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A quainter corner than the corner where the Doctor lived, was not

to be found in London. There was no way through it, and the front

windows of the Doctor's lodgings commanded a pleasant little

vista of street that had a congenial air of retirement on it.

There were few buildings then, north of the Oxford-road, and

forest-trees flourished, and wild flowers grew, and the hawthorn

blossomed, in the now vanished fields. As a consequence, country

airs circulated in Soho with vigorous freedom, instead of

languishing into the parish like stray paupers without a

settlement; and there was many a good south wall, not far off, on

which the peaches ripened in their season.