives, _petits-maîtres_, marquises, fat friars, and ladies of various degrees, all complaisance and graciousness. A Savoyard, with a hurdy-gurdy, and her daughter, with a triangle, are 'discoursing sweet sounds' to enliven the repast. A dog is taught to beg for food. The manners of the feeders are of different shades. Pledging toasts, flirtations, and small gallantries animate the severer business of the hour. Several whimsical accidents are introduced, results of awkward or inattentive service on the part of waiters; one grave citizen is receiving a scalding _bouillon_ in his eye, while a _bouilli_ is simultaneously poured over a bowing dandy; a glass of wine is capsized into a lady's plate while her attention is diverted; and a piggish priest, whose soup is suffered to stream down the corners of his fat jowl, has his shaven pate saluted by a cascade from a bottle tilted up by a heedless fair _domestique_, whose regards are engaged by the pleasantries of an amorous old fogey by her side, with whom she is exchanging jocularities.