next--remained till it roused the family--returned to its own
door, and became duplicated--wouldn't wake the house-porter till
five.

N.B. Found I had used my own thumb for a sounding-plate, and had
bruised my nail awfully.

Nov. 14.--Devoted the day to soda-water and my tailor's bill--gave
a draught for the amount, and took another on my own account.

Nov. 15.--Lectured by the "governor"--left the house savage--met
the Marquess--got very drunk unconsciously--fancied myself a
merman, and that the gutter in the Haymarket was the
Archipelago--grew preposterous, and felt that I should like to be
run over--thought I was waltzing with Cerito, but found I was
being carried on a stretcher to the station-house--somebody sent
somewhere for bail, and somebody bailed me.

_State of Knocker_.--Very indistinct--then became uncommonly like
the "governor" in his nightcap--_could_ NOT reach it--presume it
was filial affection that prevented me--knocked of its own accord,
no doubt agitated by sympathy--reverberated in my ears all night,
and left me with a confounded head-ache in the morning.

The above examples are sufficient to show the variability of this singular
article.

Formerly the knocker was devoted entirely to the menial occupation of
announcing, by a single dab, or a variation of raps, the desire of persons
on the door-step to communicate with the occupants of the interior of a