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of all persuasions, and three large synagogues for the Jews. The royal palace of St. James, on the north side of a small park of the same name, is an ancient building; it is mean in external appearance, but the apartments are the best calculated for regal parade of any in the kingdom. Buckingham palace, to which a new front has recently been added, is also in a forward state of preparation for her majesty, on the west side of St. James's Park. Among the public buildings, which can merely be enumerated here, are Westminster Hall, containing the supreme courts of justice, and adjoining to which are the houses of Lords and Commons; the Guildhall of the city; the Sessions House; the Tower, an ancient fortress, in which are some public offices, a magazine and arsenal, and the regalia of the kingdom; the Trinity House and the Mint, on Tower-hill; the Horse Guards, the Treasury, and the Admiralty, at Whitehall; the noble collection of public offices which form that magnificent structure, called Somerset-house; the National Gallery; the British Museum; the Royal Exchange; the Post Office; the Bank of England; the Custom-house; the Excise Office; the East India-house; the South Sea-house; the Mansion-house, for the Lord Mayor; the Monument, in commemmoration of the great fire in 1666; the Public Statues ; London Bridge; the bridges of Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Strand, Westminster, and Vauxhall; the numerous inns of court for the study of the law; the two new universities, colleges, learned societies, scientific institutions, and public seminaries; the halls of the different companies; the noble hospitals, and other charitable foundations; the theatres, and other public places of diversions; the Railway Termini; the Cemeteries; with its fine squares and streets, are all too numerous to be here particularly mentioned. The parishes in the Bills of Mortality, amount to one hundred and forty-seven; of which ninety-seven are within the walls, seventeen in the liberties without

the walls, twenty-three out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, and ten in the city and liberties of Westminster. Such, on a cursory view of it, is the metropolis of Britain, to the extent and opulence of which many causes have contributed. From the openness of the country around, and a gravelly soil, it is kept tolerably dry in all seasons, and affords no lodgment for stagnant air or water. Its cleanliness, as well as its supply of water, are greatly aided by its situation on the banks of the Thames; and the New River, with many good springs within itself, further contributes to the abundance of that necessary element. London, with regard to the circumstance of navigation, is so placed on the Thames, and has such extensive wet docks, as to possess every advantage that can be derived from a seaport, without its dangers. To its port are also confined some branches of foreign commerce; as those of Turkey and Hudson Bay, and nearly the whole of the vast East India trade. Thus, London has risen to its present rank of the first city in Europe, with respect to opulence; and nearly, if not entirely so, as to the number of inhabitants. To describe the trades and manufactures that are carried on in London, would be to enumerate all that other places in the kingdom are separately noted for, and would include nearly every article of utility or luxury; for such are the facilities which the metropolis affords for the performance of all operations on an extensive scale, and such is the spirit of competition that exists among its industrious and enterprising inhabitants, that whatever speculation in art, manufactures, or commerce, holds out a fair promise for the advantageous employment of capital or talent, is sure to be embarked in and prosecuted with the most unremitting energy. Such is

-LONDON-Opulent, enlarged, and still
Increasing, LONDON! Babylon of old
Not more the glory of the earth than she,
A more accomplished world's chief glory now.

14

CHAPTER II.

DIRECTIONS TO THE PRINCIPAL LINES OF STREETS.

NOTWITHSTANDING the vast size of London, there are few cities through which it is easier to find a desired route, by attention to a few leading points of direction. Persons coming from the north and west of England are placed by the railways in close contact with the great thoroughfare of the New-road, which runs from Paddington to the Bank, and from this there are several leading communications which communicate with the important line of streets which intersects London from west to east. This intersecting line may be considered the principal standard of direction for that part of London situate on the north of the Thames: beginning at the west, it may be described as consisting of Bayswater-road, Oxford-street, Holborn, Holborn-hill, Newgate-street, Cheapside, the Poultry, Cornhill, Leadenhallstreet, and Whitechapel-road; a little further to the south are converging lines, having a slight degree of parallellism, which join the main line at the two extremities of Cheapside. The western subsidiary line consists of Piccadilly, part of Waterloo-place, Pall Mall east, the Strand, Fleet-street, and Ludgate-hill, joining Cheapside through St. Paul's churchyard, and also offering an avenue to the wharfs, the docks, and the Tower, through Watling-street, Eastcheap, and Great Towerstreet. At the eastern extremity of Cheapside a line diverges to London-bridge, the wharfs Tower, &c. through King William-street.

The lines that cross these longitudinal courses of streets, from north to south, are not so distinct or direct as those from east to west, which we have just described. We shall notice the most important; beginning, as before, at the extreme north-west. Near the Paddingtonstation of the Great Western Railway is the Edgewareroad, which joins the New-road with the western extremity of Oxford-street, and thus places strangers on what we have described as the great intersecting line of the metropolis, and this line may be continued to the Piccadilly-line, divergent through Hyde-park, or Parklane, which are very nearly direct continuations of the Edgeware-road. The other lines of communication, between the New-road and Oxford-street, are Glouces ter-place, continued through Park-street to Piccadilly; Baker-street, continued through Audley-street to Piccadilly, and at the north-side of the New-road, forming the chief line of connection with the west side of the Regent's-park, and the suburban district of St. John'swood; Wimpole-street, or Harley-street, connected with the Piccadilly divergent through New Bond-street, and Portland-place, which fronts the Regent's-park, and through Regent-street, connects Oxford-street with Piccadilly, Pall-mall, and St. James's-park, from which it is easy to find the way to the palace, the houses of parliament, and the principal offices of Government. After having passed the Park and Portland- place, pursuing the road to the city, the next great line leading to the south is Tottenham-court-road; a very important thoroughfare, because on its north side it communicates with the great line of road leading to Camden-town, Kentish-town, Hampstead, and Highgate; and on its south side it joins the great intersecting line at the point of junction between Oxford-street and New Oxford-street. From this point there are two lines of communication with the Strand, one through Bloomsburystreet, the Seven-dials, and St. Martin's-lane, which

leads to Charing-cross; and the other through a new opening called Endell-street, continued in front of Covent-garden-theatre, through Bow-street, Charlesstreet, and Wellington-street, into the Strand opposite Waterloo-bridge. Nearly parallel with Tottenhamcourt-road is the line of Gower-street, which is not open for carriages, being stopped by a gate in front of the London University; and between this and King's-cross there are several indirect lines leading to Holborn, through Russell and Bloomsbury squares. The Newroad passes through the centre of Euston-square, on the north side of which is the Terminus of the North Western Railway. Those passengers who, on their arrival at this station, wish to go to the west-end, will find their various routes already recorded in this paragraph. Continuing the line of the New-road, we reach King's-cross, from which there is a divergent line north-westwards by the Pancras-road to the eastern side of Camden-town, and a communication with the middle of Holborn by Gray'sinn-lane; the New-road is continued over Pentonvillehill to the Angel at Islington, from whence there are lines of communication to the west end of Newgatestreet by St. John-street and Smithfield, and to the east end by Goswell-street and Aldersgate-street. The Newroad from Islington takes the name of the City-road, and leads direct to the Bank. To the Bank also converge the north-eastern lines of communication by Shoreditch and Bishopsgate-street, by Mile end and Whitechapel; and the eastern line by the Mile-end-road.

The portion of London on the south side of the Thames presents more intelligible lines of communication, and much more easily remembered, than those we have just described. The great roads from the principal bridges converge at the obelisk in St. George's-fields, or may be described as radiating from the obelisk to the bridges. Taking the former arrangement, we may state that Bridge-street and Westminster-road lead from West

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