But this is a small and frivolous distinction compared with its celebrated manufacture of _pork-pies_.

It bids fair to become as famous for them as Banbury is for buns.

I visited the principal establishment for providing the travelling and picnicking world with these very substantial and palatable portables.

I went under the impulse of that uneasy, suspicious curiosity to peer into the forbidden mysteries of the kitchen which generally brings no satisfaction when gratified, and which often admonishes a man not only to eat what is set before him without any questions for conscience sake, but also for the sake of the more delicate and exacting sensibilities of the stomach.

I must confess my first visit to this, the greatest pork- pie factory in the world, savored a little of the anxiety to know the worst, instead of the best, in regard to the solid materials and lighter ingredients which entered into the composition of these suspiciously cheap luxuries.