Mrs.Outhouse was the wife,--as the reader may perhaps remember,--of a clergyman living in the east of London.

St.Diddulph's-in-the-East was very much in the east indeed.

It was a parish outside the City, lying near the river, very populous, very poor, very low in character, and very uncomfortable.

There was a rectory-house, queerly situated at the end of a little blind lane, with a gate of its own, and a so-called garden about twenty yards square.

But the rectory of St.Diddulph's cannot be said to have been a comfortable abode.