The Three Clerks

Anthony Trollope

THE THREE CLERKS

ANTHONY TROLLOPE

This 2011 edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-4114-4301-3

CONTENTS

I. THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

II. THE INTERNAL NAVIGATION

III. THE WOODWARDS

IV. CAPTAIN CUTTWATER

V. BUSHEY PARK

VI. SIR GREGORY HARDLINES

VII. MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND

VIII. THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT

IX. MR. MANYLODES

X. WHEAL MARY JANE

XI. THE THREE KINGS

XII. CONSOLATION

XIII. A COMMUNICATION OF IMPORTANCE

XIV. VERY SAD

XV. NORMAN RETURNS TO TOWN

XVI. THE FIRST WEDDING

XVII. THE HONOURABLE MRS. VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY

XVIII. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.—MORNING

XIX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.—AFTERNOON

XX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.— EVENING

XXI. HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE

XXII. CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL

XXIII. SURBITON COLLOQUIES

XXIV. MR. M'BUFFER ACCEPTS THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS

XXV. CHISWICK GARDENS

XXVI. KATIE'S FIRST BALL

XXVII. EXCELSIOR

XXVIII. OUTERMAN v. TUDOR

XXIX. EASY IS THE SLOPE OF HELL

XXX. MRS. WOODWARD'S REQUEST

XXXI. HOW APOLLO SAVED THE NAVVY

XXXII. THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE

XXXIII. TO STAND, OR NOT TO STAND

XXXIV. WESTMINSTER HALL

XXXV. MRS. VAL'S NEW CARRIAGE

XXXVI. TICKLISH STOCK

XXXVII. TRIBULATION

XXXVIII. ALARIC TUDOR TAKES A WALK

XXXIX. THE LAST BREAKFAST

XL. MR. CHAFFANBRASS

XLI. THE OLD BAILEY

XLII. A PARTING INTERVIEW

XLIII. MILLBANK

XLIV. THE CRIMINAL POPULATION IS DISPOSED OF

XLV. THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES

XLVI. MR. NOGO'S LAST QUESTION

XLVII. CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I

THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

ALL the English world knows, or knows of, that branch of the Civil Service which is popularly called the Weights and Measures. Every inhabitant of London, and every casual visitor there, has admired the handsome edifice which generally goes by that name, and which stands so conspicuously confronting the Treasury Chambers. It must be owned that we have but a slip-slop way of christening our public buildings. When a man tells us that he called on a friend at the Horse Guards, or looked in at the Navy Pay, or dropped a ticket at the Woods and Forests, we put up with the accustomed sounds, though they are in themselves, perhaps, indefensible. The 'Board of Commissioners for Regulating Weights and Measures', and the 'Office of the Board of Commissioners for Regulating Weights and Measures', are very long phrases; and as, in the course of this tale, frequent mention will be made of the public establishment in question, the reader's comfort will be best consulted by maintaining its popular though improper denomination.

It is generally admitted that the Weights and Measures is a well-conducted public office; indeed, to such a degree of efficiency has it been brought by its present very excellent secretary, the two very worthy assistant-secretaries, and especially by its late most respectable chief clerk, that it may be said to stand quite alone as a high model for all other public offices whatever. It is exactly antipodistic of the Circumlocution Office, and as such is always referred to in the House of Commons by the gentleman representing the Government when any attack on the Civil Service, generally, is being made.