Chapter 1 - Page 2

very different from those we now see in the same
locality. The goods were exposed to sale in cases, only defended from
the weather by a covering of canvass, and the whole resembled the
stalls and booths now erected for the temporary accommodation of
dealers at a country fair, rather than the established emporium of a
respectable citizen. But most of the shopkeepers of note, and David
Ramsay amongst others, had their booth connected with a small
apartment which opened backward from it, and bore the same resemblance
to the front shop that Robinson Crusoe's cavern did to the tent which
he erected before it.

To this Master Ramsay was often accustomed to retreat to the labour of
his abstruse calculations; for he aimed at improvements and
discoveries in his own art, and sometimes pushed his researches, like
Napier, and other mathematicians of the period, into abstract science.
When thus engaged, he left the outer posts of his commercial
establishment to be maintained by two stout-bodied and strong-voiced
apprentices, who kept up the cry of, "What d'ye lack? what d'ye lack?"
accompanied with the appropriate recommendations of the articles in
which they dealt.

This direct and personal application for custom to those who chanced
to pass by, is now, we believe, limited to Monmouth Street, (if it
still exists even in that repository of ancient garments,) under the
guardianship of the scattered remnant of Israel. But at the time we
are speaking of, it was practised alike by Jew and Gentile, and
served, instead of all our present newspaper puffs and advertisements,
to solicit the attention of the public in general, and of friends in
particular, to the unrivalled excellence of the goods, which they
offered to sale upon such easy terms, that it might fairly appear that
the venders had rather a view to the general service of the public,
than to their own particular advantage.

The verbal proclaimers of the excellence of their commodities, had
this advantage over those who, in the present day, use the public
papers for the same purpose, that they could in many cases adapt their
address to the peculiar appearance and apparent taste of the
passengers. [This, as we have said, was also the case in Monmouth
Street in our remembrance. We have ourselves been reminded of the
deficiencies of our femoral habiliments, and exhorted upon that score
to fit ourselves more beseemingly; but this is a digression.] This
direct and personal mode of invitation to customers became, however, a
dangerous temptation to the young wags who were employed in the task
of solicitation during the absence of the principal person interested
in the traffic; and, confiding in their numbers and civic union, the
'prentices of