2-798-826 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Night watchman with lantern, 1845. 'I lament more particularly for the loss of one of our most ancient privileges - the comfortable families' mild and amiable guardian of the night called the watchman. Ah! the comfort to the sleepless of that mournful quavering cry: it gave assurance to you in the darkness and the stillness of the night (although the correctness of the hour could never be depended on). What matter! you knew a guardian was watching round your pillow...too weak to commit a burglary on your pantry, and who, when wanted, was always to be found in his box. See what a comfort it was to dining out men, and what assurance to their wives and families to know that if, in zigzagging home, they missed their footing or their propriety, that a tender motherly watchman...was always near to foster them and prop them up against their own door-posts'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.