the wall. London, in its most extensive view, consists of the city, properly so called, the city of Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, with the suburbs in Middlesex and Surrey, within what are called the Bills of Mortality; including an area of eight miles in length, averaging upwards of five miles in width, and more than thirty miles in circumference. It stretches itself along the river Thames, which, rising in Gloucestershire, is here not quite a quarter of a mile in breadth, falling into the German Ocean at the mouth of the Medway, about forty miles below the city. But of such immense importance is this vast metropolis in all that relates to the commerce, wealth, and power of the United Kingdom and its dependencies; so greatly has it increased in extent and magnificence; and so truly may it be regarded as the emporium of the arts and liberal sciences, that in noting down a few of its distinguishing features, in this limited space, we feel it necessary to impress on the mind of a stranger in London, that any slight particularization of its parts can scarcely fail to detract from the grand comprehensiveness of the whole. Among the churches in the metropolis, the cathedral of St. Paul is the most conspicuous, and is a noble fabric. Next to which is Westminster Abbey, where the ashes of kings and heroes, of sages and legislators, philosophers and poets, rest together; and where the sculptured marble perpetuates their memory on a mass of ornamental grandeur not to be equalled in any metropolis of the world. St. Saviour, Southwark, and the lodge chapel; St. Dunstan, in the east; St. Michael, in Cornhill St. Stephen, in Walbrook; St. Aldermary, in Bow-lane; St. Mary, in Cheapside; St. Bride, in Fleet-street; St. Martin, in the Fields; and St. George, Hanover-square, are some of the other churches most distinguished for fine architecture. There are likewise a great number of chapels for the established church, foreign Protestant churches, Roman Catholic chapels, meetings for dissenters

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