Sat. Jan 17. ... Went to the Registrar's Office, and gave notice for a marriage with Edith. The Registrar's Office here is the Board-Room (so written on the door) of the Poor-law Guardians; at one end of the long table a raised, throne-like chair, with a little hammer on desk in front. A clerk took my information. The Registrar himself sitting at side of the long table; pleasant and chatty. When I gave my occupation as "literary man", he said to the clerk "Put 'gentleman'".

George Gissing, Diary, 1891