Little Britain.

acquired much valuable information as to the best mode of being buried ; the comparative merits of churchyards ; together with divers hints on the subject of patent iron coffins . I have heard the question discussed in all its bearings , as to the legality of prohibiting the latter on account of their durability . The feuds occasioned by these societies have happily died away of late ; but they Avere for a long time prevailing themes of controversy , the people of Little

Britain being extremely solicitous of funeral honours , ancl of lying comfortably in their graves . Besides these two funeral societies , there is a third of quite a different cast , which tends to throiv the sunshine of good humour over the Avhole nei ghbourhood . It meets once a week at a little old-fashioned house , kept by a jolly publican of the name of Wag-staff , and bearing for insignia a resplendent

halfmoon , ivith a most seductive bunch of grapes . The Avhole edifice is covered with inscriptions to catch the eye of the thirsty wayfarer : such as " Truman , Haubury and Co . ' s Entire , " " Wine , Rum , ancl Brandy Vaults , " " Old Tom , Rum and Compounds , & c . " This indeed has been a temple of Bacchus and . Momus from time immemorial . It has always been in the family of the Wagstaffsso that its history is tolerably preserved by the present landlord .

, It was much frequented by the gallants and cavalieros of the reign of Elizabeth , ancl was looked into now ancl then by the wits of Charles the Second ' s clay . But what Wagstaff principally prides himself upon is , that Henry the Eighth , in one of his nocturnal rambles , broke the head of one of his ancestors with his famous walking-staff . This , however , is considered as rather a dubious and vain-glorious boast of the landlord .

The club ivhich now holds its weekly sessions here goes by the name of " Roaring Lads of Little Britain . " They abound in all catches , glees , ancl choice stories that are traditional in the place , and not to be met with in any other part of the metropolis . There is a madcap undertaker , Avho is inimitable ¦ at a merry song ; but the life of the club , and indeed the prime wit of Little Britain , is bully Wagstaff himself . His ancestors were all ivags before him ,

and he has inherited with the inn a large stock of songs and jokes , which go with it from generation to generation as heir-looms . He is a clapper little fellow , with bandy legs and pot belly , a red face with a moist merry eye , and a little shock of grey hair behind . At the opening of every club night , he is called in to sing his " Confession of Faith , " which is the famous old drinking trowl from Gammer Gurtou ' s needle . He sings itto be surewith

, , many variations , as he received it from his father ' s lips ; for it had been a standinofavourite at the Half-Moon and Bunch of Grapes ever since it was written ; nay , he affirms that his predecessors have often had the honour of singing it before the nobility and gentry at Christmas mummeries , when Little Britain was in all its glory . *