Page:Hopkinson Smith--In Dickens's London.djvu/134

 CHAPTER IX

the Temple fairly well and its several Courts, having studied them the year before in my search for Mr. Thackeray's haunts and those of his characters: Lamb Court, in which Pendennis and Warrington had their chambers; the façade of the building covered with vines and flowering creepers; Hare Court, where Mr. Thackeray began the study of law under Mr. Taprell—the room is on the first floor and the house is as old and mouldy as it was in his days; Brick Court, where Goldsmith lived and died and where Mr. Thackeray once had lodgings; Pump Court, where he located the "Hon. Algernon Percy Deuceace," the prototype of the card-sharper who robbed him of his patrimony and sent him out into the world to earn his bread—the luckiest thing that ever happened to the great novelist and the luckiest thing that ever happened to the reading world—all these I knew; but, somehow, although I had peeped in and wondered at the beauty of its surroundings, I had never seen the fountain at Fountain Court.

Tom Pinch's office had been pointed out to me, where the lovable fellow worked all day sorting and bringing into 80