CHAPTER V--SEVEN DIALS.
We have always been of opinion that if Tom King and the Frenchman had not immortalised Seven Dials, Seven Dials would have immortalised itself.
Seven Dials! the region of song and poetry--first effusions, and last dying speeches: hallowed by the names of Catnach and of Pitts--names that will entwine themselves with costermongers, and barrel-organs, when penny magazines shall have superseded penny yards of song, and capital punishment be unknown! Look at the construction of the place.

The Gordian knot was all very well in its way: so was the maze of Hampton Court: so is the maze at the Beulah Spa: so were the ties of stiff white neckcloths, when the difficulty of getting one on, was only to be equalled by the apparent impossibility of ever getting it off again.

But what involutions can compare with those of Seven Dials?
Where is there such another maze of streets, courts, lanes, and alleys?
Where such a pure mixture of Englishmen and Irishmen, as in this complicated part of London?
We boldly aver that we doubt the veracity of the legend to which we have adverted.

We _can_ suppose a man rash enough to inquire at random--at a house with lodgers too--for a Mr.Thompson, with all but the certainty before his eyes, of finding at least two or three Thompsons in any house of moderate dimensions; but a Frenchman--a Frenchman in Seven Dials! Pooh! He was an Irishman.

Tom King's education had been neglected in his infancy, and as he couldn't understand half the man said, he took it for granted he was talking French.
The stranger who finds himself in 'The Dials' for the first time, and stands Belzoni-like, at the entrance of seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity and attention awake for no inconsiderable time.