DICKENS'S DICTIONARY OF LONDON, 1879 - An Unconventional Handbook

PREFACE.

CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,
GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, LONDON
AND CRYSTAL PALACE


ALTHOUGH serious consideration has been given to the choice of subjects to be treated in this book, and although earnest endeavours have been made to en¬sure accuracy, it is too much to hope that complete success can have been achieved in the first edition of so arduous an undertaking. Any corrections of errors which may be observed in the present volume, and any suggestions which may tend to the improvement of its successors, will be gratefully received. I am happy to take this opportunity of expressing my cordial thanks for the courteous and valuable assist¬ance with which I have already been favoured from many official and private quarters.
There is one point as to which I am anxious that there should be no misunderstanding. Except in that portion of these pages which is avowedly devoted to advertising purposes, they contain no advertisements of any kind whatsoever. The plan of a work of this character necessarily involved the mention of names; but every statement and every recommendation made in the Dictionary is put forth either as the result of actual experience, or on perfectly trustworthy authority. No payment has been received, or ever will be received, directly or indirectly, for anything that appears in the body of this book. Whatever is an advertisement will always be honestly put before the public as such.

CHARLES DICKENS.

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An excerpt from the beginning:

A1.—This has become a common expression -synonymous with perfect or excellent, and passes current, not only wherever the Saxon language is spoken, but throughout nearly the whole of the civilised world. The term comes from Lloyd’s, and is used in the register to indicate the character of a vessel, the number at the side showing for how many years she is registered A1, or first class. Thus, a wooden ship of best materials, and inspected from time to time during her progress by a Lloyd’s surveyor, may be classed A1 15 years and upwards, though this is practically now the highest point usually attained, owing to the growing taste for iron vessels; while another, con-structed perhaps in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick of soft wood, such as pine, will obtain a cer-tificate of only A1 4 years; in all cases the continuance of the right to be described as A1 depending on periodical surveys and adequate repairs. At expiration of the time originally assigned, the character may be renewed for a term, averaging under the most favourable circumstances about three-fourths of that first allotted, provided that everything required by the surveyor be done to his satisfaction. This renewal may be continued ad infinitum, but as the surveyors’ de¬mands would soon amount to a practical reconstruction they are seldom complied with fully more than once or twice, and the vessel after inspection is pronounced eligible only for the “A1 red” class, so called because this character is printed in red ink in Lloyd’s book. Many trusty ships are to be found in this category. In¬ferior to these is AE, known among underwriters and shipowners as black-dipthong. It includes many a staunch craft built before the days of scamped work and dummy rivets, but too old for the superior classes. E is the lowest grade, and is officially defined as “fit to carry goods not subject to sea damage on any voyage”; but prac-tically, when a ship can take no higher rank the owner almost in¬variably leaves her unclassed; indeed in the register-book issued about Midsummer, 1878 there are but five vessels with E to their name. Iron vessels are subject to somewhat different conditions, but in specifying their relative merits A is still taken as the peg on which the gradations are hung. Those now employed by Lloyd’s surveyors begin with 100A as the maximum, ranging downwards by falls of 5 from 95 to 75. There is in¬deed a class marked A without a number attached, but such vessels are scarce and mostly intended for river and shallow waters traffic. The scale previously adopted was A descending to B and C, but the first-mentioned one is now al¬most invariably used. Many other countries, when adopting the plan of Lloyd’s register, copied also the idea of using A as the standard. Thus the Americans, who have several distinct and conflicting register-books, graduate from A1½ to A2, and in some of the northern countries of Europe A is taken as the token. The principal French book, known as the “Veritas,” makes 3-3rds the maximum, dropping to 5-6ths and 2-3rds. (See LLOYDS.)

Academy of Arts (Royal). (See ROYAL ACADEMY.)

Acton (Middlesex).—A suburb on the west side, about five miles past the Marble Arch down Ux¬bridge-rd. It is prettily placed...