HH ill i I m ■ H WW "■I mm 9 Di yra I J II 1 1 LONDON EXHIBITED 1851; ELUCIDATING ITS NATOBA1 AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS • ITS ANTIQUITY AND AECHITECTUEE ; [TS ARTS, MANUFACTURES, TRADE, AND ORGANIZATION ; ITS SOCIAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC IXSTITUTIOXS ; AND ITS NUMEROUS GALLERIES OF FIXE ART. WITH 205 ILLUSTEATIOXS, EXECUTED BY MR. ROBERT BRAXSTOX, MR. O. JEWITT, MR. J. R. JOBBIXS, AXD others; INCLUDING A NEWLY-CONSTBUCTED MAP. EXGRAVED BY MR. WILSOX LOWRY. EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY JOH^ WEALE LONDON. |©»cc IMJt LONDON AND ITS VICINITY. T ONDON is the largest and wealthiest, as well as the most populous of the cities of the world. It is at once the centre of liberty, the seat of a great imperial government, and the metropolis of that great race whose industry and practical application of the arts of peace are felt in every clime, while they exert an almost boundless influence over the moral and political destinies of the world. About to become the theatre of an event of the highest moral importance, it is desirable that the stranger in our giant city should be made acquainted with its organization and structure — with its trade and commerce — with the sources of its social and political greatness — with its many treasures hidden from the eye of the superficial observer. The aim of the present volume is to endeavour to effect this object — and in such a manner as not only to satisfy the mind of the learned and scientific inquirer, but to afford to the man of business and the sight-seer the advantages of a book of reference to those numerous depositories of art and science which abound in the t metropolis, and which render such effectual aid towards the refinement of domestic life, bv furnishing alike the means of instruction and amusement. The work — which is accompanied by a map scientifically laid down from the meridian of St. Paul's — will be found to contain valuable information on the following subjects : — Almshouses. i Breweries. Architecture of London, ancient and mo- dern. Architects : the great men, Jones, "Wren, and Chambers, who have contributed Charitable Institutions, most to the architecture of London. Climate of London. Arts, Manufactures, and Trades. | Club-houses. Assurances. Asylums. Banks — Bank of England. Baths and "Washhouses. Botanical Features and Landscape of the Neighbourhood of London. j East India House and Institution. B Canals. Cathedrals and Churches, Cemeteries. Colleges. Corporations. Customs Duties. Docks, Commercial and Royal. Ducal Residences. LONDON — CONTENTS. Education. Electric Telegraphs. Engineering Workshops. Exchanges : Royal Exchange, Coal Ex- change, Corn Exchange. Galleries of Art. Gardens, Conservatories, &c. Geology. Halls. Horticulture. Hospitals. Inns of Court. Institutions. Learned Societies. Legislation and Government. Libraries. Lunatic Asylums. Markets. Mediaeval Antiquities and Tudor Art. Mercantile Marine. Military Appointments. Mint and Monetary System. Model Lodgings. Municipal Law. Music. Museums. Natural History. Observatories. Palaces. Panoramas. Parks. Patent Offices. Physical Geography of the Basin of the Thames. Pleasure Grounds. Police. Port of London. Postal Arrangements. Prisons. Public Schools. Public and Private Buildings. Railway Stations. Sewers. Spirit of the Public Journals. Squares. Statuary. Steam Navigation. Thames Tunnel. Theatres. Trips in search of Refinement and Taste. Water Supply. &c, &c, &c. Before proceeding with this task, we shall offer some preliminary and general observations necessary to explain to the reader the natural situation and structure of our metropolitan city; with essays on those regulations which are connected with our political organi- zation and constitution, our domestic habits and the working of our social system ; after which the several distinct subjects are treated of, and our rapid intercommunication, our inland navigation, and examples of the fine and useful arts in their application to purposes of utility and grandeur are exhibited : nor would such a picture of our organization be complete without a descriptive account of those accumulations of the wealth of nature and art in museums, which combine the treasures of the natural history of man with the fossil remains of a previous age and a former world. These the philosopher, the historian, and the sight-seer will find abundantly illustrated in this great metropolis. " It is a fact not a little interesting to Englishmen, and, combined with our insular station in that great highway of nations, the Atlantic, not a little explanatory of our commercial eminence, that London occupies nearly the centre of the terrestrial hemisphere." — Sir John Herschel's Natural Philosophy. LONDON PRELIMINARY. ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE BASIN OF THE THAMES. Section 1. Hydrography. — The liydrograpliical basin of the Thames is formed by a valley of denudation, rather irregular in its form T but whose main direction is from west to east, with a sub- sidiary valley, that of the Lea, running nearly north and south. The length, from the Isle of Grain and Shoebury Ness to the sources of the river, is about 230 miles ; the breadth is less easily defined. In no case, however, does it much exceed 60 miles; and its average width may be taken as being about from 26 to 30 miles. The area thus drained is supposed to be 602? square miles, though some geogra- phers estimate it at 6500 square miles. For 188 miles of its course the river is navigable ; no less than 70 miles being under the influ- ence of the tides. The commercial importance of the river as a means of transport is, moreover, much increased by the canalization of several of its affluents ; and by the execution of numerous arti- ficial canals, which place it in connection, by water, with almost every town of importance in the south of Great Britain. Course. — Geographers are not unanimous in deciding upon any particular spot as the source of the Thames. Indeed, the streams which dispute the honour of giving rise to it are so equal in their insignificance that the decision is of little moment. Four of them, the Leech, the Colne, the Churn, and the Isis, which rise in the Cots- wold range of hills, unite near Leehlade, from which point the river becomes navigable, and is known for a considerable portion of its course by the name of the Isis. Leehlade is about 146 miles from London, and 204 from Sheerness; its elevation above low-water mark at London Bridge is 258 ft., thus showing the average fall of the river from that point to be 21 in. per mile, or about 1 in 3017. At Leehlade, the Thames and Severn Canal locks into the Isis, thus putting the south-east and south-west coasts of England in con- nection with one another. This canal is 40 ft. wide on the water line, 30 ft. on the floor, and 5 ft. deep ; it is navigable by boats of 70 tons burthen. The navigation of the Isis was intended for boats of 100 tons, so that it is often necessary to tranship goods passing from the river to the canal, or vice versa. After passing Leehlade, the Isis follows a circuitous course : leav- ing Farringdon on the south, and Bampton on the north, it runs through the grounds of ^lenheim to Oxford, having received, near Woodstock, the Evenlode. At Oxford, the Charwell falls into the river; it is a stream of some importance, which rises near Cuhvorth in the Buckinghamshire hills, and receives, at Islip, a stream from the neighbourhood of Grandborough. The Oxford Canal joins the Thames here also, opening a water-carriage to Birmingham and Warwick, by means of a canal of small section, 28 ft. wide on the b 2 4 LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. water-line, 1G ft. on the floor, and 4 ft. 6 in. deep; the locks being only 74 ft. 9 in. long, by 7 ft. wide. The Isis then con- tinues its course southerly, through Nuneham Park to Abingdon, where it receives the Windrush, and near which town also the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal locks into it at a point where the river is 180 ft. 4 in. above the mean level of the sea at the Nore. This also is a canal of small section. The course of the river thence be- comes more circuitous, with a general inclination towards the south- east (in the course of which the Ock, from the vale of White Horse, joins the main stream), to near Dorchester in Oxfordshire, where it joins the Thame, and from this point the united streams take the definite name of the Thames. The Thame rises in the same ran^e of the Buckinghamshire hills from which the Charwell takes its source; it winds through the vale of Aylesbury, and receives at Wendover its most considerable affluent. The Thames thence runs southerly through a gorge in the Chil- tern Hills, which slope down abruptly towards the narrow valley of the river; it passes Bensington, Wallingford (where it receives a small stream), Pangbourne (where another joins it), Streatley, Ma- ple Durham and Purley Hall to Henley. Near Reading, it receives the Kennet, which is formed by the meeting of two rivulets at Marl- borough, and is augmented by subsidiary streams at Newberry and at Upton, before it joins the main river. The town of Reading itself is situated upon the Kennet, at a distance of l\ mile from the junction with the Thames. This portion of the river is ren- dered navigable for boats 109 ft. long, by 17 ft. wide, and 4 ft. draught of water. Above Reading, the Kennet is canalized for a distance of 1 8^ miles, at which point the Kennet and Avon Canal locks into it. Boats of from 50 to 70 tons navigate on this canal, for the width of the water-line is 44 ft., of the floor-line, 24 ft., with a minimum depth of 5 ft.; the locks are 80 ft. long between gates, by 14 ft. in width. The Kennet and Avon Canal joins London directly with Bath and Bristol. At Maidenhead the Loddon, which rises near Basingstoke and Odiham in the chalk-hills of Hampshire, joins the Thames. That river then passes round the Castle Hill to near Woburn Park and Ham, by Datchet, Staines,, and Chertsey. At Staines the Colne, from the neighbourhood of Watford, falls into the Thames ; and at Ham it receives the Wey, which rises near Alton, in Hampshire, runs through Farnham, and, at Guildford, receives a stream taking its source in the Bramshot Hills near Horsham, and passing through Godalming. About If mile from the embouchure of the Wey in the Thames, the Basingstoke Canal locks down into the former. The Wey itself, and its tributary from the Surrey Hills, is rendered navigable as far as Godalming ; at which town a canal commences, joining the Wey and the Arun, and placing London in connection, LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 5 bv water carriage, with Portsmouth and the south coast. The lochs in the Wev are 81 ft. long by 14 ft. wide; those on the Basing- stoke Canal are 72 ft. long by 13 ft. wide, and are designed for boats of 50 tons burthen; the Wey and Arun Canal is of about the same dimensions. The Thames then takes an easterly course through Hampton Court to Thames Ditton ; thence rather northerly to Kingston and Richmond, where the Mole falls in. Lower down, at Brentford, it receives the Brent, flowing from the Hertfordshire Hills, and forming the connecting link between the upper part of the Thames and the Grand Junction Canal. This main artery of the system of English artificial navigation places London in connection with all the im- portant canals in the midland counties. Its width on the water-line is 43 ft., its depth 5 ft.; the lochs are 82 ft. long by 14^ ft. wide, and usually of ? ft. lifts. The Wandle falls into the Thames at Wandsworth, and several small streams join the river between Brentford and the metropolis; some even, formerly of note, do so in the very heart of the town. Rivers have their fortunes, like nations, and at times small ones dis- appear before the progress of civilization, or at least become con- verted to most base uses. Thus we now can only trace such streams as the Bayswater Brook, the Fleet, Wall Brook, and the other rivulets of ancient London, in the modern sewers. On the east of London, a little below Blackball, on the northern shore, the Lea falls into the Thames. This affluent rises in the hills of Hertfordshire, and flows through Puckeridge and Welwyn. At Ware, it receives several minor streams, and near Hertford, at 26 miles from its outfall into the Thames, it is rendered navigable for boats not exceeding 40 tons. The course of the river Lea is southerly from Hoddesden to the outfall, and it divides the counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex. At Hertford the navigation com- mences at a point 111 ft. 3 in. above the sea; and there is also, near the same city, a canal 5 miles long, by means of which the Lea navigation is connected with that of the Stork A short distance from the embouchure a canal, called Sir George Duckett's Canal, connects the Lea with the upper part of the Regent's Canal; and, nearer still to the embouchure, the Lea Cut, of 1^- mile in length, enables barges to gain the upper part of the Thames without passing round the Isle of Dogs. The Regent's Canal is, in fact, the termina- tion of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction Canal. The Paddington branch begins at a point near LTxbridge, 90 ft. above low water at Limehouse, and runs a distance of 14 miles to Pad- dington. There the Regent's Canal joins it", and is continued round the north of London to Limehouse, a distance of 8i miles, with a fall of 90 ft., gained by 12 locks. On the southern shore, a little higher up than Blackwall, the 6 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. Deptford Creek forms the embouchure of the Ravensbourne, which flows from the Surrey Hills in the neighbourhood of Hays Common and Addiscomb. It is navigable for a very short distance inland, during the remainder of its course it is but a small mill-stream. From Blackwall to the sea, the only affluents of importance are, on the northern shore, the Roding, which fal!s into the Thames at Barking Creek, and is navigable as far as that ancient town. In Dagenham Marsh, a stream from the hills round Havering-atte-Bower falls in ; at Rainham, the Ingerburn discharges itself; and at Pur- fleet, a small stream from Childerditch Common is swallowed up in the continually increasing river. On the south side, in the marshes of Dartford, the Darent and the Cray, from the Kentish Hills, join shortly before falling into the Thames. Their united stream is na- vigable with the tide as far as the town of Dartford. In the last 20 miles of the course of the Thames it does not receive any affluent worth notice ; and, in fact, may rather be considered an arm of the sea than a river. At a very early period of English history, the Thames appears to have been considered as a political boundary of great importance. The division of the country into shires is supposed to have been established on its present basis by King Alfred; and we therein find that the Thames was adopted as the boundary of many of these districts at an inconsiderable distance from its source. A little be- low Lechlade, in fact, the river Isis separates the counties of Berk- shire and Oxfordshire ; it then forms the line of demarcation, either under the name of the Isis or the Thames, between Buckingham- shire and Berkshire ; then between Surrey and Middlesex ; and finally between Kent and Essex. But, long before the time of Alfred, the river was adopted as the political limits of the Roman provinces of Britannia Prima on the south, and of Flavia Csesariensis on the north. In the seventh century also it formed one of the boundaries of the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and West Seaxe, in the middle of England ; and of those of East Seaxe, South Seaxe, and Cantivare, on the eastern coast. Volume. — The volume of the Thames, in the parts unaffected by the tide, is, as might be expected, from its comparatively insignifi- cant basin, not very considerable. Mr. J. RenmVs observations at Windsor, during the dry month of June, 1794, only gave a volume equal to 961 cubic feet per second. Mr. G. RenmVs observations, in the year 1835, showed, that at Laleham the volume was 1153 cubic feet per second; and at Kingston, 1600. After a heavy fall of rain, the volume at the latter point was augmented to 1800 cubic feet per second; but in this case the river was 18 in. above its summer level. Mr. Anderson found, in the month of December, 1830, that the volume at Staines was 2050 ft. per second, the river then standing 4 ft. above the summer level. At Teddington, Mr. An- LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 7 derson calculated that, with an 18-in. overfall at the locks, the volume was TOO ft.; and with a 24-in. overfall, it was 1260. Taking a mean of these three last mentioned volumes, we may as- sume that the Thames, in the parts removed from the influence of the tides, on the average, has a volume equal to 1357 cubic feet per second, or 115,516,800 ft. per day, and 42,163,632,000 cubic feet per annum. Now Dr. Halley, assuming the average rain-fall of the whole basin to be 24 in., calculated that its total amount would be 280,259,555,200 cubic feet per annum. The loss by evaporation and absorption would then constitute about g tlis of the total rain- fall; — certainly a very small portion, when compared with the same loss in other hydrographical basins. It may be accounted for either by the highly retentive nature of the bed of the river, or by the moisture of the atmosphere. Dr. Halley calculated the loss by evaporation at only ^th of the total rain-fall ; but this is evidently exaggerated. The numerous works connected with the navigation of the upper part of the Thames, together with the weirs and clams of the water- mills, interfere so much with the flow of the water as to render its velocity very different from that which would result from its different inclinations. Mr. J. Rennie assumed it to be on the mean 2 miles per hour ; in some cases it is as much as 2f miles ; and at Windsor, in 1794, he found it to be %\ miles per hour. Tides. — Below Teddington the river is exposed to the action of the tides, which, from a peculiar combination of causes, act with great force in the Thames. The tide wave from the Atlantic divides at Land's End into two streams, one of which runs up the British Channel and enters the Thames round the North Foreland ; the other passes along the west coast of England and Scotland, and returns southward by the eastern shore, and enters the Thames also, after passing the Yarmouth Roads. The tide in the river is then com- posed of two tidal waves, distant 12 hours from each other, so that the day and night tides are equal ; the tides meet between the Foreland and the Kentish Knock. The velocity of the wave from the North Foreland to London is very great, beins about 50 miles per hour ; above the bridges, from the resistances it meets, the velocity is so much diminished that the wave is not propagated more rapidly than 12 miles an hour on the average. The difference of time of high water between London Bridge and Richmond is 1 hour 18 minutes. The same resistances which retard the flow of the tidal wave affect the duration of its rise. Thus at London Bridge we find that the flood tide runs for 5 hours, and the ebb tide for 7. At Putney Bridge the flood only lasts for 4 hours ; at Richmond for 2 ; and at Tedding- ton only for If hour. The rise of the tide at Deptford is in the spring tides 19 ft. 2 in., in the neaps, 15 ft. 3 in. At the London 8 LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. Docks it is, on the average of the spring tides, 18 ft. ; at Putney, 10 ft. 2 in.; at Kew, 7 ft. 1 in.; at Richmond, 3 ft. 10 in.; and at Tedclington, 1 ft. 4^ in. Professor Airy observed, that the rise of the water in the Thames, at a given interval from low water (in half an hour, for instance), is considerably more than its descent in the same interval before low water. There exists, in fact, the rudi- ment of a bore. The duration of slack water, or the interval between the change of direction of the stream, is 40 minutes during the spring tides, and 37 minutes during the neaps, at Beptford. The vulgar establishment is the interval by which the time of high water follows the moon's transit on the day of new and full moon. What Sir John Lubbock calls the corrected establishment, or the lunar hour of high water freed from the semimenstrual irregularity, is found to be, at the London Docks, 1 h. 26 m. The interval of the high tide and moon's transit is, however, affected by a considerable inequality, which goes through its period twice in a month, depending on the moons distance from the sun in right ascension, or on the solar time of the moon's transit. Its value is two hours. The direction of the winds has a great influence on the tides of the Thames, not only as to the height they attain, but also as to their duration. Thus with north-westerly gales they do not rise so high, nor does the flood run so long, as with the wind in any other quarters. With south-westerly gales, however, and with those from the east, the tides often rise even as much as 4 ft. above their usual levels. The demolition of the old London Bridge is also said to have pro- duced an increase of the height of the tide to the extent of 2 ft. ; whilst it is very certain that the bed of the river and the low-water mark have been considerably lowered by the same cause. This lowering of the bed is regularly distributed over the whole length of the river, from the bridge to Teddington ; and it appears to be not less than 2 ft. at the former, and about 10 in. at the latter. The recent movements which have taken place near Blackfriars Bridge would induce us to believe that the depression of the river bed is much greater than even this quantity. The velocity of the current created by the tidal wave is between 3| and 2^ miles per hour ; 3 miles being the average, and also the velocity most suitable to the navigation carried on in the upper parts. At the ebb the greatest velocity appears to be between the bridges, as follows: — From Westminster to Waterloo Bridges 2*27 miles per hour. „ Waterloo to Blackfriars „ 2*854 „ „ Blackfriars to South wark „ 3*70 „ „ South wark to London „ 3*903 ,, The areas of different portions of the river at high water at the following points between the above limits being — LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 9 Whitehall 23,500 feet superficial. Hungerford Market . . . 22,000 „ Waterloo Bridge .... 21,000 „ Opposite Bouverie Street . . 18^000 „ Southwark Bridge . . . . J 7,000 „ London Bridge .... 17,000 „ This irregularity in the area fully accounts for the formation of the loathsome beds of mud which disfigure the river at low tide, and de- monstrates painfully the defective state of the regulations connected with the formation and maintenance of the course of the river. Banks of Lower Thames. — The banks of the lower part of the Thames are marked by the same want of a definite plan which renders the upper part of the stream less useful than it might be made. The period at which they were first formed is very remote, being by some supposed to date as far back as the time of the Romans. This, in- deed, seems very probable, for the manner in which the banks are executed, though eminently successful, is marked by all the clumsiness of a first essay. The marshes they protect from the river are some- times (as at Woolwich) not less than 4 ft. 3 in. below the level of the high water in spring tides. Those of the Isle of Dogs are now being enclosed by an embankment upon piles, with a superstructure in brickwork, executed in conformity with a plan prepared by Mr. Walker, under the direction of the Navigation Committee ; thus indicating that the attention of that body has been fairly called to the necessity of co-ordinating all encroachments upon the channel of the river to one general system. The result of the several works upon the bed of the Thames, and the demolition of the old bridge, has been hitherto to lower the bed, and to compromise the safety of several of the bridges in the stream, and of some of the buildings on the shore. It is to be hoped that the legislature will take some mea- sures to remedy the dangerous and defective state of the present organization of the conservancy of the river. Moreover, in the lower Thames, that is to say, in those parts of its course below London Bridge, numerous shoals exist, which are highly prejudicial to the safety of the navigation, whilst at the same time there is no reason why they might not be carried further out towards the embouchure if the course of the river were regularised, and the dredging operations made to conform to the necessities of the port. These shoals exist in the parts of the Thames in which the deep sea navigation terminates, where, in fact, from the more energetic action of the tides, the floods from the upper country begin to deposit the matter they hold in solution. The force with which the tidal wave enters the mouth of the Thames prevents the detritus borne down by the upper stream from being carried sufficientlv far towards the embouchure to form a Delta. b 3 1 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. It is therefore deposited at those points of the course of the river at which the propulsive power of the land waters is counterbalanced by that of the tide wave, which tends to force the detritus back again. The still water thus produced is exposed to great changes in its po- sition and extent from an infinity of local and accidental causes ; so that the shoals vary very frequently without any apparent cause. Their real origin, however, may be attributed to the interferences with the regularity in the flow of the river by natural deviations of the line of the banks, or by the execution of ill-contrived, ill-planned works. For instance, we find that a shoal exists on the north shore, op- posite to the recesses formed by the east entrance of the London Dock on the north, and the St. Saviour's Dock on the south ; these give rise to reaches of still water, in which the detritus from the upper part of the river can be deposited. A similar shoal is formed opposite to the Lime Kiln Dock ; another in a wide reach a little above the Greenland Docks; a fourth near the embouchure of the Ravensbourne in the Thames, which may be attributed to the di- rection in which it falls into the main stream, precisely the reverse to what would be required in the interest of the navigation. Opposite Saunders Ness are shoals on each side of the river, owing to the retardation of its velocity from the abrupt bend it here forms ; a small shoal in the mid stream, a little lower down than these side ones, appears to owe its origin to the interference they produce on the direction of the currents. Another small shoal is produced by the still water opposite the entrance of the West India Docks. At the embouchure of the Lea, owing to the interference of the upland waters of that river with those of the Thames, two shoals are formed near Bugsby's Hole. It is probable that the effectual removal of these two may be attended with considerable difficulty; but all the others might easily be remedied. Estuary. — Below this point the river begins so distinctly to assume the characteristics of an estuary, that it is almost impossible to define with certitude the position of the shoals, still less would it be pos- sible to prevent their formation, or effectually to combat them. At Woolwich the water becomes brackish at spring tides, and the greater specific gravity it thence attains modifies the conditions of the depo- sition of the matter it holds in suspension. The difference between the lengths of time during which the flood and the ebb tides prevail, also diminishes as the river approaches the sea. Moreover, the action of the current upon the shores of the embouchure, at the same time that it removes the land on both sides, and thus changes the form of the outfall, so also does it carry into those portions of the estuary where still water is to be met with, the materials result- ing from the degradation of the shores. The variations of the tides from the neap to the spring, the changes in the force and direction of LONDON GEOGRAPHY. 1 1 the deep sea current, possibly from the effects of storms in very different and distant latitudes ; the irregularities of the volume of fresh water brought down from the upper regions of the Thames, combine to render its "regime" in the lower and wider portions of its course very irregular and capricious. The sands of the Nore vary often in their outline, and their distance from the surface of the water ; the erosive force of the current upon the banks also varies in intensity according to the action of the causes shortly enumerated above. The erosions of the sea upon the shores of the estuary of the Thames are very rapid, both upon the Essex and Kentish coasts. The cliffs of Waiton-on-the-Naze are rapidly disappearing ; the Maplin Sand, near Shoebury Ness, may, perhaps, be considered as having formed part of the main land in former times. The Isle of Sheppey, and the coast near Heme Bay, are being swept away in a gradual but inevitable manner; nor is the land forming the pro- montory between the embouchures of the Thames and the Med way removed from the same cause of destruction. Ail the materials thus removed, combined with the detritus brought down by the fresh water, are deposited in, or near, the estuary of the Nore, where they form the extensive banks, or shoals, visible at low water. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the amount of sediment carried down by the river itself; but from the nature of the formations it tra- verses in the latter portion of its course, and the comparatively feeble inclination of its bed, the proportionate amount of matter in mecha- nical suspension, in all probability, is very considerable. In the section of the Physical Geography of the Basin of the Thames, in which we treat of the geology of the district, will be found the areas occupied by the different formations which constitute it, and through which it travels. These influence the hydrography of a district to a very great extent, not only in consequence of the different capacity of the strata for the absorption of water, but also in consequence of the manner in which they furnish the materials held either in mechanical or chemical solution, or suspension, in the stream. Thus it must be evident that the water flowing from the oolitic and the cretaceous formations is more likely to be charged with the carbonate of lime than that which drains from such portions of the surface as are covered by the London clay. These, again, from the nature of the vegetation they nourish with the greatest pro- fusion, are likely to communicate to the waters they furnish the germs of animal and vegetable organization. The open, spongy nature of the two former classes of formation must, moreover, make them more retentive of water than the comparatively speaking impermeable strata of the London clay. The greater number of the affluents of the Thames, it is true, take their rise in the oolites and in the chalk ; but their volumes are comparatively less than those which are fur- nished by the London clay, especially when we compare the re- spective lengths of the streams. 1 2 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. In the same section will also be found the heights of some of the most important elevations of the district under our examination. They also have considerable influence upon the hydrography of the basin, both by their action in determining a greater or less amount of rain-fall, by attracting and condensing the moisture suspended in the atmosphere, and by affecting the rate of discharge of the surface water. Matter in Suspension. — The positive quantity of extraneous matter contained in the Thames water does not seem to have been ascer- tained with any degree of certainty ; nor does the range of tidal action upon suspended matter in it appear to have been made the subject of direct experiment. Dr. Bostock is reported to have esti- mated the proportion of solid matter in suspension in the river water as being TT ^th of the weight ; Mr. Kerrison's experiments would show it to be -^-x-yth ; and in all probability this estimate is a low one. The calculation of Dr. Bostock was made before 1828, that of Mr. Kerrison in 1834. Since then the nature of the river water has been modified by the incessant wash of the steamers ; but we must also observe, that if the continual agitation produced by them pre- vents the deposition of the mud, yet at the same time, from the increased and increasing scour of the river, the bed is considerably cleaner than it used to be, especially in the parts above bridge. The evidence given before some of the Parliamentary Committees would lead us to infer that the greater part of these impurities are derived from the upper parts of the river and from its affluents. At Rich- mond the Thames is as foul as in the heart of the town, according to the engineers examined. The Wey, and the Mole especially, bring down very turbid w r aters, as does also the Colne, near Isle- worth, after heavy rains. It is to be observed, however, that the modifications of the bed of the river from the removal of London Bridge are far from having yet produced their full effect. Neither the river itself, nor the banks in the embouchure, nor the bed in the upper portion, have yet assumed the definite regime that absurdly- delayed measure seems likely to produce. Floods. — Floods occur in the valleys of the Thames and the Lea occasionally. They arise entirely from the surface waters, hardly ever from the melting of snow, or ice, in the highlands near their sources. Indeed, the climate of this part of England, and the feeble elevation of its hills, does not .admit of the duration of frost for a sufficient length of time to affect the sources of the river supply. Under these circumstances, the floods are found to occur in the rainy seasons, in November and December, in April and in May, without, however, being in any manner peculiarly confined to those months. The flood waters brought down to the rivers are highly charged with earthy matter and the germs of organized life ; they, in fact, ma- terially influence the formation of the alluvial deposits of the river. Ehrenberg mentions a fact of considerable importance in the dis- LONDON — CLIMATE. 1 3 cussion of questions affecting the relative purities of river water. It is, that in all the rivers which fall into the German Ocean the microscopic animals of the sea extend up rivers as far as the ehh and flow of the tide extend. His researches show that the flood tide, even when the surface waters have no taste of salt, does not so much depend upon an accumulation of river water from its outflow being checked as it does upon the introduction of sea water under the river water, owing to its greater specific gravity. Ehrenberg found that the remains of the microscopic sea animals constituted no less than rath of the solid matter found in the banks of the estuary. List of Authors consulted. Gr. Rennie. — Reports to British Association. Lubbock, "Whewell, Airy. — On Tides. Philosophical Transactions. Lloyd. — On Difference of Levels between Sheerness and London. Ditto. Page, Telford, Anderson, Mills, &c. — Evidence before Parliamentary Committees, principally subsequent to 1828. Quarterly Journal of Geological Society. Priestley's Account of Navigable Rivers. Knight's London. Cruden's History of Gravesend, &c. M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary. Johnston's National Atlas. Ordnance Survey. Feamside's Thames. Beardmore's Tables. Leslie's Evidence before Parliamentary Committees. Section 2. Climate. — London itself is situated in 51° 31/ of north latitude ; and the line passing through its eastern extremity of Greenwich has been adopted by the Anglo-Saxon race as the zero of longitudinal distances. The length of the continuance of the sun above the horizon is 7f hours on the shortest day; and 16 J- hours on the longest. The mean temperature of the rural district round the metropolis is 48°*50; that of the city itself is 50°'50; the mean of the whole district being 49°" 65. The variations in the temperature recur with what appears to be tolerable regularity after a cycle of 17 years; during which the coldest falls at the 10th from the first year; the warmest at the 7th from the coldest; the first year, marking the cycle, being usually of the mean temperature. The greatest heats known have not exceeded 96° in the shade and in the open air; the cold sometimes descends as low as 5° below zero; the range being 101° Fahrenheit. When the temperature exceeds 80°, thunder-storms usually clear the atmosphere and reduce the heat. As a general rule also, the frosts do not last through the 24 hours, and a continuance of them for any length of time is quite exceptional. The upper part of the Thames was blocked up by the frozen ice in 1840, and to a somewhat greater extent in 1826. With these exceptions, however, the ice has not seriously impeded 14 LONDON — CLIMATE. the navigation since the years 1814 and 1815. In former times the river was frozen over more frequently than it has heen of late years, thus confirming the opinion that the progress of civilization tends to modify and improve the climate. In the works upon Physical Geo- graphy, London is placed on the 64th degree of the isothermal range ; and on the 38th of the isokemenal divisions. Thermometrical Observations, — The monthly averages of tempera- ture, taken over a range of 20 years, show that the warmest months only differ from the coldest by 26|°, and that the temperature of the city differs 2|° from that of the country. This local difference is greatest in winter, as might naturally be expected from the more sheltered position of the metropolis, and the artificial elevation of the temperature produced by the immense number of factories and domestic fires. In the spring, the heat of town and country ap- proaches equality; the difference becomes again perceptible in summer, owing to the reverberation from the narrow streets, and the want of air ; in autumn again the equality is resumed. Thus, between the years 1807 and 1816' included, we find the mean tempera- tures of the different months to have been as follows, viz. : Months. January . February . March . . April . . May . . June July . . August September October November December . Country. 34 39 41 46 55 58 62 61 5G 50 40 37 16 •78 •51 •89 •79 -66 •40 •35 •22 •24 •93 '66 London. 36-20 41-47 42*77 47-69 56-28 59-91 63-41 62-41 58-45 52-23 43-08 39-40 Difference. 2*04 1-69 1-26 0-80 0-49 1-25 1-01 1-26 2-13* 1-99 2-15 1-74 The mean temperature, as shown by an examination of the tables of observations extending over 35 years, assumes a rate of increase in the different months which may be represented by a curve nearly equal to, and parallel with one representing the progress of the sun in declination. The greatest number of the extremes of heat and cold occur in * There appears to be some error in the mean quoted for the month of September ; in the previous decade the difference was considerably less, and it appears usually to be only 1°'77. LONDON CLIMATE. 15 the first month of the year. On an average of 10 years only two occurred in the twelfth month, and one in the second. The extremes of heat are more diffused through the remaining months ; five usually fall in the seventh month ; the others are distributed, in a diminish- ing proportion, over the months earlier or later in the summer. There are thus only two spring and two autumn months, which are not exposed to great varieties of temperature. The ranges of the thermometer in the day-time, for the years between 1807 and 1816, are thus given by Mr. Howard in his admirable work upon the climate of London, from which in fact we have extracted nearly all we give upon the subject. Years. 1 Highest. ' Lowest. Range. Medium. 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 ..... 1815 1816 o 87 96 82 85 88 78 85 91 80 81 o 13 12 18 10 14 18 19 8 17 5 o 74 84 64 75 74 60 66 83 63 86 o 50 54 50 47'5 51 48 52 49-5 48-5 38 Averages . 85-3 12-4 729 48-85 The mean of the daily extremes having been . 48°*79 Ditto of the monthly ditto . . . 48°*34 Ditto of the years, as above . . . 48°' 85 Between the years 1817 and 1831 the examination of the tables gave the mean of the daily extremes . . . 49°'649 That of the months 49°*651 That of the years ...... 49°'721 Perhaps from 90° to 20° may be regarded as the extreme ranges in the day-time. At night the temperature has descended below zero ; but so very rarely as to make such an occurrence phenomenal. In London the mean variations between the temperature of the day and the night are 11°'37; in the country they are 15°*41. In the former, the mean height during the day being (according to the observations made between 1816 and 1817) 56°- 17; during the night 44°*80. In the latter it was during the day 56°'51, during the night 41 o, 10. The extreme range appears to be in the sixth month, in which it has been known to attain from 35° to 37°. During the 16 LONDON — CLIMATE. period between the years 1817 and 1823, the difference appears to have been greater ; for the mean of the greatest heat in the country was 57°*926, at night it was 40°*614, the difference being 17°*312. It is remarkable that this difference corresponds, to the fraction of a degree, with that which prevails between the temperature of summer and winter. The temperatures of the different months were ascertained from a series of observations, extending over the years from 1805 to 1830 inclusive, to be on the average as follows : — Months. January . February . March . . April . . May . . June . July . . August September October November December Mean. Variation. 35-140 13-95 38-997 12-26 42-030 11-20 47-567 8-64 54-937 11-99 59-613 9-36 63-190 S'68 57-187 8-89 50-123 9-80 42-432 12-88 41-950 10-19 38-343 12-40 Finally we may observe, that hoar frosts occur when the thermo- meter is about 39° ; and that the dense yellow fogs so peculiar to London occur the most frequently in the months of November, December, and January, whilst the thermometer ranges under 40°. Barometrical Pressure. — The barometer is subject to variations of a similar nature to those of the thermometer; that is to say, they are frequent and unexpected, but rarely of any great amount. During the years between 1807 and 1816 the mean of the twelve greatest elevations was 30*305 in. ; that of the twelve greatest de- pressions was 29*188 in.; the medium of the elevations and of the depressions was 29*746 in. The highest observations during that period were 30*71 in., although. subsequently they have been made at 30*89 in., during the prevalence of north-easterly breezes. The lowest observations were at 28*22 in. with southerly winds; the greatest range being thus 2'67in. ; the average range 1*998 in. Between 1815 and 1830 similar observations gave as the mean of the twelve greatest elevations 30*356 in., and of the twelve greatest depressions 29*075 in. ; the medium of the elevations and depressions being 29*715 in. The highest annual mean was in the year 1825, LONDON — CLIMATE. 17 when the twelve greatest elevations gave an average of 30*82 in. ; the lowest was in 1831, when the twelve greatest depressions gave a mean of 28*26 in. In the year 1821, the variation even extended to 3 in. ; but over the period from 1807 to 1831 the mean range was onlv 2-07 in. The monthly variations may be represented as follows : — Months. Maximum. ! Minimum. Diff. or mean. Greatest elevation. Greatest depress". Full range. o o o o o o January . 30-515 28-937 1-578 30-8-2 28-69 2-13 February 30-459 28-824 1-435 30-80 28-45 2-35 March . . 30-417 28*895 1-522 30-75 28-35 2-40 April . . 30-330 29*042 1-282 30-57 28-50 2-07 May . . . 30-307 29-262 1-045 30-61 29-06 1-55 June . 30-282 29-335 0-947 30*54 29-12 1-42 July . . . 30*216 29-375 0-841 30-57 28-99 1-58 August . 30-262 29-235 1-027 30-57 28*75 1-82 1 September . 30-292 29-207 1-085 30-50 28-52 1-98 | October . 30-346 29-009 1-337 30*67 28-52 2-15 November . 30-377 28-970 1-407 30-65 28-30 2-35 December . 1 30-449 28-820 1-629 30-80 27*80 3-00 Winds. — Tbe direction of the winds appears to be principally from the south and the west, over the district formed by the basin of the Thames. Starting from the north, we find that the winds blew during 74 days in a year, on the average of the years between 1807 and 1816 inclusive, from points varying from that point towards the east; the extreme numbers of days during which they thus blew from points between the north and the east being 96 and 58 re- spectively. The average number of days they blew from between the east and the south was 54 ; the extremes being 72 and 34 respectively. From between the south and the west the average number of days was 104; the extremes being 123 and 78. From between the west and the north the average was 100 days; the extremes being 124 and 83. The variable winds blowing 33 days on the average, between the extremes of 51 and 17 in the course of the year. If the winds be only grouped under the denominations of easterly and westerly, it would be found that the former prevailed during 140, the latter during 225 days. If they be grouped under the denominations of northerly and southerly, the former would be found to have prevailed during 192 days, the latter during 173. During the several months of the years between 1807 and 1816 18 LONDON—CLIMATE. the winds varied as follows : the table having been calculated for the years mentioned above. The variations between 1817 and 1823 cor- responded so closely with the average results deduced from this table, that it may be considered as a very correct representation of the actual state of the case for that subsequent period. Months. N. & E. 1 E. & S. S.&W. W.&N. Yariable. Total. Days. Days. Days. Days. Da} T s. Days. January . . . 6-8 5'3 7*0 9*1 2-8 31 February . 3-2 4-0 11-7 7*4 1*7 28 March . . 9*8 5-4 6*6 6-5 2-7 31 April . . 8-3 5*6 6-0 6*4 3-7 30 May . . 5-9 6-5 9*0 5'6 4*0 31 June 7*1 3-0 7*2 9*1 3-6 30 July . . 4*5 2-5 9-5 11-5 3-0 31 August 3*5 2-9 10-2 12-9 1-5 31 September 6*4 6-0 8-0 7-4 2-2 30 October 5*2 5*0 10-5 7-4 2-9 31 November 7-8 3-1 8' 8 8*4 T9 30 December . 5*0 4-6 9-9 9-7 1-8 31 Monthly average, ) 6-0 4*5 8-7 8*45 2-65 1807 to 1816 J Monthly average, ) 1817 to 1823 J 6-14 4-9 8-5 9'45 1-41 1 1 Mr. Daniell observes that the force of the winds does not always decrease as the elevation above the ground increases ; but on the contrary is often found to augment rapidly. More than two currents may often be traced in the atmosphere at one time by the motion of the clouds. The land and sea breezes of morning and evening do not recur with sufficient regularity in these latitudes to be appreciable in their influence upon the results of the tables. Northerly winds almost invariably raise the barometer, while,, southerly winds as constantly depress it. The most permanent rains in this climate come from the southern regions. The least rain falls when the winds range from the north to the east. Evaporation. — The evaporation which takes place near London was calculated by Mr. Daniell to be on the average 23*974 in. in a year. This result was obtained from a series of observations made by the means of an hygrometer of that gentleman's invention. Mr. Howard's observations gave results which substantially confirmed those made by Mr. Daniell, for he found that with a gauge placed at a height of 43 ft. from the ground, exposed to the south-east, and subject to the action of the winds, he obtained a mean total of LONDON — CLIMATE. 1 9 85 in. upon the years 1807, 1808, and 1809, which were very dry warm years. In the years 1810, 1812, with a fall of rain considerably above the average, the evaporation gauge, placed at a lower level and ess exposed, only showed a mean of 33*37 in. In the years 1813 and 1815, which again were dry years, the gauge placed imme- liately upon the ground and sheltered, showed a mean evaporation of 20'28 in. Mr. Howard suggests that probably the rate of 33*37 in. may represent the rate of evaporation which takes place from running streams in exposed situations ; the rate of 20*28 in. may also repre- sent that of canals and reservoirs of still water. Mr. Howard also gives a condensed tabular statement of the mean evaporation corresponding with the different seasons, and their mean temperatures, as follows : — 7 Evaporation. 37*20 Temperature. 48-06 „ 6080 „ 49*13 This is considerably in excess of Mr. Darnell's total evaporation, but that may be accounted for by the different conditions under which the observations were made. Mr. Daniell estimates the rate at which this process proceeds near London during the several months of the vear as follows : — In. Winter 3-587 Spring 8-856 Summer . 11-580 Autumn 6-440 Inches. Inches. January . . 0-413 July . 3-293 February . 0-733 August . 3*327 March . . 1-488 September . 2-620 April . 2-290 October . 1-488 May . 3-286 November . . 0-770 June . 3-760 December . 0516 The smallest quantity of water is therefore lifted into the air during the month of January, and the greatest in June. The mean quantity held in solution in a cubic foot of air is said to be 3*789 gr. Mr. Leslie invented an instrument for the purpose of measuring the exhalation from a humid surface in a given time, which he called an atmometer. He estimated that the daily exhalation from a sheltered surface of water, in the neighbourhood of London, would, at the mean dryness of winter, lower it 0-018in. in 24 hours; and at the mean dryness of summer as much as 0*048 in. The effect of the winds upon the amount of evaporation is, however, a very important element of all such calculations ; it is sometimes augmented five or even ten times. In general, this augmentation is proportional to the swiftness of the wind ; the action of still air itself being reckoned equal to that produced by a speed of 8 miles an hour. 20 LONDON — CLIMATE. The greatest known evaporation in a month has attained as much as 6 inches; the least 0*21 in. In the month of March, 1809, during 3 days a very extraordinary evaporation took place. On the 17th was 0-39; on the 1 8th 0*28; and on the 19th 0-14 in. Rain,-— The quantity of rain which falls near London is dif- ferently stated by Mr. Daniell and Mr. Howard. The former states that the average is 23^ inches in the year; the latter, that the average from his observations between 1797 to 1819, or 23 years, was 25*179 in. The latter quuantity is usually considered correct. The years which gave the greatest amount of rain were 1810, when it amounted to 32'37in., and 1797 when it was equal to 29*996' in. Those which gave the least were 1807, when it was 18 '01 in., anc 1802, when it was 18*428 in. Subsequent observations made ai Greenwich have shown that in the year 1841 the rain-fall was nol less than 33*26 in. ; in 1840 it was 16*43 in. only, and in 1847 17*61 in. The mean of these observations at Greenwich made be- tween the years 1838 and 1849 was, however, 24*84 in., approaching sufficiently near to the mean given by Mr. Howard from his ob- servations made at a lower level ; for it is a well-known law of the fall of rain " that smaller quantities have been observed to be depositee in high than in low situations, even though the difference of altitude should be considerable." The quantity of rain which falls in the different months is calculated by Mr. Daniell, and was observed by Mr. Howard, to be as under : the third column contains the number of days during which the rain fell in each month, as given by Mr. Howard : — Months. Daniell. Howard. Days. No. of days' rain in six months. Quantity of rain in six months. January Februarv . 1-483 0-746 1-907 1-643 14-4 15-8 March 1-440 1-542 12-7 April . . May . . 1-786 1-853 1-719 2-036 14-0 15-8 June 1-830 1-964 11-8 84-5 1.0-811 July . . 2-516 2-592 16-1 August 1-453 2-134 16-3 September October 2-193 2-073 1-644 2-872 12-3 16-2 November 2-400 2-637 15-0 December . 2-426 2-489 17'7 93*6 14*368 Totals / . 22-199 25*179 178-1 178-1 25*179 LONDON — CLIMATE. 2 1 There is a little discrepancy between the total resulting from the subdivision of Mr. Daniell's calculations and the average total of 23 ^th he gives elsewhere. But the two sets of observations agree in this — that the month of February is the driest, because the shortest perhaps, in the year, and that the month of July is the wettest. In fact, Mr. Daniell's calculations were far from having been made with the care of the more veteran observer, Mr. Howard : we find that the former states the mean rain fall, as obtained from seventeen years' records at Chiswick, to be different from both the quantities he had previously given, for he quotes it at 24* 16 in., and he makes the mean evaporation equal to 29*598 in. in the same epoch. The greatest quantity known to have fallen in twenty-four hours is 2*05 in. The proportion of what falls when the sun is above the horizon is only f rds of that which falls when it is below it. Mr. Howard states that the quantity of rain which falls in the different seasons is as follows : — Bain. Mean Temp Winter 5-868 inches. 37-20° Spring 4-813 „ 48-06 Summer . 6-682 „ 60-80 Autumn . 7-441 „ 49-13 The same author observed that one year in five is exposed to the dry extreme, whilst one year in ten is exposed to that of wet. The warm years are generally dry; the cold ones damp. Fogs. — The local phenomenon of the frequence of fogs in the dis- trict of the immediate neighbourhood of London appears, firstly, to be owing to the presence of the river; and r secondly, to the fact that the superior temperature of the town produces results precisely similar to those we find to occur upon rivers and lakes. The cold damp cur- rents of the atmosphere, which cannot act upon the air of the country districts, owing to the equality of their specific gravity, when they encounter the warmer and lighter strata over the town displace the latter, intermixing with it, and condensing its moisture. Fogs thus are often to be observed in London, whilst the surrounding country is entirely free from them. The peculiar colour of the London fogs appears to be owing to the fact that during their prevalence the ascent of the coal smoke is impeded, and that it is thus mixed with the condensed moisture of the atmosphere. As is well known, they are often so dense as to require the gas to be lighted in midday, and they cover the town with a most dingy and depressing pall. They also frequently exhibit the peculiarity of increasing density after their first formation, which appears to be owing to the descent of fresh currents of cold air towards the lighter regions of the atmosphere. * They do not occur when the wind is in a dry quarter, as for in- stance when it is in the east; notwithstanding that there may be 22 LONDON — CLIMATE. very considerable difference in the temperature of the air and of the water, or the ground. The peculiar odour which attends the London fogs has not yet been satisfactorily explained, although the uniformity of its recurrence and its very marked character would appear to chal- lenge elaborate examination. In all probability it arises from some modification of the atmosphere, which must have considerable in- fluence upon the sanitary state of the metropolis. It is possible tbat, to a certain extent, it may be attributed to the chemical nature of the strata upon which the town is built. At least this is certain — that in many isolated cases wells, formed through the London clay, give forth a very considerable amount of the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which seems to produce the characteristic odour of the fogs in question. Dews.— Dews exercise a considerable influence on the state of the atmosphere with respect to the amount of evaporation, or rather to the balance of the hygrometric causes. In our latitudes they are supposed to yield as much as 5 in. per annum, or a quantity equal to nearly 4th of the total rain fall. Mr. Howard noticed that in one night as much as ^tli of an inch was collected in a rain gauge. The greatest quantity of dew falls from a little before sunset to a little after sunrise, its proximate cause depending on the diminution of temperature between those periods, which acts to cause the atmosphere to deposit the moisture it holds in suspension. The difference in the temperature which produces this effect is greatest in the day and night seasons of spring and autumn, when as much as from 20 to 30 degrees are often found to exist between them in the neighbourhood of London. A calm clear atmosphere is necessary for the deposition of dews, which in this differ from mists (whose origin is nearly the same), for they deposit at all times of day ©r night, and in all states of the atmosphere. The abundance of dew depends on the large quantity of moisture suspended in the atmosphere at the moment of the action of the immediate causes. Hence it is most copious on calm clear nights, succeeded by misty and foggy mornings. In England, heat and dry weather are rarely accompanied by dews ; the greatest amount falls after rain in cool summer nights, generally with southerly and easterly winds, with a depression of the barometer. Hoar frost, the ice of dew, is common in the winter months, and it is regarded as a sure sign of wet weather. Mr. Daniell calculated the mean dew point at 44°*31 from the average of a series of observations made between the years 1826' to 1842 at Chiswick, where they were carried on at a height of 14 ft. above high- water mark. The range of the dew point was between 79° and 0°. The mean elastic force of the vapour was 0*342 in., varying between 0*973 and 051 in.; a cubit foot containing on the average 3*806 grains of moisture at that position. The dew point was lowest with northerly and easterly winds ; highest when they were southerly. It would also appear that a differ- LONDON — CLIMATE. 23 cnce was observable when they blew from the sea or from the land. A number of observations of the relation between the direction of the winds and the dew point gave the following results; the first numbers being those upon which the mean was based, the last the mean dew point : — 87 North . 40-1 113 North-east . 40-7 80 East . 42-3 111 South-east . 45-G 70 South . 48*7 225 South-west . 48*6* J 5 West . 44*8 174 North-west . 41*3 Electrical Phenomena. — Electrical phenomena act constantly, but rarely with much energy, in the latitude of the London basin. Thunder storms occur in the warm summer months, re-establishing the balance of the electrical states of the moisture suspended in the tmosphere. But, as they take place usually with a feeble tempera- ture, they are seldom violent, nor are they accompanied by the terrific hail which desolates warmer countries. They usually are accompanied by copious rains in summer ; when they happen in winter they are often accompanied by the nearest approaches to hurricanes we are acquainted with. The Aurora Borealis occasionally visits the neigh- bourhood of London, but seldom lasts for any great length of time. Storms. — Storms and heavy gales of wind are principally confined to the winter months. When they arise from the north-cast they are almost exclusively confined to the time during which the sun is above the horizon. When they arise from the south-west, they occur whilst he is below it. Hurricanes able to root up trees, blow down houses, roll up lead, and in fact to exercise the full power of those tremendous visitations, happen very rarely, but they are by no means unknown in our climate. Their recurrence does not seem to be more frequent than once in ten years. A singular connection has been observed between the direction of :he wind and the chemical action going on in the strata composing ;he London basin, to which we have alluded in the previous part of ;his paper. The sulphuretted hydrogen they give forth is found to ssue in the greatest abundance in wet weather, when the wind is from the south and the west ; it is the least when the wind is from the north and the east, and consequently the driest. Mr. Daniell observed very justly, and the observation may well conclude the remarks on our climate, that Ci the British islands are situated in such a manner as to be subject to all the circumstances which can possibly be supposed to render a climate irregular and variable. Placed nearly in the centre of the temperate zone, where the range of temperature is very great, their atmosphere is subject on be one side to the impressions of the largest continent in the world, md on the other to those of the vast Atlantic Ocean. Upon their coasts the great stream of aqueous vapour, perpetually arising from 24 LONDON — GEOLOGY. the western waters, first receives the influence of the land, whence emanate those condensations and expansions which deflect and reverse the grand system of equipoised currents. They are also within the frigorific effects of the immense barriers and fields of ice which, when the shifting position of the sun advances the tropical climate towards the northern pole, counteract its energy, and present a condensing surface of enormous extent to the increasing elasticity of the aqueous atmosphere/' When causes so numerous and so powerful act to produce irregularities, it is impossible to do more than state the laws which act over long periods of time. They have only been care- fully studied of late years, so that it is probable that many of the generalizations given above may hereafter be considerably modified. But " amidst all the uncertainty and seeming confusion arising from these complications general principles may still be recognised, and it is believed that the more they are studied the more obvious they will appear." List of Authors consulted. Luke Howard. — Climate of London. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1833. „ A Cycle of Eighteen Years in the Climate of Great Britain, &c, 8vo. Lond. 1842. Daniell, J. F. — Elements of Meteorology. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1845. Leslie, Professor. — In Encyclopaedia Britannica. British Almanac and Companion from 1830 to 1850 passim. Section 3. Geology. — The Thames, from its source to its out- fall, traverses the series of formations which lie upon the oolites of central England, following in its course a valley which, in its present configii ration at least, is, comparatively speaking, modern. Within the historical periods no change appears to have taken place, beyond those produced by the gradual contraction of the width of the stream, especially towards its embouchure ; but modern works have brought to light traces of what would induce us to believe that partial modifi- cations had taken place subsequently to the peopling of the island. The configuration of the strata in some of the lower portions of the hydrographical basin, however, indicate that this district must, at a remoter geological epoch, have presented nearly similar outlines to those it does at the present day, although at a much lower level in comparison with that of the ocean. The present course of the Thames, in fact, appears to have been as it w T ere traced out for it, before the surface of the main land assumed its present form. Geology of the Ridge bounding the Thames. — The outline of the basin may be described thus, commencing from the south-eastern extremity. In the portion between Gravesend and the valley of the Darent, the basin of the Thames is separated from that of the Med- way by a ridge of chalk hills, capped by the middle tertiary strata of the eocene formations, which occupy so large a surface round Lon- don. The valley of the Darent is, for the lower part, entirely in LONDON — GEOLOGY. 25 the chalk, although the river itself rises in an elevated ridge of the lower green sand, which continues the line of demarcation between the two rivers just mentioned. In all probability the tertiary strata were continued across the valley during the epoch of their deposi- tion ; and they were carried away by the current which formed the actual watercourse of this transverse valley. The sources of the Darent are near Godstone, and it traverses narrow beds of the gault clay, and of the upper green sand, before entering into that portion of its course where it flows only through the chalk. The ridge of the Thames basin continues to be formed by the subcretaceous forma- tions until we arrive at the neighbourhood of Reigate, where they are capped by the Weald clay, and even for a short distance by the beds of the Hastings sand. One of the branches of the Mole takes its origin from these beds ; and they divide its watershed from that of the Ouse. The ridge of the basin then abruptly bends in a direction north- west by west, and is covered by the Weald clay and the lower green sands, which formations prevail in those portions of the district through which runs the affluent of the Wey, passing near Godalming. This portion of the boundary ridge divides the watershed of the Wey from that of the A run, and pours its waters towards the north in rather a less degree than to the south. The upper green sands form the boundary of the basin in that portion drained by the branch of the Wey which runs near Guild- ford, through Farnham, from near Alton. Near Alton they appear to have been removed, for we again find the chalk, which continues to form the surface of the hydrographical basin, with an elevated ridge of an irregular outline, and a direction nearly due west, through Whitchurch, Marlborough, &c, to near Calne, in Wiltshire. The affluents of the Thames we have mentioned as flowing from the subcretaceous formations in this southern part of its basin, are obliged to find their outlet into the main stream through narrow gorges in the chalk formation, which exhibits in this part of England very distinct traces of great and regular disturbances. An inspection of any geological map will show that at some antecedent epoch the chalk must have formed the boundary of two estuaries, situated on what now constitute the eastern and the south-eastern shores of England, with a third basin towards the south. The outlines of these estuaries are formed by very distinct ridges in the chalk, one of which, bounding the basin of London clay, known specifically by the name of the London basin, crosses England in nearly a straight line from Dover to near Devizes, running due east and west. It then turns off at an angle of about 35°, and runs again nearly in a straight line, in a direction about north-easterly, to the sea shore, between King's Lynn and Cromer; forming the two sides of a tri- angle, now filled in by the London clay. The other basin on the e 26 LONDON — GEOLOGY. south is nearly parallel to this, or at least the outline of the chalk ridge, which hounds it to the north, is parallel to that of London. It "begins on the sea shore near Eastbourne, runs through Winchester, Shaftshuiy, to near Beaminster, and then returns at a sharp angle towards the sea near Dorchester, inclosing the narrow basin of the eocene formations, known as the Hampshire basin. The south- eastern basin, or ancient estuary, appears to have been filled up under different cosmical circumstances, and to have owed its separate existence to movements in the chalk which took place in a different direction to those forming the outline of the eocene tertiary basins. The antiquity of the Wealdean formation is supposed to be greater than that of the London clay ; and on the south-eastern coast of England it occupies the region between the two parallel ridges of the chalk above mentioned, being bounded on the west by a transverse ridge joining those running from the east to the west. Resuming our description of the boundary of the basin of the Thames, we find that it is formed near Calne by the lower green sands, and that soon afterwards the middle oolite rises to the surface, giving place to the lower division of that series which continues as far as the head of the Colne near Brock worth. The direction of this ridge is nearly north ; thence it diverges towards the east to the sources of the Charwell, continuing in the district of the lower oolite. From the sources of this river the ridge bends in a southerly direc- tion to the neighbourhood of Twyford in the middle oolite ; thence it runs easterly round the sources of the Thame, passing through the upper oolite, and the lower green sand. The chalk formation then again forms the bounding ridge, which separates the valley of the Thames from that of the Ouse and its affluents. It continues in an easterly direction, bearing rather towards the north to beyond Bunt- ingford, bending round the sources of the Lea, and the Stort. The direction of the ridge then becomes southerly, and is entirely formed by an elevation of the London clay, passing through Dunmow, Great Waltham, Chelmsford, Billericay, to near Grey's Thurock, where the chalk reappears. Areas. — In so irregularly defined an area it is almost impossible to ascertain with precision the relative surfaces occupied by the different formations. The difficulty is increased by the number of the strata which outcrop in some portions of the district, and the very narrow zones they occupy in regions where the perfect cultiva- tion of the soil renders it impossible to make very accurate investi- gations. If, however, we assume the total surface of the hydro- graphical basin of the Thames as being 6025 square miles, we may calculate that the oolitic formations occupy 2000 of them ; the cre- taceous formations 1925; and the tertiary formations 2100 square miles. In this calculation we have neglected the subdivisions of the different groups, for the reasons above stated. LONDON— GEOLOGY. 27 Geology of the Watercourses. — Following the courses of the afflu- ents of the Thames, we find that the rivers which rise above Lech- lade take their source in the low r er oolite of the Cotswold Hills; ex- cepting the Key, which rises in the Oxford clay, and the Cole, which is furnished from the impermeable strata of the gault. From Lech- lade the course of the river is in the Oxford clay, to a point near the junction of the Charwell, which, after rising in the lower, traverses the middle oolite for a short distance, and then joins the Isis, after traversing, like it, the Oxford clay. The Isis thence continues in the upper oolite, or the Kimmeridge clay, for some distance ; then it winds its way through the gault to a point at Shillingford near Dorchester, where the Thame, whose origin and course are nearly all in the upper oolite, falls in. The Ock has its course entirely in the upper oolite. The Thames then flows through the subcretaceous green sand formations as far as Goring ; and there it traverses a gorge in the chalk, and continues at the bottom of a valley in that formation to Bray, near Windsor, receiving in its way the Kennet, whose origin is entirely in the chalk, and whose valley is covered by a red clay, probably derived from the destruction of the strata which occupied the position of the existing valley, or from the drift to be noticed hereafter. The course of the Thames thence to its embouchure is entirely through the tertiary formations. The alluvial deposits, however, assume, near Fulham, so great importance as almost to be entitled to be considered a distinct formation. Before arriving at that point, however, the Loddon, whose entire course is in the London clay, falls in ; then the Colne, from the chalk, traversing near its junction the lower tertiaries ; then the Brent, from the blue clay only ; the Wey and the Mole from the subcretaceous formations, and which, as said before, force their streams through gorges in the chalk into the ' Coo tertiary valley ; then the Wandle, which flows entirely through the clay ; bear down to the Thames the 'waters which flow r from their respective districts. The Lea rises in the chalk, but the more im- portant part of its course is in the tertiary formations ; the Ravens- bourne, the Roding, the Ingerburn, and the eastern affluents on the north banks of the Thames, are entirely furnished by the London tertiaries. The Darent, and its confluent the Cray, traverse that formation only for a very short distance after leaving the valleys in the chalk through wdiich they flow from the bounding ridge. The parallelism of the more ancient strata in their course from sea to sea is very remarkable, although there necessarily exist very great flexures, and irregularities in the details of their outlines. Their re- currence in the opposite portions of the European continent has also an interest to the geological observer, as indicating the outlines of the ocean, at whose bottom the cretaceous formations were quietlv c 2 2 8 LONDON GEOLOGY* deposited during the countless ages necessary for the development of such extensive phenomena. The alternations of chemical and me- chanical action evinced by the different natures of the strata, the traces of frequent changes of level both by elevation and subsidence, render the examination of this branch of the science of the highest interest. Oolitic Formations. — The district which forms the hydrographi- cal basin of the Thames does not in any part touch upon the main division of the secondary strata known as the lias, although in many cases it approaches it very closely, and a detached outlying patch of the lias occurs not far from the head of the Evenlode. The eleva- tion of the oolites is not very great, and the outlines of the hills (wherever they do exist) are rounded, with a gentle inclination to- wards the valleys, especially on the eastern side. The highest point in the Cotsw r old range, near the sources of the Colne, is 1134 ft. above the mean level of the sea. The Broadway Beacon is 1086 ft. ; the ex- treme height of the spur which divides the valley of the Windrush from the Evenlode is only 883 ft. high. The range of hills known as the Edge Hills, between the heads of the Evenlode and the Charwell, does not exceed 686 ft.; and the central table land forming on the north the watershed of the Nen, and that of the Charwell on the south, is only 366' ft. above the sea. From this cause the execu- tion of the navigable canals between the various basins of central England was rendered comparatively speaking easy, and free from expensive works. The strata of the oolitic series are worked to some extent for the purpose of supplying building stone, and lime for local demands; the qualities of those found in the precise localities comprehended in the basin of the Thames are not, however, such as to cause them to be much sought after for the use of the metropolis. The only stones, in fact, which are known in the London market as coming from this geological district, are the Pains wick and the Ketton stones, although the Bath and the Portland oolites are both furnished from other portions of the oolitic formations. In the Oxford clays the septaria are met with in considerable quantities, but hardly under the con- ditions requisite for their being profitably converted into cement. Hydraulic limes might be obtained from some of the argillaceous beds in the proximity to the Oxford and the Kimmeridge clays ; but sufficient attention does not yet appear to have been devoted to this branch of economic geology. The fossil remains contained in the oolites of central England are so thoroughly described in the scientific treatises upon geology, that it would be presumptuous to endeavour to condense what has been written on the subject, in our necessarily imperfect sketch. The oc- currence of the jaw-bones of the Didelphys in the Stonesfield slates is, however, of too great interest not to be mentioned. These speci- LONDON GEOLOGY. 29 mens are the only authentic ones known by which the existence of viviparous mammalia, during the secondary periods, is demonstrated ; and they are the more remarkable that, although five jaw-bones have been discovered, no other remains of the animals are to be met with. In the formations of a more recent date, also, there is a complete absence of mammalian remains until we arrive at the tertiary epoch. The jaw-bones alluded to are found in the Stonesfield slates worked near Oxford, in the Cots wold Hills. Subcretaceous Formations. — The oolitic strata dip in all directions, in a kind of basin-like form, immediately covered by the cretaceous formations, divided by geologists into the subcretaceous deposits and the chalk proper. The former outcrop, as we have seen, over con- siderable areas of the district under our notice, being separated from the oolites by the Weald clay and the Kimmeridge clay. These beds, being impermeable, hold up the waters which nitrate through the exposed surfaces of the subcretaceous formations, constituting these latter into subterranean reservoirs of water, from which, as Mr. Prestwich justly observes, it is very probable that a large supply might be obtained by means of artesian wells. Geologists classify the subcretaceous beds as follows : — Firstly, and immediately upon the upper members of the oolitic series, we find the lower green sand of very variable thickness. Secondly, the gault clay, interposed be- tween the upper and lower green sand, which last forms the third member of the series, and immediately underlies the chalk. Mr. Prestwich describes the lower green sand as consisting of a series of beds of loose sands and soft sandstones, with subordinate beds of clay, and groups of argillaceous strata; the sands, however, on the whole predominate largely. It thins out from east to west; for at Hythe, according to Dr. Fitton, it is 406 ft. thick, whereas at Devizes it is only from 13 to 20 ft. thick. At this latter place its superposition upon the Kimmeridge clay and the oolite may be dis- tinctly observed. Wherever the gault outcrops between the sands of the subcre- taceous formations it forms valleys which, when uncultivated, are covered by rushes and plants affecting low and damp situations. It is sometimes laminated, and often the planes of its deposition are traceable by interposed beds of sand, or by courses of small nodules. Its mineralogical composition may be regarded as being a calcareous loam usually of a blue colour ; sometimes it attains a thickness of about 100 ft. In the basin of the Thames it does not appear to be worked for the purposes of commerce. The upper green sand, in this differing from the lower, augments in volume as we proceed from east to west. At the first points where its thickness has been ascertained, viz., at Godstone, it is from 20 to 30 ft. thick; at Farnham it is nearly 100 ft.; near Walling- ton 70 ft.; at Wantage 100 ft.; in the vale of Pewsey, and at so LONDON— GEOLOGY. Devizes, 140 ft., according to the researches of Mr. Prestwich. It is very uniform in its lithological structure : the upper division con- sisting of sands, occasionally mixed with clay; the lower, of soft, thin-bedded, or fissile calcareous sandstone. At Godstone this is quarried to a considerable extent, and used under the name of fire- stone, in the construction of such works as are required to resist a moderate open fire. At Mitfield and at Reigate are outlying deposits of fullers' earth, varying from 7 to 17 ft. in depth, and which have been worked for many years. They contain occasionally crystals of , the sulphate of barytes. Near Farnham the upper green sandstones are quarried for building purposes ; but it is to be observed that they assume there the character of argillaceous limestones. Near the same town of Farnham the green sands and the gault, where it appears, contain nodules of phosphate of lime, which are sometimes used in agriculture as a substitute for bone-dust. The characteristic fossils of the subcretaceous formations are, the Exogyra sinuata, the Nucula pectinata, Inoceramus concentricus, Pli- catula placunea, the Scaphites, species of Turrilites, Baculites, and the Ammonites monile. The teeth of sharks are also of frequent oc- currence. At Woburn there is also a detached outlier of fullers' earth, which is worked to a considerable extent. Rather to the north-west of | Thame is a pit from which ochre is obtained ; and at Croydon, in the same geological division, is a quarry from which a kind of fire- clay is obtained. Chalk, — The chalk formation is superposed on these beds of sand, from which the main body of the chalk is separated by a bed of I chalk-marl, of a light gray colour, inclining to brown, frequently stained by the presence of oxide of iron. It is usually soft and friable ; and it consists principally of carbonate of lime and alumina, with an intermixture of silica. A small proportion of iron, and oc- casionally of oxide of manganese, are also present. Sulphuret of iron and spicular crystals of carbonate of lime are also frequently to be | met with. The chalk-marl is extensively quarried for the purpose of supply- ing the London market with lime. The quality it produces is, on I the average, a moderately hydraulic lime, of which that furnished by the neighbourhood of Merstham and Dorking are characteristic sam- ples. Smeaton mentions that he employed, in some of his canal works, a lime, from his description, far superior to those just men- tioned, obtained by the burning of a variety of the chalk-marl found near Guildford, and known by the local designation of clunch. With the present facilities for its transport offered by the railways and canal, it were to be desired that attention were again called to it. The chalk itself is somewhat arbitrarily divided by the geological i w r riters into the upper, middle, and lower chalk ; although it is ex- LONDON — GEOLOGY. 31 tremely difficult to Bay decidedly where the one hegins or the others end. The most natural division seems to he, that of the chalk with- out flints, the lower and harder beds, which are also less white, and sometimes varied by green or red grains ; and of the chalk with flints, the upper and softer series. The latter is of a purer white and of a softer texture than the inferior strata, but in other respects presents no sensible difference. It is regularly stratified, and sepa- rated by horizontal layers of silicious nodules into beds, that vary from a few inches to several feet in thickness, and which are tra- versed by obliquely vertical veins of tabular flint, that may be traced for many yards without interruption. These are sometimes disposed horizontally, and form a continuous layer of thin flint of considerable extent. To continue the description so elegantly given by Dr. Man tell, " The nodular masses of flint are very irregular in form, and variable in magnitude — some of them scarcely exceeding the size of a bullet, while others are several feet in circumference. Although thickly distributed in horizontal beds or layers, they are never in contact with each other, but every nodule is completely surrounded by chalk. Their external surface is composed of a white opaque crust ; in- ternally they are of various shades of gray inclining to black, and often containing cavities lined with chalcedony and crystallized quartz." The minerals of the chalk are confined entirely to isolated speci- mens of quartz and chalcedony, with occasional nodules of the sul- , phuret of iron. The animal remains, on the contrary, are very numerous. They consist of zoophytes ; bones, palates, and scales of fish; not less than 300 species of shells, mostly pelagian; traces of confervse and fuci ; water-worn and worm-eaten fragments of dico- tyledonous wood ; bones and teeth of several oviparous quadrupeds, but none of mammalia. Commercially, the chalk is quarried for the purpose of making lime, the qualities of which, as is well known, arc only adapted for internal works. Occasionally the chalk becomes harder and denser in its grain, and is then used as a building stone in the localities in which it is found. The conversion into lime is, however, the principal use to which chalk is turned in our country, for which its superior adaptation to agricultural purposes renders it a highly important mineral production. The hills of the chalk are not very lofty, and they are easily dis- tinguishable in a landscape by the rounded form, and the absence of abrupt escarpments in their outlines. The greatest elevations they attain in the vallev of the Thames are, in the Chiltern range, at Kensworth Hill, of 904 ft., and at Nettlebed Hill, of 820 ft. above the sea, respectively. In the North Downs, Inkpen Beacon attains a height of 1011 ft.; Hind Head, of 923 ft.; and Leith Hill, 993 ft. From the peculiar mechanical structure of the chalk, in such 32 LONDON — GEOLOGY. places as it is exposed, if the rain-water is not immediately thrown off by the declivity of the valleys, it is rapidly absorbed into the body of the formation. Wherever, then, the chalk is not covered with beds of drift clay, the streams it furnishes are few, and insignificant in volume. Compared with the other formations, certainly the chalk, area for area, yields less to the river than they do. The af- fluents of the Thames which are furnished by it, we also find to run through valleys in which the drift clay occurs to a great extent, as in the case of the Kennet, the Colne, and the Lea. In the valley of the Kennet, we may also mention that large beds of peat are met with, and that they are worked to some extent near Newberry. The existence of the impermeable bed of chalk-marl under the main body of this formation also has a considerable influence on the formation of springs in the valleys where it is exposed. In the cases in which the marl outcrops on the hill sides, the waters, filter- ing through the superincumbent mass of the chalk, work their way through the portions immediately upon the marl ; for the nature of that stratum opposes itself to their further descent, and the hydro- statical pressure upon the upper waters forces them to flow away at the points in which there is no counteracting resistance. We thus find in many of the chalk valleys that copious perennial springs are to be met with ; even though the hills which surround them become perfectly dry immediately after a fall of rain, however copious. London Clay. — The chalk formation is immediately covered, in the basin of the Thames, by a considerable deposit, classed by mo- dern geologists in the eocene tertiary series. It is of very con- siderable thickness, and, as we have before seen, it performs an important part in the hydrography of the district, from the extent of country it covers, and the manner in which it throws off the surface waters. The name of the London clay has been applied to the whole division, which is capable of subclassifi cation into, firstly, the plastic clays; and secondly, into the London clay proper. The plastic clays immediately overly the chalk, and are met with in various thicknesses, wherever that formation outcrops from under the tertiaries. The character of the plastic clays is not uniform, for, again to quote the words of Mr. Prestwich, " it exhibits in many places variations in its structure and fauna." In the neighbourhood of Newberry and Reading are mottled clays, interstratified with beds of sand, and generally underlied by a bed abounding with the Ostrea bellovacina. At Woolwich, Charlton, and Bromley, the chalk is overlied by unfossiliferous sands, succeeded by a mixed series of clays and sands with flint pebbles, and containing many organic re- mains of fresh water and estuary origin. At Heme Bay and in the Isle of Thanet there exists a thicker and more important series of sands, sometimes in part very argillaceous, at others much mixed with green sand, and many of the beds of which abound with marine LONDON — GEOLOGY. S3 fossils — the fluviatile beds of Woolwich, and the mottled clays of the western districts, having in these places completely disappeared. The plastic clay formation is most largely developed in the eastern portion of the basin of the Thames. In passing nnder London its composition changes very materially from what it is in the north-east of Kent, and its united thickness diminishes until it arrives at the extreme western outcrop. The greatest thickness in the portion first named is about 120 ft.; under London it is 75 ft.; at Claremont 60 ft. ; and finally, at Hungerford, 48 ft. It is from the beds con- stituting this formation that the artesian wells of the metropolis derive their supplies ; but Mr. Prestwich accounts for their small value by the fact, that the uninterrupted flow of the water is pre- vented by two lines of disturbance, or faults, which traverse the dis- trict nearly at right angles one to another. The fossils of the plastic clay consist of numerous species of testacea and occasionally the bones of vertebrated animals, such as reptiles or fish. In the London basin no traces of mammalia are to be met with, though in the Isle of Wight bones of the Anoplotherium have been found. Fossil plants, in the form of lignites, are sufficiently common. Commercially, the plastic clay formations furnish earths admirably adapted for the manufacture of pottery ; and it is to their adaptation to such purposes that the whole series owes its name. The sandy loams, also, are much used by iron-founders, for the purpose of making the moulds into which the iron is run from the furnaces. The plastic clay does not offer any hills worth our notice. Upon the beds of the plastic clay those more particularly known by the designation of the London clay are deposited, in a manner usually conformable. It may be defined as a mass of dark -bluish clay occasionally brown at the outskirts, evidently of an origin similar to what we can now trace in estuaries ; of very great extent and con- siderable thickness. Some of the lower beds assume at times dif- ferent characters, and are yellowish-white, or variegated, unctuous, laminated, and in their chemical position partake of the nature of calcareous marls. The upper beds are most frequently brown, and near the top mixed with light-coloured sands, in sufficient quantities to form a good brick earth without mixture, the middle beds being mostly bluish-gray, as before said. Green sands are occasionally interspersed, at others rounded flint pebbles also, in these lower parts of the formation. The colour of the main body of the clay often becomes brown, with an appearance of being bedded, and with nodules of septaria dispersed in layers over a considerable extent. The fossils contained are very numerous and beautiful, especially near the Island of Sheppey, where the continual inroads of the sea expose them in great abundance. Sir C. Lyell states that as many as from 300 to 400 species of testacea are found in the London clay ; c 3 34 LONDON — GEOLOGY. an immense number of the ligneous seed-vessels of plants, of species now confined to tropical regions, and the bones of crocodiles and turtles, are also found in it, but no remains either of mammalia or of birds were discovered until of late years. Professor Owen has, however, recognised the bones of Quadrumana in some positions of the clay. The nodules of septaria are collected to a very great extent upon the shore of the Isle of Sheppey, for the purpose of making the Roman cement so much used in engineering and architectural works. Mineralogically, the septaria may be defined as being an argillaceous carbonate of lime, traversed by veins of crystallized carbonate of lime ; it is either of a bluish or an ochreous-brown colour, according to the strata in which it occurs. Crustaceous fossil remains are often inclosed in the nodules. The Island of Sheppey also yields large quantities of the proto- sulphate of iron, or the absurdly-named copperas of commerce. It is used principally in the manufacture of ink and of prussian-blue. The sulphuret of iron is also found in the London clay, but hardly in sufficient quantities to render its extraction of commercial value. Crystals of the selenite, or the starry gypsum, frequently occur, but that mineral is also very irregularly distributed, nor is it met with in such proportions as to be of use. When the London clays are of a red colour, from the presence of ochreous iron, they are used for the manufacture of bricks. The elevations of- the hills in the London clay of the basin of the Thames in no case exceed 620 ft., which is that of Langdon Hill in Essex. In Epping Forest there is also a hill 390 ft. high ; and at Highgate the clay, capped by the Bagshot sand, attains a height of 450 ft. above the mean level of the sea. The outlines of these hills are even more rounded than those of the chalk, and the valleys are also less precipitate in their falls. The effect of these conditions of form, combined with the retentive nature of the material, is to render the London clays more adapted to furnish the supplies of water they derive from the rain-fall to the rivers. It is indeed cha- racteristic of this group, that it throws off a greater number of streams in proportion than any other. But, at the same time, we must observe, that if no outfall be given to the surface water, and it cannot escape through the land, but lies upon it, the London clay is marshy and unhealthy. The extreme thickness of this formation is supposed to be about 620 to 650 ft. The London clay is covered in some portions of its area by a series of beds called the Bagshot sands, which lie conformably upon it in the district beginning near Esher and Claremont on the east, to Heckfield and Strath fieldsaye on the west. They extend from near Farnham on the south, to Wokingham on the north, with outliers on the top of Hampstead Hill, Harrow, Highgate, as also near Epping, Havering-atte- Bower, Brentwood, Langdon, and in the neighbour- LONDON — GEOLOGY. 35 hood of Rayleigh, near Southend. This series consists of a mass of unfossiliferous silicious sands, with occasional subordinate beds of fossiliferons green sands and marls at their base. They usually form barren sandy districts, rising over the greater part of the area they cover into ranges of moderately-elevated heath-covered hills. At the outcrop of some of the clays and marls of the lower division, and also at the outcrop of the green sands and argillaceous marls of the middle division, the country is, however, remarkably fertile. These portions are, however, very limited in their area, when compared with the surface of the sands. The area of these formations has been stated lately, by the very equivocal authority of the Board of Health, to be 150 superficial miles ; the best geological maps make the area much less, even including the great outlier of Hampstead and Highgate. The total thickness ranges between 400 and 500 ft., but it is hardly ever found to exist in its full extent. Mr. Prestwich divides the whole formation into the three following groups ; viz. : — lstly. The lower Bagshot sands, varying from 100 to 150 ft. in thickness, which occur near Woking, Weybridge, Virginia Water, Claremont, Cobham, Ripley, Ascot, and at the bottom of Hampstead Heath. They are composed of whitish and light-yellow fine silicious sands, frequently micaceous, occasionally argillaceous, with a few seams of pebbles, and mere traces of organic remains. 2ndly. The middle Bagshot sands, from 40 to 60 ft. thick. They are most extensively developed near Addlestone and Chertsey, at Shapley Heath, Swinley, Bagshot, Chobham, Ascot, and covering the top of Hampstead Heath, &c. They consist of a few beds of dif- ferent coloured sands and clays, with one or two beds of green sand containing lignite in the lower beds. Srdly. The upper Bagshot sands, from 200 to 300 ft. thick, which are met with near Chobham Place, Frumley Heath, Bagshot, Hartford Bridge, and Sandhurst. They consist of irregularly-bedded sands of a light-yellow colour, occasionally tinged with shades of green, red, and ochre. The rare fossils contained in this bed led Mr. Prestwich to assign it a date posterior to the London clay, but anterior to the pleistocene drifts, which cover that formation in other places. These pleistocene drifts, or, as they used to be called, diluvial deposits, are dispersed irregularly over the valley of the Thames throughout nearly the whole of its course, and were apparently brought from some elevated region towards the north and east. They are found at Maldon, Kelvedon, Braintree, Ilford, Gray's Fenney, Stratford, Leighton Buzzard, Finchley, and Muswell Hill, the Isle of Dogs, Erith, Brentford, and at other points in the upper valley of the Thames. Sir C. Wren, in his " Parentalia," describes 86 LONDON — GEOLOGY. a set of beds existing under the foundations of St. Paul's of precisely the same nature. They consist of a light clayey sand and ferru- ginous gravel, with boulders of quartz and granitic rocks ; portions of all the rocks of the secondary strata, with their characteristic fossils; boulders of the London clay septaria, bored by teredinae. These beds are not present in all cases, in others they are replaced by those which cover them when the series is complete, and which consist of a set of beds of sands and light-coloured clays and gravel, con- taining bones and shells ; the whole being often covered by a bed of brick earth about 4 ft. in thickness. It is to be observed that the bones and shells are far from being confined to any one of the mem- bers of the series, though they appear to be most numerous about the centre. They are highly interesting, inasmuch as they contain the remains of elephants, mammoths, aurochs, elk, reindeer, rhino- ceros, hippopotamus, tiger, &c, in connection with a large number of our present indigenous fiuviatile and terrestial mollusca. In some localities the fossil remains of the period of deposition are wanting, and the drift consists entirely of the debris of the more ancient strata. Thus, at Muswell Hill, we find masses of chalk, chalk flints, primary and secondary rocks, and fossils of nearly every formation. In others the drift consists chiefly of stiff blue and yel- low clay; in others it contains or rests on beds of sand and gravel, and is often overlied by a deposit of sand, gravel, and chalk flints, exceeding 50 ft. in thickness. The district over which this drift extends comprises not only the main valley of the Thames, but also the subsidiary valleys of its affluents, such as the Wey and the Mole. The heights attained by these more recent deposits are inconsider- able; the highest points being near Winchfield, where the Bagshot sands are 250 ft. above the sea; at Bagshot Heath, the most ele- vated portion of which is 463 ft.; and, as said before, Highgate Hill, 450 ft. high. The banks of the Thames immediately upon the present course of the river, after passing Fulham, and continuing thence to the Nore, are formed in the alluvial mud of the existing era in geology. There would appear to be strong reasons for believing that the relative levels of this portion of the river have been considerably modified, either by the subsidence of some portion of the ancient river bed, or by the rapid elevation of it within the period in which the human race have occupied the island. We find that subterranean forests exist at Purfleet, Grays, Dagenham Marsh, and Tilbury Fort. In the Isle of Dogs a forest of this description was found at 8 ft. from the grass, consisting of elm, oak, and fir-trees, some of the former of which were 3 ft. 4 in. diameter, accompanied by human bones, recent shells, but no metals or traces of civilization. The trees in this forest were all laid from the south-east to the north-west, as if the inundation which had overthrown them came from that LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. 37 quarter. At trie mouth of the Thames we also find the singular heel apparently due to the accumulation of aquatic plants and the exuviae of marine infusoria which Ehrenherg calls the Darg. List of Authors consulted. Lyell's Principles of Geology. Mantell's Geology of the South East Coast. Conybeare and Philipps. De la Beche. — How to Observe. Philipps, J. — Geology. Lardner's Cyclopaedia. Greenough's Map and Explanation. Prestwich, Morris, Warburton, Mitchell, Austen, "Wetherell, Ehrenberg, Buck- land. — Papers in Transactions and Journal of the Geological Society. Report of Board of Health on Water Supply. Knipe, Philipps, Betts. — Geological Maps. Malcolm's London. Section 4. Natural History. — The Flora and the Fauna of a country like England, which has been for so many years the scene of the persevering exertions of perhaps one of the most energetic races which have figured upon the globe, must necessarily have suffered modifications so great as almost to defy our attempts to ascertain what they were originally. New races of plants and animals have been introduced; old ones have disappeared; according to the wants or the whims of men. Indeed, to such an extent has this been the case, that the parent stocks have either been lost altogether, or so much modified as hardly to be recognisable in many instances, or their places have been supplied by more productive varieties from other climes. The changes in the Flora are perhaps the most extra- ordinary; we will then examine them in the first instance, especially as the other divisions of organized life are so intimately connected with it. The Flora. — According to Mr. Loudon's summary, given in his very beautiful and elaborate work upon the Arboretum and Fruti- cetum Britannicum, " the indigenous plants which might be classed as trees or shrubs consisted of 71 genera and 200 species. Nearly 100 of these are willows or roses; and the whole number of species are capable of being comprised in 37 groups or natural orders." In detail, they consist of — 27 deciduous trees, including 4 species of mains , from 80 to 60 feet high on the average. 28 deciduous trees, "whose height varied from 15 to 30 feet. 1 evergreen, the Scotch pine, from 60 to 80 feet high. 3 ditto, the box, the yew, and the holly, from 15 to 30 feet high. 65 deciduous shrubs and very low trees, from 5 to 18 feet high, including 21 roses and 32 willows. 26 deciduous shrubs, from 1 to 5 feet, including 6 roses and 10 willows. 38 LONDON—- NATUEAL HISTORY. 5 evergreen shrubs, from 5 to 15 feet high. 7 ditto ditto, from 1 to 5 feet high. 1 evergreen climber, the ivy. 1 deciduous climber, the clematis vitalha. 2 deciduous twiners, the honeysuckles. 8 evergreen twiners, the brambles. 3 deciduous shrubs, the rosa arvensis, solatium dulcamara, and mbus ccesius, from 6 to 12 inches high. 13 evergreen shrubs, from 6 to 12 inches high. 10 deciduous shrubs, from 3 inches to 1 foot. In the whole range of the native Flora, it is believed that no less than 3300 to 3400 species are to be found, of which 1437 are of the cotyledonous tribes, and 1893 of the acotyledonous. The former are comprised in 23 classes and 71 orders, the latter in 8 classes and 121 orders. Amongst the cotyledonous plants, in addition to the 200 species of trees and plants above mentioned, there were 855 perennials, 60 biennials, 340 annuals. Amongst the perennials there were 83 grasses, principally belonging to the second division of the order graminece, characterised by a panicled inflorescence ; the gramineae also form a very considerable proportion of the biennials and of the annuals. Amongst the acotyledonous plants it is supposed that the native Flora included 800 fungi; 18 algae; 373 lichens; 85 hepaticae ; 460 musci; 130 Alices. There were 18 sorts of edible wild fruits in the island at the period of the Roman invasion; 20 sorts of culinary plants ; 20 sorts of spinaceous plants ; 3 fungi ; 8 species of algae, even now eaten occasionally ; with 6 sorts of wild flowers retained in the cultivated Flora of the present day. The cultivated corns of the present day are nearly all of foreign introduction ; for although we possessed several species of the barley (hordeum\ and the oats (avena), they were not such as were adapted for food. The Romans carried into Britain, as they did into all the other countries they subjugated, an improved system of agriculture, and a vast accession to the Flora. It is to that wonderful nation that we are indebted for the plane tree, the lime, the elm, and several species of the poplar. Apples were grown in Britain before their arrival, but they introduced the pear, the damson, the cherry, peach, apricot, quince, mulberry, fig, medlar, walnut, sweet chestnut, the true service tree, many varieties of the rose, the rosemary, thyme, and arbutus and sweet bay. The greatest advantage our islands derived from their occupation is, however, without doubt, the introduction of the wheat (triticum hybernum), which appears to have followed their progress throughout the world. In the dark ages of the Saxon period, the British Islands, like the rest of Europe, unfortunately only retained such traces of the Roman civilization as the monks could preserve under their protection. LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY, 39 Agriculture suffered like all other branches of refinement. The monks appear, however, to have cultivated nearly all the trees and plants the Romans had introduced, and they are known to have been acquainted with the following trees and shrubs: — the birch, the alder, the oak, the wild or Scotch pine, the mountain ash, the juniper, the elder, the sweet gale, the dog rose, the heath, the St. Johns wort, and the misletoe. The introduction of foreign plants seems to have taken place very slowly for many years after the Conquest, for in the 16th century we find that only 89 foreign woody plants were known to be cultivated in Britain, exclusive of two varieties of laurustinus. In the 17th century, the example set by Sir Walter Raleigh and Gerard appears to have produced some effect, for about 131 woody plants were introduced. In the 18th century greater progress was made, for 445 trees and shrubs were added to our arboretum ; and in the first thirty years of the 19th century, not less than 699 were introduced. The efforts of Tradescant, Ray, Bishop Compton, and Evelyn, in the 17th century, contributed to these results, whilst in the 18th, Par- kinson, Sutherland, and others, laboured heartily in the cause. Their efforts were assisted by the formation of the magnificent gar- dens of Chelsea, Syon, Fulham, Kew, Woburn, Chiswick, Mount Edgecomb, and many others dispersed over the country. But about one-half of the foreign trees and shrubs which now appear in the lists of our arboretums, have been introduced within the present century, and they are nearly all natives of North America. Amongst them not more than 300 attain the dimensions of timber trees, and of these the larch is by far the most valuable. A few of the trees came from Europe, but the bulk of them were furnished by the North American continent, which has been perhaps more thoroughly explored than the other thinly inhabited parts of the globe. The Duke of Marlborough appears to have aided the progress of our botanical acquisitions more than any other patron of the science, by the princely scale upon which the gardens at White Knights and at Blenheim were conducted. At the former establishment, near the town of Reading, that nobleman had collected an inestimable series of magnolias; the largest assemblage of the genus pinus in England; many species of the acer; fine specimens of the arbutus, sesculus, pavia, kolreuthia, &c. The other amateur botanists followed eagerly in the path thus traced for them, and it is principally owing to the exertions made since the beginning of the century, that we are in- debted for the unrivalled collections at Dropniore, Hylands, Bishop's Stoke Vicarage, Cheshunt, Cobham Hall, Barton Hall, Bagshot Park, Oakham Park, and Deepdene. The botanical gardens at Chiswick and in the Regent's Park; the establishments of such eminent horti- culturists as the Loddiges, at Hackney; Donald's, near Woking; Buchanan, at Camber well ; Lees, at Hammersmith ; Osborne, at Ful- 40 LONDON — NATUBAL HISTORY. ham; Knight, in the King's Road, Chelsea; Young, at Epsom; &c, have aided to naturalize an immense number of the new plants thus introduced. The results obtained from the combined efforts of all these labourers in so good a cause, have been to augment the artificial Flora of the British Islands to such an extent, that the combined numbers of the native and artificial Floras ars not less than from 17,000 to 18,000. It has been ascertained by Mr. Loudon, that of the additions to the collection, the sources of supply might be grouped as follows ; — •om the European continent 4,169 species „ „ Asiatic ..... 2,365 „ „ „ African .... 2,639 „ „ „ North American 644 „ „ „ South American 2,353 „ ative countries unknown 970 „ Total . 13,140 in which number are included 370 different sorts of hardy trees, supporting the vicissitudes of our climate; 100 of that number being trees from 30 to 60 ft. high, and the remaining 270 trees from 10 to 30 ft. high. Four hundred hardy grasses are also included in the above total. Of course, in so large a collection of foreign plants, it is not to be expected that all would thrive equally well. It is supposed, in fact, that no more than the following numbers of the different divisions can be procured in the nursery gardens :— Hardy plants Green-house plants Hot-house plants Annuals . Total 4,580 3,180 1,463 820 10,043 counting all the species and varieties. These include 1906 varieties of fruit trees, 154 species and 337 varieties of esculent herbaceous plants, and 2666 species and varieties of flowers. Now, if we proceed to examine in detail the Flora of the district round London, we may consider it, firstly, as regards the production of human food ; secondly, as regards the forest trees ; and, thirdly, as regards the wild flowers, grasses, mosses, &c. However we may classify the separate kinds of plants, it cannot be denied that, to us at least, the production of either the grain we eat or the grasses necessary for the support of the cattle we consume, is the most important function of the vegetable world ; and it is for this reason that we consider such plants before the others. We find thus that, in the agricultural district of the vallev of the Thames, LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 41 the corns grown consist of seven species or varieties of wheat: viz., the triticum oestivum, or spring corn; the t. hybernum, or winter corn; t. composition; t. turginum ; t. polonicum ; t. spelta; t. mono- coccnm. Originally, as has heen "before observed, we were indebted to the Romans for this inestimable grain ; many new sorts have been tried of ]ate years, but those above enumerated are the most es- teemed. Of the ryes, supposed originally to have come from Crete, only one variety, the secale cereale, is cultivated. Six varieties of barley are planted: the hordeam vulgar e^ common spring barley, supposed to be a native of our islands; the hordeum celeste ', or Siberian barley; h. hexastichon, the winter barley; k. distichon, the common long- eared barley; the h. distichon nudum, the naked-eared barley; and the h. zeocriton, the sprat barley. Amongst the oats the avena sativa, or the white oats, are those most raised. Attempts have been made to introduce the zea mays, or the maize, but they do not appear to have succeeded well in our climate, which hardly attains a sufficiently elevated temperature to ripen it, as was predicted that it would. In the Isle of Thanet, the canary corn, or phalaris canariensis, is largely grown ; the millet, or panicum, is also raised. The white and black mustard, the sinapis alba and nigra; the buckwheat, or polygo- num fagopyrum ; and the rape seed, or brassica napus, complete the list of the grains usually produced in the valley of Thames. In the upper valley of its affluent the Wey, the hop, or humidus lupulus, is cultivated to a great extent near Farnham, as it is also near Maidstone and Canterbury, in Kent. There are four varieties : the Flemish, Farnham, Goldings, and Canterbury, which are the most esteemed, besides several other local varieties. Amongst the leguminous field plants, those principally cultivated are, the field pea, or pisum savitum; the common bean, or vicia faba; the tares, or vicia sativa; lentils, or ervum lens; and phaso- lus vidgaris, or the kidney bean. Amongst the roots cultivated in fields we may cite the potato, solanum tubercidum; the red beet, ceta vidgaris ; the mangult wurtzell, beta civa; the indigenous common turnip, or brassica rapa, and its variety the swedes, or brassica rapa rutabaga; the indigenous carrot, or daucus carota; the indigenous parsnip, or pasti?iaca sativa; the cabbage, or brassica cleracea. The tall hay grasses most commonly cultivated are the varieties of the lolum perenne, and its congeners ; of the dactylis, or cocksfoot ; of the holcus, or the woolly soft ; the festuca loliacea, or fescue grass ; the anthoxanthum vernum, or vernal grass ; alopecurus pratensis, or meadow fox-tail grass; the poafertilis and trivialis, or meadow grass; the cynosurus cristatus, or crested dog-tail grass ; the lolium perenne, or rye grass ; the agrostis stolonifera, or bent grass ; the phleum pratense, or cat's-tail grass ; and the avena pubescens, or the wild oat; being the species most esteemed. The trifolium pratense ; the 42 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. t. medium j and t. repens ; or the red, cow, and white clover, of which the latter is indigenous; the hedysarum onobrychis, or sainfoin; and the medicago sativa, or lucerne; are also grown largely for the purpose of feeding horses and other cattle. Many other varieties of the tn {folium, of the hedysarwn, and of the medicago, not only grow wild, but are also cultivated ; the above named are, however, those most frequently grown near London. Some other plants, such as the poterium sanguinisorba, or the burnet ; the plantago lanceolata, or ribwort plantain ; the ulex Europcea, or gorse ; the spergula arvensis, or spurry ; and the apium petroselinum, or parsley, are also occasionally grown in large quan- tities in fields. In gardens, according to the popular statement of Mr. Loudon, the following plants and trees are cultivated for food, namely, of the cabbage tribe (brassica qu. oleracea ?J seven varieties, the white, the red, the savoy, the Brussels, the borecole, the cauliflower, and the brocoli. Of the leguminose plants ; the pea, the kidney bean, and the garden bean, with their endless sub-varieties. Of esculent roots; the potato, Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, carrot, parsnip, red beet, skirret, scorzonera, salsafy, and the radish. Of the spinaceous plants; the spinach, the orache, white and sea beet, the wild spinach, New Zealand spinach, the sorrel, and herb patience. Of the alliaceous roots; the onion, leek, chive, garlic, shallot, and rocambolle. Of the aspa- raginous tribe; the asparagus, seakale, artichoke, cardoon, rampion, and alisander. Of the acetarious tribes ; the lettuce, endive, succory, celery, mustard, wood sorrel, corn salad, garden cress, American cress, water cress, and the small salads. Amongst the potherbs andgarnish- ings, are the parsley, purslane, tarragon, fennel, dill, chervil, horse- radish, nasturtium, marygold, borage, &c. Amongst the sweet herbs, are the thyme, sage, clary, mint, marjoram, savory, basil, rose- mary, lavender, tansy, and cotsmary, or alecost. For the uses of confectionery, or medicine, the following plants are cultivated : the rhubarb, gourd, angelica, anise, coriander, caraway, rue, hyssop, cha- momile, elecampane, liquorice, wormwood, and balm ; the love apple, or tomato, the egg plant, capsicum, and samphire, are also sometimes grown. The kernel fruits grown are the apple, pear, quince, medlar, and the true service. The stone fruits are the peach, nectarine, apricot, almond, plum, and cherry; the county of Kent having possessed from time immemorial the reputation of producing the best fruits of the latter description. Amongst the berries may be reckoned the berberry, the elder, gooseberry, black currant, red ditto, cranberry, strawberry, and raspberry; the two latter attaining their greatest perfection near London. The nuts grown are the walnuts, chestnuts, and filberts, with all their sub-varieties : the counties of Kent and Hants ap- pear to produce the best filberts. LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 43 In frames or in hot-houses are produced pines, grapes, figs, cucum- bers, and melons in some abundance; and occasionally a few oranges, pomegranates, olives, and Indian figs. Of the fungi only three sorts are consumed in cookery, viz., the mushroom, the truffle, found under the beech trees of Berkshire, &c, and the morel, found under nearly analogous circumstances. The list of hardy ornamental flowering shrubs is very extensive, and it receives additions almost every year. The principal ones grown near London are the hyacinth, tulip, ranunculus, iris, pink, dahlia, auricula, primula, carnation, chrysanthemum, rose, pansy, petunia, anemone, crocus, narcissus, fritillary, poeony, camellia, fuchsia, calceo- laria, verbona, lily, am ary His, ixia, gladiolus, rhododendrons, geraniacese, &c. Many of these are indigenous, but they have been considerably modified by cultivation. For instance, the primulce, or primrose tribe, the ranunculi, or buttercup tribe ; the crocus tribe ; the fritillaria meleagris, which grows wild on the banks of the Thames, near Kew and Mortlake ; the convallaria majalis, lily of the valley, this lovely flower grows wild near Hampstead and Dulwich. Many varieties of the iris are also derived from the indigenous wild plants ; as are also the cheiranthus cheiri, or the common wallflower ; the convolvuli, pinks, poppies, eglantine, honeysuckle. Many of the foreign plants of this class have become acclimatised to such an extent as to grow freely without cultivation, the most delightful of which is the mignonette. The forest trees grown in the valley of the Thames have, like all the other divisions of the Flora, received immense accessions to their numbers of late years. Of the total number of 370 given previously, the greater portion are, however, trees which are only grown in orna- mental parks, or in positions where they must be considered to be artificially cultivated. Perhaps that maybe the case with all the trees near London to a certain extent ; for as there are no woods of suffi- cient size to superinduce the natural regime of a forest, all our trees must be modified by their comparative isolation. The largest woods are in some parts of North Kent and Surrey ; Buckingham- shire and Oxfordshire can produce some tolerably large woods also ; but in the other counties included in the basin of the Thames, with the exception of Epping Forest and Windsor, there are few assem- blages of trees worthy of more than the name of copses. The most common forest trees usually grown are, firstly, the lime, 3r tilia Europea, said to have been introduced by the Romans ; there ire three varieties to be found near London, which thrive well in rich ilayey loams, low-lying meadows, and on the banks of rivers. The varieties are the t. Europe a, t. platyphylla, and t. microphylla ; ;hey frequently attain from 80 to 100 ft. in height. In the sooty itmosphere of London they soon loose their leaves ; and, moreover, is they flower late, they are not much planted near the town. The 44 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. tilia Americana has been planted very successfully at White Knights, where it has grown to about 60 ft. in height within a very few years. The acer pseudo platanus, or common sycamore, is of an origin which seems involved in some obscurity. If it be not indigenous, at any rate it ripens its seed in exposed situations, and may on that account be said to be naturalized at least. It is a fine full-sized tree, which reaches its full growth in 60 years, improves to 80 or 100, and decays before attaining 200 years. Some examples have been known whose circumference has not been less than 22 ft. near the ground, and which are supposed to have contained 327 cubic feet of timber. The sycamore is one of the few trees which support the atmosphere of the interior of London. The deciduous bark always looks clean, and the bright colour of its beautiful leaf makes it a deserved favourite in the gardens of the murky tow r n. There are four varieties cultivated in the south of England. The acer platanoides, or Norway maple, and the acer macroplnjlla^ from North America, have been introduced of late years. The acer campestre, or common field maple, is usually treated as a bush in the southern counties ; but when allowed to grow it is a rather fine tree ; it is indigenous. The misletoe is sometimes found upon this species of the maple. The cesculus hippocastanum, or horse chestnut, a foreign tree, introduced about 1550, grows with extraordinary beauty in some situations in the valley of the Thames. It requires a deep fine loam and a sheltered position ; and, under favourable circumstances, attains from 80 to 100 ft. in height, with a diameter of from 5 to 9 ft. In Kensington Gardens some very fine specimens are to be found ; and in Bushy Park is one of the most magnificent avenues of horse- chestnut trees in the world. The ilex cequifolium, the common or green holly, is an indigenous plant which generally takes the form of underwood to trees of more rapid growth, but at times it attains from 40 to 50 ft. high, with a diameter of from 2 to 4 ft. Evelyn planted it as a close hedge, and attended to it with such care, that at Saye's Court he suc- ceeded in obtaining a hedge 400 ft. long, by 8 ft. high, and 5 ft. broad. It grows well in Buckinghamshire and Kent, in gravelly soils on a substratum of chalk. The robinia pseudo acacia^ or false acacia, is the tree Cobbett endeavoured to bring into fashion under the name of the locust. It grows rapidly in the first ten years of its existence ; after that period its development is very slow. Several varieties of the pseudo-acacia are grown as ornamental trees ; but like all the real acacia tribe they are late in leaf, and the period of fall is early. The cerasus sylvestris, or wild cherry, or gean, is supposed to be an indigenous tree, which in a tolerably dry soil rises to 60 or 70 ft. in height. In woods it is the favourite resort of the thrush and blackcap. LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 45 The cratcegus axyacaniha, white thorn, or hawthorn, an indigenous tree, or one naturalized at least from the time of the Romans, is at the present day only allowed to grow as a hedge plant. In dry, loamy, and slightly gravelly soils, however, it attains the dimensions of a tree if left without heing clipped. The tribe of Crataegus appears to support the London atmosphere tolerably well, and they are on this account often planted in the interior of the town. The pyrus ancaparia, or mountain ash, and the pyrus alba, or the white bean, grow well in some positions near London; but are rarely planted otherwise than for ornamental trees. The fraxinus excelsior, or common ash, grows to a very great dimension at Woburn, attaining 90 ft. in height, with a circum- ference of 22^ ft. at the ground. It comes late into leaf, and is therefore only grown in coppices, or in such places as allow of its being made a commercial tree. The best ash timber grows in free, loamy soils, with a mixture of gravel. In rich soils it is luxuriant, but the wood it produces is shorter and more brittle in grain ; in cold wet clays it never attains any size. Some American varieties of the fraxinus have been introduced ; but they do not support the spring frosts of our climate. The ulmus camjiestris, or small-leaved elm, grows to a high degree of perfection in the south of England, and is usually planted as a hedge-row tree in the valley of the Thames, rising to from TO to 90 ft. high, with a diameter of from 4 to 5 ft. We are indebted for this beautiful tree to the Romans; and it was a deserved favourite with the Anglo-Saxons. It comes into leaf early, keeps it late, and stands the smoky atmosphere of our large towns. It will grow upon soils of an inferior description, and of various characters, in light as well as heavy soils, and often best in strong clayey loam, too stiff and adhesive for the ulmus montana, or Scotch or wych elm. There are eight varieties of the small-leaved elm in cultivation near London ; besides the distinct species of the ulmus suberosa, or cork-barked elm, and the ulmus montana. There are only four or five species of willow which attain to the dimensions of trees, out of the 70 species cultivated. A few others attain from 20 to SO ft. in height; but the bulk of them are only own under the name of osiers on the river banks. Of the forest trees the most important are the salix fragilis, the salix Russelliana, the salix alba, and salix caprea, which attain from 60 to 80 ft. in height. The osier beds of the Thames and the Cam, however, offer a wide field of observation to the botanist, on account of the extraordinary number of these indigenous plants they contain. On the islands of the Thames, between London and Reading, there are many of these osier plantations ; but the greatest number, as well as the most per- fect specimens of this svstem of cultivation, are to be found at Reading "tself. 46 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. The poplar tribe flourish best in moist rich soils, and in the neigh- bourhood of running waters ; in marshes, and soils rendered con- stantly damp by stagnant waters, they do not thrive so well. There are many indigenous varieties, the most important of which are the popidus canescens, or gray poplar ; the populus tremula, or aspen ; the p. alba or abele. The p. grceca, or Athenian poplar ; the populus nigra,, or black poplar ; the p. monilifera, or black Italian ; the p. fustigata, or Lombardy poplar; the />. balsamifera, or tacamahac; are foreign varieties which have speedily adapted themselves to our climate. The black poplar yields the best timber ; the Lombardy poplar attains the greatest height. It grows occasionally, within 50 years, to as much as 120 ft. in height. The alnus glutinosa is one of our indigenous trees, which grows on the margins of rivers and running streams, and in marshy and damp lands, even in morasses and swamps of the wettest descriptions. A variety called the a. lanceolata, or cut-leaved alder, attains frequently 70 ft. in height. The betula alba, or white birch, grows in hilly districts, commons, and wild tracts, where the soil is of a light and sandy nature. The mountain variety, or the weeping birch, grows the fastest, and there- fore is the most esteemed. It is planted near London as an orna- mental tree in the parks ; but is only prized inasmuch as it forms a variety in the landscape ; the foliage is very poor and thin, nor does it last as long as many others. . Of the quercus robur there are two indigenous species cultivated as forest trees throughout the southern counties, the q. robur pedun- cidata and sessiliflora. Botanists are, however, far from being agreed as to the persistence of the specific differences of these divisions. The oak grows best in strong adhesive loams, or good clay soils, more particularly when the substratum is of the latter nature, and the sur- face water is not allowed to stand at the foot of the tree. The a of the oak is proverbial for its great length ; but in the valley of the Thames it is found to be most profitable to cut them at 90 years, although the trees continue to increase in value until they are 120 years old. Celebrated trees of this class have been noticed at Bod- dington, in Gloucestershire, of 54 ft. circumference ; at Hempstead, in Essex, of 53 ft. circumference ; at Merton, in Norfolk, of 63 ft. circumference ; at Woolton, Michenden, in Buckinghamshire ; at Pansangher, in Hertfordshire. In fact, hardly any county in southern England is without its celebrated representative of the monarch of the woods. Formerly it was much more common ; and even so lately as the days of Henry VII. no less than the one-third of England was covered by forests in which the oak predominated. The only foreign variety which appears to accommodate itself to our climate is the q. cerris, or Turkey oak, of which a very beautiful sub-variety was obtained from seed at Fulham. LONDON — NATUEAL HISTORY. 47 Only one of the evergreen oaks, the quercus ilex, has been culti- vated to any extent; for the q. suber and q. escidus, though they are grown with tolerable success in the south of England, are too delicate to support our more rigorous winters. The quercus ilex was intro- duced about the middle of the 16th century; and is only planted in ornamental gardens or parks. The common beech, f vagus sylvatica, a tree of the first magnitude, rivalling the oak, ash, or chestnut, is one of the four great indige- nous trees of the island. It is supposed to have been originally con- fined to the chalk districts of the midland counties, or the dry calcareous regions, in which it often occupies extensive forests to the exclusion of other trees. In Windsor Park are to be found magnifi- cent representatives of the class ; but it is not common in the parks or pleasure grounds near London. Some tolerably fine specimens are to be seen in Kensington Gardens. The dimensions the beech attains on dry calcareous soils are 100 ft. high by 12 to 20 ft. cir- cumference of the stem at about one foot from the ground. By some botanists the castanea vesca, or sweet chestnut, is consi- dered indigenous ; the more general opinion, however, attributes its introduction to the Romans. In suitable soils near London, it grows more rapidly than the oak, for in from 50 to GO years it attains a height of 60 to 80 ft. ; but after that period the timber begins to get shaky at heart. The chestnut thrives for centuries, however, after the interior has entirely decayed, for many of the historical trees are entirely hollow. It requires warm and sheltered positions to attain its full development in our climate, with a soil of a loam of tolerable quality. Very fine samples are to be found in Cobham and Green- wich Parks, and in Kensington Gardens. The common hornbeam, or carpinus betidas, is an indigenous tree of the second class, principally grown as an underwood. It abounds in Essex, Kent, and Norfolk, where it affects cold, stiff, clayey soils, and grows sometimes to 50 ft. in height, with a circumference of from 6 to 8 ft. At Lee Court, Kent, and in some pleasure grounds near London, are some fine specimens of the platanus oriental! s ; and in good allu- 'vial soil on the banks of the river, as at Fulham, the platanus occiden- tal's also is found. At Lambeth Palace, and in Chelsea Gardens, are remarkably fine specimens of the latter. The common yew tree, or taxus baccata, is an indigenous tree, affecting rocky and mountainous districts, in soils of a stiff calcareous nature, kept moist by the percolation of water, or by shade. The yew is of very slow growth, but it attains great age ; as, for instance, the Ankerwyke yew, in sight of the place where Magna Charta was signed, and where Henry VIII. made appointments with Anne Boleyn, is supposed to be 1000 years old. In Ifley churchyard is a yew tree with a hollow trunk, but a flourishing head, which is supposed to date 48 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. prior to tlie Conquest. The species of superstitious affection with which the yew tree is regarded, is perhaps increased by its being the favourite resort of the missel thrush and the blackbird. Of late years it has become fashionable to establish pinetums or collections of abietince. Amongst the most celebrated of these may be cited the pinetum of Dropmore, near Windsor, and Flit wick House, Bedfordshire, to which we are indebted for the naturalization of many foreign varieties of the pine tribe. Those most usually planted near London are the common pine, pinus sylvestris, an indigenous tree, rising to 80 or 100 ft., with a diameter of from 2 to 4 ft. in favour- able situations ; the Corsican variety in Kew Gardens is 90 ft. high. At White Knights, also, it thrives equally well. The pinus pinaster, or cluster pine, grows on sandy soils and upon the sea shore, in exposed positions. The pinus strobus, or Weymouth pine, has produced some fine trees, near Strathfieldsaye ; as also has the pinus cimbra at Dropmore. In the pleasure grounds of Kent and Sussex, it has been long the custom to plant the abies excelsa, or Norway spruce, as an ornamental tree. At Strathfieldsaye and Sion House, are many fine hemlock spruces (abies Ca?iadiensis ) , and at the latter are several specimens of the abies nigra, the lower branches of which have taken root where they touch the ground. The silver fir, pinus picea, has been planted as an ornamental tree since the commence- ment of the 17th century; bat of all the pine tribe introduced of late years ) without exception, the larch, pinus larix, is the most remark- able both for its beauty and its utility. It does not, however, grow well near London, but requires a mountainous situation. The pinus cedrus, cedar of Lebanon, has been planted as an ornamental tree for many years, for which purposes its grand, picturesque mass renders it peculiarly fitted. The largest specimens of the pinus cedrus, in the valley of the Thames, are at Strathfieldsaye, where one has attained a height of 108 feet ; and at Syon House, where there is a tree mea- suring 72 feet in circumference, at three feet, from the ground, and 117 feet is the diameter of the head. At White Knights and Claremont, and at several places in Kent and Essex, the magnolia has been planted as a tree with great success. The varieties which have stood our climate the most perfectly are- the magnolia acuminata, m. cordata, and m. conspicua. They require a little care in the early stages. of their growth, but they thrive well near London. The enonymus Europaus, or common spindle tree, is an indigenous tree of the second order in Scotland, where it attains from 25 to 30 feet in height. Near London, the finest specimens are in Kensington Gardens, where they do not exceed 1 5 feet. The cerasus Lusitanica, or common Portuguese laurel, has attained at Syon, Charlton, Cobham, and Claremont, the dimensions of a tree of the second class, reaching 40 feet occasionally. It stands LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 49 exposure to our ordinary winters; but it is often killed down to the ground by severe frosts. The common box- tree, or buxus sempervirens, is one of those about whose origin the greatest doubts exist. It is rulgarly supposed to be indigenous, and the early botanists gave as its habitat, Boxhill, Surrey. It is true that it attains there a develop- ment in a wild state, which seems to warrant the supposition that it is a native of our islands. But histoiical evidence is far from con- firming the tradition which makes it to be so. On the dry chalky soil of Boxhill this tree attains 30 feet in height, but it is generally known as a shrub. There are of course many other trees and shrubs cultivated for use and ornament near London, such as the lilac, the laburnum, the acacias, the bay, laurustinus, privet, arbutus, rhododendrons, &c. To enume- ate all would lead us beyond the bounds of this notice ; the reader is therefore referred for more ample details to the works enumerated at the end of this section. To such as are desirous of studying in person this interesting branch of botany, we recommend an examina- tion of the woods near Cray, in Kent, Epping Forest, Greenwich Park, Kensington, Windsor, Claremont, Strathfieldsaye, White Knights — no longer in its glory — Fulham, Ken Wood, Syon House, Kew, and the woods near High Clere, and many other places in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, and Cheshunt in Herefordshire. The wild flowers, grasses, mosses, algse, &c, ore most favourably studied in such places as by prescription, or on account of the unpro- ductive nature of the soil, have been left in a state of nature. We may cite Wimbledon, Putney, Wandsworth, andStreatham Commons; Norwood, Croydon, Mitcham, and Battersea Fields ; the river side between Hammersmith and Kew, Esher, Thames Ditton, Woking Common, Bagshot Heath, Hampsteacl, Epping Forest, Blackheath, nd Charlton, and the marsh districts. Every one of these localities possesses its characteristic Flora, and would amply repay a visit from the botanist. Cooper's Flora Metropolitana contains in detail the list f plants to be found at each place, arranged upon the natural system; Curtis' s Flora Londinensis, and Smith and Sowerby's English Botany, ontain the same information classified according to the Linnean system. Amongst the most interesting plants may be cited the Veronica tribe, which are very common about Hampstead and Charl- on ; the iris pseudacorus and fcetidissima ; the valerina officinalis, growing wild near osier grounds; the scabiosa; the sagina erecta, at Blackheath; the pulmonaria maritima ; the lonicera periclymenam, yt woodbine; the primidce, acaillis, officinalis and farinosa, or u-imroses; the campanula 7 , or heath-bell flowers; the fritillaria neleagris, from Kew and Mortlake ; the convallaria majalis, or lily )f the valley, already mentioned as a native of Hampstead, Kenwood, md Dulwich ; several varieties of the rumex, or dock ; the epilobium, It willow herbs; the erica, p>olygonium, saxifraga, and sedum; the LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. saponaria officinalis, from Combe Wood ; many species of the ceras- tinm and the ranunculus digitalis, antirrhinum, malva, vicia ervium, medicago, hypericum, leontodon, carduus, chrysanthemum, centaurea, viola, orchis, and orphys ; the arum maculatum, or cuckoo's pint; besides an infinite variety, whose enumeration would swell our notice to an unlimited extent. The great number of the graminece is perhaps one of the characteristics of the alluvial plains by the river side. The leguminosce prevail to a great extent on the gravelly soils of the more elevated heaths. Of these the cytisus scoparius, of Wimble- don and Putney, is renowned for the enthusiastic admiration it is reported to have excited in the celebrated Linnaeus. Of the Algce the British Flora is supposed to possess about from 300 to 400 species of the marine, and so immense a number of fresh- water species of algae that we are induced to question the correctness of the classification. In the London Basin, of course, the marine algae are few, being solely confined to the embouchure ; and even there rarely passing into what may strictly be called the river itself. If we adopt the classification according to the colour of the series, we find that our British marine algae consist of A of the olive, -| of the red, and l of the green series, with about 1 of the diatomaceae. Of the fresh water algce, it appears that there are 20 families, consisting of about 170 genera, with nearly 1000 species according to the latest author upon this branch of botany, the greater number of which are to be found near Cheshunt, and in the valleys of the Thames and the Lea. The Fauna. — It the Flora of England has been modified by the progress of civilization, the other regions of the organized kingdom bear equal marks of its effects. Thus, amongst the animals formerly found in our country, we find that the Irish elk has disappeared since our island was inhabited by the human race, though before any his- torical records were kept, the beaver hardly seems to have existed durino- the civilized era. The Scottish bear Martial alludes to (the ursus arctos) is not mentioned subsequently to 1072; the wolf was extirpated from Scotland about 1577, and from Ireland in 1710; it had long before ceased to infest England. The wild boar, the wild bull, and wild cat used, in the time of Fitz Stephen, to haunt the forests of Highgate and Hampstead ; all have been swept away by the advancing stream, with the exception of a few wild cats left in the North of England. The list of British quadrupeds, then, is very limited ; as they are all found in the valley of the Thames it is inserted in extenso. Cheiroptera, Bats . 12 species of the family Vespertilionidce. 2 „ „ „ Plecoim. 1 t9 }) „ Barbastellus. 2 „ „ „ Rhinolphns. Eranaceus, Hedgehog 1 „ Eranaceus Europeans. Talpa, Mole . . 1 „ Talpa vulgaris. LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 51 Soricidce, Shrews TJrsidee, Bear . Mustelidce, Weasel FelidcB, Cat Canidce, Dog Phocidce, Seals . Sciuridce, Squirrel Muridoe, Mice . Castor idee, Beaver Leporidce, Hare Pachydermata . Cere idee, Stags . Box idee, Bulls . Capridce, Goats Cetacece, Whales Dcljildnidce Sea Calf, rare in the southern parts of the British islands. 3 species. Sorex arenareus, Shrew Mouse. „ fodiens, Water Shrew. Essex. „ remifer, Oared Shrew. Norfolk. 1 „ Melestaxus, the Badger. 5 ;, Lutra vulgaris, Otter. Muztela vulgaris, Weasel. ., erminea, Stoat. „ putorius, Polecat. „ furo, Ferret. Martes foina, Beech Martin. „ abietum, Pine Martin. 1 „ Felis catus, Wild Cat. 2 ,, Canis familiar is, Dog. Vulpes vulgaris, Fox. 5 „ Phoca vitulina, „ Greenlandica, „ barbata, Haliclicerns gryplms, Trichecus Rosmarus, Walrus, very rare. 2 „ Sentries vulgaris, Squirrel. Jfyoxus avellanarius, Dormouse. 5 „ Mus messorius, Harvest Mouse. „ sylvaticus, Long-tailed Wood Mouse. „ musadus, Common Mouse. „ rattus, Black Rat. „ decuman.?, Norway Rat. 3 „ Arvicola, amphibus, Water Rat. „ agrestis, Field Mouse. „ pratensis, Bank Vole. 4 ,, Lepus timidus, Hare. „ variabilis, Alpine Hare. ,, cuniculus, Rabbit. Cavia aperea, Guinea Pig. 3 families. Sus scrofa, Common Boar. Equus caballus, Horse. Asinus vulgaris, Ass. 3 species. Cervus elephas, Red Deer. New Forest. „ dama, Fallow Deer. „ capreolus, Roe Buck. 2 „ 1 Bos taurus, with varieties. Urus Scotticus, Chillingham Cattle. 2 „ Capra hircus, Common Goat. Ovis aries, Common Sheep. . These mammalia are sometimes stranded in the Thames. . Delphinus delpKis, Common Dolphin. „ tursio, Bottle-nosed Dolphin. Plwccena communis, Porpoise. „ Orca, Grampus. „ raela, Round-headed Porpoise. Beluga lucus, White Whale. Hyperoodon Butzlcopf, Bottle-headed Whale. Diodon Soicerbii, Sowerby's Whale. Monodon Monoceros, Norwhal. Physeter macrocephalus, Cachalot. „ torsio, High-finned Cachalot. Balcuna mysticetus, Common Whale. D 2 52 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. Amongst tlie reptiles we only find, in our islands, of the — Testudinata . . 1 species. Chelonia imbricata, Hawk's-bill Turtle. Lacertidce . . 2 „ Lacerta agilis, Sand Lizard. Zootica vivipara, Viviparous Lizard. Anguidce . . 1 ,, A nguis fr agilis, Blindworm. Colubridcs , . 2 „ Natrix torquata, Ringed Snake. Pelius Berus, Viper, or Adder. Ranidce . , . 2 „ Rana temporaria, Common Frog. „ esculenta, Edible Frog. Bufonidce , . 2 „ Bufo vulgaris, Common Toad. „ calamata, Natterjack. Salamandridcs . . 4 „ Triton cristatus, Newt. „ Bibronii, Straight-lipped Newt. Lissotriton punctatus, Eft. „ pahnatus, Palmated Eft. Crustacea. — Without entering into details upon the crustacese of our shores, we will content ourselves by remarking, that in the valley of the Thames, both in the salt and fresh water divisions, the greatest number of that class of animals belong to the order Decapoda. Thus we have the lobster, the prawn, shrimp, crayfish, of the section Macroura ; and the common crab of the section Brachyura. The reader who desires more detailed information upon this subject is referred to Bell's " British Crustacea," or Dr. Fleming's works. Mollusca. — The conchology of the basin of the Thames is not very clearly defined, in the portion of its estuary, owing to the violence of the tides and currents which prevail there. Specimens of many genera and species foreign to our islands are therefore often met with, but there is a necessary degree of uncertainty attached to any classification of them as connected with our country under these circumstances, which induces us to hesitate before including any definite list. We content ourselves, then, by observing that it is common to find on the shores of the Kentish and Essex coasts of the Thames, bivalve shells of the ostrea, avicula^ orbicula, crania, terebrodula, haliotis, pecten, area, mactra, pholas, cardium, teredo, solen, cytherea, mytillus, modiola, mya and anatina. Of the univalves, we find the patella, chiton, murex, echini, cowry, mitra,voluta,oliva,ovulce, cyprcea, bulla, pleurotoma,tyc. The land and fresh water mollusca present, necessarily, greater fixity of character, and are found in considerable numbers. The bivalves consist of seven species of the cyclas, principally in the upper parts of the Thames, the anodon cygneus, of large dimensions, on Hampstead Heath, and two species of my sea. The univalves com- prise the limacellus, testacellus, vitrina; 18 species of helix, carocolla, clausilla (5 species), bulimus (4 species), balosa, achatina, succinea, cyclostoma, carychium, pupa, vertigo; 10 species of planorbis, seg- mentina; 9 species of limneus,physa, valvata; 3 species of paludina, heretina, ancyllus. There are in all 85 species belonging to 26 genera of this division of the testacea. Fishes. — The fishes which inhabit the Thames and its affluents LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 53 have not escaped the influence of the progress of civilization, and of the errors committed in the disposal of the refuse of our overgrown metropolis. In former times salmon, shad, and the lamprey were frequently caught in the river, but they have long ceased to inhabit it, unless occasionally. The fish to be caught at the present day may be briefly enumerated as follows, — bearing in mind that those above- mentioned are only occasional visitors, as is also the sturgeon, that even eels are becoming rare in the districts affected by the sewer- age, and that the only members of this division which seem to thrive in the present filthy state of the Thames are the white bait. We find the salmon, sturgeon, tench, barbel, roach, dace, chub, bream, ruffle, gudgeon, perch, eels, smelts, flounders, lamprey, shad, pike, trout, white bait, and the crusian and sticklebacks, the minnow, carp, gold fish, &c, in the upper parts of the river. The estuary is some- times visited by the blue shark, sea-fox, dog-fish, conger-eel, cod- fish, haddock, whiting, hake, ling, doree, halibut, plaise, soles, turbot, mackarel, bass, mullet, sprat, anchovy, but the presence of these fish is becoming more and more rare. Of those which appear to affect certain localities, we may cite the flounders and white bait of the Thames (Jlessus and ceplialus alburnus), the trout (salmofario) of the Wandle and the Wey ; the grayling (salmo thy mall us) of the Thame near Ludlow; and the rud (cyprinus finsccde) of the Cher- well ; the pike (esox lucius) is also common in the side streams. Infusoria, — The animalculae in the Thames water only begin to (Appear in a sensible proportion, according to the researches of Dr. Angus Smith, at Windsor, where it contains many rather large hydatince. At Oxford, it is true, we find some of the smaller green navicular, and several other smaller green bacillaria ; but the river appears to purify itself in its course, for at Reading these ani- malculae do not appear in such numbers. From Richmond down- wards, the case is much altered ; at such places as Chelsea, Hunger- ford Market, &c, the deposit from the water contains many animals, large and gelatinous looking; the vibrio fluviatilis, about J-$ of an inch long, is very common, as are also many polygastric animalculae, chiefly of the navicula fulva, which appear to thrive upon the abund- ance of silica brought down by the sewers and house drainage. The season of the year must doubtless affect the relative numbers of these animalculae, for we find that the Thames water is much harder at certain periods than at others. Birds. — Improved cultivation has affected the habits of the feathered tribes which frequent our shores. From their organization these are free to migrate according to the adaptation of any parti- cular country to the supply of their wants. As the primaeval forests have been cleared, the heaths cultivated, and marshes and lowlands drained^ the birds they were wont to nourish have been forced to seek elsewhere the conditions most favourable for their subsistence 54* LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. The species of the falconidm, for instance, which frequented the valley of the Thames, are far from being as numerous at the present day as they were formerly; the tetraonidce are more rare, some even (such as the Great Bustard, otis tarda,) have entirely abandoned us; the gruidcB are now met with less frequently, although some of them still remain ; the ardeidce have left many of their ancient habitats ; the natatores, although they still visit our shores, are not to be found in many places they used formerly to visit in great numbers. Amongst the birds admitted into the catalogues of the visitors or natives of our isles, there are perhaps as many as 237 species ; but as the list comprehends many which are evidently nothing more than stray wanderers, we may perhaps consider that number to be some- what exaggerated. Some of the most remarkable of those found in the district in the immediate proximity of the valley of the Thames are the following: — • Falconidce. — The aquila chryscetos, or golden eagle, is sometimes found near Bexhill, and south of London ; but very rarely. The halicetus albicilla, or white- tailed eagle, is occasionally met with in Epping and the New Forests. The pandion halicetus, or osprey, is found in Sussex, and near Selborne in Hampshire. The species of falco indigenous to our islands are the peregrinus (or peregrine), cesalon (the merlin), tumimcidus (kestrel) ; the visitors in the south are the falco subbeto (hobby) and rufisses (red-footed). The accipiter nisus (sparrow-hawk), milvus vul- garis (kite), buteo vulgaris (common kite), circus ceruginosus (marsh-harrier), and circus cyaneus (hen-harrier), are common in Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire, &c. The astur palumbarius (goshawk), nauclerus furcatus (swallow- tailed kite), buteo lagopus (rough-legged buzzard), pernis apivorons (honey buzzard), are mere rare in that district. Strigidce. — The bubo maximus, scops aldrovandi (scop-eared owl), otus vulgaris and otus br achy otis (long and short-eared owls), the sumia myctea and funerea, and the noctua tenginalini, are visitors near London at intervals. The strix fiammea (barn owl), syrnium stridula (tawny owl), and the noctua passerina (little owl) are rather common. LaniadcB. — The visitors are the lanius excubitor (great gray shrike), I. collurio, I. rutihts, which are rather common. Nuscicapida?. — These are summer visitors. Amongst them we may mention the muscicapa grisola, and atricapilla, the spotted and pied fly-catchers ; the latter rare. Mendidce. — This well-known family is common in the southern parts of England. The species met with are cinelus aquaticus (common dipper), turdus viscivorus (missel thrush), t. pilaris (fieldfare), t. musicus (song thrush), t. merula (blackbird), petrocinela saxatilis, or rock thrush. More rarely we find the turdus Whitei, t iliacus (or redwing), t. torquatus (ring ouzel), and the oriolus galbula (golden oriole), found near London. Sylviadce. — The residents or common visitors are the accentor ^nodularis (hedge accentor) ; erythaca rubecula (redbreast) ; phcenicura suecica (blue-throated warbler) ; p. ruticilla and tithyx (redstart) ; saxicola rubicola (stonechat); s. rubetra, cenanthe; and locustella (species of chats) ; salicaria phragnitis (sedge warbler) : philomela luscinia (nightingale) ; curruca atricapilla (blackcap warbler), c. hortensis, c. cinerea, c. syhiella ; sylvia sylvicola (wood warbler), s. trochillus, hippolaris ; regulus cristatus (golden-crested warbler), r. modestus. Occasionally may be seen the accentor alpinus ; salicaria luscinoides; salicaria arundinacea, most common in Romney Marsh and on the banks of the Thames ; the melizophilus Dartfordiensis is common near Bexley Heath ; the regulus ignicapillus is rare. Paridaz. — These birds seem to prefer the neighbourhood of London, for we find near it the parus major, or great tit; p. ccerulus j ater cristatus, palustris and LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 55 caudatus ; the parus cristatus being the most rare. The calaw.iphilus biarmicus (bearded tit) is found in Barking Creek occasionally. A mpellid*E.~— The bombycilla garrula, or Bohemian wax wing, is but a rare visitor in this country. Jlotacilladce. — The constant visitors of this family are the motaciUa Yarrellii (pied wagtail) ; m. boarula ; on. flava ; the more rare visitors are the motacilla alba and m. neglecta, Anikidaz. — The antlcus arboreus (tree pitpit) is a common summer visitor near London ; a. pratensis is nearly a resident; a. ricardi is rare. Alaudidce. — The rarest of the lark tribe are the alauda alpestris (shore lark); a. cristata, and a. brachydactyla. The alauda arrensis (skylark) is more common, and is met with in great numbers in the corn lands near London; the a. arborea (woodlark) is also common. Ember izidce. — It is not often that the plectropAanes Lapponica (or Lapland bunt- ing), the p. nivalis (snow bunting), or the emberiza schomiculus (black-headed bunting), visit the southern parts of England. It is more common to find plectrophanes milaria (common bunting), emberiza, citrinella (yellow hammer), and e. hortulana (ortolan bunting), near London. Fringillidoz. — This numerous family in the vicinity of the metropolis comprehends most commonly the fringilla Calebs and mooitifringilla (the chaffinch and bramble- finch) ; the passer montanus and doonesticus (the tree and house sparrow) ; cocco- thraustus chloris (greenfinch), c. vulgaris (hawfinch) ; found in great numbers in Epping Forest ; carduelis elegans (goldfinch) ; linota canoiabina (common linnet). 1. linaria and /. montium, with pyrrhuta vulgaris (bullfinch). The more uncommon members in this country are — carduelis spin us (siskin), and linota canescens ; pyr~ ohula mucleator (pine grosbeak) is a very rare visitor; loxia curcirosira (common crossbill) is found in Sussex and Essex ; /. gityopitiacv.s and leucoptcra are extremely rare. Sturnidce. — The sturnus vulgaris (common starling) is the member of this family most frequently met with. The agelaius phcenicus and pastor roseus are only occa- sional visitors. Corrida. — These comprise, near London, the fregillus graculus (chough) ; corvus corax (raven), c. corone, comix, frugilegtis (rook) ; monedula (jackdaw) ; pica cau- da.ta (magpie); garrulus glandarius (jay); and the nucifraga caryotactes (nut- cracker). Bicido3. — Picus martins (black woodpecker) is rare ; pints viridis is more common; p. major and^j. minor are also frequency to be found near London. Cerihiada 3 . — Yunx torquilla (wryneck) is common in the south-east of England; certhia faraiiiaris (common creeper) ; and troglodytes vulgaris (or wren) are also fre- quent. The beautiful upupa epop has been frequently caught at Fulham, and the Sitta Europcza (or nuthatch) in Kensington Gardens. Cuculonidce. — Cuculv.s canorus is a well-known spring visitor; the coccyzus Ainericanus, or yellow-billed cuckoo, is very rare. Meropidce. — The Alcida liispida (king-fisher) is the most common bird of this tribe; occasionally we are visited by coracias garrula (roller), and merops apiaster (bee-eater). HirundincB. — These visitors consist of the hirundo w.stica (swallow), A. v.rbica- (martin), h. riparia (bank martin), k. apus (swift), clyp>sel'us (white-bellied swift). CaprimulgidcE. — The caprimulgus Europcsus is the only member of this tribe which visits us constantly. Columbidce. — In the woods near London we find in considerable numbers the columba palumbus (cushat) ; the c. cenas (stock-dove) ; c. livia (rock-dove) ; c. turtv.r (turtle). The latter is most common in Kent and Hertfordshire. Occasionally the North American Passenger Pigeon {columba migraloria) has been found in this neighbourhood. Phasianidce. — "We only find wild near London the phasianus colchicus (common pheasant). 56 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. Tetraonidce. — This tribe is more numerous in Scotland than it is in the south, for it is only at rare intervals that the greater number of its species are found with us. The British birds are tetrao urogallus (capercaille), t tetrix (black grouse), t. Scoticus (red grouse), t. lagopus (ptarmigan), which rarely are seen near London. Perdix cinerea, ^j>. rvfa (common red-legged partridge), and perdix cotumix (quail), are common. As was said before the otis tard, formerly common in Suffolk and Norfolk, has nearly abandoned our shores ; whilst otis tetrax (the small bustard) is also rare. Charadridce. — The birds of this family found in the south-east of England are the cursorius Europceus (cream-coloured courser) ; otis cedicnemus (great plover) ; charadrius pluvialis (golden plover), ch. mormellus, c. hiaticula, c. cantiana, c. minos. Tringa squatarola (gray plover), t. vanellus (lapwing), t. interpres (turnstones). Hmmatopus ostralegus (sea pie), and charadrius calidris (sanderling plover), are found on the shores of the estuary of the Thames and the sea-coasts. Grinidce. — We have before observed that these were more rare in former times than at the present day; for the ardea grus (common crane) was a frequent visitor, though now rare. The ardea cinerea (heron) is still common in Lincolnshire; a. caspnca, a. alba, a. garzetta, a. aquinoctialis, a. comata, are met in sufficient numbers in the fen districts to warrant their being classed as British, birds. Ardea minuta (little bittern), a. stellaris (common bittern), are more frequently met with. The ardea lentiginosa, a. nycticorax, a. ciconia (white stork), a. nigra, plateala leucorodia (white spoonbill), and tantalus falcinellus (glossy ibis), are more rare. The birds of this tribe are by some ornithologists separated from ardea grus and its congeners under the name of the Ardeidce. Scolopacida. — Of this family we have the numenius arquatar (common curlew), n. phoeopus ; scolopax totanus, and s. caladrix (red shanks) ; tringa ochropus, t. glareola, t. hypolencos, t. macularia (sand pipers), tringa glottis (green shank) ; recur- virostra avosetta (avoset formerly common in Romney Marsh, but now rare) ; charardius humantopus ; scolopax Lapp onica and ozgocephala ; tringa pugnax (ruff), t. rustica (woodcock), t. major (snipe), t. galinida, t. islandica, t. pusilla, t. alpina, t. pucilla, t maritima (sand piper), and numenius pygmeus (curlew sand piper). Rallidce. — This family is represented by the Oallinula crex (land rail), . cristatus (shag) is common on our shores. Laridce. — Of the Terns of this family, we find most commonly the sterna hirundo and s.fissipes, the latter principally in Cambridgeshire; more rarely we meet with LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 57 s. caspia, s. baysii, s. anglica, s. minuta. Of the laridce, or gulls, we have larus minutus, I. tridactylus, 1. comus (common gull), I. marinus, I. cataracies (common skua of Suffolk and Norfolk) : I. cataractes pomarinus glacialis, and procdlaria pelagica (storm petrel), sometimes are seen in the Thames. In England we are comparatively free from insect plagues. Occa- sionally a gardener suffers no little wrath and vexation from the unceremonious and effective way in which whole rows of cabbages, &c, are entirely consumed by the larvae of the common white butterfly, and our fruit trees are often despoiled both of beauty and crop by the attacks of many of the smaller species; but still, with a few exceptions, insects here rarely cause more than damage to individuals. On one very celebrated occasion, however, in the year 1825, a very fine row of elm trees, in Camberwell Grove, were suddenly found to be blighted, and many of them utterly destroyed. As no cause was apparent for this, many of course were conjectured; the air and smoke of London were pretty generally believed to be unfavourable to elms, and the inhabitants of the vicinity actually brought an action in Chancery against the proprietors of some neigh- bouring gas works, as the originators of the evil ; whereas, a more minute examination of the trees themselves traced the whole damage to the ravages of a small beetle (scoli/tus destructor), which, by boring its holes and innumerable passages under the bark, had quite destroyed the trees. This insect is well known abroad ; France and Brussels have severely suffered from its ravages. The above- mentioned incident caused a great sensation at the time, and en- tomology for some years was a rather fashionable study. The turnip-fly, too (jialtica nemorum), will frequently destroy whole fields of young turnips, and, for the first few days after the seedling leaves have appeared, these small animals occupy a large share of the agriculturist's mind; but as soon as the rougher leaves of the plant are thrown out the danger from this cause ceases. This beetle may always be found in some abundance in nearly every rough hedge-row or waste, where they shelter themselves all the winter, only leaving them for the more tempting turnip seedling. It would be as well perhaps, therefore, if the farmer would add this argument to the many others for diminishing the enormous hedge- rows we so frequently see. The hop fly {aphis humuli) is by far the most important of these little pests; it is a small fly, which appears devoted exclusively to this plant, and by its abundance or scarcity affects not only the crops and pockets of separate cultivators, but does so to such an extent as to be felt by the British Exchequer to the amount of some £ 100,000 to £150,000 per annum. The common lady-bird, in its larva state, devours immense quantities of these insects, hence they should be tended with the greatest care ; yet, on one occasion, when these little red insects appeared in great numbers in the hop grounds of Kent, the growers, regarding them with great horror as an aggrava- d 3 1838 a 2054 yy 1671 605 i% 5U yy very large propor- idon. The woods 58 LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. tion of the evil they were sent to cure, actually collected them by bushels and destroyed them. But, still we must congratulate ourselves on our exemption from great evils, as with the above exceptions, cleanliness of person, or of house, will generally guard us sufficiently against the principal other entomological torments to which Britons are liable. Owing to our moderate climate we have very few insects of large size, yet the dampness and length of twilight render our fauna somewhat peculiar and interesting. The great comparative abund- ance of the moth tribe may be attributed to this, as we have about 1700 species of this night and twilight class, to only 100 species of butterflies, or day-flying lepidoptera. The number of species found in Great Britain, by Stephen's Catalogue, is as follows : — Coleoptera ..... about 3300 species. Lepidoptera ..... r Hymenoptera , Diptera ...... Hemoptera ...... Other insects . . . . , making in all about 10,000 species. Of these, a tion may be found in the neighbourhood of London, near Dartford, and the crags in Kent, may be searched with profit by the collector; he will here find the large and rare moth the Kentish glory, endromis versicolor, which is seldom found else- where; the nolodonto zigzag a moth so named from the extraordi- nary shape of its larva, stamopus fagi ; several local butterflies, such as the chalk hill blue, the dark brown and duke of Burgundy frittil- laries, the scarlet and wood tiger moths, and several beautiful beetles. As near as Greenwich Park, in the summer months, the great stag beetle (lucanus cerous) may frequently be found in abundance, though it is rare in England save in Kent. The osier grounds near the Thames will supply some rare insects, the lesias^ and trochilium, moths of some scarcity; while in Essex and Hertfordshire may be found the purple emperor butterfly, the brown fritrillary, and white admiral butterflies, the death's-head and parrot-hawk moths, and many other interesting species; while if we go towards Cambridge, which is now but a few hours from London, we come to an entirely different fauna; here we find the beautiful papilio machaon, a "swallow-tail butterfly, still keeping up an unavailing struggle with the progress of agriculture; the splendid large copper butterflies and beetles of great beauty, the ceramhyx, septura, charcharias, &c. But all this abundance of knowledge of species is owing, perhaps, as much to the greater care that has been bestowed on the study near the resorts of civilization than to any other cause, for there is no locality where a plant grows in which the devotee of the sister study, entomology, will not meet with objects both of pleasure and instruction, LONDON — STATISTICS. 59 List of Authors consulted. Curtis's Flora Londinensis. Selby's Forest Trees. Newman's British Ferns. Hassel's British Algae. Harvey's British Algae. Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum. „ Encyclopaedia of Farming, and all his other works. Lauder's Gilpin's Forest Scenery. Evelyn's Sylva. Westwood's Arboretum Britannicum. Grreville's Cryptogamic Flora. Andrews On Heaths. Lindley's Synopsis of British Flora. „ Introduction to Botany, and all his other works. „ Guide to Orchard and Kitchen Garden. Cooper's Flora Metropolitan. Johnson's Farmer's Dictionary, &c. Agricultural Surveys of Counties. Reports of Agricultural Society. Magazine of Natural History. Reports of British Association. Hooker's British Flora. New Botanist's Guide. Manning's Surrey, &c. And the County Histories of the Dis- tricts traversed by the Thames. Turton's British Shells. Yarrell's Birds. Bell's Quadrupeds and Reptiles. Yarrell's Fishes. Pennant's British Zoology. Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. M'Gillivray's History of Mollusca, &c. „ Manual of British Birds. Kirby and Spence's Introduction to En- tomology. "Westwood's Butterflies and Moths. Wood's and Curtis's works on Ento- mology. Burmeister's Manual, by Shuckard. Shuckard's British Coleoptera. Stephens' Systematic Catalogue. John Rennie's Alphabets of Botany, En- tomology, and other works. Section 5. Statistics. — As London is not confined by natural bounds nor by walls, has no octroi, and no general municipal organiza- tion, its statistics are far from complete, and in many cases it is impos- sible to give any definite information. Boundaries and Extent. — This basis of calculation cannot be de- fined, as every day some new street takes the place of the green field, and it is therefore only possible to adopt a general idea of the giant city. It has its heart in the county of the city of London, and is chiefly in Middlesex ; on the east it spreads into Essex, on the south into Surrey, and on the south-east into Kent. It is crossed by the Thames from Hammersmith to Woolwich, passing under eleven great bridges, and winding in a length of about twenty miles, but not always with houses on its shores. On the north bank there flow the navigable Roding and Lea, the Fleet, and many small brooks and creeks ; and the metropolis nearly touches the mouth of the navigable Brent, as in the north it does the sources. On the south bank the Ravensbourne and the Wandle flow within its bounds. On these many streams, some of which are now buried under houses or in sewers, the fleets of the Northmen once sailed, and battles were fought, and in later times mills were worked. GO LONDON — STATISTICS. On the north of the Thames London crosses the range of hills aud reaches Edmonton and Finchley; on the west it reaches Acton, Hammersmith, and nearly joins on to Brentford and Kew ; on the east it reaches Layton and Ham. On the south of the Thames London embraces Wandsworth, Streatham, Dulwich, Lewisham, Woolwich, and Plumstead. To each of these points continuous streets of houses reach ; but the solid mass of London lies within narrower bounds, with these several long arms extending from it. The greatest length of street, from east to west, is about 14 miles, and from north to south about 13 miles. The solid mass is about 7 miles by 4 miles, so that the ground covered with houses is not less than 20 square miles. London has now swallowed up many cities, towns, villages, and separate jurisdictions. The four commonwealths or kingdoms of the Middle Saxons, East Saxons, the SoutlrRick, and of the Kentwaras, once ruled over its surface. It now embraces the county and episco- pal city of London, the episcopal city of Westminster, the boroughs of Southwark and Greenwich, the towns of Woolwich, Deptford, and Wandsworth, the watering places of Hampstead, Highgate, Islington, Acton, Kilburn, the fishing town of Barking, the once secluded and an- cient villages of Ham, Hornsey, Sydenham, Lee, Kensington, Fulham, Lambeth, Clapham, Paddington, Hackne}^, Chelsea, Stoke Newington, Newington Butts, Plumstead, and many others, the jurisdiction and lieutenancy of the Tower and Tower Hamlets, and of the Hospital of St. Katharine's, and the lordship of the Duchy of Lancaster in Westminster. Population. — In 1841 the population of the metropolis was taken as 1,998,455, and it is now about 2,250,000, being the city of the greatest ascertained population and greatest number of houses in the world. The return of 1841 is thus made up : — London City, within the Roman walls . . • 54,626 „ „ without the Roman walls . 70,382 Finsbury Borough . 265,043 Tower Hamlets Borough and Liberty . 419,730 Essex Division .... . 23,954 Marylebone Borough . . 287,465 Marylebone Parish 138,164 St. Pancras „ 128,479 Paddington „ 25,173 Westminster City . 222,053 Kensington Division . . 109,625 Lambeth Borough . 197,412 Greenwich and Woolwich Borough 72,748 Total . 1,998,455 LONDON STATISTICS. 61 Recapitulation. — London in Middlesex ..... 1,475,289 „ „ Essex 400,309 „ „ Surrey 98,903 „ „ Kent.^ ..... 23,954 The number of males capable of bearing arms in the metropolis is about half a million. For the purposes of the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, London is reckoned as one of the eleven great divisions of England, and the population at successive periods is thus taken to enable com- parison to be made : — 1801 .... 958,863 1811 .... 1,138,815 1821 .... 1,378,947 1831 .... 1,654.994 1841 .... 1,948,369 In 1841 the number of males was 912,001, and of females, 1,036,368. The births, deaths, and marriages in the metropolitan district stand thus: — Births. Deaths. Marriages 1838 . — . 53,546 . — 1839 . 53,575 . . 46,100 . . 18,384 1840 . 56,751 . . 47,156 . . 18,530 1841 . 58,362 .. . 46,292 . . 18,246 1842 . 61.381 .. . 46,242 .. . 17,826 1843 . 62,134 .. . 49,477 .. . 18,669 1844 . 64,329 .. . 51.109 .. . 20.126 1845 . 65,884 .. . 48,318 .. . 21,770 1846 . 69,882 .. . 49,450 .. . 22,272 The numbc r of births and deaths do not include the still-born. The numbe r of deaths occurring daily is 125. Houses, — The number of houses in the registration district in 1841 was 278,093, whereof inhabited, 262,737, uninhabited, 11,324, build- ing, 4032. The number of houses now is above 300,000, and the number of streets, alleys, &c., above 10,000. Employment. — An analysis of the employment of the population, from the " Post Office London Directory" and the " Useful Knowledge Geography of England and Wales," gives the number of persons em- ployed in the chief trades of London as follows : — Millinery .... 40,282 I Machinery Clothes and Slops . Boots and Shoes Books, Prints, &c. . Silk weaving . Cabinet making, &c. Shipbuilding . Painting and Sculpture . 5,615 . 5,561 . 4,434 . 4,290 . 4,002 . 3,932 . 3,591 . 3,506 Of most of these trades London is a chief seat. Other considerable trades are, Saddlen^, 2626 ; Cartmaking, 2635 ; Carving and Gilding, 2181 ; Brush and Broom- making, 2155; Pianos, Organs, and other instruments, 1886; Tinplate working, 1419; Toys, 1298; Brewing, 1274 ; Rope, 1262 ; Fur, 1236 ; Glass, 1230 ; Iron, 1176; Wax and Tallow, 1130; Guns and Pistols, 1113 ; Mathematical Instru- 28,848 Plate and Jewellery 28,574 Coachbuilding 14,563 Watch and Clockmaking 14,563 Coopering 12,419 Leatherworking 6,305 Brassworking 5,787 Hatmaking 62 LONDON — STATISTICS. merits, 1076 ; Artificial Flowers, 1025 ; Stained Paper, 966 ; Cutlery, 905 ; Baskets, 881 ; Bricks and Tiles, 840 ; Umbrellas, 831 ; Sailmaking, 713 ; Sugar refining, 645 ; Paper, 625 ; Chemicals, Dyes, Varnishes, &c, 617; Cork cutting, 576 ; Chair- making, 1700; Combs, 464; Goldbeating, 378 ; Hair working, 367 ; Ivory, 311; Type founding, 452. Other employments are, — Provision Trades, 52,761. 9,110 6,450 1,866 4,986 1,732 6,061 2,764 Clothing and Leather Trades, 126,508. Tailors 23,517 Shoemakers .... 28,574 Drapers 3,913 Dressmakers and Seamstresses . 27,049 Bonnetmakers . . . 3,282 Spinning, Braiding, Plaiting, and Weaving Trades, 27,960. Building and Furnishing Trades, . 85,292. Carpenters, &c. . . . 18,321 Bricklayers Butchers ; Fishmongers . . Grocers . . Buttermen , Publicans . Milkmen . Painters, Plumbers Masons . Sawyers 6,743 11,507 3,471 2,978 Metal Trades, 33,308. Smiths 7,481 Carrying and Shipping Trades, 52,660. Professional Persons, 28,318. Schoolmasters and Teachers 9,244 Ecclesiastics . 1,271 Medical Men .... 4,972 Lawyers . 2,399 Engineers and Architects 1,379 Artists . 4,431 Accountants . . . . 1,108 Public Servants, Policemen, and Soldiers 19,240 Merchants, Pawnbrokers, and Auctioneers 8,389 Clerks 20,932 Labourers .... 50,279 Omnibus and Cab Drivers 10,000 Male Servants 39,300 Female Servants and Nurses . 138,917 The number of Irish in London in 1841 was about 70,000 (this is besides Irish born in London); of Scotch and Highlanders, 25,000; and of foreigners, 20,000. The rest of the metropolitan population is English, of whom about 1,200,000 at least are born in London. Police. — The whole body of police is about 6000. The number of persons taken into custody yearly is 60,000 (males 40,000, fe- males 20,000), of whom half for drunkenness, 10,000 for assaults, 15,000 for stealing, and 3000 for wilful damage. 5000 are yearly sent for trial to the superior criminal courts. Of those taken into custody 20,000 can neither read nor write ; 35,000 read, or read and write imperfectly; 4500 read and write well; and 500 have superior instruction. Of those convicted by the superior courts only about 240 can read and write well, and 17 have superior instruction. The number of persons and children yearly reported to the police as lost is about 2500, of whom above 1000 are reported found by the police. The number of suicides committed is 160, and at- tempted 110, being less than the number in the smaller population of Paris. The number of fires is nearly 500. The cost of the police is about 400,000/. yearly; and this is besides prisons and judicial establishments. LONDON — STATISTICS. 63 Trade of London. — Tons of shipping yearly engaged in trade with the port of London : — Coasting trade . . 3,000.000 Ireland 100,000 Newcastle 1,300,000 Sweden and Norway . 100,000 Sunderland 1,000,000 France 90,000 Stockton 700,000 Prussia 70,000 English colonies . 650,000 English Africa . 60,000 East Indies 200,000 Guernsey, &c. 50,000 English North America . 200,000 Denmark . 40,000 West Indies 150,000 Flanders . 40,000 Russia 150,000 Portugal . 35,000 Holland . 120,000 China 30.000 United States 100,000 Education. — London is the seat of a university, and has five colleges, faculties, and superior schools for old classic and modern languages; 1 for women, 2 for East Indian studies, 2 for Hebrew (besides 3 chairs), 11 for medicine, 1 for the veterinary art, 1 for pharmacy, 17 for chemistry, 3 for geology and metallurgy, 4 for law, 3 for civil engi- neering, 5 for military engineering, 1 for music, 2 for the fine arts, 6 for teaching schoolmasters, 5 for teaching schoolmistresses, 2 for Episcopalian theology, 1 for Baptist ditto, 1 for Independent ditto, 1 for Unitarian ditto, 1 for Jewish ditto. There are special schools for design, singing, church music, navi- gation, botany, horticulture, the blind, deaf and dumb, and idiots. The University of London consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, and senate, appointed provisionally by the secretary of state for the Home Department, and of graduates. The university is solely an examining body ; instruction is given in the colleges recognised by it, which are all the medical schools in the empire, and the colleges in London, and elsewhere in these islands, for superior instruction, not belonging to the other universities, and including most of the col- leges of the Roman Catholics, Baptists, Independents, and Wes- leyans. In London the colleges are University, King's, New, St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, and the medical schools of St. George's, London, Charing Cross, Guy's, Westminster and Middlesex Hospitals, and the Hunterian School of Medicine. These give cer- tificates of the students having passed through the required courses in the faculties of arts, medicine, and law. Those of engineering and architecture are not yet fully organized. The university has no theological character. For the matriculation, examination, or pre- liminary examination on admission to the university, no college cer- tificate is necessary. The senate appoints examiners in the branches of the several faculties, and the examination, which is private, is as far as possible in writing, or of a practical character, oral examina- tion being avoided, unless indispensably necessary. The examinations are of two classes, at the option of the candidate, an ordinary exa- mination, in two classes, and an examination of a higher character 04 LONDON— STATISTICS. for honours. To those passing this latter examination are alone given the scholarships and medals of the university. The examina- tions are very severe, and few go np for them ; but those who do are generally young men of great abilities, and a large proportion pass in the superior classes. There are a general matriculation exa- mination, examinations for Bachelor and Master of Arts, Bachelor and Doctor of Civil Law, two for Bachelor of Medicine, and one for Doctor of Medicine. The graduates possess very few privileges, but the degrees are highly valued. Latterly the degrees are given in public by the chancellor, in the presence of the graduates. Superior instruction is given in London by the three colleges of University (for all sects), King's (for Church of England men), and New College (for Independents). The latter teaches only humanity and theology ; but the others teach humanity, philosophy, medicine, law, engineering, and architecture, and have a full body of professors. The professors are chiefly paid by a proportion of the fees from pupils. The instruction is given by lectures, and weekly and ses- sional examinations are held. At the end of the session a grand examination and distribution of prizes takes place. The students are not obliged to be matriculated in the University of London, and many of them proceed to Oxford and Cambridge, in order to carry off the emoluments of those rich foundations. No system of moral discipline prevails in these colleges, the members of which reside where they list. These colleges are not under the control of the government, and belong to private subscribers, who appoint a council for their management, though the real administration is vested in the senate of professors. Of public grammar schools for boys there are about twenty-five. The chief are Westminster, University, and King's Colleges, Mer- chant Tailors, St. Paul's, Charterhouse, Christ's Hospital, City of London, Mercers, the Philological. The grammar school answers to the College Royal and Gymna- sium of the continent. The endowed schools are not under the control of the government, and there are many private schools. The endowed schools have exhibitions or scholarships attached to them for the maintenance of pupils in the universities of Oxford, Cam- bridge, and London, and the fees are generally low, and in some cases the education is gratuitous. At Westminster, the Charter- house, and Merchant Tailors, many of the wealthy classes are brought up, and most of the schools have produced many eminent scholars. In the grammar schools the basis of instruction is a hard and close training in the Latin grammar and rudiments, as a means of securing habits of attention, industry, and perseverance, and whatever may be the opinion as to the form of education, the result, by which we are to judge, and not by the form, proves that Englishmen, in their minds and in their habits of mental, political, and social discipline are as well LONDON — STATISTICS. G5 trained as men of any European nation. Besides Latin, instruction is given in Greek, French, German, and other branches of education. In many of the large schools the lads at the option of their parents receive less classical instruction, and their education is of a more commercial character. As a general practice the minds of the younger hoys are not quickened, hut they are in preference kept to those studies which will train them in habits of industry. The boys of sixteen and seven- teen are encouraged to a greater exertion of the higher faculties, and are allowed to compose themes, orations, and verses in English, Latin, Greek, French, German, and Hebrew. Each school has a yearly display of its more promising pupils on a speech day, and at West- minster a Latin play is performed at Christmas. It is considered the development of the powers of imagination and of judgment can best take place at an advanced age, and the cultivation of these, as well as the acquisition of languages and other accomplishments, is left for the period of university study. Beneath the grammar schools are the boarding schools kept by private persons, and which are seldom on a par with the National and British and Foreign Schools, unless those of a higher class, where every branch of education can be obtained on making extra payment for it. The society schools generally labour under a want of teachers, and much of the instruction is given by pupil monitors. The teaching embraces reading, writing, spelling, English history, geography, lessons from objects, drawing, and an extensive course of theology in the form of hymns, prayers, catechisms, bible readings, and bible geography. Of lower schools for boys and girls there are about 50 foundation schools; 700 national and parish schools; and 200 British and Fo- reign schools. Many of these have infant schools attached to them, and are of a larger class. Of Sunday schools there are about TOO belonging to the church. The number of Bagged schools is 90. The number of children in the church day-schools is 65,000, and in the church Sunday-schools only 9000. The number of children in the British and Foreign day-schools is 30,000. The number of pupils in the Ragged day-schools is 1G,000. The whole number of other Sunday schools is about TOO, with 12,000 teachers and 130,000 pupils. The schooling of a great part of the population ceases at fourteen or fifteen, and the counting-house, warehouse, or shop, becomes the school of mental discipline. The Literary or Mechanics' Institution affords in its evening classes the means of continuing cheaply scholastic, instruction, and provides classes of French, German, Latin, Italian, natural philosophy, drawing, singing, recitation, music and dancing. The abundance of books in private hands and in the libraries of the institutions, and the requirements of instruction for the discharge of political duties, are great encouragements to reading among the youths and young men, and many avail themselves fully of the opportunities at their disposal. With many defects in English institutions the prac- 66 LONDON— -STATISTICS. tical and working results will be found by the careful observer highly favourable when compared with those obtained elsewhere. The schooling of girls is almost without exception very expensive and very bad. Music, drawing, dancing and French are professed to be taught in all schools of any pretension, and are seldom learnt, and even if any proficiency be acquired in the ordinary requisites of school instruction, no care is taken for the discipline of the mind. Among the wealthier classes the girls are almost universally taught at home by governesses. As a general fact it may be noticed that the industrial education of the girls has fallen off of late years among all classes. Special education is provided for very extensively in London. The medical schools are numerous, and compete with each other. A sup- ply of subjects for anatomical dissection is providedfrom the unclaimed bodies of those dying in hospitals, workhouses, or prisons. The Col- lege of Physicians examines for physicians; that of Surgeons for sur- geons; the Society of Apothecaries for general practitioners of medicine and surgery; and the Royal Veterinary College for veterinarists. No course of study is required for lawyers, but solicitors have to pass an examination. There are some optional examinations for barristers and professorships of several branches of law. Engineering is pro- vided for in numerous colleges so far as scholastic instruction goes ; architecture in the Royal Academy, University, and King's and Putney Colleges ; the arts in the Royal Academy and some smaller schools ; music is the worst cultivated, and is in a low condition. Miscellaneous. — The amount of customs duties paid by London is nearly 11,000,000/.; of postage, about 900,000/. The yearly value of house property is about 8,000,000/., and the amount of poor rates about 650,000/. The amount invested in savings banks was, in 1850, about 4,500,000/. Charities. — The provision made for the general relief of the poor is described under Poor Law. There is besides an unexampled number of institutions, founded by private benevolence for the relief of distress in almost e\ery form. Many of these are described under the title of Asylums. Of the remainder it is impossible here to give an enumeration. We must refer to a most valuable work, " The Charities of London," by Sampson Low, jun. The hospitals may be first named. They include St. Bartholomew's, St. Thomas's, Westminster, Guy's, St. George's, London, Middlesex, Charing Cross, University College or North London, King's College, and Marylebone. All these are medical schools. There are further, the Free, Seamen's (in the Dreadnought ship on the Thames), Jews, and German. Besides the above, for general diseases, there are spe- cial hospitals, as Lying-in (5), Insane (several), Ophthalmic (2), Small Pox and Fever, Fistula, Orthopcedic, Consumption (2), and the Lock. All these are under the management of subscribers, who, as governors, LONDON — STATISTICS, 67 appoint the medical and other officers, and when they think fit recom- mend patients. Throughout the London charitable institutions the medical officers are unsalaried, hut sometimes they derive emoluments as medical teachers. Admission to see the hospitals is readily given to strangers on application. Besides the relief given by these hospitals to the immense number of out-patients, and exclusive of their in-door patients, are numerous smaller local institutions for out-door relief, including 39 dispensa- ries ; and further, sanatoriums, sea-bathing institutions, lying-in, oph- thalmic, aural, glandular, and truss or rupture relief institutions. The Humane Society keeps up a police and medical staff for the relief of persons found in the water and in danger of drowning. The model dwellings for the poor, the baths and washhouses, and emigration funds, are provided by private benevolence*. Ten institutions are provided for the reformation of unfortunate females, three for female and juvenile criminals, and one for the relief of discharged criminals. An hospital maintains natural children to re- lieve the mothers from further temptation. A society procures the discharge of persons imprisoned for small debts. Miscellaneous institutions detect vagrancy, provide nightly shelter for the houseless in winter, give away coals, bread, and soup, and visit the necessitous in their abodes. The General District Visiting Society is a kind of propaganda society for converting the working classes to Christianity. Benevolent establishments succour distressed needlewomen, dress- makers, and female servants. The aged, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane, and the idiot, are well provided for. Several societies give pensions to the decayed mem- bers of the respectable classes. Each of the city corporations devotes large funds to charity, and each trade has its benevolent or pension society. For orphans and for education the provision is large. Several great societies cause reading and writing to be taught to the English people, for whom no education is provided as a right by the state, and there- fore it is thus afforded as an alms. These school-societies are the National for the Church, the British and Foreign for Dissenters, the "Wesleyan, the Congregationalist, the Roman Catholic, the Jewish, and the Infant. The schools are supported by the payment of a penny or twopence weekly from each child, the subscription of neighbours, a slight grant from the society, and a gratuity from the government. The government now gives aid for building schoolhouses, and niain- tainins: the normal colleges. Of these there are several in London. The National Society in 1847 had 6798 schools and 526,754 scholars, besides 237,848 Sunday scholars. The British and Foreign School Society likewise carries on its operations on a large scale. Several societies publish school-books and maps. * See post, article Baths and Washhouses and Houses for the Labouring Poor. 68 LONDON — STATISTICS. The Ragged schools are for the poor children who can neither dress decently, nor pay the weekly penny. These schools, formed within the last three or four years, have heen the means of reclaim- ing many outcasts. Some of these schools are largely frequented by young thieves. The times of teaching are suited to the irregular 'habits of the inmates, and the endeavour is to give them a moral and industrial training. Some of the b®ys have been fitted to be emi- grants. These schools are likewise open for adults, and generally they labour among those classes who, from the neglect of the state, are brought up to a life of vagabondism, and to prey upon the rest of the community. These schools receive no help from the state, but are wholly dependent upon voluntary contributions. There are nearly a hundred of these schools, and in which a thousand teachers gratuitously labour. The Sunday schools are another great monument of voluntary exertion. In every one of the Society-schools, and in every dis senting chapel, a Sunday school is held, the teachers in which are volunteers. Throughout England there are 70,000 of these schools, with about 2,000,000 of scholars, of whom a large proportion are in the metropolis. In these schools the defective instruction in the Society-schools is partly supplied. All these charitable institutions are regularly organized, and if they afford occasion for ostentation and display, at any rate they are the means of awakening the apathy of the community to the discharge of the social duties. The anniversary dinners and meetings become as much the holidays of the better classes, as occasions for beneficial exertion, and thus the co-operation and good feeling of all ranks of the commonwealth are engaged, from the prince to the beggar. That there are evils attendant on such a system, all will expect who know that human nature has imperfections ; but none who think rightly can see its working and fail to acknowledge the vast amount of good. The burthen is, of course, unequally divided, and those most willing have the greatest share. The same benefactors con- tribute to every charity ; the same devoted men and women are teachers in the Sunday-school, the ragged school, and district visitors; and those who give their mite, will, at the same time, be found work- ing-sip clothing, or providing comforts for the sick. Poo?' Law. — In the vast nation of London there must be, from many causes, a large number of poor for whom a provision becomes necessary. The aid of various charities is afforded to a great extent, and there is an ample public provision. The stranger, who sees the squalid Irish and other beggars who infest the streets, might doubt this, but on no subject is it necessary for him to be so cautious in trusting to appearances. For every one food, shelter, and clothing are provided, and the law prohibits begging ; but there will always be some who prefer begging to work, the more particularly when begging is a lucra- LONDON — STATISTICS. 69 tive trade. As the beggar takes care not to ply Lis vocation in the hearing of the policeman, and the private person addressed is either unwilling, or has not the time to cause the criminal to be taken into custody, the army of beggars carries on its operations with little inter- ruption, or an occasional imprisonment in the House of Correction is only treated as a slight evil attendant on a life of sensual indulgence. The Irish, from preference, are clad in tatters, and walk barefoot ; the smaller number of English beggars array themselves expressly for their performance, and if they have not some deformity assume it. They likewise hire infant children at a considerable expense. Thev prey, in particular, upon the mechanics and their wives, who, occasionally subjected to real privations, benevolently say that perhaps they them- selves may some day be brought to wretchedness, and that the beggars may truly be in want, and if not, a penny will do no harm. To im- pose upon the mechanics the sham Lancashire weaver, with his large household, makes his regular round of the courts and alleys, proclaim- ing in a loud voice and with rhetorical skill the circumstances which prevent him from earning a livelihood by work, and a shower of half- pence answers his appeal. On Saturday nights he, his wife, and children are dressed up cleanly and neatly, with faces well washed and hair well combed, holding boxes of matches in their hands, and with down- cast looks, as if ashamed to beg. To every beggar, however urgent his appeal, and whatever guarantee he may offer of its truth, the stranger must thoroughly shut his ears and his pockets. If he is in doubt lest he should turn away any case of real distress, let him subscribe to the Mendicity Society in Red Lion Square, who will supply him with tickets, to be given as relief in- stead of money, and who give food only to those who are found to be deserving. The beggars have been known and seen to give these Mendicity tickets to the really poor. The police, too, can be called upon to take charge of a beggar, and to see him on his way to the poorhouse or the House of Correction. The whole of London is divided into large districts for the relief of the poor, called unions, consisting of a single large parish or of several small parishes. Each of these is governed by a Board of Guardians, chosen by the ratepayers. Each union has a large building, called a workhouse, which provides for aged men and women, sick and disabled men and women, wives deserted by their husbands, single women lying-in, orphans and illegitimate children, and all persons unable to obtain work and destitute of the means of subsistence. A department called the casual or vagrant ward is for the relief of wanderers, who either have not or say they have not means of finding food and shelter for the night. This is a right which can be enforced at once on application before the nearest civil magistrate. For the children separate establishments are now being formed in the neigh- bourhood of London, with suitable schools, workshops, and play- 70 LONDON — STATISTICS. grounds, where they may he brought up industriously. The insane poor are sent to the County Lunatic Asylums, established expressly for them, and where every care is taken for the restoration of theii minds. The asylums for the county of Middlesex are at Han well and Colney Hatch. The aged poor are provided for comfortably, but not luxuriously, as it is not the intention they should enjoy the same advantages as the frugal and industrious. Able-bodied men and women are only provided with such a quantity of coarse and unsavoury food as h sufficient to sustain life, as it is not desired to encourage them to remain without work or in a state of dependence. It is sometimes made a means of misrepresentation that the prisoner and the convict are better fed than the pauper, whereas the larger allowance made to criminals is only enough to maintain life under the depressing influence of imprisonment. It is therefore perfectly preposterous to compare the conditions. The work to which paupers are put is such as docs not interfere with the labour market, chiefly stone-breaking, and it is a matter of course that workhouse labour affords little or no re- venue towards meeting the expenses. The discipline of these large establishments is necessarily simple and strict. The inmates are re- quired to stay within the walls, are dressed for cleanliness in the workhouse dress, and are separated into various classes, though not always to such an extent but that the evil influence of idlers, drunkards, convicts, vagrants, beggars, thieves, prostitutes, and other bad cha- racters, is strongly felt. When a person applies for relief to a board of guardians, if he is only a casual sojourner in their district, it is their duty to cause him to be conveyed to his birthplace, a change which by no means suits the Irish vagrants, who make their reap- pearance at as early a date as possible. The Irish reaper, however, remits his earnings to Ireland by post-office order, and gets a free passage as a pauper. The regular vagrants frequently take advantage of the casual wards of the workhouses in turn to get their night's lodging free, going forth in the morning to get their food by begging or thieving. As they wander about the union officers and police can seldom get a case against them to secure their punishment ; and though they are searched to find their money they generally manage to hide it suc- cesfully. In some cases relief is given out of doors, but to as small a degree as possible, the object being by the restraint of the workhouse to debar persons from seeking help unnecessarily, and even the pittance of two or three shillings a week is sufficient to tempt an Irish family to live in idleness. In each subdistrict of the union is a relieving officer, whose business it is to examine the claims and circumstances of all applicants for relief within and without the union house. He visits the poor in their abodes, and in cases of utter illness or other need provides food and medical attendance. LONDON — STATISTICS. 7 1 The infirmaries of the Marylebone, St. Pancras, Lambeth, and other large unions, constitute large hospitals, and it is in these establishments the illnesses of the lower classes are really treated. The patients in the regular hospitals include few paupers, except for accidents or ex- traordinary diseases, but are many of them mechanics and domestic servants. Although a warning has been given against beggars, and the sys- tem of relief has been described, yet there is often a large amount of suffering in London. The working population subject themselves to great privations to keep out of the workhouse, and sometimes the re- lieving officer, warned by neighbours of the necessity, is repulsed when offering help. Some from false shame when in need prefer living by begging to taking from the public fund, to which they have contri- buted, and which is provided for them. Sometimes the outcasts of crime pine away in their abodes; sometimes the victims of sensualitv drop in their career of dissipation. Hence cases of utter wretched- ness, and even of death from want of food, do, notwithstanding every care, sometimes harrow the minds of the public. These are not, however, to be taken as instances by which to measure the con- dition of the population. Public Journals and the Times, — London, as compared with Paris and New York, is less distinguished for the number of its journals and their special distribution, than for the completeness of the journals themselves and the efficiency of their establishments. It is this which gives them a distinctive character and importance, and makes them a feature of metropolitan greatness particularly worthy of the examination of the stranger. The branch of literature Which is styled the press is known under two heads, as newspapers and periodicals, between which the line cannot in each case be accurately defined, but which nevertheless have considerable distinctness of character. To the first class belong the daily and weekly newspapers, to the second the weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications, of which original dissertations form the chief feature. The periodicals range from the volume review of the Edinburgh and Quarterly to the penny weekly sheet of the Family Herald, and in one shape or another they embrace the representation of every profession, party, sect, and shade of opinion. In the quarterly and monthly periodicals, Edinburgh shares with London, but with regard to both towns the contributors are not local, but drawn from all parts of the country. The whole mass of periodicals may therefore be considered together without distinction of origin. The quarterly reviews consist solely of dissertations by men of eminence in their respective branches on important topics. The Quarterly, the Edinburgh, and the Westminster, represent the Tory, the Whig, and the Radical parties, and others less known the several religious sects ; and there are special reviews for medicine and law. 72 LONDON — STATISTICS. The monthly publications consist principally of what are called the magazines. The numbers of a magazine bind up in the course of a year into two volumes, and contain chiefly portions of novels continued in series or short sketches, with poems and an occasional political article. There are besides special monthly publications for the navy, army, civil engineers, surgeons, veterinarists, pharmaceutists, chemists, naturalists, artists, antiquarians, bankers. The political reviews rank among their contributors statesmen, historians, and the elite of science ; the magazines, the poets and novelists. Some of the works of Dickens, Bulwer, and other novelists of universal popularity, have first appeared in the magazines. Of the weekly periodicals it is more difficult to give a brief sketch. The Athenaeum and the Literary Gazette are journals for the criticism of literature, science, and art, in all their branches, and the communication of information regarding them. Then there is a long series of journals for medicine, law, architecture, and music. A class of publications, which may be represented by Chambers's Journal and the Family Herald, is published at a cheap price to supply the public appetite for wholesome reading. Beneath these come the penny sheets of novels, written to pander to the passions of the lower classes. Each of the various publications we have named has its editor, and those requiring such assistance a sub-editor, and all give em- ployment to a staff of contributors and translators, artists and engravers. The translations are chiefly of scientific and professional news; the literary publications,, except those of the lowest class, who republish the common French novels, rarely employ translators. A class of periodicals not before enumerated are the transactions and journals of the various scientific institutions. The several religious tract and temperance societies likewise issue numerous publications. The newspaper press in its constitution differs much from that described. The daily journals are those most important. The weekly journals reprint the news of the daily journals in a compressed form, and their distinctive character is derived from political articles, criticisms on literature and art, and occasional special communications. Several, as Sunday papers, give the news later than the daily papers of Saturday. In the weekly papers the sections of society unable separately to maintain the vast establishment of a daily paper have their special organs, and here we find the representatives of Absolutists, Tories, Conservatives, Protectionists, Whigs, Radicals, Republicans, Democrats, Jacobins, Economists, Socialists, High Church, Low Church, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Reform Wesleyans, Inde- pendents, Unitarians, Jews, Deists, Pantheists, and Atheists. It is by this latitude of discussion that conspiracy and revolution are superseded, and each party hopes to conquer its adversaries by the overwhelming LONDON STATISTICS. 7o truth of its doctrines, and not by the exertion of physical power. Here the Celt abuses English domination, and the colonist advocates the dis- solution of the imperial connection. The influence of these organs is great, and the ministry of the day has usually more than one re- presentative among them. Many classes of the population have neither time nor money for daily publications, and the weekly paper is sought on the Sunday and carefully read. This class of publica- tion has therefore large resources at its command, and is enabled to enlist men of great attainments among its contributors. A weekly newspaper is managed by an editor and sub-editor, with several assistants for the Saturday's transactions, and there are usually regular correspondents or contributors for particular depart- ments, for a political article or letter, for theatrical and musical criticism, and for sporting communications. Many of these parties hold other engagements on the press. One weekly publication, the Illustrated News, keeps a staff of artists and engravers to supply the materials for the expensive woodcuts appearing in its pages. The evening papers, since the establishment of the morning mails enables the morning papers to reach the country districts, are of diminished importance. They give the news from the morning papers with occasional additions, and some regular information of the day, and in periods of great excitement their exertions then keep pace with the public requirements for news. The ministry has always an organ, occasionally its chief organ, in this department of the press. The evening papers now publish about 4 o'clock, in time for the afternoon post, and during the sitting of parliament they give the debates up to a late hour in an after edition. They have their staff of editor and sub-editor, city correspondents, and in the session a corps of parliamentary reporters. The evening papers are the Globe, Sun and Express (liberal), and the Standard (conser- vative). There is likewise a shipping paper. The morning papers are now six in number : the Times, Morning Chronicle, Morning Herald, and Morning Post, all representing various sections of the conservative party ; the Daily News, which is the representative of the liberals, and the Morning Advertiser, likewise a liberal paper, but having its circulation almost exclusively among the licensed victuallers or publicans, to whom it belongs, and in aid of whose charities its profits are applied. The constitution and establishment of the five former papers have a general character in common, though with many modifications. Each belongs to a proprietary, which is not ostensibly known to the public, and each is managed by an administration, the members of which are not declared, nor is it the practice of a paper to allude by name to in- dividuals connected with its contemporaries. At the same time the laborious pursuits of the editors, and their occupation in the evening, E 74 LONDON — STATISTICS. prevent them from appearing much in public, and the result is, so far as the mass of the public is concerned, a complete incognito, which, whatever its advantage, is paid for by an abnegation of all personal glory. The Thunderer becomes dead to the world, and as the secluded monk lives only for and in his order, so does the former live only in his newspaper. He gives up his individuality, he abjures the literary success, and the lasting fame, which his talents would achieve elsewhere ; he sacrifices the applauses of senates, and the exercise of political administration. The journal wields the power, is flattered with the incense of public applause, and swallows up the glory in the long catalogue of successes. That this system contributes greatly to the power of the English press there can be no doubt, for all personal considerations are set aside, and every exertion is devoted to the advancement of the paper. At the head of each establishment is the editor, or editor-in-chief, who may be said rather to have the general inspection, than the ad- ministration. He directs the policy of the paper, and is the centre from which its moral influence receives its impress. It is needless to say the few posts of this importance are not lightly given, and that, with an empire to choose from, talent and attainments of the highest class are considered indispensable in determining the choice. In writing the political or leading articles he has the assistance of gentle- men permanently engaged for the purpose, besides occasional special aid. For the administration of the office he has a sub-editor, who regulates the whole routine of the paper, and who secures the co-operation of the various special departments in the production of the daily work. This is an office which likewise requires mental resources of a very high order. In his immediate direction are the assistants who arrange the matter sent in from the several offices or contributors. The sub-editors duties give him the supply and regu- lation of the printing office, and he has to make the most advan- tageous arrangements for that part of the paper not occupied with advertisements. The sub-editor and his assistants receive from several sources leading articles, translations of foreign news, extracts from foreign, colonial, and provincial papers, communications from the foreign and home correspondents of the establishments, reports from the parlia- mentary and other reporters, and letters from private parties. There are besides the advertisements. The city gives rise to a distinct department. The city office, in the neighbourhood of the Bank, has for its head a city correspondent or editor, whose duty it is, with his assistants, to prepare the money market or city article, and to watch the movements of the currency, the exchanges, the discount market, the stock and share market, the commercial interests of the country, and generally the state of trade at home and abroad. More or less in connection with the city cor- LONDON — STATISTICS. 75 respondent are correspondents on the Corn Exchange, and in the markets for colonial and other produce. The paper likewise has regular correspondents in all the local markets of the metropolis to record the prices of articles of consumption. The staff of foreign correspondents varies according to the re- sources of the paper and the exigencies of political events. The Times has lately kept correspondents in Paris, Italy, Vienna, Northern Germany, Madrid and Lishon, besides others on roving commissions attending armies in the field. The correspondent at Paris occupies an important political position, and is provided with every appliance to enable him to supply daily the latest political and commercial news. Special expresses bring these communications from Paris to London in time for the morning papers. It has hap- pened before now that political transactions affecting a people, al- though occurring in their own capital, have first been made known from London. Occasional correspondence is supplied from all parts of the world by persons in the confidence of the papers, and there is a regular organization to furnish advices in the quickest manner from the utmost ends of the earth. Besides the political missions abroad, others are undertaken from time to time at home. Such were those on the condition of the Irish population, and on English agriculture by the Times com- missioners; on labour and the poor in England by the Morning Chronicle commissioner ; on the State of the English Manufacturers, and on the Encumbered Estates by the Daily News commissioners. Each paper has a corps of parliamentary reporters, who attend the debates in the two Houses of Parliament, and in which many young men of talent are enlisted. Some of these are entered for the bar, others hold appointments on Sunday Papers, and thus obtain an income which induces them to adhere to the press as a vocation. Besides these gentlemen there is in London a great number of casual reporters, whose contributions are paid by the number of lines they contain, and hence are called penny-a -liners. -Although regular reporters are sent from the offices, whenever anything of importance is expected, yet a great mass of information relating to police-offices, inquests, fires, murders, accidents, and meetings, is obtained from the casual reporters, who, scattered over the metro- polis, are ever on the look out for anything which may afford them the materials for a paragraph. They are to be seen on the fire- engines, proceeding to the fires, a whole pack is let loose on the scent of a murder, and it has been said that a man who falls down and breaks his leg is sure to find by his side two persons ready with sympathy — the medical student eager to secure him for his own hos- pital, and the casual reporter who makes the most anxious enquiries as to his name, address, family, and connections, that he may publish the fullest particulars in the morning papers. e 2 70 LONDON STATISTICS. The publishing office of a large paper has usually a distinct depart- ment for advertisements. Here payment is received for advertise- ments and a small ticket of receipt is given, hut a great many adver- tisements come from advertisement agents, who, for a percentage transact the business of large establishments and individuals. These firms employ a considerable capital, but during the railway mania they suffered much by the large accommodation they afforded to the new schemes. The newspapers are chiefly issued from the offices to newsvenders, some of whom carry on a very large business. Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, in the Strand, take as many as 5000 of one weekly paper, and they supply a great number of provincial newsvenders throughout the island, sending down parcels by railway trains. The newsvenders deliver the papers to their town and country subscribers, and likewise sell them retail to chance customers. A large part of their business is in lending the papers to public institutions, coffee-houses and individuals by the day, sending them away by the evening's or next day's post ; and in lending them by the hour to persons reading them at home. Instead of the numerous cabinets de lecture of the Continent, the stranger will find but few in London. Here papers are hired from the newsvender, or by the lower classes borrowed from the public- house, which thus accommodates its customers. The periodicals will be found in the coffee-houses, and literary institutions, and those published monthly and quarterly are lent out from the circulating libraries. The- history of " the Times" newspaper and its machinery is a history of intellectual ability, industry, and enterprise, unwearied activity and pre-eminent success, both to the public and to the pro- prietors. Previous to the year 1814 "the Times," like every other news- paper, was printed by hand at the common press, and at the rate of about 300 sheets per hour, printed on one side. The following is a brief review of the progress of printing machinery. The first patent was obtained by Nicholson, in 1790, who then proposed placing both the types and the paper upon cylinders, and distributing and applying the ink also by means of cylinders ; another plan was to place common type upon a table, which was passed under a paper cylinder. In 1813, Donkin and Bacon proposed placing the type upon a prism, and introduced "composition" rollers. In 1814, Kcenig made the first working machine, and erected two of them at "the Times" office, each of which produced 1800 im- pressions per hour, and continued to do so until 1827. In 1816, Cowper made a machine to print from curved stereo- type plates; and, in 1818, one to print books and newspapers from ordinary type; which machines are now in general use. LONDON — STATISTICS. 77 Plate 1. APPLEGATH AND COWPERS " TIMES* MACHINE. 1827. 78 LONDON — STATISTICS. In these machines he introduced the system of inking now so common. These machines printed from 2000 to 2400 impressions per hour. In 1827, Cowper and Applegath conjointly invented the four- cylinder machine which Applegath erected for " the Times." (See plate 1.) It at once superseded Koenig's machines, which were taken down. This machine printed from 4000 to 5000 impressions per hour. The diagram will give a general idea of these machines, which are still in use at " the Times" office. They consist of a table a, moved backwards and forwards under four iron cylinders b (called the paper cylinders), about 9 inches in diameter, which are covered with cloth, and round which the sheets of paper are held between tapes. The form is fixed on one part of table a, the inking rollers, c, lying on another part, on which they distribute the ink. Some of these rollers are placed in a diagonal position on the table, so that, as it moves backwards and forwards, they have a motion in the direction of their length, called the " end-motion," which, combined with the rotatory motion, causes the ink to be more effectually distributed. The ink is held in a reservoir or trough d, formed of an iron roller, called the ductor, against which the edge of an iron plate rests, and, by its pressure, regulates the quantity of ink given out. The ink is conveyed from the ductor-roller to the table by means of an elastic roller vibrating between them, e. The feeding is performed by four "layers-on," who lay the sheets of paper on the feeding boardsj^ whence they enter the machine between three pairs of tapes, by which they are conveyed round the, cylinders, and thence to the spot, g, where the u takers-off" stand, into whose hands the sheets fall as the tapes separate. In May, 1848, the last great improvement was introduced, when Mr. Applegath erected at " the Times " office a vertical machine, which produces the enormous number of 10,000 impressions per hour. (See plate 2, which gives a general idea of the machine in perspective, one of the feeders being omitted to show the position of the form.) This machine (see plate 2) consists of a vertical cylinder, about 65 in/in diameter, on which the type is fixed, surrounded by eight other cylinders, each about 13 in. in diameter, covered with cloth, and round which the sheets of paper are conveyed by means of tapes ; each paper cylinder being furnished with a feeding appa- ratus A, having one boy to lay them on and another to take them off. The inking rollers are also placed in a vertical position, against the large cylinder, upon a portion of the surface of which they distribute the ink. The ink is held in a vertical reservoir, formed of a ductor- roller, against which rests two " straight edges," connected at the back, so as to prevent the ink from running out. It is conveyed from the ductor-roller by one of the inking-rollers, against which it is occasionally pushed. LONDON — STATISTICS. Plate 2. 79 — « o M H g o M H k The type used is of the ordinary kind, and the form is placed upon a portion of the large cylinder, being fixed to it in a very plain but ingenious manner : a slab of iron is curved on its under side, so as to fit the large cylinder, whilst its upper surface is filed into facets or 80 LONDON — STATISTICS, flat parts, corresponding in width and number to the width and number of the columns of the newspaper; between each column there is a strip of steel, with a thin edge to print the " rule " — the body of it being wedge-shaped, so as to fill up the angular space left between the columns of type, and to press the type together side- ways, or in the direction of the lines ; the type is pressed together in ihe other direction by means of screws, and is therefore firmly held together. The surface of the type thus forms a portion of a polygon ; and the regularity of the impression is obtained by pasting slips of paper on the paper cylinders. The operation of the machine is very simple: the "layer-on" draws forward a sheet of paper on the feeding board, until its edge is under a roller, furnished with tapes, which drops down and draws the sheet forward and downward, into a vertical position, when other rollers and tapes carry it round the paper cylinder, when it meets the type, which has been inked by passing in contact with the inking- rollers; the sheet then continues its progress until it reaches the "taker-off." The following is a description of the engravings, plates 3, 4, 5, and will explain how the various movements are performed ; the letters of reference are the same in each of these plates. &, «, is the large vertical drum, forming the centre of the system, mounted on the shaft b, 6, and driven by the bevel wheel and pinion c, d, the shaft of the pinion d being supported on the floor, and carried to the prime mover. f*f ->f ->/->/•>/->/•>/ are the eight impression cylinders, driven by the spur wheel e; the same speed is therefore secured between the cir- cumference of the drum (with the type) and the circumference of each impression cylinder. The columns of type, as we have already mentioned, are fixed in the four type holders g,g,g,g. Between the columns of type are the " rules," which are fitted into the top and bottom of the type holder in a similar way to a metal saw in its frame. These rules are made like the keystone of an arch, to fill up the space left at the junction of the columns, owing to the angle which the columns form with each other in their position as sides of a polygon. The centre rule in the type holder is a fixture, in order to avoid the possibility of the type escaping from its place, in screwing it up ; and each column is jammed up from one end by a set-screw, as shown at top and bottom of the upper and lower type holders. The four pages of type thus prepared are bolted to the rings of the central drum. It will be observed that the impression cylinders are not arranged sym- metrically around the central drum. A greater space is left between one pair than between the others, in order to give room to get at the type, which can only be done when it is in the position shown in the drawing. LONDON — STATISTICS. Plate 3.— Plan. 81 e 3 82 LONDON—- STATISTICS. Each of the impression cylinders requires an apparatus for sup- plying it with the sheets of paper (one only being shown in the plan) ; and the vertical position of the type requires that the paper shall be also brought to a vertical position, and be moved laterally in its passage through the machine. This difficult problem is solved in the following manner : — The sheets of paper are piled on the feeding board h (see end view of feeding apparatus, plate 4), and are pushed forward, one by one, by the attendant, over the centre of the feeding drum 2, plate 4 ; k, &, are two small fluted rollers, fixed on the dropping bar, and driven by tapes, off the roller /, plate 4. At the right moment this bar turns on its centre Z, and #, k, drops, as shown in the drawing, and by its motion advances the sheet of paper between the rollers i and I. The motion of the sheet is then continued downwards by tapes passing around the rollers m, m 9 and n, n, plate 4. The paper is steadied in the whole of its course by numerous tapes, only a few of which are drawn to show their direction. The down tapes pass around the feeding roller and the smaller rollers m, m, and n, n, and carry the sheet with them, until its progress is arrested by two long narrow strips of wood o, 0, covered with woollen cloth, and called " stoppers," one pair of which are advanced forward against the other pair that are fixed. The motion of this stopper frame is effected by means of the canij*?, plate 4, which acts upon the arms q q, q q, attached to the frame. The rollers m, m, and n,n, plate 4, then (and/ of course, the tapes with them,) open, and leave the sheet in its vertical position, held up by the stoppers. The opening of the rollers m 9 m, and n 9 n 9 is effected by their bearings being mounted in the ends of levers, and these levers are made to act upon each other by means of the toothed segments shown in the drawing. The earn r, plate 4, lifts the link s, which moves the top pair of rollers m, m, while the motion is conveyed to the lower pair, n, n 9 by the connecting rod t, which is loaded with a weight at bottom to keep the friction roller on the cam r. To return to our sheet of paper, which we left held up by the stoppers. These are now relaxed, and the weight of the paper is taken by two pairs of small fingers, or suspending rollers, at the top of the sheet, which are brought together by a cam, and, pressing slightly together, hold the sheet up during the instant of time that the stoppers are relaxing, and until the three pairs of vertical rollers u u, uu, uu, plates 4 and 5, are brought into contact to communicate the lateral motion to the sheet. The vertical rollers are all driven at the same speed as the printing drum by means of bevel wheels and pinions, as shown. The three front rollers, u, u, u 9 are mounted in a hanging frame v 9 v, and the pinions at bottom are driven through the bevel pinions and the shaft w y w y which is made with a universal joint LONDON — STATISTICS, 83 Plate 4. — End View of Feeding Apparatus. to allow of the motion of the frame v,v. The back rollers are driven in a simi- lar way, but their centres are stationary. The proper motion is com- municated to the hanging © © frame v, t\ by a cam similar to jp, acting upon the lever and friction pulley a?, the motion being communicated through the levers y, y, plate 4. Imme- diately on the rollers being © brought into contact with the paper, it is advanced by their motion into the mouth of two sets of horizontal tapes, which pass round the drums 2 and 3, (also driven by gearing,) and carry the sheet onwards to- wards the im- pression cy- linder^ where it is printed, and whence 84 LONDON — STATISTICS. it returns in the direction of the arrows, the dotted line show- ing its path. The sheet of paper in its passage out meets with another set of endless tapes at the roller 4, plate 3, which assist it out as far as the rollers 5, where these tapes return and leave the sheet to complete its course by the action of a single pair of sus- pending tapes at the top of the sheet, and pressed lightly together by the pulleys 6*. On arriving at the outer pulley these tapes are forcibly pressed together by a lever and stopped, and thus hold the sheet of paper suspended and ready for the attendant to draw down, and place on the taking-off board 7 — an operation very easily performed. Each of the eight impression cylinders is provided with a similar feeding apparatus, and the same action takes place successively at each, thus producing eight sheets, printed on one side, for each revolution of the central drum. We may now mention the plan which is adopted to counteract the deviation of the faces of the columns of type from a true circle. Strips of paper are pasted down the impression cylinder, in width equal to each column. Other narrower strips of paper are pasted in the centre of these, and other strips, narrower still, until the surface of the impression cylinder becomes a series of segments of smaller circles, agreeing sufficiently with the required curve, to produce a perfect impression of the type over the whole width of the column. The ink is supplied to the type by three inking-rollers 8, 8, 8, plate 5, placed between each, two impression cylinders. These rollers receive their ink from revolving in contact with a curved inking-table, placed on the central printing drum opposite to the form of type. The ink is communicated to the inking table by two vibrating rollers alternately in contact with it and the ductor-roller. The ductor- roller 9, plate 3, forms one side of an ink -box from which, as it revolves by the bevel gearing 10 and 11, it withdraws a portion of ink. The two ink-boxes are kept full by a reservoir placed above them. The inking-rollers are caused to press in contact with the inking-table by means of coiled springs, as shown, and their brass bearings are also furnished with set-screws to hold them in close con- tact with the type, as it passes, in a similar manner to other quick machines. The spindles of the inking-rollers are also provided with small friction wheels at top and bottom, which run upon a brass bearer on the central drum ; by which they are kept from being drawn into the drum by their springs, except at the proper time. There is an advantage incidental to the vertical position of the type and the paper ; viz., that the ink does not sink into the type as it does when it is placed horizontally, and on that account the type is kept much cleaner. LONDON — STATISTICS. 85 HL1 -jr itos ^g j#h JO E JS-3- 30 =4 r^-=g i n W :* ■4 ft li: M b ; [ F=CZ r TBb iS= IE J_ I :-, 3F 13 ife -mu- ff t Si! i ST JLj r^ |^3=[ 86 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. In looking at a copy of the Times, it will occasionally be observed that the impression is not exactly in the centre of the paper. Now, the only wonder really is, that it should be so nearly true. The type and the paper move at about the rate of 6 feet per second, so that an error in the arrival of the sheet of paper to the impression cylinder of one-seventieth of a second would cause an error of one inch in the margin. Yet so accurately is this performed, that the waste of sheets is considerably less with this machine than with the old hori- zontal ones. Some little difficulty was experienced at first in carrying on the paper, when vertical, without buckling it. This difficulty was con- quered by introducing an additional roller, to give the paper a slight angle, instead of drawing it out in a straight line, which had the effect of stiffening it, on the same principle as corrugating a plate of iron. The produce of this machine might readily be doubled, by having two forms of type on the central drum, instead of one (were it desirable for want of space for two machines, or other reasons), and the addition of eight other laying-on boards and feeding drums in a story above the present ones. The following are interesting statistics relative to the printing of the Times: — On the 7th of May, 1850, the Times and Supplement contained 72 columns, or 17,500 lines, made up of upwards of 1,000,000 pieces of type, of which matter about two-fifths were written, composed, and corrected after 7 o'clock in the evening. The Supplement was sent to press at 7'50, p.m., the first form of the paper at 4*15, a.m., and the second form at 4*45, a.m.; on this occa- sion 7000 papers were published before 6*15, a.m., 21,000 papers before 7*30, a.m., and 34,000 before 8*45, a.m., or in about four hours. The greatest number of copies ever printed in one day was 54,000, and the greatest quantity of printing in one day's publica- tion was on the 1st of March, 1848, when the paper used weighed 7 tons, the weight usually required being 4<| tons ; the surface to be printed every night, including the Supplement, was 30 acres; the weight of the fount of type in constant use was 7 tons, and 110 compositors and 25 pressmen were constantly employed. The whole of the printing at the Times office is now performed by four of Applegath and Cowper s four-cylinder machines, and two of Apple- gath's new vertical cylinder machines. Section 6. — Legislation and Government. — The metropolis is the seat of the central government in its various relations. The United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Town of Berwick-on-Tweed, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Western Islands, is governed by the Imperial Parliament. The isles of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and their smaller islets, are only partially subject to the control of the Parliament. LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVEKNMENT. 87 The protectorate of the Ionian Islands, Mosquitia, the Hawaian Islands, and other semi-dependencies, is exercised through the Colonial Office, without connection with any other department. The Indian Empire is ruled through the Board of Control and the Board of East India Directors, and the Arctic American ter- ritories through the Hudson's Bay Board. The colonies are divided into three classes, those having legislative assemblies (as those of North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, Jamaica, and most of the West Indies), Crown colonies (as Ceylon, Gibraltar, Malta, Heligoland, Mauritius, West Africa, Aden, Hong-Kong, Labuan, the Falklands, Port Essington, Trinidad, and some of the West India Islands), and possessions (as Hindostan, &c). The Crown colonies are absolutely subject to the English Government and Parliament; the last class have the power of regulating their own expenditure and making their own laws, subject to the control of the home Government. The Parliament consists of the hereditary chief magistrate, under the title of King or Queen, and in whose name, but on their own responsibility, the ministers forming the executive exercise their func- tions; of a House of Lords, consisting of hereditary peers, 28 peers elected by the Irish peers for life, 16 peers elected by the Scotch peers for each parliament, and 30 archbishops and bishops of the Established Church in England and Ireland ; of a House of Com- mons, consisting of about 650 members, chosen for each parlia- ment by various classes of electors in the three great divisions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, for districts of shires or borough towns, the number of members for each district being one, two, three, or four. The operation of the qualifications is very irregular. In some boroughs every working man is an elector, as being a freeman ; but generally a great number of working and respectable men, not householders, are shut out : and in the counties only the landed and farmers' interests have the electoral franchise. The city of London returns four members ; the districts of Middlesex; South Essex, North Surrey, and West Kent, two each ; and the metropolitan bo- roughs of Westminster, Southwark, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Finsbury, Lambeth, and Greenwich, tw r o each. The whole of Lon- don has not the borough franchise, as a large part to the w r est of the city of Westminster is excluded ; so are the Essex suburbs, and other outlying districts. The franchise of freemen, but here limited to a selected class called liverymen, only exists in the city of London. Virtually the queen and her ministers, or the crown, or govern- ment, has no immediate share in the parliament, having given up the power, though not the right, of putting a veto on any measure. The crown names new peers from time to time, and occasionally, to strengthen a party without increasing the stock of hereditary peers, the eldest son of a peer is called into the House of Lords. The 88 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. political faction in power, and exercising the functions of the crown, has great patronage, which is employed, as elsewhere in repre- sentative countries, in promoting the interests of its own faction, and thereby the House of Commons is influenced. Except in times of great excitement, political power is left in the hands of the party- men of all grades, the politicians by profession, and the great body of the public, who belong to no faction, and either do not exercise the electoral franchise, or do not possess it, leave the supervision of the government to the press, through which the influence of public opinion is brought to bear, and the proceedings of the dominant fac- tion restrained. For above two hundred years the executive government has been in the hands of a political faction, generally either Whig or Tory, and the exercise of power is reposed in a body of ten or fifteen ministers of state, forming the Cabinet Council, and of whom one is the Pre- mier or cabinet minister. The cabinet usually consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, and of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and another finance minister ; of the Lord High Chancellor, as head of the law ; of Secretaries of State for the Home, Foreign, and Colonial Departments ; of the President of the Board of Control for India., and of the First Lord of the Admiralty. The number, however, varies. The next class of political personages are ministers of state not cabinet ministers, as the Secretary at War, Secretary for Ireland, President of the Board of Trade, Master of the Mint, &c. The third class consists of the Secretaries of the Treasury, Admiralty, India Board, Board of Trade, &c, and the Under Secretaries of State. The fourth class consists of Lords of the Treasury and Admiralt}'. All of these are peers or members of parliament. The above constitute the political hierarchy, the members of which are removable when their own personal influence or that of their fac- tion declines. Beneath them, however, is a permanent staff of officials. These consist in each office of an under or assistant secretary, chief clerks, and clei»ks of the superior departments, arranged in several classes. Beneath these, again, come the whole body of government subordinates, the clerks of the Post Office, Customs, and Inland Re- venue, the executive officers of their administration, the letter car- riers, excisemen, and Custom-house officers. In each office there is generally a regular promotion in the several ranks, and a scale of superannuation provided by mutual contribution, and, except in cases of absolute dishonesty, the parties are virtually irremovable. Where the heads of the department do not belong to the political hierarchy, they consist of commissioners, named from among retired members of parliament or political personages, as the Commissioners of Customs, Inland Revenue, Poor Law, Police, &c. In the Cabinet Council resides the supreme power of the executive ; but generally, unless on some line of policy laid down by the Cabinet, LONDON— LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 89 each minister is supreme in his own department; and in Downing Street is to be found the secretary who has ordered a fleet to coerce a foreign state, the president who sent an army into Afghanistan, the minister who lias given representative institutions to a country larger than a European kingdom, and with a population more considerable than that of many sovereign commonwealths. The political secretary and under-secretary cannot, however, embrace the whole of the de- tails, and much of the power of each department resides with the permanent under-secretary, chief clerk and clerks,*" each of whom has his own functions, perhaps an important country under his influence. In everything that relates to expenditure, and it may be said to administration, the Board of Lords and Secretaries of the Treasury is supreme ; and as all measures involving outlay must come to them, they have the means of exercising a control over other departments. One of the Secretaries of the Treasury is known as the Whipper-in, to whom is intrusted the disposal of the patronage of the government among members of the House of Commons, with the view to secure their presence and their votes. In consequence of the demands of the numerous partisans the Treasury lays hold of the patronage of every appointment it can, in order to supply the applicants. The power of the Treasury Board is more particularly exercised in what are called the revenue departments, as the Customs, Inland Revenue, and Post Office, and it forms the tribunal of appeal in all disputes with the latter boards. The Home Department has charge of the administration of justice and criminal police, in conjunction with the Lord High Chancellor, the Attorney General of England, and the Lord Advocate of Scot- land. The Lord Lieutenant and Secretary of State for Ireland exer- cise the government of Ireland, under the home authorities. The Foreign and Colonial Departments, the Army or War Department, the Admiralty, and the Ordnance or Artillery and Store Department, are nearly independent, except in their relations with the Treasury. The Board of Control supervises the, Board of Directors in the govern- ment of India, and exercises an independent political influence in that country. The Board of Directors, elected by the proprietors of East India stock, have the patronage of all except the highest Indian appointments, and regulate the internal administration. The Presi- dent of the Council is the minister of education. The Board of Trade has under it the statistical department, a branch for the supervision of railways, one for the supervision of steamboats, the registration of patterns and designs, and the registration of returns of prices of corn. The office of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenue has the care of the national property, and the direction of public works and buildings not under the Admiralty or Ordnance. The crown estate of the 90 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. ancient Duchy of Lancaster, and the Prince of Wales' estate of the Duchy of Cornwall, are made separate departments. The hours of attendance in the various government offices vary. They are to be found in the Post Office Directory, and the pocket- hooks. As each department has its separate office, it is as well to ask for the office required of the messenger at the entrance of the buildings. Applications to the boards, or superior departments or authorities, should he addressed in writing, and the answer has a number attached to it, which should be noted in any subsequent communication. In case of complaint against any subordinate officer of government, application is to be made first to the head of the office, then to the board, and afterwards to the Lords of the Trea- sury. It is not expedient to rely too much on the influence of a member of parliament, as he has, in most cases, too many demands to make for his constituents to be unfettered. The House of Lords forms the supreme court of justice in all causes arising within the parliamentary territories in these islands ; but the jurisdiction is virtually exercised by the Lord High Chancellor and other peers who are lawyers. It is likewise the supreme criminal tribunal for trying kings, queens, ministers, governors- general, and peers and peeresses. Before it were tried Queen Caroline; Warren Hastings, Governor- General of India; and Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. The Privy Council, or rather the judicial committee of it, consisting of such members as have been judges at home or in the colonies, is the supreme court of justice in all civil causes arising within the extra parliamentary territories of Man, Jersey, &c. ; in India and the colonies ; likewise in admiralty causes, causes of the Established Church of England and Ireland, and in patent causes. Before this tribunal, which partly answers to the Supreme Court of the United States, are tried causes arising among the emperors, kings, provinces, and colonies of the English Empire. The peculiar feature of the English government is, that the hier- archy and power of the executive ceases with the political depart- ments, and that the greater part of the local government is virtually in the hands of independent authorities. The central government cannot interfere directly with the government of a county, town, or township ; and in England, Scotland, Ireland, Man, or Jersey, it must act according to the laws or forms of each country. Thus a degree of federal independence not existing in any democracy is to be found throughout the English - Empire, and which is one of the anomalies among the many which will strike the eye of an observer. The Lord-Lieutenant of a county, as of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, and Kent, is named for life by the dominant faction holding the execu- tive, and he presents to the Lord High Chancellor the names of the gentry who are appointed justices of peace for life, and who exercise LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 91 the magistracy and raise and expend the county taxes. The Lord Mayor of London is nominally submitted for the approval of the government; but in all other towns even this form is not gone through, and the municipalities are totally independent of the govern- ment, as are likewise the townships or parishes, and which levy their taxes without reference to the government. The several judges and magistrates are irremovable, and exercise a large amount of patronage. In London are seated the superior Courts of England and Wales; those of equity, or for causes beyond the prescriptions of .aw; the Courts of the Lord High Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, and Vice Chancellors; those of law, whether oral or common law, or statute law, as the Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer; of Admiralty ; of Wills and Ecclesiastical Causes, as the Court of Arches, Prerogative Court, and Consistory Court. The Queens Bench has special jurisdiction in criminal and municipal cases; the Common Pleas, in electoral registration cases, and virtually in commercial cases ; the Exchequer, in Crown revenue cases. The Court of Exchequer Chamber is a court of civil appeal on points arising between the common law courts, and there is a court of criminal appeal. These courts are held by the 15 judges of the three common law courts, who likewise hold the local assize courts for civil and criminal causes. The three common law courts sit separately in the city of London. The assize courts in which metropolitan causes are tried are Croydon and Kingston for Surrey, Maidstone for Kent, and Chelmsford for Essex. Municipal Arrangements. — Looked at from a constitutional and legal point of view, the metropolis consists of the ancient cities of London and Westminster, the borough of South wark, and the modern parliamentary boroughs of Marylebone, Finsbury, the Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, and Greenwich. Of all these, London alone has a municipal government, the jealousy of the administration refusing this right to the whole metropolis and the separate boroughs. London re- turns four members to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom ; each of the other places two. The right of voting is vested in the occupiers of houses, counting-houses, warehouses, or buildings, of the clear yearly value of 10/., who are on the register of voters. To entitle him to be placed on the register, the elector must have occupied his house for twelve months previous to the 31st of July, must be rated to the poor, and have paid before the 20th of July all poor-rates and assessed taxes due before the 5th of January, and have resided within the borough, or within seven miles thereof, for six months before the 31st of July. In London, freemen, being liverymen, who were ad- mitted before the 1st of March, 1831, or who have been admitted since by reason of a title from birth or servitude, and who reside 92 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. within seven miles of the city, and are registered, form the old con- stituency, and are entitled to vote. The registers of voters are formed from lists of the occupiers made out annually hy the overseers of each parish, and of the liverymen of London by the clerks of the companies. The lists of London, with those of the other boroughs in Middlesex, are revised by bar- risters appointed by the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench ; those for Southwark and Lambeth by barristers appointed by the senior judge, who goes the Surrey assizes. These barristers hold courts in September or October every year, to expunge the names of those citizens who on technical grounds have been objected to, and insert the names of those who have been improperly omitted, and who claim a right to vote ; and from their decision an appeal lies to the Court of Common Pleas. There are several local courts for the administration of civil and criminal justice in the city of London and its neighbourhood. The civil courts within the city are the lord mayor's court and the sheriffs' court. The criminal courts are the Central Criminal Court, the Guildhall sessions, and the police courts. In the neighbourhood of London the local civil courts are the different county courts ; and the criminal courts are the Westminster and Middlesex, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Kent, Essex, and Surrey sessions, and the police courts. The Mayor's Court, is held at Guildhall, nominally before the lord mayor and aldermen, but really before the recorder. It is a court of law and equity, and has jurisdiction over all personal and mixed actions arising within the city. Its principal business is in the customary proceeding of foreign attachment. If an action is com- menced in the mayor's court for a sum of money, and the officer returns that the defendant cannot be summoned, and the plaintiff surmises that another person within the city is indebted to the defendant, he has process against the third person, called the garnishee, to warn him to come in and answer whether he be indebted in the manner alleged. If he comes and does not deny the debt, it shall be attached in his hands, and after four defaults recorded on the part of the defendant, the garnishee shall find new surety to the plaintiff for the debt, and judgment shall be that the plaintiff shall have judgment against him, and he shall be quit against the other, after execution sued out by the plaintiff. By this custom, if a creditor discovers that a person within the city of London has any money or goods belonging to his debtor in his hands, he can attach the money or goods by proceeding in the mayor's court. He has to find sureties to restore the money or goods in the event of the defendant appearing within a year and a day and disproving the debt. LONDON— MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 03 Each of the sheriffs of London has a court, which is held near Guildhall "before a judge appointed by him, and which has jurisdic- tion over all personal actions arising in the city. These courts also have a general summary jurisdiction in personal actions, when the debt or damage claimed does not exceed 20/., if any one of the defendants dwells or carries on his business in the city, or has dwelt or carried on his business there within six months before the action is commenced, or if the cause of action has arisen in London. The Central Criminal Court is held at the Old Bailey. The lord mayor, the lord chancellor, all the judges of the courts at West- minster, the judge of the admiralty, the dean of the arches, the alder- men, the recorder, the common Serjeant, the judge of the sheriffs' court or city commissioner, and any other persons whom the crown may appoint, are judges of this court. In it may be tried any crime committed in London or Middlesex, and in defined parts of the counties of Essex, Kent, and Surrey, surrounding the metropolis. It is held once a month, and two or three of the judges of the superior courts attend in rotation and preside at the trial of the graver charges. The other criminals are disposed of, in separate sittings, by the recorder, common Serjeant, and city commissioner. The London sessions are held eight times in the year before the lord mayor, aldermen, and recorder, or any four of them, and have jurisdiction over minor misdemeanors and poor-law appeals. Of police courts there are two in the city of London, one held at the Mansion House, before the lord mayor, and the other at the Guildhall, before one of the aldermen ; at these places criminals are examined on their first apprehension, to ascertain whether there is a sufficient charge against them to put them on their trial, and whether they ought to be imprisoned or admitted to bail, and minor offences and nuisances are dealt with in a summary way. There are several small debts' courts, now named County Courts, in the metropolis : viz., the "Whitechapel County Court of Middle- sex, held at Osborn Street, Whitechapel ; the Shoreditch County Court, No. 12, Charles Square, Hoxton ; the Bow County Court, at Bow ; the Clerkenwell County Court, at Duncan Terrace, City Road; the Bloomsbury County Court, at Portland Road, Regent's Park ; the Brompton County Court, at Whitehead's Grove, Chel- sea ; the Marylebone County Court, at the New Road, opposite Lisson Grove; the Westminster County Court, at No. 83, St. Mar- tins Lane ; the Southwark County Court, at Swan Street, Newing- ton ; and the Lambeth County Court, at Denmark Hill, Camberwell. These courts hold a summary jurisdiction over debts and demands not exceeding 20/.; actions which involve the title to land, tolls, fairs, markets, or franchises, or the validity or construction of a will or settlement, or malicious prosecution, libel, slander, criminal conversa- tion, seduction, or breach of marriage promise, are excepted from 94 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. their jurisdiction, and also from the small debts' jurisdiction of the sheriffs' court in London. They also have power to give possession of houses or lands where the tenancy has expired, if the rent or value does not exceed 50/. a year, unless by joint consent. Under an Act passed in 1850, the County Courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the superior courts in debts and demands not exceeding 501. The Daily News gives on Monday a list of the causes before each County Court. The judges are barristers appointed by the crown. The South wark sessions are held before the lord mayor, the alder- men who have passed the chair, and the recorder, four times a year. The Middlesex and other sessions are held for their respective jurisdictions before justices of the peace appointed by the crown, within Middlesex, Westminster, the Tower Hamlets, Kent, Essex, and Surrey, respectively. They transact the same description of business as the London sessions ; all the more serious offences being tried at the Central Criminal Court. There are eleven metropolitan police courts : — Bow Street Police Court, at Bow Street, Covent Garden; the Westminster Police Court, at Vincent Square ; the Great Marlborough Street Police Court ; the Clerkenwell Police Court, at Bagnigge Wells Road ; the Worship Street Police Court; the Lambeth Police Court, at Kennington Lane; the Marylebone Police Court; the South wark Police Court; the Thames Police Court, at Arbour Square, Stepney; the Greenwich Police Court; the Woolwich Police Court; the Hammersmith Police Court; and the Wandsworth Police Court. At Bow Street there are three magistrates; at each of the others, with the exception of the Greenwich, Woolwich, Hammersmith, and Wandsworth Police Courts, there are two; and at Greenwich and Woolwich there are two to the two courts ; and so at Hammersmith and Wandsworth. These magistrates are appointed by the crown, and are selected from barristers. They have power not only to examine and commit offenders for trial or admit them to bail, if their offences are bailable, but also to punish sum- marily by fine and imprisonment many minor offences, such as assaults, obstructions of the public thoroughfares; also to order search for stolen goods, and to order the restoration of goods stolen or unlawfully ob- tained, to settle disputes as to the w r ages of bargemen and labourers who work on the Thames or the adjacent wharfs, to order compensa- tion for wilful damage done by tenants, to grant relief on wTongful seizures for rent, if a house or lodging is held by w r eek or month, or at a rent not exceeding 15/. a year, to order the restoration of goods not exceeding the value of 15/., to order a house which is in a filthy and unwholesome state to be cleansed ; to interfere in all complaints against cabmen, omnibus drivers, publicans, and policemen. The police are a body of men appointed to preserve order and ap- prehend offenders. For the district surrounding the city of London, and over which the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police courts ex- LONDON MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 95 tend, they act under the direction and general superintendence of two commissioners appointed "by the crown. Their number is fixed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The Commissioners of Police have power to suppress illegal fairs, unlicensed theatres, places used for righting or baiting lions, bears, badgers, cocks, dogs, or other animals, gaming houses, to regulate the route and conduct of the drivers of carriages and cattle during the hours of Divine Service and public processions. Each policeman is sworn to act as a constable for preserving the peace, and preventing robberies and other felonies, and apprehending offenders against the peace. By the general law of the land they may arrest, of their own authority and without warrant, any person who has been guilty of treason or felony, or whom they have good reason to suspect to be guilty of such crime, and carry him before a magistrate, to be examined and committed for trial ; they may also arrest any persons they see fighting or committing an assault, and take them before a magistrate, in order that they may find surety to keep the peace. Their power to arrest such persons is not for the purpose of punishment, but for the preservation of the peace, and therefore they can only take them whilst they are fighting. They have no power to arrest after the quarrel is over. If a person has been guilty of a misdemeanor, or offence less than a felony, he must either be indicted, or a complaint should be made to a magistrate, and a warrant obtained under which he may be arrested. A policeman may also arrest without warrant any person whom he sees committing certain specific acts of annoyance in a public thoroughfare. The following is a catalogue : — Exposing for sale, feeding, or foddering a horse, showing a caravan, shoeing a horse, breaking a horse, or repairing a carriage, to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers ; turning loose a horse ; suffering to be at large an unmuzzled ferocious dog ; setting on a dog to attack, worry, or put in fear any person, horse, or animal ; causing mischief to be done by cattle, by negligence or ill usage in driving ; wantonly pelt- ing, driving, or hunting cattle, by a person not employed to drive thern ; riding on any part of a cart, or on the horse drawing the same, without holding the reins by the person who has the care thereof, or if such person is at such a distance from the cart that he has not a complete control over the horse ; riding or driving furiously, so as to endanger the life or limb of any person, or to the common danger of passengers; causing a cart, public carriage, sledge, truck, or barrow, to stand longer than necessary for taking up or setting down passengers ; leading or driving a horse or carriage upon the footway; fastening a horse so that it stand across a footway; rolling or carrying a cask, tub, hoop or wheel, ladder, plank, snowboard or placard, upon a footway ; wilfully disregarding the orders of the Commissioners of Police regulating the route of carriages during 06 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. Divine Service, or for preventing obstructions during public proces- sions ; posting a bill against a wall, writing upon, defacing, or marking a wall, without the consent of the proprietor, or wilfully damaging any part of a building, wall, fence, or pale, or any fixture or appendage thereunto, or any tree, shrub, or seat in any public walk or garden ; a prostitute or nightwalker loitering or being in any thoroughfare or public place for the purpose of prostitution or solicitation, to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers ; selling, distributing, or exhibiting to public view any profane, in- decent, or obscene book, paper, print, drawing, painting, or repre- sentation, or singing any profane, indecent, or obscene song or ballad, or writing or drawing any indecent or obscene word, figure, or representation, or using any profane, indecent, or obscene language, to the annoyance of the inhabitants ; using any threaten- ing, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour, with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or whereby a breach of the peace may be occasioned ; blowing a horn, or using a noisy instrument, for the purpose of calling persons together, or of announcing a show or entertainment, or of hawking, selling, or collecting any article, or obtaining money or alms ; wantonly discharging a firearm, throwing a stone to the danger of any person, making a bonfire, or throwing or setting fire to a firework ; wilfully and wantonly disturbing any inhabitant by pulling or ringing a door-bell, or knocking at a door without lawful excuse, or wilfully and unlawfully extinguishing the light of a lamp ; flying a kite, or playing a game to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers, or making or using a slide upon ice or snow to the common danger of passengers. Situations of the Metropolitan Police Stations, where information of Robberies, fyc, maybe given, and the assistance of Police Constables obtained when their services are required. o a K.S Local Name of Division. POLICE STATIONS. A Whitehall Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall ; 2, Gardener's Lane, King Street, Westminster. Rochester Row, Vincent Square; Robert's Buildings, Ebury Square, Pimlico. Little Vine Street, Piccadilly. Mary-le-Bone Lane; 5, Little Harcourt Street ; Hermitage Street, Paddington. Clarke's Buildings, St. Giles's ; Hunter Street, Brunswick B C D E Westminster St. James's St. Mary-le-Bone. Holborn F Covent Garden... Finsbury Square. 34, Bow Street. Bagnigge Wells Road, Clerkenwell; Featherstone Street, St, Luke's. LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 97 Situations of the Metropolitan Police Stations {continued). Local Name of Division. POLICE STATIONS. Whitechapel. Stepney .... Lambeth . South wark Islington . Camber well , Greenwich Hampstead Kensington . "Wandsworth TD River Thames Chapel Yard, Spital Square ; Denmark Street^ St. George's, East. Middlesex. — Mile End Road; Bromley, Devon's Lane; Wapping, Green Bank ; Shad well, King David's Lane ; Stepney, Arbour Square ; Poplar, Newby Place. Essex. — Plaistow; Great Ilford; "Wanstead; Ley tonstone Road; Woodford; Loughton; Dagenham; Barking; East Ham; West Ham ; Chadwell Heath ; Beacontree Heath. Tower Street, Waterloo Road; Kennington Lane; High Street, near the Old Church ; Chris tchurch, near the Old Church. Stone's End, Southwark; Paradise Street, Rotherhithe, near Mill Pond Bridge. Middlesex. — Kingsland, High Street; Hackney, Church Street; Hoxton, Robert Street; Islington, Islington Green; Enfield Highway, Green Street; Stoke New- ington, Lordship Road; Tottenham, near Scotland Green; Hornsey ; Edmonton ; Enfield. Herts. — Cheshunt. Essex. — Walthamstow; Waltham Abbey. Surrey. — Walworth, Park House, Lock's Fields ; Camber- well Green ; Brixton Road ; Mitcham ; Croydon, George Street; Streatham; Thornton Heath; Sutton; Adding- ton ; Carshalton. Kent.— Greenwich, Blackheath Road ; Woolwich, William Street ; Lea Road ; Lewisham, Rushey Green ; Sidcup ; Bexley Heath; Bromley; Farnborough; Beckenham; Shooter's Hill; H. M. Dock Yard, Deptford; H. M. Vic- tualling Yard, Deptford ; H. M. Dock Yard, Woolwich ; H. M. Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Middlesex. — Highgate, High Street; Willesden, Stone Bridge; Edge ware Road, 8 milestone; Regent's Park, 52, Albany Street ; Kentish Town, Junction Place ; Hampstead, 1, Heath Street; Somers Town, Phcenix Street ; St. John's Wood, 52, Salisbury Street, Portman Market ; Chipping Barnet, High Street ; Bushey, High Street; South Minims; Hendon ; Finchley. Middlesex. — Kensington, Church Court; Hammersmith, Brook Green; Brentford; Hanwell; Hillingdon and Uxbridge; Hounslow; Staines; Harrow; Ealing; Acton; Harefield ; Harlington : Stanwell. Middlesex. — Hampton; Sunbury; Chelsea, Milman's Row. Surrey Kingston, London Road; Epsom; Wandsworth; The Plain; Clapham Common; Richmond, Prince's Street ; Mortlake, High Street: Lower Tooting, Salvador; Mer- ton; Barnes, Priest Bridge. Blackwall; the Ship " Investigator," lying off Strand Lane, Wapping. 98 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. In the city the police are under the control of a commissioner, appointed by the common council, with the approval of the crown ; and the number of constables is fixed by the mayor, aldermen, and common council. They have the same powers in the city as the metropolitan police have within their district. The fire police are noticed under the head of Insurance. Situations of the City Police Stations, First district . . . . . . Moor Lane. Second district Third district . Fourth district Fifth district . . Sixth district . Chief office, 26, Old Jewry, Smithfield. 119, Fleet Street. Grarlick Lane. 57, Fenchurch Street. Bishopsgate Street. Public-houses, that is, places in which wines and spirits are sold by retail, and the keepers of them, are licensed annually by the justices of the peace of the district in which they are situate. The same authority grants licences to places for the public amusements of music and dancing. Beer may be sold by retail under a licence granted by the Commissioners of Excise, and in this respect there is a distinction, some beersellers being licensed to sell beer to be drunk on the premises, and others licensed to sell beer which must not be drunk on the premises. To obtain the first the applicant must pay the tax for the licence, and obtain a certificate of good character, signed by six rated inhabitants of the parish, and certified by one of the overseers. To obtain the other he has only to pay the tax. Omnibuses, hackney-coaches, and cabs, are under the control of the commissioners of police, who grant licences and tickets to omnibuses, hackney-coaches, cabs, their drivers and conductors, and the attendants at the cab-stands, called watermen. Every car- riage and man has a number, which it is compulsory to exhibit con- spicuously. The number of omnibuses running daily is said to be 3000, em- ploying 30,000 horses. It is reckoned they carry persons to the extent of 300,000,000 of times. The buildings of London and its vicinity are under the supervision of three architects, called Official Eeferees, and others called District Surveyors. No new building, or party wall, can be erected without informing the district surveyor, who superintends the building, and sees that the walls are of proper thickness and construction. He is also bound to report buildings which are ruinous and dangerous to passengers, and the mayor and aldermen in London, and the over- LONDON POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. 99 seers of the parish elsewhere, may pull it down if the owner neglects to do so. The sewers in London are kept in order by commissioners of sewers, appointed by the corporation. Those in the surrounding districts by commissioners of sewers, empowered by a commission from the crown. The powers and duties of each set of commis- sioners are defined by acts of parliament. They have authority to compel the proper drainage of houses. The commissioners of sewers in London repair the streets. In the other parts of the metropolis this is done by commissioners, or sur- veyors, chosen by the parishioners. As there is no municipal authority for the whole metropolis, or the several portions of it, except the city of London, the functions else- where exercised by the inhabitants or their representatives are mostly usurped by boards of commissioners appointed by the government. Thus the police is under the commissioners of police ; sewers, under the commissioners of sewers : sanitarv arrangements and cemeteries, under the board of health ; turnpike roads, under the commissioners of roads ; public buildings and improvements, under the board of works. The poor law, and management of the paving, cleansing, and lighting, are still in the hands of the inhabitants of the parishes, or unions of parishes, or districts of them, and their representatives. The most important of these assemblies are the vestries of Marv- lebone and St. Pancras, which have among their members peers and members of parliament. Postal Regulations. — The postal arrangements of London have been so extensively imitated, that they present no difference from those of other capitals, except in their vastness. The centre is the General Post Office, in St. ]V1 artin's-le- Grand, Cheapside, seated on an ancient collegiate establishment, once a sanctuary for murderers and thieves. The branch offices, on a smaller scale, are Lombard Street (the old general post-office) for the city, Charing Cross, Old Caven- dish Street, and Blackman Street, Southwark. In each of the principal thoroughfares, and in everv district at convenient distances, receiving houses are kept by shopkeepers. Their situation is indi- cated by an inscription attached to the nearest gas-lamp. For the metropolitan purposes of the Post Office, London consists of two districts — a circle of three miles around the General Post Office, and all beyond the three-mile circle, which latter is suburban, and has fewer and later deliveries of letters. The receiving houses may be considered as complete for all pur- poses of the visitor as the General Post Office. They all sell postage stamps of 1<^., 2J., 6d., 8c/., and Is., for the prepayment of letters, and they take charge of all letters and newspapers for every part of the world. Only certain district receiving houses grant and pay F 2 100 LONDON — POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, money orders for the remittance of money to any part of the islands. The post-offices do not, as abroad, receive subscriptions for news- papers; that is the business of the newsvender. The receiving houses close earlier than the branch post-offices, and these earlier than the General Post Office ; so that in case of any delay, or the necessity of posting a letter late, the General Post Office is the last resource. The minute and recent details of post-office regulations cannot here be given ; for those we must refer to the Post-Office London Direc- tory, which is a complete guide to the individualities of the world of London, and which should always be resorted to by the stranger for any information. It is to be found in every place of public resort. Letters, if properly prepaid with stamps, can (with the exception of some few foreign places) be dropped into the box of the receiving houses without trouble or inquiry. When once in, the postmaster has no power to deliver them back again on any plea or pretence, as they are under charge of the establishment for delivery to the address. If the letter contains articles of value (not provided for by a money order), it may be registered, when a fee of sixpence is charged, and a receipt is given for it. The address on a letter should be distinct and legible, and with the post-town clearly marked. The stamp is pasted on the right-hand upper corner, for the convenience of obli- teration in the Post Office. To save trouble in making up letters, stamped envelopes can be bought at the receiving houses, and which require no wax or wafers, as they have an adhesive seal. As, notwithstanding all the care of the establishment, robberies of letters containing valuables are occasionally committed by its em- ployees, it is recommended always to register such letters ; but it is far preferable to send a money order, which is only payable to the person in whose name it is given, and who can be identified by the local postmaster. This order, if stolen, is of no good to the thief. There is a money-order office in every market town. Very small amounts may be remitted in postage stamps. Persons should be very particular as to the weight of their letters, as the receiving houses are not supplied with weighing apparatus by the government, and even when weighed by them, the letter is some- times found overweight in the General Post Office, and double postage becomes payable by the receiver of the letter. The English scale be- gins with half an ounce, for which the charge is one penny, and then goes on by ounces, for each of which two-pence is charged. The scale for foreign letters is sometimes a quarter of an ounce. The half ounce will take within an envelope a sheet and a half of quarto-post paper, or three sheets of note paper. In writing a letter, the full address of the sender should be care- fully written within it, for the information of his correspondent, and of the dead-letter office, in case of need. LONDON — POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. 101 Newspapers, that is, stamped publications, go post free all over these islands, most of the colonies, the United States, France, and many countries of Europe. In some cases of foreign dispatch they must he prepaid. Many periodicals publish a stamped edition for transmission by post. Newspapers sent within the three-mile circle are charged one penny. The address, but nothing else, may be written on the newspaper, or on an envelope open at both ends. Any com- munication written on a newspaper is charged with heavy postage. Care should be taken the newspaper is well secured, as it may burst open in the Post Office, and the address be lost. Newspapers may be sent at any time, except for foreign dispatch, when it must be within seven days of publication. Parliamentary reports and documents, and those of the colonial legislatures, may be sent of any weight, and at lower rates of charge. Pamphlets and books may be sent at low rates of charge. All these must be left open, and be without writing on them, other than the address. Small parcels are taken by the Post Office at reduced rates, but it is not wise to send articles which may break, or which stain, as the Post Office will detain them. Prices current, and commercial and shipping lists, are sent at reduced rates, although not stamped as newspapers. Letters sent unstamped or unpaid cause double postage to be levied. Persons coming to reside in London should take care to communi- cate their address precisely to their correspondents, including the number of the house. It should be borne in mind many streets in London have the same name, as King Street, Queen Street, and so forth. If a money order is to be sent, the name of the nearest money order receiving house should be communicated. Strangers, when settled down, can communicate their address to the General Post Office, which will assist in forwarding any ill-directed letters. In case of any overcharge or other mistake, the envelope should be kept and produced at the General Post Office. Applications for letters missing should be made to the Dead-Letter Office, General Post Office. Persons should be careful to send to their correspondents and the Post Office any change of address, as it is not safe to trust to the chance of letters being redirected and forwarded, and such letters are charged one penny. On the delivery of a registered letter the receiver must sign a receipt tendered by the letter carrier. Foreign and ship letters for persons whose residences are not known are announced in a list hung up daily in the hall of the General Post Office. Persons writing their addresses opposite to their names will receive their letters on the following morning. The impressions on the letters are a peculiar shape (according to the country) and number (assigned to each local post-office) for ob- 102 LONDON— BANKING. literating the stamp, an impression, with the date of postage and the name of the post town, and a circular mark of the General Post Office, in red ink, with the word " paid," and the date of delivery. If un- paid the circular mark is on the back in black or red ink. These marks serve to show whether there has been any delay in posting a letter, and should be examined in case of doubt or dispute. It is most desirable a letter carrier should not, on any account, be kept waiting when delivering a letter, as thereby the whole delivery is delayed, and if this were to be done extensively the personal incon- venience would become very great. If a foreign or other unpaid letter is expected, change for payment should be given to the servant beforehand, so as to prevent the postman from being delayed. For the conveyance of parcels within the metropolis there is a joint-stock establishment, called the Parcels' Delivery Company, which has receiving houses in every district. Country parcels must be sent to the offices of the great carriers at the railway stations; the Swan with Two Necks, Gresham Street; Bull and Mouth, St. Martin's-le-Grand ; Spread Eagle, Gracechurch Street ; Golden Cross, Charing Cross ; George and Blue Boar, Hol- born ; Saracens Head, Skinner Street, Snow Hill ; Cross Keys, Wood Street ; Spread Eagle, Regent Circus ; Green Man and Still, Oxford Street ; Peacock, Islington ; White-Horse Cellar, Piccadilly ; White Horse, Fetter Lane; Bolt-in~Tun, Fleet Street; and Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, &c. Full information, as to sending parcels and luggage, is contained in the Post-Office Directory, under the head of Conveyance Directory. Banking — Bank of England. — Banking, after the expulsion of the Jews and the decline of the Lombards, was carried on in London by the goldsmiths as a part of their business during the seventeenth cen- tury, but by the beginning of the last century it had become a distinct business. Its chief seat has been for hundreds of years in Lombard Street, and the settlement of the great medieval money- lenders is further commemorated by the arms of Lombardy being still the ensigns of the pawnbrokers in the form of three golden bezants or balls. The issue of paper-money in London is now restricted to the Bank of England, though formerly goldsmith's notes circulated. Some of the banks, however, issue for the Continent circular letters of credit, and many of the bankers carry on a large business as agents in London for the country banks, issuing paper-money. The ordinary banking bnsiness of taking care of money and lending it out is carried on by the Bank of England, the private bankers, and the joint-stock banks. Elsewhere in this island, as in many countries, banking is in the hands of joint-stock companies, but until a late date the Bank of England was allowed a monopoly in London against the establishment of any banking company, and thereby virtually a mono- LONDON—BANKING, 1 03 poly was given to private banking. The private bankers still have the chief business, and nowhere else in the world will be found so many and such powerful firms, some of which date from the 17th century, and were sufferers by the confiscation of their property in what was called the closing of the exchequer in the Tower by Charles II. Stone, Martin, and Stone claim to be the successors of Sir Thomas Gresham, the great capitalist of Elizabeth's day. Child's dates from 1663, Hoare's from 1680, and Snow's from 1685. Ten others (Courts', Glyn's, Drummond's, Barclay's, Fuller's, Gosling's, Hankey's, Robarts', Smith's, and Willis's) were in existence be- fore 1765. These bankers of London have given members to the peers, and have always had many members in the other House, but a characteristic not least honourable is their large contributions to the charities of the metropolis. The banks are distributed into three classes, the City, the West End, and the Smithfield banks. The City banks carry on all the business of banking, are agents for the country banks, and discount bills ; the West End are chiefly limited to the deposit of money ; and the Smithfield banks carry on the transactions of the farmers, cattle dealers and butchers on market day. It may be said that the great end of London banking is to econo- mise coin by using it as little as possible. Cheques or drafts on the banks are given in payment, and here is brought into play a most interesting and it may be said, a wonderful institution in the shape of the Clearing House. This is an office in Lombard Street, belonging to private banks, and from which they exclude the joint-stock banks. To evade the operations of the stamp duties a cheque is always drawn to A. B. " or bearer," whereby a hazard is incurred, as if stolen or picked up " the bearer," whoever he may be, can demand payment. The ingenuity of the trader here steps in to baffle the government. As most traders have bankers, and thieves have not, a cheque is what is called " crossed " that is to say, the name of the banker of the payee is written " a-cross " it, or if this is not known two lines are drawn across it with the words " & Co.," leaving the payee to fill in a banker's name. Thus the cheque must be presented through a banker. Now, suppose that a cheque on Smith, Payne and Co., is given to a customer of Robarts, Curtis and Co., these latter do not send to Smith's house and get money for it, but they send it to the clearing house. There each banker has a desk, and at fixed times in the day he sends in to each of the other bankers a list of all cheques payable, receiving a like list in return. Thus Smith's and Robarts' have only to settle the balance of their respective lists, but even here the matter does not rest, for, although Robarts' may be indebted on the balance to Smith's, yet as Robarts' may have more than the balance owing from (say) Attwood's a general clearing takes place through the superintendent of the clearing house, and the final settlement of a day's transactions to the amount of millions is com- 104< LONDON— -BANKING. monly effected by the payment in cash of a few pounds, and of a bundle of notes. The day's transactions often amount to 5,000,000/., and 3 A per cent, is the average amount of bank notes used. The banker is thus able to keep a smaller stock of bank notes, that is a smaller balance, and thereby to gain interest. Many of the brokers and mercantile firms likewise benefit, who have on particular days to pay and receive large amounts in checks, as both payments and receipts meet at the same time, and the balance, which was in their banker's hands on the night before, remains undisturbed. The practice of clearing is said to be above a century old ; the bankers employing clerks, named " clearers," who used to settle their accounts on the top of a post, or upon one another's backs in Lom- bard Street, and very often resorted to one banking house which had a large recess in the window, which they found very convenient ; but the house in question found just the opposite, and their noise made such a hindrance to business that, as it is said, they were often sum- marily turned out. This led to a house being taken in 1810, and the organization of a system admirable in its simple arrangements, and which has since been adopted by the railway companies. Printed forms are used throughout, those of debtors being in red, and those of creditors in black. By the rapid passage of cheques the labour of the banker is econo- mised, but by the system of bill broking his balances are pared down. The customer keeps with the banker such a steady balance as is con- sidered to be enough to remunerate him for the trouble of keeping the account, but moneys beyond this balance are lent at short dates on the Stock Exchange, or to bill brokers. The Stock Exchange is greatly fed by these loans, which are made from fixed period to fixed period called " account days," on the deposit of English or foreign stock, bonds, or shares. At the "account day" the money may either be drawn in or " continued " till the next " account day/ These " account days," which are likewise the times for settling other transactions on the Stock Exchange, give a great deal of work to the clearing house, and, without the latter establishment, could with difficulty be got through. Those who want their money lent out for a long fixed date, or a very short date as a few days, or an uncertain time, that is upon demand or " call," deposit it with a bill broker, who gives them a parcel of first-rate bills. Bill broking, in which the great house of Gurney in Lombard Street have the pre-eminence, it will be seen is only a variety of banking. The West End bankers and country bankers, as well as private individuals, invest their spare funds with the bill broker, to whom the first-class mer- chant applies for discount, and it is the bill broker who regulates the rate of interest for the whole mercantile world. Although the Bank of England publishes from time to time a notice of the rate at which it lends money at interest, yet this rate is higher than that of the LONDON — BANKING. 105 bill broker for first-class bills, and is regulated by tbe competition of the bill broker. As the banks in the agricultural districts send to the bill broker to deposit money for which they have little demand, so the banks in the manufacturing districts send to him bills. These are " rediscounted " at a lower rate than that charged to the manfacturer, and thereby the country banks make a profit. Besides the clearing house which they have in common, the bankers employ a solicitor and detective police for the prosecution of those who embezzle from them or forge upon them. Many of the private bankers are connected with brewing firms, and through them banking is extended to the lower classes. The pub- licans are the treasurers of many of the mechanics, and from the publican the brewer's clerk collects whatever moneys he has in hand, and pays it in to the bankers. By this means the hoarding of money in London is very much limited. A peculiar feature of a London bank is the " strong room," that is a fire-proof vault well secured, in which the property of the customers can be kept. Here, at the West End bankers, are the plate chests of the prince piled up during absence from town or until wanted for a great banquet, but the " strong-room" of a city bank is a scene of business. Not only are there the chests of deeds and securities be- longing to the great capitalist, but the stock-in-trade of the smaller capitalist. Each morning a number of members of the Stock Ex- change and of Lloyd's pour into the city to pursue their avocations. They have neither office nor clerk, and yet they carry on large trans- actions. At the beginning of business the small tin-box with cash and securities is carried off to the scene of business and again care- fully returned in the evening, while the papers and books are locked up in a small drawer, which is rented. Any one can set up a private bank without capital if he can get any one to trust him, but the joint-stock bank affords the guarantee of a large paid-up capital and of a list of shareholders who are fur- ther responsible to the full extent of their fortunes for any loss sus- tained by their customers. The joint-stock banks have only been established in consequence of the alteration of the law within the last twenty years, but they are constantly advancing. Whereas the private banks pay no interest on deposits, several of the joint- stock banks do allow a small interest. There is little that is peculiar in the joint-stock banks apart from their organization. They have large and fine buildings, and a staff of well-trained officers. The exertions of Mr. Gilbart and of the late Mr. Jopling, the founders of the joint-stock bank system, have been the means of promoting the technical study of banking and the sciences connected with it, and of maintaining a useful periodical called the Bankers Magazine, besides occasionally supporting other periodicals, and forming a banking literature. The London and Westminster is a good example of a f 3 106 LONDON— BANKING. joint-stock bank. Most of the joint-stock banks have branches in several parts of the metropolis. The Irish and colonial joint-stock banks have their head offices in London, but the latter are not allowed by their charters to carry on independent business here. These establishments absorb a large amount of capital, and the shareholders are commonly protected by charter against further liability. There are very large establishments, which elsewhere are under- stood as banks, which here stand in an anomalous character. A stranger thinks of Messrs. Rothschild as among the first bankers, a Londoner never thinks of them as such. The Messrs. Rothschild have their great establishment in a large building in St. Swithin's Lane. Here they pay the dividends of the several foreign loans for which they are contractors, and carry on their business in the remit- tance of money to the continent. The Messrs. Baring carry on a like business for the New World, though they likewise carry on more extensive mercantile transactions. Messrs. Ricardo (Spanish) ; Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt ; and King (Brazilian) are among the other agents of foreign states. The Portuguese and Mexican governments have offices of their own, called Financial Agencies, for the transaction of their business. Many of the greatest capitalists, whose reputation is universal and whose names are to be found to whole loans, as the Baron de Goldsmid, Mr. John Attwood, and Sir Moses Montefiore, have no offices. The savings banks receive the savings of the small tradesmen and middle classes, and these institutions have a greater development in London than in any part of the country. The difference between the government rate of interest and that allowed to the depositors affords liberal salaries to the actuaries and the clerks, and as the banks are few, and the deposits large, they have generally good buildings. The London Provident Institution, Bloomfield Street, Moorfields, is a very good example of these establishments. There are about thirty of these banks in London, with 4,000,000/. of deposits. Considerable business is likewise done by them in the sale of government annuities. A penny bank was established in 1849 for the deposit of still smaller savings. The banks in London do not provide, accommodation for the small shopkeepers, any more than they do for the working classes ; hence not only savings banks, but loan societies and pawnbroking, are found in the metropolis, carrying on operations on a great scale. Loan societies are, of late years, regulated by an act of parliament. They are commonly formed by small tradesmen, and held in public houses, and lend sums of from \L upwards, on the security of two or more persons besides the borrower, receiving back the advance in weekly or monthly instalments. They make a charge for the book of conditions, and for inquiries into the character of borrower and LONDON — BANKING. 1 07 securities. In 1840 thirty-nine loan societies were returned to parliament, which granted 11,860 loans; but these are only a small part of the whole. There are a few charities which lend money without interest, or on low terms, but in a town so great it is found the fraudulent reap more benefit from such institutions than the deserving. Pawnbroking is not authorized to be carried on by large bodies, and therefore it is a private trade, there being no large Monte de Piete. The pawnbrokers pay a yearly stamp duty for a licence, and their rates of interest are regulated by act of parliament. Among the very poorest classes the pawnbroker is competed with by the dolly- shopkeeper, who, under a sham sale, lends a few pence, giving back the articles at a higher price. There are no statistics of this trade. The tallyman sells goods of all kinds to the working classes, at their own houses, sending an agent weekly to receive payment by instalments, which constitute a large price. Although legitimate accommodation is afforded by the tally system, yet in most cases the means of the working classes are absorbed by the tallyman, the pawnbroker, and the publican. A new dress or piece of furniture is bought of the tallyman ; before it is fully paid for it is pledged to the pawnbroker, and another account opened with the tallyman. The Bank of England, in Threadneedle Street, is the great mone- tary institution of the country. Like so many other establishments in England, although performing public functions, it is not under government control. The scheme for it was projected by Mr. Wm. Paterson, and in 1694 William III. granted a charter. From that time it has been in operation as the government bank, and has at length acquired a monopoly, now spreading over the country, of the issue of paper money in the metropolis. The whole capital, origin- ally 1,200,000/., and now 14,553,000/., has been lent to the govern- ment, and is in their hands. The charter is always granted by par- liament for a short term only as a lease liable to be resumed, or given with new conditions, as the last time in 1844. Although the private hanking transactions are on a large scale, yet they are subsi- diary to the others' transactions, and the bankers and brokers success- fully compete. The Bank, at times, discounts largely, but its own exigencies and those of the government have often prevented it from doing justice to commercial interests. The rate of interest first charged was from 4^ to 6 per cent. ; but this was reduced, and has seldom gone beyond 5 per cent., except in August, 1847, when it was, for a short time, raised to 7 per cent. The Bank, from time to time, gives notice of the rates and dates at which it will lend money on funded securities and on bills, but it no longer regulates the money market. The Bank has been more than once in difficulties, as in war time the government drains the bullion from it, and in times of bad harvest bullion goes abroad to pay for the sudden 108 LONDON — BANKING, import of foreign corn. In 1696, it suspended payments of its notes, which were quoted at 14 discount; in 1797, the government, by the Bank Restriction Act, forbade it from paying its notes in gold, and this restriction was kept on until 1819 (Peel's Bill) ; in 1 826, the government authorized it to issue temporarily 1/. notes to meet the panic; and in 1847, to exceed its issues, but this authority was not acted upon. The notes of the Bank were originally for large, and sometimes irre- gular amounts, paid by instalments; but in 1759 the limit, which had been 20/., was brought down to 10/., and in 1793 to 5/. From 1797 one-pound notes were constantly issued till Peel's Bill. Since that time the lowest notes are for 5/. From the issue of notes, allowances for paying the interest on the national debt, profits on bullion, and ordinary banking sources, the Bank derives its income. In 1695, the dividend was 9 per cent. ; but this, in the last century, was seldom more than 5 per cent. ; but from the time of the French war it has risen, and is now kept at 7 per cent., with occasional bonuses. To uphold this dividend the Bank has always a large reserve called the Rest. The stockholders choose the court, which consists of a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty-four directors, the governor holding 4000/. stock, the deputy-governor 3000/., and the directors 2000/. Until very lately the direction had fallen into much disrepute, for private bankers being held ineligible, and great capitalists not caring for the trouble and responsibility, it was filled. up by a clique of jobbers, who recommended a house list of candi- dates. These men had profited by the political and other circum- stances during the war, to raise themselves prominently into notice, living at a high rate, and, as it turned out, living upon the public. They were called " lives and fortunes' men," because to uphold the Pitt administration they had got up a memorial pledging their lives and fortunes in its support, their fortunes being then very problema- tical, and a subject of derision to men of substance. This clique was severely shaken in 1825; but of late years the failures of governors and deputy-governors, paying only half-a-crown in the pound, be- came so numerous as to induce the holders of Bank Stock to purge the direction. This court of directors assembles in the Bank Parlour, and has the undisturbed management of the affairs of the corporation, as it is a rule with the proprietors in their quarterly courts not to discuss any details of the business. The governor and the deputy- governor carry on the negotiations with the First Lord of the Trea- sury, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The court receive about 8000/. yearly, and have under them a staff of a thousand officers, clerks, porters, and messengers. The establishment is liberally remunerated, with a regular system of promotion, a superannuation fund, guarantee fund, and library, so that the appointment of a bank clerk, if not brilliant, is solid. In war time a battalion of volunteers was formed from the establishment, and armed from the armoury LONDON — BANKING. • 109 within the walls, raid in times of civil commotion the staff is liable to be called on for the defence of the Bank. In the daytime there is no guard, but every evening an officer and party of soldiers is marched in from the garrison of the Tower for the night service. The trans- actions of the Bank are now chiefly regulated by the last charter act (Sir Robert Peel's, 7 and 8 Victoria, chapter 32). This provides that the note issuing and banking functions of the Bank shall be divided. The Bank is allowed to issue notes, first upon the security of the government debt, that is, 14,500,000/., and further, upon any amount of bullion in its vaults; the circulation, therefore, rises and falls with the quantity of bullion in the Bank. This circulation has now fallen as low as 20,000,000/., while the amount of bullion in the Bank has nearly reached 17,000,000/., but the bullion has of late years fluctuated below 5,000,000/. In the offices gold is given for notes and notes for gold. On presenting a note in the cashier's office the name and address must be written on the top ; it is then examined by one clerk and is paid by another. The business of the Bank being large the forms are more complicated than in smaller establishments. The banking consists first of the payment of the interest on 700,000,000/. of the national debt, for which it is allowed a small sum, but virtually the government business is done in con- sideration of the monopoly of the note circulation. Here registers are kept of the sales and purchase of stock, of the names of the holders, and the half-yearly dividends are paid to those who, in popular phrase, put their money in the Bank. The offices for this purpose take up a large space in the Bank. The Bank likewise advances money to the government on exchequer bills, or treasury bills, or bonds, in anticipation of the receipts of taxes, or to meet any sudden demands. By making advances to capitalists on stock and exchequer bills it keeps up the value of the public funds as a security. The Bank receives and pays money for all the public departments, and the public balance is sometimes large before the time for paying the dividends. It keeps accounts for private individuals, including all the London bankers, and the balances are large after the time for paying the dividends, as they are then transferred from the public account to the private. Its advances on securities and bills fluctuate like the balances, in various proportions of 25,000,000/. The amount of coin kept in the banking department is very small, as the reserve is kept in notes. On the Bank is virtually reposed the responsibility of keeping up the chief stock of bullion in the country, and this it effects by large purchases of bullion. Most of the bullion from California, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Russia, is at once carried to the Bank vaults, and the Bank makes advances on it, or buys it. If needful it is sent to the Mint to be coined, the Mint not taking any charge or seniorage. The transactions in bullion leave the Bank a profit. ] 1 LONDON — ASSURANCE. The Bank has branches at Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, Leicester, Swansea, Bristol, Plymouth, and Norwich. The Bank business was first carried on at Grocers' Hall, but in 1732 the present building was begun, and it has been since extended to embrace the greater part of the parish of St. Christopher de-Stocks, the churchyard of which forms an inner court. The ancient stream of Walbrook runs under it, and the foundation is there carried on piles and counter arches. The business of Assurance is the means in London of maintaining several large corporations, the buildings for which are among the architectural ornaments of the metropolis. Life assurance was one of the first branches which flourished, and it received its great development as a convenient means of gambling. Lives were picked out, on which both parties could speculate, the one on the prospect of their duration, the other on that of their early falling in. Private assurance offices flourished in the seven- teenth century, as betting offices do now ; and at length legislation was directed to the suppression of the evil, but, as most commonly happens, to the punishment of legitimate business likewise. It is in this legislation we find the cause of the present trammels on life assurance. In 1698, a fund was formed in Mercers' Hall for grant- ing annuities to clergymen's widows ; but this fell to the ground. In 1706, the Amicable Society was incorporated by Queen Anne for life assurance, and still exists. The arrangements of this corpora- tion are peculiar and antiquated. In the last century and the present many assurance companies have been formed, and now a great num- ber exist, conducting their business so as to offer various advantages. Those which are proprietary offer the guarantee of a paid-up capital, and can conduct some classes of business on low terms. Those which are mutual divide among the assurers the whole profits, and therefore secure to them the full value of their contributions. The Equitable is the most remarkable of these latter, and is one of the most wealthy corporations of the world, having millions accumulated and invested. Every seven years an apportionment is made among the assurers of the accumulations. Some companies unite partially the proprietary and mutual principles ; some, which offer a commission for the introduction of business, enlist the co-operation of particular professions, in some cases by contributing to a professional charitable fund. There are companies for lawyers, medical men, architects and builders, officers, licensed victuallers, farmers, churchmen, dis- senters, Roman catholics, freemasons, and temperance men. These companies undertake the granting of sums of money at death, or of annuities during life. They purchase reversions. Many carry on a lucrative business by lending money on security, taking a life policy as the bonus for the transaction. Large sums are yearly accumu- LONDON — ASSURANCE. Ill lated by these companies, which have now become the great money- lenders, and besides their investments in the funds, they are large holders of railway debentures, and extensive mortgagees of the estates of our great aristocracy, particularly in Ireland. They share, with the Bank of England, in loans to corporations and public bodies, and all large money transactions. Within the last two or three years companies have been formed for the special risks of sudden death and railway accidents, calcu- lating rather upon the public alarm than upon the extent of the risk. The benefit societies are the assurance companies of the working classes, and are protected from litigation by special enactments. There are assurance companies formed to profit by the privileges thus con- ferred. Most of the benefit societies are unfortunately not enrolled under the act, and there is, therefore, no security for their adminis- tration, while it very seldom happens that the scale of contributions is high enough to secure the permanency of the fund. The Odd- fellows, and other pseudo-secret societies, which are the favourites of the working classes, are unenrolled, and dissipate part of the con- tributions in public-house dissipation and in mummery. The burial and sick clubs, which are enrolled, generally succumb under the publican, the undertaker, and the trade politician, who, as secretary or treasurer, embezzles the funds. In connection with the assurance companies a distinct profession has been formed of actuaries, or those employed in the scientific calculations of the risks, and they have an institute of actuaries. Fire assurance, it might have been thought, would have been early provided for, and that it would be met by a common fund, as else- where ; but it was not till the beginning of the last century that it was fully organized, and then as a business carried on by great cor- porations. The Royal Exchange Assurance was incorporated in 1720, and likewise takes life and sea risks. The business of fire assurance is burthened with a very heavy stamp-duty, for whereas the charge for a single risk is Is., or Is. 6d. per cent., the duty is 3s. per cent., constituting a tax on those of provident habits. Farming stock, of late years, has been exempted from duty. The business is carried on chiefly by a few large London corporations, and by pro- vincial district corporations, such as the Norwich Union. As it re- quires a large business to support a fire assurance company, it is seldom a new one succeeds. The pawnbrokers have a company of their own, on account of the companies charging them high rates. In London the fire insurance companies long since maintained their own engines, as the parish engines were found insufficient in repress- ing fires. A few years ago it was proposed to amalgamate the esta- blishments of the assurance companies, and a fire-brigade was formed, which, anomalous as it may appear, is supported by the companies, 112 LONDON— ASSURANCE. and therefore at tlie charge of the assurers. The fire-escapes are maintained by voluntary contributions to the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire. The fire-brigade has stations through- out London, and on the Thames, where engines, staff, and appliances are kept in constant readiness, and attend fires on summons from the police. Sometimes the engines are summoned by electric telegraph, and conveyed by railway to fires in the country. Each parish has likewise its engines, which are less powerful. To assist the firemen in getting at the water, tablets will be noticed on the fronts of the houses (as W. M. 16 feet), showing where the water-taps are. Persons working at the engines are paid on the spot by the superintendents of the brigade, though volunteers enough can be got. On a fire being discovered, the policeman springs his rattle, and runs off to the fire-brigade station; other policemen being warned, the inhabitants are awakened, the fire-escape and turn- cock are sent for, a party of police assembles for the protection of the property and keeping order, and on the arrival of a horse- engine the main has been opened, and proceedings commence for putting out the fire — the force receiving constant accessions from every engine-station, according to the emergency. London not being a garrison, the military seldom attend a fire, unless in the immediate neighbourhood of a barrack, or when some great establishment is in flames. A fire is a lamentable spectacle ; but to a foreigner a fire in London gives a good opportunity for studying the national character, and the independent spirit of discipline and organization which distin- guishes the population. There is neither a military force present, nor a magistrate high in power to direct the operations. The police and firemen have no command but their own moral influence ; they are only members of the working classes ; but an energy, activity, and regularity are displayed, and a readiness of co-operation on the part of all classes, which overcome successfully the difficulties to be en- countered. The scene after a fire is likewise worthy of notice. No military force is drawn up in the neighbouring streets to preserve order, but two or three policemen are left to keep open a thorough- fare through the inquisitive crowd. Abroad discipline is sought in arms, and in the power of the government ; here in the bosoms of the citizens, by enlisting their willing co-operation, and by complying with the direction given by their action. Among agricultural risks provision is made for insuring the lives of cattle, and insuring stock against hail. Hail does not commit such ravages here as in the wine countries; and cattle and sheep being held in large lots, so as to give an average, these branches of assur- ance have not the same extension here as elsewhere. Marine assurance is a great business in London ; but its adminis- tration differs from the other branches, as, except what is done by LONDON — ASSURANCE. 1 1 3 the corporations, the business lies in the hands of private parties; that is to say, the underwriters, who make their place of assembly at Lloyd's. The voluntary association of these underwriters in a private coffee-house has resulted in a vast organization. They keep up not only records of shipping news, accessible to their members, but a register of all shipping, English and Foreign, to be assured by them, and which is known as Lloyd's Register. At every port throughout the world is an agent of Lloyd's to give information of shipping movements, and to take charge of wrecks. Every day a paper is published of shipping movements, called Lloyd's List. At Trieste a great trading corporation, and a newspaper, are named after Lloyd's. The business of marine assurance is much restricted in England by heavy duties on policies, so that no business is done in England for foreign assurers, as with life and fire, but many English ships are assured at Hamburgh, and other foreign ports, where there are no duties. Many of the colliers arriving in the port of London are mutually insured in clubs belonging to their respective ports. Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping is at 2, White Lion Court, Cornhill, and is an office of considerable importance, peculiarly so to the shipping interest of the United Kingdom. Previous to the year 1834, there were two register books printed ; when this society was formed for obtaining a true and accurate classification of the mercantile marine of the kingdom and of the foreign vessels trading thereto. The affairs of the society are under the direction of a committee in London of twenty-four members, consisting of merchants, shipowners, and underwriters. The chairman for managing the affairs at Lloyd's, and the chairman of the General Ship Owners Society, and also the chairman and deputy-chairman of the Liverpool Committee, and the chairman of the Rotation Commissioners for the time being are ex- officio members of the committee. A proportion of the members retire annually, and the vacancies are filled up by the committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd's, and by the committee of the General Ship Owners Society. The surveyors are appointed by the committee and one or more so appointed are stationed in every seaport of the United Kingdom. The reports of the surveyors made, and all documents relating to the classification of the ships are carefully preserved, and the classification is made by a sub -committee who examine into the reports, and if the several rules established by them for the building and repairing of the ships have been conformed to. The lists, showing the class each ship belongs to, as A 1, JE 1, &c, are published every year, and corrected from time to time as the necessity for so doing appears. The high repute the committee and their affairs have attained for their integrity and the usefulness of the system of classification has 114 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. rendered it necessary for them to greatly enlarge their offices, which has been lately done under the superintendence of their architect, Mr. John Turner. The ground floor of the building is occupied by the five surveyors for the Port of London ; the first floor by the secretary and clerks ; the board-room, a handsome apartment 37 ft. long, by 16 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 feet high, occupies the whole frontage of the building on the second floor. The attics are devoted to the printing establish- ment attached to the office. Some beautiful models, showing the construction of the several classes of shipping, are in the possession of the committee. In the end of the last century an office was carried on for some time to insure persons against losses by thieves and highway robbers. Many projects have been formed to assure against losses by bank- ruptcies, insolvencies, and bad debts. The Guarantee Societies are interesting examples of the principle of assurance. The Guarantee Society, and the others in imitation of it,, give security in a bond, in consideration of a small premium (say t| per cent.), against any defalcation by a clerk or other person in a situation of trust. Before giving bond for an applicant, a searching investigation is made into his character from his birth, so that the bond, when given, becomes likewise a testimonial of character, and many poor and friendless, but deserving young men, are thus enabled to take employment. Abroad, a person in public employment is frequently called upon to deposit a sum of money as a security in the Caisse des Consignations, or public funds, drawing the interest. Acting upon the system of the guarantee society, the Bank of England now calls upon its clerks to contribute, by a percentage, to a guarantee fund. Section 7. — Duties on Articles imported into England. — Here follows an enumeration of the several articles chargeable to the revenue, together with a list of such articles as have the benefit of Free-trade by a remission of charges. Such articles as are subject to payment have an additional charge of 5 per cent, made to the importer. Agates or Carnelians, cut, manufac- £ 3. d. tured, or set 100?. 10 Ale and Beer brl. 10 Almonds, not Jordan nor bitter, .cwt. 10 Jordan ,, 15 Paste of 100?. 10 Amber, Manufactures of, not enum. 10 Apples, raw bush. 6 Dried ,, 2 Aquafortis cwt. 5 Arrow Root ,,026 Bandstring twist 100?. 10 Barley, pearled cwt. 10 Baskets 100?. 10 Bast ropes, twines, and strands ,, 10 Beads and bugles of glass lb. 0J Beads, arango, coral, jet, crystal, and not enumerated , 100?. 10 £ s. d. Beer or Mum brl. of 32 gal. 10 Produce of the Isle of Man, per brl. Spruce brl. of 32 gal. 10 Blacking 100?. 10 Books, printed prior to 1801, bd. or or unbound cwt. 10 Printed in or since 1801, bound or unbound » . .. ,, 5 In foreign living language, printed in or since 1801, bd. or unbound 2 10 *** Copyrights of books printed abroad are prohibited. Boots, shoes and calashes — Women's boots and calashes doz. pr. 6 If lined or trimmed with fur, or other trimming „ 7 6 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 115 Boots, continued. £ s. Women's shoes, with cork or dou- ble soles, quilted, and clogs, doz.pr. 5 If lined or trimmed with fur or other trimming ,, 6 "Women's shoes of silk, satin, jean, or other stuffs, kid, morocco, or other leather ,,0 4 If lined or trimmed with fur or other trimming ,, 5 Girls' boots, shoes, and calashes, not exceeding 7 in. in length, to be charged with two thirds of the above duties. Men's boots and shoes. If the quar- ter do not exceed 2| in. or the vamp 4 in. in ht. from the sole inside ,,0 7 If either the quarter or vamp exceed the above dimensions but do not exceed 6 in. in height from the sole inside ,, 10 If either the quarter or vamp ex- ceed 6 in. in height from the sole inside ,, 14 Boot fronts, not exceeding 9 in. in height „ 1 Ditto, not exceeding 9 in ,, 2 Boxes of all sorts, excepting those made wholly or partly of glass. on which the proper glass duty- will be levied 100/. 10 Brass, Manufacture of „ 10 Powder ,, 10 Brass and copper wire ,, 10 Bricks or clinkers (Dutch) 1000 10 Other sorts , , 15 Brocade of gold or silver 100/. 10 Bronze, manufacture not particularly enumerated ,, 10 Powder of ,, 10 Buck wheat qr. 1 Meal cwt. Butter ,, 10 Buttons, Metal 100/. 10 Covered with silk, &c, 15/. per cent. Cables (not being iron cables) , tarred or untarred cwt. 6 If and when otherwise disposed of 100/. 10 Taken from foreign ships, and cut into lengths not exceeding three fathoms ,, 10 Cameos ,50 Camphor, refined cwt. 5 Candles, Spermaceti lb. Stearine „ Tallow cwt. 5 Wax lb. Canes, Walking, or sticks, mounted, painted, or otherwise ornament- ed 100/. 10 Cantharides lb. Capers, including the pickle ,, Cards, Playing dozen packs 4 Carmine oz. Carriages, all sorts 100/. 10 Casks (empty) ,, io Cassava powder cwt. 2 Cassia lignea lb. Catlings 100/. 10 Chalk, prepared or manufactured „ 10 Cheese cw t. o 5 Cherries, raw 10o/. 5 Dried lb# Chicory, or any vegetable matter ap- plicable to the uses of chicory or coffee :— Boasted or ground lb. Chicory, continued. £ s. d. Raw 'or kiln-dried cwt. 10 China or porcelain ware, painted, or plain, gilt, or ornamented . .100/. 10 Cider tun 5 5 Cinnamon lb. 6 Citron, preserved in salt 100/. 5 Clocks „ 10 Or watches of any metal, impressed with any mark" or stamp, appear- ing to be or to represent any legal Brit, assay mark or stamp, or pur- porting, by any mark or appear- ance, to be the manufacture of the United Kingdom . . prohibit. Cloves lb. 6 Cocoa „ 2 Husks and shells ,,001 Paste and chocolate ,,006 Coculus Indicus cwt. 7 6 Coffee lb. 6 Kiln dried, roasted, or ground, on and after 1st January, 1850 .. . ,, 8 Coir rope, twine and strands cwt. 2 6 Comfits, dry lb. 6 Confectionery ,,006 Copper, Ore of per ton 10 Old, fit only to be remanufac- tured ,, 2 6 Un wrought, viz. in bricks or pigs, rose, and all cast ,, 2 6 In parts wrought, viz. bars, rods, or ingots, hammered or raised ,, 2 6 In plates and copper coin. . ,, 2 6 Regulusof „ 1 Manufacture of, not enumerated, and copper-plates engraved. .100/. 10 Or brass wire „ 10 Cordage, tarred or untarred (standing or running rigging in use ex- cepted) cwt. 6 If, and when otherwise disposed of 100/. 5 Corks, ready made lb. 8 Squared for rounding cwt. 16 Fishermen's „ 2 Corn— upon all wheat, barley, Bear or bigg, oats, rye, peas, and beans qr. 10 Upon all wheat, meal, and flour, barley-meal, oatmeal, rye-meal, and flour, pea-meal, arid bean- meal cwt. 4^ Cotton articles, or manufacture of cotton, wholly or in part made up, not otherwise charged with duty 100/. 10 Crayons ,, 10 Crystal, cut or manufactured, ex- "cept beads ,, 10 Beads „ 10 Cucumbers, preserved in salt . . ,, 5 Currants cwt. 15 Dates ,, 10 Dice pair 16 2 Earthenware, not enumerated. . 100/. 10 Eggs 120 10 Embroidery and needlework .. . 100/. 15 Emeralds.— See Jewels. Ether, from Guernsey, Jersey, Alder- nev, Sark, or Man gal. 18 9 Ditto, additional „ Q 10 Essences not otherwise described, viz. : — Extract of cardamoms, coculus indicus, Guinea grains of para- dise, liquorice, nux vomica, opium, Guinea pepper, Peru- 116 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. Essences, continued. £ s. d. vian or Jesuit's bark, quassia, radix rhataniae, vitriol 100/. 20 Or preparation of any article, not particularly enumerated or de- scribed, nor otherwise charged withduty „ 20 Feathers, not otherwise enumerated, dressed ,, 10 Ostrich, dressed lb. 1 10 Paddy bird, dressed „ 1 Figs cwt. 15 Fish, anchovies lb. 2 Eels ship's lading 13 Lobsters Free. Turbots cwt. 5 Of foreign taking, imported from foreign places, in other than fish- ing vessels, viz. : — Oysters bush. 16 Salmon ...cwt. 10 Soles ,,050 Turtle ,,050 Fresh, not enumerated „ 10 Cured, not enumerated ,, 1 Flowers, Artificial, not made of silk 100/.25 Frames for pictures, prints, or draw- ings...;. „ 10 Fruit, raw, not enumerated... . „ 5 Gauze of thread „ 10 Ginger cwt. 10 Preserved lb. 6 Glass, viz. : — Any kind of window glass, white or stained of one colour only, not exceeding 1 -9th of an in. in thick- ness, and shades and cylin- ders cwt. 3 6 All glass exceeding l-9th of an in. in thickness ; all silvered or po- lished glass, of whatever thick- ness, however small each pane, plate, or sheet, superficial mea- sure, viz. : Not exceeding more than 9 square ft 7. sq.ft. 3 Containing more than 9 sq. ft. and not more than 14 sq. ft „ 6 Containing more than 14 sq. ft. and not more than 36 sq. ft. . . . „ 7s Containing more than 36 sq. ft. ,, 9 Painted or otherwise ornamented sup. ft. 9 All white flint glass bottles, not cut, engraved or otherwise orna- mented, and beads and bugles of glass lb. ()i "Wine glasses, tumblers, and all other white flint-glass goods not cut, engraved, or otherwise orna- mented ,,001 All flint cut glass, flint coloured glass, and fancy ornamental glass of whatever kind ,,002 Bottles of glass covered with wicker (not being flint or cut glass) or of green or common glass cwt. 9 And articles of green or common glass ,,009 Average weight of glass bottles as taken by the Customs : — Qts. Pints. English shaped bottles with Port or Sherry per doz. 19 lbs. 11 lbs. Champagne, and other wines in similar bottles 1 „ 24 15 Claret and other wines or brandy in similar bottles „ 14 Glass, continued. Qts. Pints. Rhenish and other wines in si- milar bottles per doz. 16 lbs. 11 lbs. Geneva, square bottles, from 8 to 11 gills „ 20 Ditto, from 4 to 6 gills „ 14 Manufactures not otherwise enu- merated or described, and old broken, fit only to be remanu- £ s. d. factured cwt. 3 6 Gloves of leather, viz. : Habit mitts doz. pr. 2 4 Habit. „ 3 6 Men's „ 3 6 Women's, or mitts „ 4 6 Gold, leaves of 100 3 Grains, Guinea, and Paradise. . cwt. 15 Grapes .100?. 5 Gunpowder cwt. 10 Hair, Manufactures of, or goat's- wool, or of hair or goat's -wool, and any other material, and ar- ticles of such manufacture, wholly or in part made up, not particularly enumerated or other- wise charged with duty .... 100/. 1000 Hams of all kinds cwt. 7 Harp or lute strings, silvered . .. 100/. 10 Hats or bonnets, of chip lb. 3 6 Bast, cane, or horse-hair, each hat or bonnet not exceeding 22 in. in diameter doz. 7 Each hat or bonnet exceeding 22 in. in diameter „ 10 Of straw lb. 5 Felt, hair, wool, or beaver .. . each 2 Made of silk, or silk shag laid upon felt, linen, or other material ,, 2 Honey cwt. 10 Hops ,,250 Iron and steel, wrought, not other- wise enumerated 100/. 10 Isinglass cwt. 5 Japanned or lacquered ware 100/. 10 Jewels, emeralds, rubies, and all other precious stones, set.. . „ 10 Lattenwire „ 10 Lead, Manufactures of, not enume- rated „ 10 Pig and sheet ton 2 6 Leather cut into shapes, or any ar- ticle made of leather, or any ma- nufacture whereof leather is the most valuable part, not enume- rated 100/. 10 Linen, or linen and cotton, viz. : — Cambrics and lawns commonly called French lawns, the piece not exceeding 8 yards long, and not exceeding £ths of a yard broad, and so in proportion for any greater or less quantity. Plain piece 2 6 Bordered handkerchiefs „ 2 6 Lawns of any other sort, not French 100/. 10 Lace, thread „ 10 Do. made by the hand, commonly called cushion, or pillow lace, whether of linen, cotton, or silken thread „ 10 Damasks sq. yard 5 Diaper „ 2^ Sails 100/. 15 Do. if in actual use thereof and when otherwise disposed of ,, 10 Articles, manufacture of linen, or linen mixed with cotton or wool, wholly or in part made up, not LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 117 Linen, continued. £ * d. particularly enumerated, or charged with duty 100/. 10 Liquorice Roots cwt. 10 Juice and paste „ 1 Powder ,, 1 IS Macaroni and Vermicelli lb. 1 Mace ,,026 Maize or Indian corn qr. 1 Meal ..cwt. 4| Marble, sawn, in slabs or otherwise manufactured ,,030 Marmalade lb. 6 Mats and matting 1007. 5 Mead gal. 5 6 Medlars bush. 10 Mercury, prepared 100/. 10 Metal, leaf (except gold), the packet of 250 leaves 1 Millboards cwt. 110 Molasses.— See Sugar. Morphia and its salts lb. 5 Mum bar. 1 Musical Instruments 100/. 10 Mustard Flour cwt. 6 Needle Work and Embroidery . 100/. 15 Nutmegs lb. 2 6 Wild in the shell ,,003 Wild not in the shell ,,005 Nuts, small and walnuts bush. 2 Nux vomica cwt. 5 Oil of almonds lb. 2 Bays ,,002 Chemical, essential, or perfumed „ 10 Cloves ,,030 Or spirits of turpentine cwt. 5 Olives gal. 2 Onions bush. 6 Opium lb. 1 Orange flower water ,,001 Oranges and lemons, viz. : — In chests and boxes not exceeding 5000 cubic inches box 2 6 Over 5000 cubic inches, and not ex- ceeding 7300 „ 3 9 Over 7300 cubic inches, and not ex- ceeding 14,000 ,,076 For every 1000 cubic in. exceeding 14,000 „ 7^ Loose 1000 15 Entered at value, at the option of the importer 100/. 75 Orsedew cwt. 10 Painters' colours, manufactured 100/. 10 U Paper, brown, made of old rope or cordage only, without separating or extracting the pitch or tar therefrom, and without any mix- ture of other materials there- with lb. 3 Printed, painted, or stained, hang- ings, or flock sq. yard 2 Waste, unless printed on in the English language, or of any other sort not particularly enumerated nor otherwise charged with duty lb. 4| Printed on in the English language. Prohib. Pasteboards cwt. 1 10 Pears, raw bush. 6 Dried ,, 2 Pencils 100/. 10 Of slate „ 10 Pepper, of all sorts lb. 6 Percussion caps 1000 4 Perfumery, not otherwise charged 100/. 10 Perry tun 5 5 Phosphorus 1007. 10 £ s. d. Pewter, Manufacture of 1007. 10 Pickles, preserved in vinegar gal. 4 Do. or vegetables, preserved in salt '. 1007. 5 Pictures each 10 And further sq. ft. 1 Above 200 square feet each 10 Pimento cwt. 5 Plate of gold, together with the stamp duty (17^. per oz.) 100/. 10 Silver, gilt and ungilt, do. (Is. Gd. peroz.) „ 10 Platting or other manufacture to be used in, or proper for, making hats or bonnets, viz. : — Of bast, cane, or horse hair. ... lb. Of straw „ Willow squares 100/. 10 Plums (commonly called French plums) and prunelloes cwt. 1 Dried or preserved, &c ,, 1 Preserved in sugar lb. Pomatum 100/. 10 Pomegranates 1000 Potato flour cwt. Pots, Melting, for goldsmiths 100 Of stone 100/. 10 Poultry ,, 5 Note. — The same rate applies to all species of game, alive or dead. Powder, Hair cwt. 1 Perfumed ,, 1 Not otherwise, that will serve for the same uses as starch ,, Prints and Drawings, plain or col., single each Do. bound or sewed doz. Prunes cwt. Puddings lb. Quassia cwt. Quinces 1000 Quinine, Sulphate of oz. Raisins cwt. Rice not rough, and in the husk . qr. Rough ditto „ Saccharum Saturni cwt. Sago „ Sausages or puddings lb. Scaleboards cwt. 1 Sealing-wax 100/. 10 Seeds, Mustard cwt. Trefoil „ Carra way, carrot, and clover. . „ Canary „ Grass, of all sorts „ Leek ,, Lucerne ,, Onion „ All other seeds 1 100/. 5 Ships to be broken up with their tackle, apparel, and furniture (except sails), viz. foreign ships or vessels „ 25 Foreign ships broken up ,, 10 Silk, manufacture of, or of silk mixed with metal, or any other material the produce of Europe, viz. : — Or satin, plain, striped, figured, or brocaded, viz. Broad stuffs lb. 5 Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- merated ,,060 Or, and at the option of the officers of the Customs 100/. 15 Gauze or crape, plain, striped, figured, or brocaded, viz. Broad stuffs lb. 9 10 5 7 s ] 3 % Q 10 1 3 7 1 10 1 (1 6 15 1 1 10 6 1 10 1 3 5 5 l) 5 5 5 5 5 118 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. Silk, continued. £ s. d. Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- merated lb. 10 Or, and at the option of the officers of the Customs 100*. 15 Gauze of all descriptions, mixed with silk, satin, or any other ma- terials in less proportion than one-half part of the fabric ; viz. Broad stuffs lb. 9 Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- merated „ 10 Or, and at the option of the officers of the Customs 100/. 15 Velvet, plain or figured, viz. Broad stuffs lb. 9 Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- merated „ 10 Or, and at the option of the officers of the Customs 100/. 15 Ribbons, plain silk, of one colour only lb. 6 plain satin, of one colour only ,, 8 ■ silk or satin, striped, figured, or brocaded, or plain rib- bons of more than one colour. . „ 10 gauze or crape, plain, figured, striped, or brocaded.. ,, 14 gauze mixed with silk, satin, or other materials, of less proportion then one-half part of the fabric „ 12 velvet or silk embossed with velvet ,, 10 Artificial flowers wholly or in part of silk 100/.25 Manufactures of silk, or of silk and any other material called plush, commonly used for making hats lb. 2 Fancy silk net or tricot „ 8 Plain silk lace or net, called Tulle,, 8 Manufactures of silk, or of silk mixed with any other materials, not particularly enumerated or otherwise charged with duty. 100/. 15 Millinery of silk, or of which the greater part of the material is silk, viz. Turbans or caps each 3 6 Hats or bonnets ,, 7 Dresses ,, 1 10 Manufactures of silk, or of silk and any other materials, and ar- ticles of the same, wholly or par- tially made up, not particularly enumerated or otherwise charged with duty 100/. 15 Silkworm gut ,, 10 Skins or furs, articles manufactured of „ 10 Slate.— See Stone. Smalts cwt. 10 Snuff. — See Tobacco. Soap, hard ,,100 Soft „ 14 Naples ,,100 Spa ware 100/. 10 Spelter, or zinc, manufactures of. cwt. 10 Spirits, or strong waters of all sorts — for every gallon of such spirits or strong waters, of any strength not exceeding the strength of proof by Sykes's hydrometer, and so in proportion for any greater or less strength than the strength of proof, and for any greater or less quantity than a gallon, viz. Not being spirits or strong waters the pro- duce of any British possession in America, Spirits, continued. or any British possession within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, and not being sweetened spirits, or spirits mixed with any article, so that the degree of strength thereof cannot be exactly ascertained by such hydrometer. gal. £() 15 The produce of any British possession in America, not being sweetened spirits, or spirits mixed with any article, so that the degree of strength thereof cannot be ex- actly ascertained by such hydrometer, — If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 „ Scotland „ 4 ,, Ireland „ 3 Rum, the produce of any British possession within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, not being sweetened spirits, or so mixed as aforesaid, in regard to which the condi- tions of the Act 4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall have been fulfilled, — If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 „ Scotland „ 4 ,, Ireland „ 3 Rum-shrub, however sweetened, the produce of and imported from such possessions, in regard to which the conditions of the Act 4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall have been ful- filled, or the produce of and importation from any British possession in America, — If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 „ Scotland „ 4 „ Ireland .... „ 3 Note. — All spirits, except the above, to be charged with the additional duty of Ad. per gallon. Also that foreign spirits may not be removed from England to Scotland, except from the bonded warehouse. Spirits or strong waters, the production of any British possession within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, except rum, in regard to which the conditions of the Act 4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall have been fulfilled, not being sweetened spirits, or spirits so mixed as aforesaid gal. £0 15 Spirits, cordials, or strong waters, not the produce of any British possession in Ame- rica, or of any British possession within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, in regard to which the conditions of the Act 4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall have been fulfilled, sweetened or mixed with any article, so that the degree of strength thereof cannot be exactly ascertained by Sykes's hydro- meter, and perfumed spirits, to be used as perfumery only gal. £l 10 Strong waters, except rum-shrub, being the produce of any British possession in Ame- rica, or of any British possession qualified as aforesaid, sweetened'or mixed with any article as aforesaid gal. £1 Cordials and liqueurs (except rum-shrub) being the produce of any British posses- sion in America, or of any British pos- session within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, qualified as aforesaid, sweetened or mixed with any articles as afore- said gal. £0 9 Spruce.— -See Beer. Essence of spruce 100/. 10 Starch; cwt. is. Gum of, torrified or calcined, commonly called British gum cwt. r £0 1 Staves, except staves not exceeding 72 in. in length, nor 7 in. in breadth, nor 3-jrin. in thickness Id. 50 cubic ft. £0 18 Steel, Manufacture of 100/. 10 Stone and slate, hewn ton 10 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 119 Stone and slate, continued. Marble, sawn in slabs, or otherwise manu- factured cwt.£0 3 Succades, including all fruits and vegetables preserved in sugar lb. £0 6 NEW SUGAR DUTIES. Sugar or Molasses :— The growth and produce of any British possession into which the importation of foreign sugar is prohibited and imported from thence : — Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or sugar equal in quality to refined, for every cwt. — From July 5 to July 5 inclusive. 1849 I 1850 I 1851 £0 16 I £0 14 8 I £0 13 4 White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality to white clayed, not being refined, or equal to re- fined, for every cwt. — £0 14 | £0 12 10 1 £0 11 8 Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being equal in quality to white clayed, for every £0 12 [ £0 11 | £0 10 Molasses, for every cwt. — £0 4 6 1 £0 4 2 i £0 3 9 And so in proportion for any greater or less quantity than a cwt. Sugar or Molasses, the growth and produce of any other British possession : — Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or sugar equal in quality to refined, for every cwt. — From July 5 to Julv 5 inclusive. 1849 i 1850 l 1851 1852 I 1853 1 1854 s. d. s. d.\ s. d. \s. d.\ s. d. s. d. 20 4 J 18 8 1 17 J 16 4 I 15 4 | 13 4 White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality to white- clayed, not being refined or equal to re- fined, for every cwt. — 16 11 | 15 5 | 14 | 13 5 J 12 10 | 11 8 Brown-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality to brown- clayed, and not equal to white clayed, for every cwt. — 15 8 | 14 4 | 13 | 12 5 | 11 10 | 10 Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being equal in quality to brown-clayed sugar, for every cwt. — 14 6 | 13 3 | 12 J 11 6 | 11 | 10 Molasses, for everv cwt. — 5 9| 4 11 | 4*6 | 4 4 | 4 2| 3 9 And so on in proportion for any greater or less quantity than a cwt. Sugar or Molasses, the growth and produce of any foreign country, and on all sugar or molasses not otherwise charged with duty : — Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or sugar equal in quality to refined, for every cwt. — From July 5 to Julv 5 inclusive. 1849 | 1850 I 1851 J 1852 | 1853 I 1854 s. d. \ s. d. s. d. s. d.\ s. d. s. d. 24 8 I 22 8 J 20 8 1 19 4 | 17 4 j 13 4 White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by any process equal in quality to white-clayed, not being refined, or equal to refined, for every cwt.— 19 10 1 18 1 I 1G 4 1 15 2 | 14 I 11 8 Sugar, continued. Brown-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by anv process equal in quality to brown-clayed", and not equal to white-clayed, for every cwt. — s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 18 6 | 17 | 15 6 | 14 6 [ 13 I 10 Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being equal in quality to brown-clayed sugar, for every cwt. — 17 | 15 6 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 Molasses, for every cwt. — 64|59|5 3|4 10|46|39 And so on in proportion for any greater or less quantity than a cwt. The Bounties or Drawbacks following to be paid and allowed upon the exportation from the United Kingdom of the several descriptions of refined sugar : — Upon refined sugar in loaf, complete and whole, or lumps duly refined, having been perfectly clarified and thoroughly dried in the stove, and being of uniform whiteness throughout, or such sugar pounded, crushed, or broken, or sugar candy, the cwt. — From July 5 to July 5 inclusive. 1849 I 1850 I 1851 £0 15 I £0 13 9 | £0 12 6 Upon bastard or refined sugar, broken in pieces, or being ground, or powdered sugar pounded, or crushed, or broken, for every cwt. — £0 12 | £0 11 | £0 10 And so on in proportion for any greater or less quantity than a cwt. Note. — Muscovado sugar imported into the Isle of Man, to pay 1*. per cwt. £ 5. d. Tallow cwt. 1 6 Tamarinds lb. 3 Tapioca cwt. 6 Tea lb. 2 1 Tiles 100/. 10 Timber or wood, not being deals, battens, boards, staves, hand- spikes, oars, lath-wood, or other timber or wood, sawn, split, or otherwise dressed, except hewn, and not being timber or wood otherwise charged with duty, Id. of 50 cub. ft. 15 Timber or wood deals, battens, boards, or other timber or wood sawn or split, and not otherwise charged Id. of 50 cub. ft. 10 Staves, if exceeding 72 in. in length, 7 in. in breadth, or 3^ in. in thick- ness „ 18 Firewood fath. of 216 cub. ft. 6 Handspikes, not exceeding 7 ft. in length... 120 12 - exceeding 7 ft. in length . . ,, 14 Knees, under Sin. square ,,060 5 in. and under 8 in. square ,,140 Lathwood fath. of 216 cub. ft. 14 Oars 120 4 10 Spars or poles under 22 ft. in length, and under 4 in. in diameter. . ,, 12 22 ft. in length and upwards, and under 4 in. "in diameter. . ,,140 of all lengths, 4 in. and under 6 in. in diameter ,,280 Spokes for wheels, not exceeding 2 ft. in length 1000 14 exceeding 2 ft. in length . . ,, 2 8 120 LONDON-— IMPORT DUTIES. Timber, continued. £ s. VVastewood, viz. billet wood and brushwood, used for the purpose of stowage 100/. 5 Wood, planed, or otherwise dressed or prepared for use, and not par- ticularly enumerated nor other- Timber, continued. s. wise charged with duty, viz.— Ad. per ft. of cubic contents, and further 100/. 10 Note. — The additional duty of 5 per cent, is due on timber and wood from a British posses- sion, but remitted on foreign produce. Or, in lieu of the duties hereinbefore imposed upon wood by the load, according to the cubic contents, the importer may have the option, at the time of passing the first entry, of entering battens, batten ends, boards, deals, deal ends, and plank, by tale, if of or from foreign coun- tries, according to the following dimensions, viz.: — Batten and batten ends— Notabove6ft. long 120 Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long Boards, deals, deal ends, and planks— Not above 6 ft. long , Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long . . . Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long . Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long. Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long. Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long . Not above 6 ft. long Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long . Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long. Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long. Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long. Not above 7 in. in width. Not above 9£ in. in width. Above 9i i and not above 11£ in width, Not above 1£ in. in thick- ness £0 18 6 1 7 9 1 16 11 2 6 3 2 15 4 3 4 6 Not above 1| in. in thick- ness 1 9 10 2 4 5 2 19 2 3 14 2 4 8 11 5 3 8 1 15 10 2 13 8 3 11 7 4 9 7 5 7 6 6 5 8 Above 1£ in. and not above 2| in thick n. £1 17 2 15 6 3 13 10 4 12 6 5 10 8 6 9 Above 1£ in. and not above 3$ in thickn. 2 19 8 4 8 10 5 18 4 7 8 4 8 17 10 10 7 4 3 11 8 5 7 4 7 3 2 8 19 2 10 15 12 11 4 Tin, in blocks, ingots, bars, or slabs, cwt. 6 Foil lb. 6 Manufact. of, not enumerated 100/. 10 Tobacco lb. 3 Snuff. ,,060 Manufactured or segars „ 9 Stalks and Flour of Prohib. Tobacco pipes, clay 100/. 10 Tongues cwt. 7 Toys, excepting toy and hand-mir- rors, on which the plate-glass duty will be levied 100J. 10 Truffles lb. 1 Turnery, not described 100/. 10 Turpentine, above the value of 15*. per cwt cwt. 2 Spirit or oil ,,050 Twine 100/. 10 Vanelloes lb. 5 Varnish, not described 100/. 10 Vegetable juice, to pay 10 per cent, as goods manufactured, T. O. Verdigris cwt. 050 Verjuice ton 4 4 Verm acelli and macaroni lb. 1 Vinegar tun 4 4 Wafers 100/. 10 Washing balls cwt. 10 Watches of gold or silver, or other metal 100/. 10 Water, Cologne, the flask (30 con- taining not more than 1 gal.) 1 Wax, Sealing 100/. 10 £ s. Whipcord 100/, 10 Wine— The produce of the Cape of Good Hope, or the territories or dependencies thereof, and im- ported direct thence gal . 2 Not enumerated, or otherwise charged with duty „ 2 French, Canary, Madeira, Portu- gal, Rhenish, Spanish, and other sorts ,,0 5 The full duties on wine are drawn back upon re-exportation or ship- ment as stores. Wine lees, subject to the same duty as wine, but no drawback is al- lowed on the lees of wine exported. Wire, gilt or plated, or silver. .. 100/. 10 Woollens, viz.: — Articles or manu- facture of wool, not being goat's wool, or wool mixed with cotton, wholly or in part made up, not otherwise charged „ 10 Worsted yarn lb. Yarn, cable yarn cwt. 3 Goods, wares, and merchandise, being either in part or wholly manu- factured, and not being enume- rated or described, nor otherwise charged with duty, and not pro- hibited to be imported into or used in Great Britain or Ireland, from foreign countries or British possessions 100/. 10 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 121 Agates or Carnelians not set, Alganobilla. Alkali. Alkanet Root. Almonds, bitter. Aloes. Alum. Rock. Amber, rough. Ambergris. Amboyna Wood. Angelica. Annatto. Roll. Animals, living. Asses. Goats. Horses, Mares, Geldings, Colts, and Foals. Mules. Kids. Oxen and Bulls. Cows. Calves. Sheep. Lambs. Swine and Hogs. Pigs, sucking. Antimony , Ore of. Crude. Regulus of. Argol. Anstolochia. Arsenic. Ashes, Pearl and Pot. Soap Weed, and Wood. Not enumerated. Asphaltum or Bitumen Judai- * cum. Bacon. Balsam, Canada. Capivi. Peru. Tolu. Balm of Gilead, and un- enumerated Balsam. Barilla. Bar Wood. Bark, for tanners or dyers 'use. Extract of, or of other vege- table substances to be used only for tanning leather. Peruvian. Cascarilla. Other sorts. Preparations of, for dyeing and cotton printing. Basket Rods, peeled and un- peeled. Beef, fresh or slightly salted. Salted, not being corned. Beef Wood. Berries, Bay. Juniper. " Yellow, Myrobolane. Unenumerated. Birds, singing. Blackwood. Bladders. Bones of cattle and other ani- mals, and of fish (except whale fins), whether burnt or not, or as animal char- coal. Boracic Acid. Articles admitted free. Borax, refined. or Tincal, unrefined. Bottles of Earth and Stone, empty. Box Wood. Brazil Wood. Braziletto Wood. Brimstone. refined in rolls. in flour. Bristles, rough or in any way sorted. Bronze Works of Art. Bullion — Coins, Medals, &c. Bulrushes. Cables and Cordage in actual use. Camomile Flowers. Camphor, unrefined. Camwood. Candlewick. Canella Alba, Canes, Bamboo. Reed. Rattans, not ground. or Sticks, unenumerated. Caoutchouc. Cardamoms. Castor. Cassia Buds. Fistula. Casts of Busts, Statues, or Figures. Caviare. Cedar Wood. Chalk, unmanufactured. Cherry Wood, being Furniture Wood. Chestnuts. China Root. Chip, or Willow, for platting. Chrystal, rough. Cinnabaris Nativa. Citrate of Lime. Citric Acid. Civet. Coals, Culm, and Cinders. Cobalt. Ore of. CochineaL Dust. Granilla. Coir Rope and Junk, old and new, cut into lengths not exceeding 3 feet. Colocynth. Columbo Root. Copperas, Blue. Green. White. Coral, whole, polished. unpolished. in fragments. Cordage in use in British ships. Cork. Cotton Manufactures, not being articles wholly or in part made up, not other- wise charged with duty. East India piece goods, "viz. Calicoes, and Muslins, white. Do. dyed or coloured. Handkerchiefs, dyed and coloured. Cotton Yarn. Cowries. Cranberries. Cream of Tartar. Cubebs. Cutch. Diamonds. Divi Divi. Down. Drugs, unenumerated. Ebony. Enamel. Feathers for Beds, in Beds or otherwise. Ostrich, undressed. Paddy Bird, undressed. Unenumerated & undressed. Flasks, in which Olive Oil is imported. Flax and Tow, or Codilla of Hemp and Flax, dressed and undressed. Flocks. Note. — Paper -stainers ' Flock is subject to duty as ma- nufactured goods! Flower Roots. Fustic. Gallic Powder. Galls. Gamboge. Garancine. Garnets, cut or uncut, not set. Gelatine. Gentian. Ginseng. Glue. Glue Clippings, or Waste of any kind, fit only for mak- ing Glue. Goods unenumerated, not being either in part or wholly manufactured, not enumerated, or prohibited. Grease. Greaves, Tallow. for Dogs. Guano. Gum, Animi. Arabic. Assafoetida. Ammoniacum. Benjamin. Copal. Euphorbium. Guiacum. Kino. Lac Dye. Mastic. Seed Lac. Senegal. Shellac. Storax. Tragacanth. Unenumerated. Gun Stocks in the rough, of Wood. Gypsum. Hair, Camel or Wool. Cow, Ox, Bull, or Elk. Horse. Human. Unenumerated. Hay. Heath, for Brushes. Hellebore. Hemp, dressed. rough or undressed, or any other vegetable substance G 122 LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES, of the nature and quality of undressed hemp, ana applicable to the same purposes. Hides, not tanned, tawed, cur- ried, or in any way dressed, dry and wet. or pieces of, raw or undress- ed, and unenumerated. tails, Buffalo, Bull, Cow, or Ox. tanned, not otherwise dress- ed. or pieces thereof, tawed, curried, varnished, japan- ned, enamelled. Muscovy or Russia Hides, or pieces thereof, tanned, coloured, shaved, or other- wise dressed. or pieces thereof any way dressed, not otherwise enumerated. Hones. Hoofs of Cattle. Hoops of Wood. Horns, tips and pieces of. Indigo. Ink for Printers. , Inkle, wrought, unwrought. Iron, Bloom. Cast. Chromate of. in Bars, unwrought. Hoops. Ore. Pig. Old Broken and Cast Iron. Slit or Hammered into Rods. Jalap. Jet. Jewels, Emeralds,and all other precious stones, unset. Pearls. Juice of Limes, Lemons, or Oranges. Kingwood. Lac, viz.: Sticklae. Lamp Black. Lapis Calaminaris. Lard. Latten. Shaven. Lavender Flowers. Lead Ore. Red. White. Black. Chromate of. Leaves of Roses. Leeches. Lignum Vita?. Linens, plain Linens and Dia- per, whether chequered or striped with Dyed Yarn or not, and manufactures of Linen, or of Linen mixed with Cotton or Wool, not particularly enumerated, or otherwise charged with duty, not being articles wholly or in part made up. Litharge. Live Creatures, illustrative of Natural History. Logwood. Articles admitted free (continued). Losh Hides. : Oil Seed Cake. Madder. Olibanum. Root. Magna Grecia ware. Mahogany. Manganese, Ore of. Manna. Croup. Manures, unenumerated. Manuscripts. Maple Wood. Maps and Charts, or parts thereof, plain or coloured 1 . Mattresses. Mats, Dunnage, not being of greater value than 10s. the 100. Meat, salted or fresh, not otherwise described. Medals of any sort. Metal, Bell. Minerals and Fossils, and liv- ing Creatures (illustrative of Natural History). Models of Cork or Wood. Moss, Lichen Icelandicus. other than Rock or Iceland. Rock, for Dyers' use. § Mother o' Pearl Shells. Musk. Myrrh. Nicaragua Wood. Nickel, Arseniate of, in Lumps or Powder, being in an Unrefined state. Metallic Oxide of, refined. Ore of. Nitre, Cubic. Nuts, Kernels of Walnuts, and all Nuts or Kernels unenumerated, commonly used for expressing Oil therefrom. Coker, Pistachio. Chestnuts Oakum. Ochre. Oil, AnimaL Castor. Cocoa Nut. of Olives. Palm. Lard. Paran. Rock. Unenumerated. Train, Blubber, Spermaceti Oil, and Head Matter, the produce of fish or crea- tures living in the sea, caught by the crews of British vessels, and im- ported direct from the fishery or from any Bri- tish possession in a British vessel. Train and Blubber, of Fo- reign fishing. Seed, viz.: Hempseed. Linseed. Rapeseed. Walnut. Seed, unenumerated. Sperm of Foreign fishing. Spermaceti. Olive Wood. Orange and Lemon Peel, Ore, unenumerated. Orchal. Orpiment. Orris Root. Painters 7 Colours, unenume- rated, unmanufactured. Palmetto That eh. Manufactures. Parchment. Partridge Wood, being Furni- ture Wood* Patterns of Silk, Woollen,, and Cotton. Pearls. Pens. Pink Root. Pitch. Burgundy. Plantains. Plaster of Paris. Platina and Ore of Platinav Plants, Shrubs, and Trees. Olive. Platting or other Manufactures to be used in or proper for making Hats or Bonnets of Chip. Pomegranates, Peel of. Potatoes. Pork, fresh. Pork, salted (not Hams). Prussiate of Potash. Purple Wood, being Furniture Wood. Quicksilver. Quills, Goose. Swan. Radix Contrayervae. Enulag Campanae. Eringii. Ipecacuanhas. Rhataniae, Seneka?. Serpentariae or Snake Root, Rags, old Rags, old Ropes, or Junk, or old Fishing-nets, fit only for making Paper or Pasteboard. Pulp of. Woollen. Rape of Grapes. Red Wood, or Guinea Wood. R hubarb. Rosewood. Rosin. Safflower. Saffron. Sal Ammoniac. Limonum. Prunella. Salep, or Salop. Salt. Saltpetre. Sanguis Draconis. Santa Maria Wood. Sapan Wood. Sarsaparilla. Sassafras. Satin Wood. Saunders' Red. White or Yellow. Scammony. Seeds, Acorn. LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 123 Seeds, contitwed. Alganobilla. Aniseed. Beans, Kidney or French. Burnet. Colchicum. Cole. Coriander. Croton. Cummin. Fenugreek. Forest. Garden, unenumerated. Hemp. Lentiles. Lettuce. Linseed and Flaxseed. Lupin. Maw. Millet. Parsley. Poppy". Quince. Rape. Sesamum. Shrub or Tree. Tares. Worm. Unenumerated, commonly used for expressing Oil. Senna. Shovel Hilts. Shrubs, Trees, and Plants. Shumach. Silk, Raw. Knubs or Husks, and Waste. Thrown, not Dyed. Thrown, Dyed, viz.:— Sin- gles or Tram, Organzine or Crape Silk. Skins, Furs, Pelts, and Tails, or pieces of Skins, raw or undressed, unenumerated. Furs, Pelts, and Tails, or pieces of Skins, tanned, curried, dressed, unenu- merated. Specimens of Minerals, Fossils, or Ores, unenumerated,ex- ceeding 14 lbs. each. Speckled Wood. Spelter or Zinc, rolled but not otherwise manufactured, crude in cakes. Zinc oxide or white of. Spermaceti. Sponge. Articles admitted free {continued). Squills, dried and not dried. | Wax Stavesacre. Staves, not exceeding 72 inches in length, nor 7 inches in breadth, nor 3+ inches in thickness. Birch, hewn, not exceeding 3 feet in length, nor ex- ceeding 8 inches square, imported for the sole pur- pose of making herring barrels for the use of the fisheries. Steel, unwrought. Scraps. Stone in blocks, shaped or rough scalped. Mill, Burr, Quern, and Dog, rough, shaped, or hewn. Straw or Grass for platting. Sweet Wood. Sulphur Casts. Talc. Tar. Barbadoes. Tarras. Tartaric Acid. Teasles. Teeth, Elephants'. Sea-cow, Sea-horse, or Sea- morse. Telescopes. Thread, not otherwise enu- merated or described. Terra Japonica, and Cutch. Sienna. Verde. Umbra. Tin ore, and regulus of. Tornsal. Tortoise Shell or Turtle Shell, unmanufactured. Tulip Wood. Bees, in any degree bleached. unbleached. Turmeric, Turpentine of Venice, Scio, or Cyprus. Turpentine, unless above 15s. the cwt. Valcnia. Vases, ancient, not of stone or wood. Vegetables, all not otherwise enumerated or described. Vellum. Vermilion. Ultramarine. Walnut Wood. i Water, Mineral. Myrtle. Vegetable. Weld. Whale Fins, of British taking, and imported direct from the fisheries, or from any British possession in a Bri- tish ship. Of foreign taking, and not prohibited. Woad. Wood, for ship -building, pre- viously admitted at the same duty as Teak. Birch, hewn, not exceeding 3 ft. long, nor exceeding 8 in. square, imported for the sole purpose of making herring barrels, for the use of the fisheries. Fir, hewn, of the same di- mensions, and imported for similar purposes. Teak. Furniture wood unenume- rated. NewZeaiand furniture wood. Wool. Beaver. Cut and combed. Hares. Coney. Cotton. Alpaca and the Llama tribe. Cotton, or waste of cotton. Goat's, or Hair. Sheep or Lamb's. Woollens, manufactures of wool, not being goat's, or of wool mixed with cotton, not particularly enume- rated or described, not otherwise charged with duty, not being articles wholly or in part made up. Yarn. Yarn, Camel or Mohair. Raw linen. Raw worsted, not dyed nor coloured, and not being fit or proper for embroider- ing, or other fancy pur- poses. Zaffre. Zebra Wood. Ditties on British Goods exported. Coals, culm, or cinders in a foreign ship, the ton, 4s. Orphan Dues, Payable upon Wines imported into the Port of London. s. d. Lisbon , the pipe 2 3h Portugal „ 2 3 Cape and Madeira ,, 1 10 All other sorts „ 2 2 French thehhd. 1 Do case, ea. 3 G 2 124 ARCHITECTURE OF LONDON*. The architecture of any old country or place long civilised, neces- sarily divides itself into two periods, the works of which are so widely different that, though merging the one into the other by imperceptible shades, those at the extremes of the scale present on many points a perfect contrariety, so that they cannot be rightly understood from the same point of view, or judged by the same rules. Not being warned of this distinction, many give up the subject in despair or disgust, as one destitute of fixed principles ; because the identity of name has led them to confound what are really two arts, so opposite in character and objects, that the principles of each seem flatly contradicted when we attempt to apply them to the other. Before introducing the reader, therefore, to a series of monuments extending through eight centuries, we must endeavour in a few words to make him understand the broad distinction between ancient and modern building art, and the reason of the immense value attached to every relic of the former, however humble or frag- mentary. The objects of design in building might at first seem too obvious to admit of question, and, accordingly, in all countries, up to a certain stage in civilization, they have not varied. Convenience; comfort; resistance to the elements and to violence; durability; economy (or wise distribution of materials, so that none may be idle burdens) ; every kind of concord or congruity, between part and part, between part and whole, between the whole and its purpose, between each organ and its function, its properties and its uses, between appearance and reality (as the appearance of strength in whatever sustains, and of lightness in whatever is sustained ; uni- formity in that which is one thing, and multiformity in that which is a group of things); such are the simple ends which the builders of an early age set before them, and the pursuit of which gives to their works that appearance of design and singleness of purpose which renders them, like the works of nature, always beautiful. Animals and plants are beautiful, inasmuch as everything in them is governed by design, and nothing by chance; and these early build-l ings are more or less beautiful, in proportion as the appearance off design prevails over that of chance. There was, in those times, nol distinction of arts into useful and fine, no clash between use and ornament, for they were identical. Fitness and beauty were tv names for the same thing. The fitness of objects, their harmony ofl every kind, constituted their beauty, i. £., their truth. Truth is * This account is confined to the works of architecture, as such. The othen curiosities that any buildings here described may contain will be found elsewheref under the names of those buildings, as Tower, Temple Church, Westminster Abbey 1 Greenwich Hospital, Cathedral, &c. LONDON ARCHITECTURE— REMARKS ON ITS HISTORY. 125 beauty; and was the only kind of beauty then recognised. Arts ad- vanced by the discovery of new kinds of congruity or truth, the further development of those already discovered, the detection and remedy of incongruities previously overlooked. But when the excellences of any art have been refined and ex- alted to a certain pitch, many causes conspire to turn aside the efforts of artists into another direction. Some, perceiving that works are admired in proportion to the evidence of art or design apparent in them, begin to display art or contrivance merely for its own sake; to meet difficulties of their own making; because in this way their in- genuity can be made more apparent to superficial observers, than by the further improvement of excellences already carried so far as to leave no room for very obvious and striking improvement. Less active minds, again, find the perfection which the art has now attained, rather matter of satisfaction and wonder, than a stimulus to its further advancement; and being dazzled by its general excellence, which blinds them to the small remaining defects, instead of applying themselves to the detection and remedy of these, they aim only at retaining the excellences of former works, or the appearance thereof, with less cost, either of study, or of manual labour, or of both. The chief aim is no longer to improve, but to cheapen, if not the works, at least the designs of them; to find easy and com- pendious ways of reproducing (or rather imitating) those appear- ances that have excited admiration. It is then that the word effect begins to become an important one in the mouths of artists. It means some peculiarity of appearance, that, having arisen from some excel- lence, has so constantly accompanied that excellence, as to become an indication thereof; so that people have learnt, whenever they see this effect, to infer, without further trouble, the presence of that excellence of which it was once the indication. In the second stage of an art, then, its aim is no longer to improve upon the excellences of former works, but to reproduce or exaggerate the effects by which those excellences were accompanied. In cheap works, the effects are merely imitated, in pompous ones exagge- rated; but in both alike, the end of the art has been changed, and is no longer excellence, but effect. In the architecture of England this great change took place in the 14th century; earlier in some branches of the art than in others, but in none much earlier than 1300, and in few later than 1350. As long as art is truly progressive, and directed to excellences and to them alone, no one complains of the want of variety or novelty, even though the excellences aimed at be always the same. But when effect has become the paramount object, to which all others in turn are sacrificed, men begin to think it hard that so much must be paid, and so much endured, for the sake of repeating certain hackneyed effects; and it is natural to look abroad for other kinds of effect that have sprung from the pursuit of other excellences, or of the 120 ARCHITECTURE — ORIGINAL AND REPRESENTATIVE. same under other circumstances, physical or social. Hence, travellers and antiquaries begin to extol, the public to demand, and artists to learn and imitate, first the building-forms of classical antiquity, and at length a variety of styles of architecture; i.-e. 9 to represent the forms, and as far as possible the effects, characteristic of the build- ings of various past ages and foreign nations. And thus the art of building well, becomes, step by step, entirely merged and forgotten in that of so building as to represent the peculiarities of some given class of ancient buildings ; which is all that we now understand by the term architecture. Good terms are wanting to distinguish these two kinds of building, or, indeed, of art in general. The words ancient and modern ar6 too vagne; and we cannot follow those who call the first period that of invention, and the latter that of imitation, for imitation seems needed alike in both, and invention in both, though differently directed. The ancient artists imitated (or even copied) from each other, quite as much as moderns from them; and, on the other hand, invention is shown in counterfeiting effects, as well as in developing excellences ; and is required for the modern purpose of disguising the structure or uses of objects, as well as for the ancient one of ex- pressing them. Indeed, the ingenuity of modern architecture is not duly appreciated. Should we not admire him who could consistently carry out the maxim that, " the use of speech is to conceal what we think " ? and is not some applause also due to the success of an art, whose use is to conceal how and wherefore we build ? If, however, we call the old species, original, and the new, repre- sentative design, though the true distinction may not be fully ex- pressed, perhaps no false one will be implied. We must add, that in the progress of representative art, from its infancy in the 14th century to its present giant development and universal triumph, three periods are to be distinguished; in the first of which, it was confined to the representation of certain effects of our own original style; in the second, it admitted freer and more completely scenic counterfeits, but was confined to one foreign style, and to the representation of its features, as a kind of alphabet to be recombined into designs which were still original as a whole. Lastly, the principle is ex- tended to the representation of whole works, as well as their details, and, at the same time, allowed to embrace a variety of styles instead of one alone. We may thus, on the whole, divide English build- ings chronologically into four periods. The first is that of original art; extending from the earliest times till the first appearance of sacrifices for effect (i. e., to represent the effects of former excellences), which change we may date in round numbers, about 1350. The second period may be called that of indigenous representative art; and extends from the above date till the introduction of the system- atised Italian architecture, by Inigo Jones, about 1600. The third includes the absolute reign of that svstem, which lasted till about FOUR PERIODS OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 127 1780; and was the age of rule and measure, in details, though still requiring original art in general arrangement and ensemble. The fourth period is introduced by the admission of a plurality of styles; by the bursting, even in the established style, of all the barriers and restrictive laws intended to bolster up the expiring art ; the extinc- tion of the artificial life so long kept up. This period is distin- guished from the former by unbounded licence and fancied liberty, though really enslaved more than ever to the representative principle, and to vulgar dictation, that has no idea of art but in the sense of deceit. It is the age of counterfeits more vast and refined than had previously been thought of; the age of "restorations" and of mock- antiques; of works representative not merely in their parts but as a whole ; of the final complete triumph of representation, and ex- clusion of its rival, even from those branches of design on which it had, till now, retained some hold. In such an age, peculiar interest attaches to the relics, however slight, that remain from the first period of art Ever interesting from their excellence, and the rapid progress traceable throughout them ; they are now become doubly so, from their entire opposition of principle to the works surrounding them. Always beautiful, even when erected ; they have now acquired an adventitious beauty not then contemplated — the beauty of unpretence, of being the only honest, the only real objects, amid a wide waste of hollow counter- feits. This is what constitutes their inimitable beauty and priceless value ; and this is why, without any of the antiquarian spirit, we must nevertheless mourn, as much as the most dusty archaeologists, over the numbers of these precious irrecoverables lost from year to year. In London they are perhaps fewer than in any other city old enough to contain any. The successive ravages of iconoclasm, fire, coal smoke, a destructive climate, commercial cupidity, and (worst of all) the forgery called u restoration/ have left this metropolis, (after sweeping off two of the finest monuments within these twenty years,) only four considerable portions of works of the age of unpre- tence ; and a few minute fragments. To these we will conduct the reader in their chronological order. The Pix Office, a low apartment adjoining the south-east corner of Westminster Abbey cloisters, claims to be the first piece of architecture in London, being apparently a part of the monastic buildings of Edward the Confessor, begun about 1050. This room is not accessible to the public,, nor has it any peculiarity of design that may render it interesting, otherwise than for its antiquity and for being the most neat and well-wrought work of our Saxon ancestors remaining. Its extent is about 110 feet by 30, divided by a central range of eight plain round pillars, with simple capitals, and covered by a vaulted ceiling in 18 square groined compartments, similar to those used in Roman building seven centuries before ; the only advance of art, during this long period, having apparently been the throwing off 128 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. the disguises of an effete state of civilization, and the return to honest sterling unpretence. xs* /J CHEAT /£« THE TOWER AND MOAT. The White Tower. — This monument is the keep or nucleus of the Tower of London, that celebrated palatial fortress, so in- timately mixed up in the whole eventful history of mediaeval England. Those who approach the spot with any expectation to be reminded of these associations by any of the old objects and links between the past and the present, usual to such sites, will be utterly disappointed. No fortress of equal age has been so transformed; the two lines of walls and towers being weeded of every original feature, even to a loophole, and betraying their presence only by a few bald surfaces of stone peeping out from the casing and surmounting mass of hideous erections, presenting the double paradox (which no other country can offer) of design without beauty; and irregularity, dirt, and patching without picturesqueness. This arises from the fact, that in England (we believe nowhere else) art (in the sense of deceit) is necessary even Where ornament is not at- tempted. There are other nations who cannot decorate buildings except by pretence, but we are the only one who cannot leave them plain without it. It is essential to bricklaying respectability THE WHITE TOWER. 129 that certain appearances should be counterfeited, and these happen to have a most unfortunate tendency. Their general model seems to be the packing-case, to assimilate with which, many sacrifices of convenience and durability in building must be made, such as the openings reduced to the shallowest practicable depth, and allowed the protection of no hood, every projection eschewed as far as practicable, and the roof either entirely hidden, or kept within the walls which common sense would have it to cover. Hence, what- ever appearance of honesty, and whatever picturesque shadowing, arise, in the unadorned buildings of other countries, from the pro- jections and recessions called for by the constructive requirements, must here be banished ; the " respectability" even of the poorest and meanest requiring all such things to be suppressed. From within this belt of ugliness will be seen rising two piles that replace those burnt in 1841, and are intended to be " in keeping" with the place ; — a pretence in keeping with a reality. We may here see castle work and castellated work in juxtaposition, and form our opinion how they agree. The fine old pretenceless mass of the White Tower overtops the rest. Of this, again, only the general form and those of the windows remain ancient ; everything except the plain surfaces having been remodelled. There seems no foundation for the traditions that would ascribe to any part of this pile a date earlier than the first Norman monarch, who begun it in 1078, on the site of a work he had previously erected, and which is said to have been destroyed by floods. The architect of the present erection was Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, whose skill in such buildings is shown also by a very similar castle at Rochester. The external dimensions of the White Tower are 116 feet long, 96 wide (with a semicircular projection 44 feet in dia- meter, formed by the apsis of the chapel), and the whole 92 feet high. The angular turrets rise considerably above the platform of the roof, how much originally it is now impossible to say. Three of these are square, their centres coincident with the centres of the walls, and their faces but slightly prominent. The stairs in them are circular. The north-eastern, which contains the principal stair- case, is larger than the other three, circular without as well as within, and having its axis at what would be the external angle of the walls. There are also buttresses at uniform intervals, more prominent than is usual in Norman buildings, and diminishing upwards by slopes or weatherings that continue round their sides as well as their front. The external walls are from 10 to 12 feet thick, and the internal ones 7 feet, and of these there are only two, dividing each floor into three apartments, of which the largest measures 90 feet by 36, the next 63 by 28, and the smallest, in the south-east corner, would be about 28 feet square, were it not lengthened by the thickness of the east wall, and the radius of the semicircle beyond it. The whole building consists of four stories, of which the lowest is half under- g 3 130 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. ground, and now covered by modem brick vaults*. The other three are therefore very lofty, especially the top one, the largest room of which was the council chamber. The two larger rooms of each story are divided in the manner of a nave and aisles by two rows of wooden posts, to strengthen the floors above, which are of massive square beams. These posts also give to the rooms a stately propor- tion, the middle avenue being always higher than its breadth. The south-east apartment, however (or that with the circular end), is vaulted on every story. Its upper part forms the chapel, occupying the height of two stories, and having its gallery level with the upper apartments, and its floor with those below them. The gallery extends round its apsis, and along each flank, and is supported by ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, WHITE TOWER * Such solidity as this building possesses might be supposed to insure it against all ordinary casualties. Its huge masses seem to defy time, and even ordinary earthquakes, while they would never repay the trouble of wilful destruction. Yet a means has been found of jeopardising it. It will hardly be believed that gnn- powder is stored in its basement (of all spots in England probably that in which its explosion would do most mischief); and, as if to increase this to the utmost, the upper stories are depositories of valuable records! THE WHITE TOWER— BOW CRYPT. 131 round columns below, that being the most convenient figure for columns that have to be walked round, while above, where this reason no longer exists, the pillars for supporting the ceiling are square. The intervals of these pillars, both above and . below, are spanned, like the windows and all apertures throughout this building, by semicircular arches, because this was the method most suited to the economy of the material, as far as the science of the day could determine, and there was no reason for making them represent anything else. The vaultings are also of the simplest form available for their situation ; those of the upper ceiling, both over the central space and over the galleries, being half cylinders ; but below the galleries, such a ceiling, by springing above the crowns of the arches, would occasion a waste of height, and the Roman intersect- ing or groined vault is hence used, permitting the arches to be open to the full height of the aisle ceilings. As these require a square base from which to spring, the round columns end in square capitals, the connection of which with the circular shaft (being the only sunk work throughout the structure), is carved with devices different on each capital, and this is the only labour bestowed for ornament. The groining springs, on its outer side, from pilasters or internal butments, the intervals between which, having no need of equal strength, are recessed, to enlarge the capacity of the chapel, and vary the sur- faces. " Well," the visitor may now ask, " what is there remarkable in this very plain and unassuming apartment ?" Nothing, probably, at the time of its erection, but it has now something very remark- able, which is this — Though everything be plain, is there anything mean ? Though so little be wrought for ornament, and nothing rnade for ornament, is any ornament missed? — is any seen to have been grudged ? No ; with such rigid economy there is nothing niggardly, no evidence of a struggle between means and effect. Utterly without richness, there is yet no appearance of poverty. Look round and find the modern building, high or low, find the royal presence-chamber of which the same can be said — which is without mean subterfuges, make-shifts, make-believes. If you cannot, it follows that buildings of an early date have something besides their antiquity well worthy of notice, and something besides their style well worthy of imitation. The Crypt of the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow (or de Arcubus), so called, it is said, from being the first church erected in London with stone arches ; now commonly called Bow Church, Cheapside. This crypt, consisting of columns and simple Romanesque groining, is said to be of the age of the Conqueror. It has long been used as a dead- house, and is now quite filled with coffins. Remains of St. Bartholomews Priory Church, Smithfield. — Singularly interesting, both in matter and in manner, is the 132 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE— FIRST PERIOD. monkish legend that recounts the origin of this great monastery, and the adjacent noble hospital of the same name. With enchanting simplicity, it calls up a picture of an age so widely different from our own, as to be assigned by us the lowest rank in what we consider civilization ; yet such a picture as almost drowns its shady traits, ignorance and superstition, beneath its faith, earnestness, unselfishness, and genuine humility. The miraculous embellishments to Rahere's history are few, and readily eliminated, but we should hardly know where to stop this process, or how to credit the main facts, did we not remember that this was the age in which another zealot, infinitely more misguided than he, could set half Europe at war with half Asia. It was not many years after the memorable preaching of Peter the Hermit, that this Rayherus, or Rayer, another penitent son of dissipation (originally, it is said, a court wit or minstrel), addressed himself in a similar style, but for a far worthier object, to Henry I., and then to the London populace, whose attention he could fix only by at first feigning madness. Peni- tence for his earlier life had led him on a pilgrimage to Rome, where a dangerous illness extorted from him a vow, that, if spared, he would found an hospital for sick men ; and on his way back he had, in a vision, been commanded by the Apostle Bartholomew to commence, on an assigned spot in Smithfield, a house of prayer, to be peculiarly favoured and brought to a successful completion, if only begun and carried on in simple uncalculating reliance on the help of the patron, who declared himself the real doer of the work, and Rayhere only his humble instrument. The chosen spot was the most apparently irre- claimable bog in the suburbs, the place of public execution and all abominations, so that its cleansing was profanely ridiculed before, and regarded as a miracle after its accomplishment. With unquestion- ing faith, however, the king grants the two sites, and contributions of stone and labour pour in from all classes of the people, till he has completed, first the hospital in fulfilment of his vow, and then the church and convent in obedience to the vision*. The architect appears to have been named Alfune, and the works were commenced either in 11 13, 1123, or 1133, according to different versions of the above account, though the inscription on the modern hospital, not without authority we must presume, gives so early a date as 1102. Nothing remains of the ancient hospital, nor of the secular buildings of the monastery, though some beautiful cloisterst, * Most of this beautiful legend may be found in Dugdale's " Monasticon," and in Malcom's " Londinium Redivivum," the former copying from a Latin version, and the latter from one in a most quaint dialect, perhaps the very earliest that can be called English. Neither gives it quite entire, but they mutually supply each other's omissions. f Middlesex Passage leads under one defaced compartment of the vaulting of these cloisters. ST. BARTHOLOMEWS, SMITHFIELD. 133 and other fragments, remained as late as 1815, but being of the complete Gothic style, they could not have belonged to Rayhere's work. Time and violence seem to have done their worst, and yet to have been partly baffled by the fortress-like masonry " of good stoone, table wyse," of this once noble temple. Houses are densely packed against its exterior, and the por- tions rising above them are entirely bar- barized, with a com- pleteness of which even modern London affords no other ex- ample. It will there- fore be with no small surprise and pleasure that the visitor, on entering this black and hideous pile, will recognise the ruins of a Norman choir, its sturdy cylindric columns, its lofty tri- forium or gallery(now shut out by a wall behind its pillars), and the four grand arches that supported the central lantern of the cruciform edifice. The north and south arms of the transept are entirely gone (though the site of the latter remains open as a COMPARTMENTS OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHOIR. 134 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. grave-yard), and of the western and longest arm, or nave, only part of the first bay or severy remains. This, together with the northern and southern of the four lantern arches, may possibly present the first examples of the pointed arch in this country. In undertakings of this nature, it was usual, in those days, to commence the building at the east end, and gradually extend it westward, by which means the work could be stopped at any point, and (being closed by a temporary front) serve the purposes of wor- ship till funds should be forthcoming to extend it further, without disturbing the consecrated altar or any part already finished. Hence the four grand arches are probably the work of a successor of Rahere, and the destroyed nave is not unlikely to have presented (like that of Romsey, Hants) a progressive record of the improve- ment of architecture up to the erection of the west front, which extended to Smithfield, where the arch of the doorway to the south aisle remains, and now forms the entrance to a passage called Bar- tholomew Close. This presents a specimen of the refined grace this art had attained in the early part of the thirteenth century. Wide, indeed, is the contrast between Rahere's rude work, and this deli- cately-finished production only a hundred years later. At no other period, and in no other art, can we find a parallel to this rapid pro- gress. Identical in their principles of construction, the two speci- mens of arch work present just that kind of difference which subsists between Stonehenge and the Parthenon ; nor shall we be straining our analogy if we add, that the most ornate Norman architecture bears to the finished Gothic (whether ornate or plain) precisely that relation which the Egyptian post-and-beam building bore to the Greek. In each case, the rude and the refined, the stationary and the progressive style, attempt the same problem, the elaboration and adornment of the same structural core, but they attempt it by widely different methods. In the first, beauty seems to be measured by the number of lines or surfaces; in the second, by the amount of thought and observation of nature, shown in the neatness, fitness, and congruity of every feature. One method is governed by fancy, the other by judgment ; one seems to aim at placing all the manual labour that can be afforded, where it may most show itself; the other, where it will display most thought, contribute most to the intrinsic excellence of the whole, and make it most resemble the works of nature. The first process is properly called ornamentation; the other, decoration (i.e., rendering decorous). The Norman, like all savages, for the sake of ornament neglects geometrical accuracy aud mechanical finish. The Greek and the Gothicist look on these qualities as of primary importance, and attempt nothing else till they are attained. As for the Norman ornaments, many of them (the zigzag, and especially the billet-moulding, the most common in this building) are worthy of Hottentots ; and the example of every savage tribe may show, that this mere fancy ornamentation has no tendency towards THE TEMPLE CHURCH. 135 progressive refinement. When, indeed, the true path has been once found, the refinement originating in structural parts may be applied to such features as these, and thus, in the infancy of the Gothic sys- tem, some of these Norman fancies (the zigzag, for instance) were refined and polished (as may be seen in the arch in Smithneld), but a fuller admission of the principle of decorum soon led to their rejection, and before the complete development of the Gothic archi- tecture they all disappeared. The choir of St. Bartholomew's originally ended in an apsis, but that is now replaced by a straight wall, and the semicircle thus cut off is converted into a charnel-house. The surrounding aisle, or ambulatory, forming more space than the congregation require, is also partitioned off. It is perfectly similar to that in the White Tower, but its vaulting seems to have fallen, and been replaced by a plaster imitation. In judging of the proportions of the church, we must remember that the bases of the columns are hidden, by what depth of accumulation it is impossible, without digging, to say; yet we descend steps to enter, so that the external ground must have risen several feet. The present monument to Rahere was erected about 1410, and is a very poor specimen of a design very common at that time. The strange excrescence of an oriel window projecting from one of the triforium arches, was probably a whim of those to whom Henry VIII. appropriated the priory buildings after their seizure. St. Marys Church, Inner Temple. — The Knights Templars had an establishment in London as early as the reign of Stephen, and removed it to the place where their church now stands, in that of Henry II. This edifice (now belonging to two legal societies named after it) is one of those in which the plan of the Holy Sepulchre Church at Jerusalem was imitated, so far as regards the attaching a rotunda to the western extremity of an ordinary rect- angular church. The rotunda remains as built in 1185, but the pre- sent rectangular part, or choir, is one which replaced the original and was dedicated in 1240. Both are peculiarly interesting as monu- ments of a period of unparalleled activity and progress in original architecture. The rotunda is one of the earliest examples in this country, of that important step, the substitution of pointed arches for round ones ; and the other erection is one of the first examples of the exclusive use of the new arch, which thus took about half a century to establish itself completely and supersede the old one. Of course, so gradual, deliberate, and universal a change, and one which, when once adopted, maintained its ground for centuries, can be ascribed to no mere freak of taste or fancy. It was adopted because conducive, in several ways, to structural excellence ; and, like all improvements in building thus introduced, it appeared first in the larger parts, and gradually descended into all the details. In the plan of this rotunda there is a peculiar and beautiful sym- 130* ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE— FIRST PERIOD. PLAN OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH. (THE NORTHERN ADDITION IS MODERN.) metry hinted at, but not carried out ; nor does any succeeding archi- tect appear to have appropriated the idea here suggested. The six pillars occupy the angles of a hexagon, on each side of which figure a square is constructed, and the outer corners of these six squares form twelve equidistant points in the external circular wall; these are occupied by u responders," or wall-pillars, and, if both these and the six isolated pillars had been joined to each other by ordinary arches, making the external circuit a regular dodecagon, and the inner a hexa- gon, the intermediate space would have consisted of six perfect squares and six equilateral triangles^ producing an exquisite symmetry and completeness in the ceilings. But for the sake of making every part of the building circular (a mere affectation), this beauty was sacrificed, by making the arches (both from pillar to pillar, and from wall-shaft to wall-shaft) arches of double curvature, almost the only ones in existence perhaps, which are at once circular in their plan and pointed in their elevation. This, which never can be required by any real necessity in building, only gives immense trouble and labour in the stone-cutting, to render the arches weak both in reality and in appearance, and, therefore, singularly unsightly. Nor is this the only instance here of the sacrifice of an excellence to a whim. The interlacing blank arches in the upper rotunda plainly belong to this class, and (unlike such inventions as the pointed arch) soon disappeared, however fashionable in their day. There were many such freaks about the time of the rise of Gothic architecture, but the sound judgment of those great, though nameless, artists who founded that system, and their unwavering pursuit of fitness and decorum, enabled them to weed out these superfluities. In every part of this structure, however (except, perhaps, the win- dows), we find the progress made during half a century shown, not merely in enrichment or complication of parts, but in the complica- tion of precisely those which could most harmoniously be so treated ; not of those which might present either the most obvious, the most TEMPLE CHURCH ROTUNDA. 137 INTERIOR OF THE ROTUNDA, TEMPLE CHURCH. usual, the easiest, or the newest field for such treatment. The changes are so well studied and thoroughly weighed that they seem merely necessary corrections to the former style, or to supply deficiencies in it, which we now see, but had not before noticed. Thus the great cylindric shaft was a form too massive to be proper in a pillar built up of numerous little stones. This is lightened by division into a 138 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. cluster of minor shafts, and these arranged to give the most con- venient outline, in the best position for not obstructing the light and view. The arches must partake of both these changes. Their mas- sive broad flat faces and square edges give place to delicate and deep-cut mouldings, with a general conformity to the shape of the pillar whence they spring. Again, in the vaulting (for whose support all this apparatus is provided), the sharp edges, or groins, which, in the White Tower Chapel, seem the mere chance intersection of the two surfaces, are really the parts on which the whole rests, and in strengthening them, the later artists, of course, give them the struc- ture and appearance of the other arches, only with smaller mass, (because they are subordinate in situation, and support less mass,) bat cutting them into the same species of deep mouldings ; and the same treatment is extended to all the bands and separating lines of the struc- ture, and vast study bestowed on the grace and fitness of all their various profiles. How much easier would it have been for these designers to have consulted novelty instead of fitness ; and, instead of these deeply- sought, slowly-discovered improvements in decorum rather than decoration, to have adopted every pretty fancy (every new-fangled form of arch that could be executed, for instance), and to decorate by sticking about carvings wherever there was most convenient room for them, or they would best display themselves. Greater variety, novelty, and enrichment, would have been attainable with far less trouble than they took, — but then we should have had no Gothic architecture. In the rectangular church, of 1240, we find this system pushed further, and assuming that completeness of simple elegance, peculiar to the early Gothic of this country, and which constitutes the style very fitly named the Early English. The windows are here not only decorated with mouldings, consistently with the other parts, but are arranged in groups to fit the contour of the vaulting, to which, indeed, everything else, both within and without, refers, and is subservient. The painting of the interior, lately renewed, unfortunately drowns some of its more permanent and substantial beauties, especially the exquisitely shadowing mouldings, and the mutual relief and contrast afforded by these objects, and the broad surfaces intermixed with them. It is probable that the archway from the rotunda into the choir was originally partly occupied by an organ, not entirely shut- ting out one part from the other, but softening the incongruous junction of two styles, and obviating the necessity for an unsym- metrical excrescence, such as that now added on the north side, for holding that necessary piece of furniture. We need not add, that the design of this and the other woodwork is a forgery ; its closeness of resemblance to the ancient forms preventing no one from seeing that, being entirely representative (of stonework), it cannot pass for the sign-manual of an age of non-representation. The glass painting THE TEMPLE CHUECH CHOIR. 139 is also modern, and, by comparison with what it imitates, it would appear that the progress made in six centuries has been to render drawing rather more rude, expression more uncertain, composition much more confused, colours less clear and immensely fewer in number, their contrasts harsh instead of harmonious, the glass rather dirtier and obtainable in no larger pieces, the joints rather clumsier. The usual fault of Gothic building, ill-poised thrust of arches and vaults, has much injured the interior beauty, by bending all the pil- lars outward ; although the vaulting has an ingenious (perhaps unique) contrivance for obviating this, by loading the narrow side vaults more than the broad central one, with a view to equalise their thrusts. But having no means of calculating, the designer could only guess at the difference, and so did not provide sufficiently. Yet it does not appear that we can do any better. It is said, indeed, that mathematics and engineering have made some advances since the thirteenth century; but foreigners will say, if it were so, surely those who lately spent such vast sums on the decoration of this building, would have de- voted a portion of what they expended in paint to the correction of this glaring defect; and, if not restoring the pillars to their true posi- tion, would at least have arrested their further displacement, by the shifting of a little rubbish, to complete, numero pondere et mensurd y what the original architect could only arrange by guess. Outwardly, the importance of the buttresses and subordinate character of the walls in Gothic building, begins to be fully displayed. The prin- ciple of economizing stone, by reducing all the forces acting on it to compression alone, is sufficiently carried out to display within the wondrous lightness of this architecture*. The pillars are only 2 ft. thick through the whole deeply-hollowed cluster, and the outer walls are almost replaced by glass, being reduced from their original office of supports to that of mere enclosures. The matter is not wasted in tli em, but collected in the buttresses, whose depth from within to without exceeds 9 ft. at the base. As they rise, they diminish by offsets on the outer face only, and not on the sides, for their form and dimensions, each way, are regulated by the strictest economy. This upward diminution, in one direction only, was stigmatised by Wren as u uncomely," and, doubtless, it is so when left in un- redeemed rudeness, as in the less exposed parts of most English Gothic works, and in all modern imitations. But in condemning, on this account, " all Gothic buttresses," that great artist certainly over- looked the various expedients by which the Gothic designers suc- ceeded in obviating or polishing off this defect. In the finest foreign examples (as Cologne), the uncouth offset is studiously avoided in the plainer buttresses, and in the enriched ones it takes the form of a housing for a statue, or a cluster of pinnacles. In the Early English, or, at least, in its first examples (as Salisbury Cathedral, that great work which may be considered to have formed and fixed * Weale's Papers on Architecture. 140 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. this national style), the same thing is still more artistically effected, without ornament, by continuing the weatherings, required on the front of the buttress, round its sides also ; and afterwards only the lower weathering and moulding of each set was thus continued (as in the example before us), the expedient gradually giving place to that of a goblet, or miniature roof, sloping to each side from the middle of the buttress, and varied in many ways ; and finally, by giving but- tresses wholly or in part the form of polygonal turrets, as in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. Some of these contrivances (all having the same purpose) were rarely omitted in important buildings, and never in their principal fronts. We may add, that the evident care be- stowed not only to thus modify these features, but, whenever practi- cable, to dispense with them altogether, shows the idea of building buttresses as ornaments to be entirely of modern origin. The chief internal dimensions of this building are — the rotunda 58 ft. in diameter, and the choir 58 ft. by 82. The clear breadth of the middle aisle in the latter, and the inner circle or lantern in the former, are each 23^ ft.; that of the side aisles, and the surrounding circular aisle, each 15^ ft.; and the vaulting of this last is 27 ft. high, but that of all three straight aisles is 37 ft. The lantern ceiling is modern* Its height is 60 ft., which is also that of the central ridge of the three high- pitched roofs over the straight aisles. Lambeth Palace Chapel retains a crypt, a doorway, and its windows in the same style as the last part of the building just described. These features are of great beauty, but the chapel has otherwise been quite barbarized, and the remainder of this archiepisco- pal residence, though founded as early as the reign of Coeur de Lion (before which it was a residence of the bishops of Rochester), now forms only a confused medley of buildings, with no other fragment older than the 15th century. Remains of St. Mary Overy, now St. Saviours, Southwark. — A remote Saxon origin is assigned to this DOORWAY TO LAMBETH PALACE CHAPEL. ST. SAVIOURS, SOUTHWARK. 141 monastery, which was at first a nunnery sup- ported by the profits of the adjoining ferry on the site of London Bridge. After various changes, and being refounded as a priory of canons regular in the reign of Henry I., it was destroyed by fire in 1213, and re- built by Peter de RupibusJ Bishop of Winchester, and guar- dian of the young king Henry III. The present fragment con- sists of the eastern arm and transept of this church, which was cruciform, and (like St. Bartholo- mew's) of the second class as regards mag- nitude. Its style, wherever not patched, is therefore cooeval with that of the Tem- ple Church choir, but the exterior has great- ly suffered from the admixture of dates, especially the south transept, w r hich w T as probably remodelled after another fire that destroyed the prior v in the reign of Richard II. Of the same period, or later, is the design of the pinnacles over the choir aisles, and probably the carcase of the tower, which was bar- barized into its present aspect in the 17th century. The more shameless pauperism of yet later times obtrudes itself in the NOW DESTROYED. 142 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE-- FIRST PERIOD. sides of the north transept; but its end*, and all the other parts of the exterior were, one by one, as funds could be afforded, under- going careful renovation in better stone than the original; when a sudden reaction of parochial opinion, more merciless than any of the conflagrations of old South wark, swept off the whole nave (till then less patched than any other part), and thus one of those priceless treasures, of which England, and its capital especially, had so few to spare — a piece of original building art — a thing which the whole power of the modern world cannot produce, yet thinks it worth while to imitate — was first petted for some years at great expense, and then reduced for ever to a mutilated fragment ; and this for the sake of a paltry rood of ground, on which to erect — we will not say what — but leave the visitor to form his own impressions of the metro- politan "Gothic'* of 1840. In the interior of the ancient fragment, the choir has an aspect remarkably firm and majestic for one of second-rate scale, chiefly on account of the lines retaining their straightness and verticality much better than is usual in Gothic buildings. This is attributable partly to the large mass and well-placing of the flying buttresses, and those large counterpoising pinnacles above mentioned, but more to the shortness of the aisle pillars, which, when made loftier (as at Salis- bury and Westminster), were liable to be thrust inward at their capitals by the vaultings of the aisles. This building is superior in permanence of equilibrium to either of those stupendous works, and is perhaps the best piece of engineering of its age; but this it mainly owes to retaining that proportion between the three stories which was usual in the round-arched, and particularly in the Norman buildings, instead of heightening the lower arches and aisles at the expense of the second story (or triforium), as was was done in most edifices after the change to the pointed arch, contributing to that general loftiness so proper in the new style, to accord with its tallness of features and aspiring character of forms. This Romanesque lowness of the aisles affects especially their windows, which become in consequence dwarfish. The central avenue, however, is nobly proportioned, and enables the spectator to realize the grandeur and unity of the whole, when the nave continued ihe same design throughout its seven compartments, and the tower formed a square lantern, open to double the height of the four avenues. The altar-screen is an addition, evidently belonging to an age of luxury and " effect." It is certainly not earlier than the 15th century, and said to be erected by Bishop Fox of Winchester. It is the least elaborate of four on the same general idea, of which the earliest is * It is curious to observe how short-sighted parsimony has outwitted itself. Along the north side of this building, the only two bits of finished exterior, stuck on to save appearances, are now precisely the only parts that can by no means be seen. The north end of the transept was well restored, but the reader has only our word for it. WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 143 at Christchurch, Hants, a larger at St. Alban s, and the largest and richest at Winchester Cathedral. The screen covers two archways of the original building, leading into the Lady Chapel. This is now r entered only from the ends of the aisles. It is remarkable for its position, lying across from north to southland (having three aisles of equal height) is almost an exact miniature of the Temple choir. The details throughout this building are perhaps less elaborate than in any contemporary works of the same class, but they regularly increase in quantity and depth of moulding, from the lower to the upper parts; and (like all works of original architecture) however plain, they never give the smallest impression of meanness or inabi- lity to make them as complete as the designers would have them. This expression, so subversive of all handsomeness, is peculiar to representative art ; for where nothing is represented, we cannot meet with any symptom of insufficient, poor, or starved representation. The tomb of Gower, in the south transept, is a favourable speci- men of the sepulchral memorials of that age. The poet contributed largely to the repairs of the building after the fire about 1400. Westminster Abbey Church. — Though singularly few in number, the remains of original architecture in this capital include one produc- tion, in many respects unrivalled even among works produced, like itself, almost at the very meridian of that art ; when it had nearly reached the very highest pitch of refinement ever attained perhaps in any country, without verging in its new direction towards representa- tive design. Not only does this national masterpiece exhibit, in its best parts (those erected by Edward I.), the very purest and most perfect Gothic style in existence (that which has its various mem- bers most equally developed), but the whole structure is (with the sole exception of the early English paragon at Salisbury) the most complete and uniform monument of original art in this country. Though standing on this score, however, second, it does so longo intervallo ; for while the early English fane was begun and finished in one lifetime, this (though on an uniform design) was carried on through many successive generations, all of whom left their stamp in the minutiae of details ; and still remains, like most of the mediaeval temples, at once unfinished and partly in ruins. While it requires, at the former edifice, a critical eye to detect the few and unimportant mutilations; here (owing to the unfortunate selection of the stone) every eye is offended by the wholesale patching of the exterior with rude makeshifts; the intended central steeple (no less requisite for stability than for beauty) is wanting, and its absence supplied by expedients that must eventually entail ruin on the whole; the eastern chapel is replaced by an incongruous erection ; the three end fronts of the building are all re-modelled, the cloisters patched in many styles, and the chapter-house virtually demolished ; all which members, hi the Salisbury group, remain intact. Still, the noble proportions and outline defy mutilation even on the exterior, and internally the whole 144 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. is almost of a piece, except the three great windows at the north, south, and west extremities. The site of this famous minster was originally surrounded by the Thames, and correctly described as " Thorny Island," on which, about the year 610, Sebert, king of Essex (including Middlesex), having embraced Christianity at the preaching of Augustine's mis- sionary, Mellitus, immediately founded the small church which was the nucleus of this splendid edifice. In the time of the last of our Saxon monarchs, the establishment still consisted only of " a few Benedict monkes under an abbote serving Christ; very poor they were, and little was given them for their reliefe." The royal Confessor, however, having vowed a pilgrimage to Rome, which he found no opportunity of making, sent a solemn embassy to Leo IX., to beg a dispensation, which was granted on condition of his giving part of the money allotted for his journey, to the poor, and with the remainder either building or rebuilding and endowing a monastery in honour of St. Peter. A tenth of his entire substance " as well in gold, silver, and cattle, as in all his other possessions," was forthwith devoted to this purpose, and sufficed to replace Sebert's little church by one " begunne in such sort as should become the Prince of the Apostles/' This w r as probably equal in extent (though perhaps not in height) to the present fabric, for a single arch of the venerable pile still appears at a considerable height, outside the south end of the transept ; and the grand remains at Winchester, as well as the measurements given in ancient chronicles, show that the works which Saxon piety con- sidered to " become the Prince of the Apostles," were not the mean erections that our pride would fain suppose them, but fully equalled our present cathedrals in scale and solidity. The devout king com- menced this building about 1050, and it was so far finished (perhaps without the nave), as to be dedicated on the Innocents' Day, 1065, only a week before his decease. A hundred and fifty years later, the young Henry IIL seems to have chosen this revered and now canonised monarch, as his patron and model ; and in 1220, being still only thirteen years old, he begun the rebuilding of Edward's church, in the new and beautiful style then in course of development ; but the part then erected was only the eastern or Lady chapel, now replaced by that of Henry VII. It probably resembled the works of the same nature, begun only the previous year at Salisbury, and about the same time at St. Mary Overy, or the somewhat later choir of the Temple Church. The oldest parts of the present building are in a more advanced style, the preparations for them, by pulling down the Saxon choir and central tower, not taking place till 1245 ; and the new choir and transept were opened with great pomp in 1269. As an advance beyond the triple groups of windows used in those buildings, we here have two tall arched lights, and a circular or rose- formed aperture between their heads, the whole formed into one window by one inclosing arch, and WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 145 piercing the small triangular spaces left between the curves. England contains elsewhere examples of every stage of this process, the passage from a group of windows to a com- pound window, and thence to a divided or traceried window, — showing this to be a spontaneous growth of the Gothic constructive princi- ples, and not a mere fashion imported from the Continent : though it also sprung up there just as na- turally, and perhaps more quickly at- tained its utmost development ; for the windows at Cologne Cathedral (a work strictly contemporary with this) are more complete examples of tracery ; while on the other hand, the pillars, mouldings, and vaulting are more advanced and refined here than at Cologne. The upper vaultings present, perhaps, the first instance of a rib (or rather a band of deeply- hollowed foliage) running along each ridge ; but the general progress is seen less in the introduc- tion of new features than in the studious attention to give the last degree of polish and grace to the proportions both of the smallest detail and of everv larger division. This is almost the onlv Gothic building NORTH END OF THE TRANSEPT, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. (The tracery and glass of the circular window is modem.) 146 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. (at least in England) in which there is nothing stunted or dwarfish, or over lengthy, compared with adjoining objects, and yet the forms are by no means monotonous. Externally the peculiar range of triangular windows lighting the triforium is a most masterly con- trivance, adding greatly both to beauty and grandeur, by its contrast with the tall stories above and below it, and by assisting us in a true estimation of the uncommon height of the whole. As for the interior of the same story, there is perhaps nothing else in the whole range of Gothic art so perfectly beautiful, whether seen in the sides of the building as a double colonnade with dark background, at the south transept end, where it is single and backed by windows, or at the north end by a plain wall. Hardly less elegant is the blank arcade that once continued round the whole interior under the lower windows, but of which faithless guardians have left only some small fragments unsold to gratify vulgar vanity. In a word, every feature and detail of this interior has a most rare completeness and harmony, whether viewed by itself or in connection with adjoining parts, or with the whole. Whether you take much or little, the portion thus separately viewed is beautiful and void of incongruity; and this, while it places beyond a doubt the unity and integrity of the original design, bears testimony to the wondrous amount of study bestowed on the adjustment of such various conflicting dimensions, every re- lation of which seems provided for and thought out. In justice to so truly noble a design, the abbots and royal patrons who gradually continued the works westward from the transept, did not deviate therefrom, as was unfortunately the practice of the other finishers of ecclesiastical buildings. Hence, though protracted even into the fifteenth century, this structure was less affected by new styles and fashions, than many others whose construction extended through a far shorter period. The rage for windows of many divi- sions and complex tracery was not allowed here to break in upon the unity of the old design; and the only innovations admitted were in mouldings and points of mere detail ; if we except the introduction of additional ribs (called tiercerons) in the main vault of the nave, a decided advance both in carrying out the Gothic constructive economy, and in producing a proper increase of intricacy and lightness toward the upper parts. The two circular windows were an alteration made in the age of Richard II., and the great western one, of the " perpen- dicular" fashion, as late as 1490. Of glass painting, that at the east end alone is antique ; that at the north and west ends, modern and very good of its kind ; that at the south, pseudo-antique presenting the same qualities as that of the Temple Church (p. 139). The effect of following Edward the Confessor's old foundations is seen in some awkward irregularities of the place. The choir contracts in breadth before beginning to form the apsis or round termination*. * This may, however, be intended, as well as the gradual decrease in the breadths WESTMINSTER ABBEY CLOISTERS. 147 The transept and main avenue are of equal breadth, but the transept aisles are considerably wider than the longitudinal ones, and to disguise this, the general width of the arches is made intermediate between these two widths. This renders all the eight arches next the central crossing unlike the others, a defect which could only be remedied by forming this part into an octagon, as at Ely Cathedral, a change also conducive to convenience and stability, as it would admit a larger congregation within hearing distance, and avert the ruin which the iron ties now necessary across the arches and aisles must sooner or later occasion*. Sir C. Wren thought with much reason that the polygonal outer inclosures of the four chapels surrounding the apsis were an afterthought, adopted during the erection of that part, for, as he observed, the two buttresses standing in the nooks formed externally between these chapels are quite needless. Yet we find buttresses similarly placed and equally superfluous, in Cologne Cathedral and other contemporary works of this kind. Much difficulty seems to have attended the planning of the cloister, which could not be brought close enough to the building to cover certain revered graves, without some unique and bold expedients. The northern arcade so closely adjoins the wall of the nave, as to require the placing its buttresses outside this cloister, and spanning over it ; while the eastern cloister actually enters within the church, and is, for about half its length, inclosed in the south transept, and covered by its western aisle. These two arcades are of different periods in the reign of Edward I., but the two other walks (whose vaultings are of a most nice and finished geometrical character) are probably of the loth century. From the south walk, the view of that side of the nave is very remarkable, the Hxe tiers of arch buttresses (three span- ning over the cloister and two over the aisle) forming a display of those features quite unparalleled. In the centre of the eastern cloister, a gorgeously-enriched com- partment marks the entrance to the chapter-house, now a repository for records. It was, when perfect, almost a facsimile of that at of the successive arches in the eastern arm of the building, to obviate the sudden change from the straight colonnades of the sides, to the curved and much more thick- set range forming the apsis ; the abruptness of which change in most choirs of this kind (as at Cologne, Amiens, &c.) almost disjoins the apsis from the rest, and makes it appear an afterthought. * The dependence on these ties is entirely opposed to Gothic principles of building, but unavoidable here from the absence of the intended tower that was to steady its four supporting pillars against the thrusts that now bend them so perceptibly inwards. The removal of these four pillars and formation of an octagon would, as Sir C. Wren showed, answer this end still better, even without much superincumbent weight. But without the tower or the octagon, there is no remedy but either throwing four arches across in the middle height, like those at Wells Cathedral ; or else continuing the metal ties throughout every arch in the building, an addition no doubt most objectionable, but not more so than the present ties which subject the whole to the effects of their expansion and contraction by heat and cold, besides endangering it by their constant decay. H 2 148 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. GROUND PLAN OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY. CHANGES IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 149 Salisbury; an octagon room, surrounded, first, with a blank arcade, or range of stone stalls, exquisitely en- riched, then with eight vast windows, each filling an entire side; and covered with vaulting springing from one central clustered pillar. The House of Commons usually met in this beautiful room (so admirably fitted for such an assembly) till the first year of Edward VI. A sort of fatality seems to have attended the devia- tions from the original de- sign, for every one of them has had in its turn to be re- placed or mutilated. The west front of 1480-90 has left only its general features recognisable amid the havoc caused by Wrens bold but abortive attempts to improve the Gothic by additions of his favourite classic features. The northern wheel window of the transept has fared little better, being renewed in 1722, but certainly not restored ; for, in Gothic building, all the stonework had a constructive meaning, the tracery of windows was not governed by fancy, and consequently they did not introduce inverted arches of stone hanging unsupported except by its adhesion. The corresponding south window has been twice restored; first, forty years before Wrens survey, who observed it was done well> which we may believe, from the purity of the present one, copied exactly from it by Mr. Gayfere, mason, in 1814. A fire in the roofs in 1803 led to a remodelling of the central rudimentary tower. The blank arches in its internal faces formerly opened into the roofs, and probably contained tracery. The whole is now much too bare, and the vaulting springing not only from the angles, but from the sides, where there is no bntment, betrays itself to be only a piece of plaster scenery. The last addition, however, the woodwork of the choir, erected in 1847, is a very happy imitation of the mode in which the artists of the purest Gothic times treated this kind of A COMPARTMENT OF THE CLOISTER WALLS. 150 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. semi-architectural furniture. Unluckily this is disfigured by puerile efforts to half suppress and half conceal the organ, in deference to the common notion that grandeur is measured by the number of feet we can see straightforward; this member having till then stood in its usual place, over the entrance from the nave, but with- out rising high enough to conceal either end of the building from a spectator on the floor at the other end. Its removal admits a view from the choir of nothing that was not previously seen, except the incongruous and meagre west window, the prominent advancing glare of which now marks the exact extent of the building, which formerly was most artistically concealed; for the vaulting of the nave being nearly all visible over the organ, but its length being just too great to be all seen, whether there were little or much beyond view, was left to the imagination ; whereas now we are at once shown how short the building is. The plan will show the chief dimensions of this structure, which is inferior to most of the English cathedrals in extent, but superior to any of them in height. Both in this respect, and in arrangement of plan, it resembles the ecclesiastical structures of France much more than those of England ; and the ruling idea, as regards proportions, was to make the height of all apertures or vistas thrice their breadth, as will appear from these measures. Breadth of the main avenues 34 ft., height, 102; breadth of the tower arches, 33 ft., height, 99; mean breadth of aisles and their arches, 15| ft., height, 46-J-; lower win- dows (clear opening), 10^ ft., height, 31^; upper windows, 10 ft., height, 30; triforium apertures, 3| ft., height, 10^. The sepulchral memorials that nearly fill the lower parts of this edifice are a subject we would fain leave untouched. The wide world presents probably no other such contrast as that between this matchless temple and the contents that profane it. History hardly suffices to establish so incredible a fact, as that one and the same people could descend in five centuries from that height of refinement to this un- paralleled depth of vulgarity. In this spot are brought together, in their utmost intensity, the most opposite combinations of mental qua- lities — the noblest and the basest, the most lovely and the most odious that mute matter could by any torture be made to embody. Most humiliating is the thought that each of these things was once expected to please, was actually thought beautiful, when the very first step taken was the ugly brutal selfishness of hacking away the hard-thought, hard- wrought labour of pious heads and hands of old, to replace it by some rude mass of marble as a foil to u throw out" the new expression of private vanity. How revoltingly misplaced too is the shouldering, elbowing strife, with which, like advertising placards or rival shops, with every trick that can be devised for glaring prominence, they struggle to outstare each other, as if the very well-being of the defunct depended upon whose statue shall be seen first, or whose epitaph read oftenest. How calmly, amid all this feverish strife, lie the modest CHANGES IN WESTMINSTER PALACE. 151 retiring memorials of the mighty or the worthy of old, from the digni- fied reposing figures of the royal Plantagenets to the unpretending brasses of the untitled and humble, if indeed modern selfishness has left any uncovered. No other nation possesses, or if possessing, could suffer the presence of so clamorous a witness of its degradation ; and the time will probably come that the disgrace will be felt beyond endurance, the whole of the monuments since that of Islyp re- moved — those few that possess sculptural merit, to a fitter repository, the rest to be buried if possible in oblivion ; and when the beauteous temple, cleansed from these defilements, and with the mouldings of its original decoration restored — for the carvings never can be — will contain only modest mementos of those really great or really buried within its walls, none occupying the floor, and none filling more tban one window light, or one of the exquisite blank arches below ; each of which affords ample space for any Phidias to mark with appropriate beauty the resting-place of any Newton ; though not enough for vanity to supply the want of excellence by pomp and glare, nor to comme- morate persons whose memory a pyramid could not by itself preserve. St. Stephens Crypt, West- minster Palace, — This, which is also called " St. Marys Chapel in the vaults," formed the base- ment of St. Stephens Chapel, famous for inclosing the room in which the House of Com- mons assembled, from the ac- cession of Edward VI. till its destruction by the fire of 1834. That catastrophe, which swept off the flimsy representative erections of yesterday like stubble, raged in vain against the sterling reality of the old church- work. The chapel of the Plantagenets stood amid the wreck, not only unscathed, but purged of the rude accu- mulations of lath and plaster, and displaying the long-con- cealed beauties of its most elaborate and original decora- tion. The right-minded will not cease to deplore, nor ene- mies of England to remind her, that among the vast wealth devoted to her new Palace of Parliament, nothing could be done with this irrecoverable relic of the days of unpretence and sterling magnificence, but to raze PASSAGE FROM ST. STEPHEN'S CLOISTERS TO THE CRYPT. 152 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. it to the ground ; to destroy another precious lump of the material salt of the earth, because, being a work of the fourteenth century (and therefore in the style of the fourteenth century), it would not assi- milate with — what ? — with the style of the nineteenth ? — no, with an unbuilt design in which it was our fancy to represent the style of the fifteenth. Now, if (as we have seen in the Abbey Church) those who wrought in the styles of their own times could respect the less perfect labours of their ancestors, and sacrifice a little uniformity to their pre- servation, it surely is rather hard that we, who pretend but to repre- sent the styles of other times, cannot show the same respect; especially as, with us, it necessitates no breach of uniformity, since we can assume the style of any age that fancy may dictate. This stickling for such rigid unity of style seems, moreover, quite peculiar to the case in ques- tion, for we know of no other modern building in which it is held at all important. No one proposes, for the sake of unity, to rebuild the incongruous parts of Greenwich, Somerset House, or the British Museum, though they are not relics of an extinct art, nor remarkable for either interest or beauty ; and considering that St. Stephens was very remarkable for both ; considering, too, that it would have been so inclosed in the courts of the new palace as never, by any chance, to be visible simultaneously with any of its principal parts, we can- not help thinking this complex pile might have retained in its bosom that one relic of an earlier age, with as much grace as the Capitol retained its thatched hut, the Jewish Temple its curtained tabernacle, or the adjacent abbey and most of our cathedrals their Saxon, Norman, or Semi-Gothic remnants. But we do not say this to beg the question. Let the necessity for an absolute unity of style throughout the palace and all it contains, be admitted in its full rigour — then we say, that if the representation of some past style were indispensable, that of the fifteenth century style was not indispensable ; and though it might have cost more to make a new design than to pull down this trouble- some chapel — though economy might have been consulted in sacri- ficing the stone building to save the paper design, still we cannot but think that, however late the difficulties were discovered, and whatever the cost of rectifying past blunders, the representative build- ings should have been assimilated to the real; and not the real re- built to fit the representative. Thus, then, fell St. Stephens, a prey not to the fire but to the re- building ; but happily the under-chapel, a specimen of a still purer style, escaped both ordeals, and now remains perhaps the most complete epitome of Gothic taste and science in existence. This little morceau just contains the rudiments, and no more, of every one of those me- thods of construction and design which Professor Willis has enumerated as essential to the completeness of the Gothic system ; so that if all other examples were lost, this one would possibly enable us to recon- struct that system. It does not contain them, indeed, highly developed, for it is not only small and simple in form, but singularly free from over intricacy. Still, there they all are, and unadulterated with any st. Stephen's crypt. 153 of the whims that soon afterwards appeared and accompanied their fuller development. This work is somewhat older than St. Stephen's Chapel itself was, having heen commenced by Edward I. in 1292, and its incombustible structure withstood a fire that consumed the rest of the palace six years afterwards, as well as the catastrophe of our own days. Like other crypts, it is of course of low proportions, the height (which, cannot be exactly known, from the loss of the original pavement) not exceeding the clear breadth. It has no division by detached pillars ; but the masses projecting inwards, and, dividing window from window, take the form of short massive clusters, and the vault-ribs and all other members partake of the same bold thick character, so proper to a low interior, which, from the ceiling exceeding the sur- face of its supports, requires everywhere an expression of mass and strength. Such an example, coeval with what is commonly supposed the lightest and loftiest period of Gothic architecture, is a valu- able proof of the versatility of that style which, like all real and ori- ginal art, accommodates itself to these varying requirements, instead of sacrificing them — or else truth and consistency — to some supposed character of its own. The peculiar tracery of the windows is a masterly expedient to obviate the dwarfish effect of their low propor- tion. Though here exquisitely beautiful, it would be uncouth, because unmotived, in loftier -windows. The east end, now destroyed, contained three equal windows, of two lights each, the vaulting being beautifully varied to fit their heads. This vault is an advance beyond that of the abbey nave, not only having the ribs called tiercerons, but admitting the principle that they may divide in the middle of their course into separate branches. We here also find the beautiful subordination of first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate members, or lines of mouldings, not only in the tracery, but (perhaps for the first time) in the vaulting. It would be impossible for all these principles to be exhibited in any- work simpler or plainer than the present; and it is probably the only one that exhibits them all without displaying any symptom of decline, false luxury, or tendency towards representative design. If the Gothic architecture should ever again become a living art, should ever be readopted with a view to its future advancement, this is the point at which it would have to be taken up. The dimensions of this little edifice are, internal length 91 ft. ; breadth varying from 23i| ft. in the clear, to 33 ft. between the glass of the windows; height, to the springing, about 10 or 12 ft., above the springing, 12 ft. This is the last fragment in London that can be decidedly classed in the first or progressive period of English architecture. It will be observed, that every step hitherto in the progress of this art originated in ecclesiastical buildings, and could never have occurred but for the consistent adherence to certain principles, two of which, at least, were quite peculiar to the church-builders of those times. h 8 154 APPROACH OF FALSE LUXURY, One of these was a certain spirit of sacrifice, that amounted to no less than the devotion of the first and best of everything, to a service that was supposed to " disdain the lore Of nicely calculated less or more." It was thought necessary for sacred edifices not only to excel all secular ones, hut to excel them in everything, in every imaginable kind of excellence. The other principle (no less peculiar to those times) consisted in the exclusive use, throughout all the visible parts of buildings, of a method of construction, which may be called the com- pressive method, because it makes use of only one kind of strength in the material, viz., its resistance to compression. It recognises no transverse, and no tensile strength, so that no portion of matter is allowed to bear a force, however small, tending either to bend or to stretch it. Now, up to the commencement of the fourteenth century, every novelty introduced into church architecture (and not rejected again as a mere passing whim) had consisted in a further development of one or both of these principles ; but in the next period, on which we are now to enter, every general and permanent change tends to a departure from the first of them, and generally from the second also. Nothing shows this more conspicuously than the frequent erection of works of considerable splendour (resulting from the application of all the subordinate features and decorations of the Gothic system), but without the fundamental excellence for the sake of which this whole system was contrived, and without which, it has no meaning. As walls and pillars do not constitute an edifice, so neither do walls possessing the merits of durability, resistance to decay, or to fire, constitute a durable, a permanent, or a fireproof building. It is the roof that makes the house, and therefore no edifice can be called per- manent which has not a permanent covering. Moreover, none can be comfortable, salubrious, or fit for constant use (uninterrupted by re- pairs) unless it have two independent coverings with a considerable space between (a necessity, which we admit in domestic buildings even to this day). Hence, as the early church-builders aimed at making those structures better than secular ones (not more effective)^ their efforts were directed first to little else than the accomplishment of this object, the covering of the largest and loftiest churches with a com- plete ceiling, independent of the external roof, and containing no combustible or decaying materials ; a problem not easy in an unscien- tific age, and not accomplished in the neighbouring continental countries till late in the eleventh century, nor in England till near the end of the twelfth. This done, the next problem (that of the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries) was the refining, beautifying, and harmonizing to- gether, of this and all the other members of the building. The inner and permanent covering then is the soul of the whole organism ; and the unity and congruity of what we call Gothic architecture consists in AND REPRESENTATIVE DESIGN. 155 every feature being made for the vaulting ; either mechanically to fit, sustain, or balance it ; or aesthetically to harmonize with it. Hence arose that singular j structural principle above-mentioned, that of universal compression. Hence, also, when this chief and governing member of the building was omitted, both the above principles were plainly abandoned ; for, firstly, the innovation, instead of adding (as all previous innovations had done) a new excellence to sacred buildings, took away an excellence they hitherto had — and this without the smallest pretence of a substitute — simply grudged and denied it, for the sake of cheapness (or effect^ which means here the same thing) ; and, secondly, as a timber roof or ceiling could not, from the nature of the material, be constructed on the compressive principle (and as the idea was not yet entertained, of representing a sham construction), all that system of decoration, founded on univerally compressive structure, and which was so beautiful and fit in the vaulted building, was now worse than thrown away, being a mere incongruity, since it must be flatly contradicted by the chief member of all, the ceiling or roof. It is probable that the first important building in which this occurred was St. Stephen's Chapel. The great projection of its buttresses, in- deed, as well as the commencement of the internal treatment, shows that it was intended by its founder, Edward I., to have been vaulted, like the crypt below (in which case it would have stood entire to this day) ; but, notwithstanding the destruction of the whole palace by fire in 1299, it is evident that when the work was proceeded with by Edward III., neither durability nor unity of design were thought so well worth paying for, as a dazzling display of minute ornaments ; which must have cost more than would have sufficed to complete the original design, and to spare its finisher the distinction of being the introducer of makeshifts into ecclesiastical architecture — the first church-builder (probably in any country) who could not afford to build so well as those who preceded him. Without knowing how the interior of the roof (or ceiling, if it had one) of this building was treated, it is impossible to say whether it be- longed strictly to the class of representative works; but it will be observed, that so naturally and immediately does the new aim — effect — induce the new principle of design — representation — that, as soon as builders attempted to retain the Gothic character in works not intended to be vaulted, this principle might be said to appear ; for the walls, &c, de- corated in this manner, cannot be called Gothic architecture, but only a representation thereof, just as the Roman architecture was a repre- sentation of the Grecian*. Still, the works erected in the reigns of the second and third Edwards exhibit only the rudimentary tendency towards this new principle of design, and must therefore take an in- termediate place between the first and second periods of building. * That the Roman architecture (in the time of the empire) was entirely of the representative kind, like ours since the time of Edward III., has been observed above (note, page 122). 156 ELY €HAPEL — AUSTIN FRIAKS CHURCH. In London we have only two fragments of the works of this age, and these so modernized as to retain hardly a feature beyond the windows. Ely Chapel, Ely Place, Holborn, belonged to the splendid palatial town -residence of the Bishops of Ely, which was founded about the beginning of the fourteenth century, but the precise date of the chapel is not known. The style, however, points evidently to the reign of Edward II., though the east window appears somewhat later than the rest. The west window is more elegant, but the side windows have lost their tracery, and retain only their external mouldings, which, to- gether with the head of a very finished and beautiful doorway, in the south side, can be seen only by threading some narrow courts. The absence of buttresses, and disposition of the inside decorations, show that no vaulting was ever contemplated, and the representative character of these decorations is betrayed by their flatness, reminding one of the pilaster work applied to Roman and modern buildings, to represent, in shallow relief, the beauties of Grecian architecture. These walls now serve to inclose a Welsh place of worship. The Dutch Church, formerly that of the Augustine Friars, Broad Street, City, consists of the nave only of the ancient building, which was erected in 1354, and had a transept and central spire, considered for centuries a chief ornament of the capital. This building belongs to the same class as the Temple Church, having no clerestory, but all three aisles nearly of equal height, on which account they are also nearly equalized in breadth, to prevent the centre one appearing dwarfish. The exterior having every feature pared off, to render it genteel (on the packing-case principle), no beauty of course remains but that of the window tracery, which is of the flowing kind, the most uncommon in England, being confined to the reign of Edward III., and never in general use even then. These windows are all alike, except the central west one ; and, indeed, this style of tracery admits of far less variety than the preceding kind ; and also of less variation in the mouldings, whence arises a flat- ness and shallowness, for which its other beauties cannot compensate. s _h '■"".' J^fr' -- WINDOW FROM AUSTIN FRIARS. WESTMINSTER HALL REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE. 157 Of the first period of Representative architecture, viz., that in which artists confined themselves to the representation of the indigenous Gothic style, London retains as few specimens as of the original style itself; but of these few, there are two not less remarkable for unique design, than for a degree of splendour that places them in the first rank among the works of their respective classes. Westminster Hall, — This most unique apartment — the greatest remnant in existence of Gothic palatial architecture — was erected by Richard II. between 1395 and his deposition in 1399. All the exterior, as now visible, is of modern design, except the north porch and the window over it. These, with the whole of the internal stone-work, form one of the earliest specimens of what is called (from the number or prominence of lines at right angles to each other), the perpendicular style. This name applies to English architecture for about half the period that the pointed arch was in >e ; for the tendency to convert curves into vertical and horizontal lines began at the close of the Edwardian era, and continually in- creased till the breaking up of the last vestiges of Gothic design, under Elizabeth. All the other changes by which the Gothic passed into its later modifications are similar in spirit and principle to those by which the features of Grecian building were Romanized. They show a general aim to abridge thought, by diverting it from those niceties which court and satisfy prolonged inspection, and confining it to such points as conduce to the effect of the first coup d'ceil. In every element (moulding, carving, tracery, &c.) there reigns the same tendency to find out, if not deceptive, at least compendious, mode of representing the admired effects of former art. In everything, even where there is augmented apparent enrichment and complica- tion, there is real simplification or saving of thought; and the accumulation of these compendious methods and artistic tricks, tended of course to increasing sameness, and the reduction of the art more and more to rule and routine. With regard to the gorgeous roof which forms the chief part of this edifice, we cannot bat regard it as holding that place among mediaeval structures which the Colosseum held among those of antiquity, and bearing that relation to the Gothic temples which that amphitheatre did to the Grecian ones; being the greatest and most magnificent instance of the representation of their features for the purpose of ornamenting by rudeness a new and totally-different kind of construction. We must, in neither case, allow the imposing effects to beguile us into a notion that the art is of the true kind. Columns and entablatures borrowed from Greek porticoes to be stuck against a Roman arcade are a fiction, without use or meaning; and consequently, though they may ornament, they do not decorate it, L e., render it decorous. In the same category are the arch moulding and spandril-work borrowed from Gothic masonry to be applied to beautify timber framing. 158 BEPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. We see, then, as early as the fourteenth century, how representative design begins. Of course there are innumerable steps between the state of society that first necessitates it, and that which possesses nothing else and can produce nothing else ; but, if disposed to con- demn this anomaly in its latest and fullest manifestations, as a breach of common sense, we should trace it back through its various stages, and then we should see that our condemnation must, to be consistent, begin much earlier than many would be willing to allow. The dimensions of Westminster Hall (see " Westminister Hall") are, internally, 239 ft. by 68 (being the largest room in Europe without pillars, except that at Padua*), and 42 ft. high. The timber arches, however, spring from an internal cornice at only half this height ; while on the other hand, the central part is left open to the collar beam, half way up the external planes of the roof, which occupy somewhat more height vertically than the walls themselves. Thus the upper half of this edifice is entirely of timber, and only the lower fourth is entirely of stone ; the whole height being divided into four nearly equal parts, viz., from the floor to the commence- ment of the timber work, thence to the hammer-beams, or top of the stone-work, thence to the collar-beam, or top of the internal space, and thence to the ridge. The fine end windows extend through the second and third of these divisions ; but the original side windows are confined to the second of them. The dormers (added preparatory to the coronation of George IV.) have greatly improved the chiaro-scuro, and would have improved it yet much more if placed higher. The obvious place for them was above the collar- beam. Their exterior, compared with that of the lantern (also modern and of cast iron), will show that contrast is not neglected. The huge arch-buttresses to this structure, spreading to more than twice its own breadth, are a striking instance of costly sacrifice to the whims of representative design. They were yet insufficient, being placed only at each alternate truss ; and the places of four on the east side, and one on the west, were supplied by other buildings of the palace, the removal of which has endangered this extraordinary work, and led to the substitution of slates for the original covering of lead. Its thrust, or dependence on lateral propping T must still almost equal that of a Gothic vault of the same dimensions. The west buttresses are now all inclosed in the buildings of the law courts, and of the three on the east only one ever stood isolated- The material of this grand structure is chestnut (from Normandy, as Sir C. Wren thought), the workman- ship unrivalled for accuracy and perfection of moulded detail. Guildhall, King Street, Cheapside. — This first architectural attempt of the Londoners was built by subscription, and begun in 1411. The * The Paduan Hall is 240 ft. by 80. The comparison does not include clear spaces between the pillars of structures having them ; for both halls would be excelled by the middle aisles of some Roman basilicas, by that of St. Peter's (which would contain them both, endwise), and by some modern ship-building sheds. GUILDHALL. 159 roof being destroyed, with nearly the whole city, by the great fire of 1666, the interior was patched up by Wren, and again in the last century by Dance, who was permitted to add the present front, seem- ingly, like one or two later city architects, with a malicious intent to expose his worthy townsmen to ridicule. The finest part of this edifice is certainly the crypt, now a dark cellar, which has very elegant vaulting, with arches of the four- centred form, probably some of the earliest of that sort, which seems peculiar to this country, and has been commonly called the Tudor arch, though the time of its introduction would rather justify the term La n castrian arch* . With regard to the internal decoration of the hall itself, the chief if not sole model taken for imitation was evidently the nave of Winchester Cathedral, a very grand work, which, after many years' progress, was then lately finished. There is the same horizontal cornice, more large and prominent than is usual in Gothic buildings, the same boldness and largeness of feature in the "responders" (or wall-pillars), and the same kind of deep panelling, forming, between each pair of these responders, five vertical divisions, of which the three middle ones probably formed a window, though now in every case walled up. A cunning trick for effect is seen in the transom being placed a few inches lower in these three, than in the two lateral panels, so as to imitate, at the first glance, the effect of the former receding further than the latter (as they do at Winchester); and altogether, notwithstanding their strong resemblance in style, any one who sees both buildings cannot mistake which is the original, nor fail to perceive in the one a certain genuineness and delicacy that never entirely deserted the ecclesiastical Gothic; and in the other an air of coarseness and vulgar display, perhaps inseparable from the works of a busy commercial city. Yet it would be hardly possible to say what makes this difference. The dimensions of this hall are 153 ft. by 48 ft. The ends were * This ingenious refinement seems to have grown naturally out of the elaboration and exquisite finish which distinguished the English vaultings; for, notwithstanding our timidity in never attempting this art on a large scale, and our frequent disuse of it for the sake of the cheap gaudiness attainable in woodwork, yet this feature (else- where the most stationary part of the Gothic system) was with us the most steadily progressive, and by the end of the 14th century had reached a perfection and variety never attained by it on the Continent. Much wonder has lately been excited by the geometric skill shown in adjusting the invisible curves of Greek buildings, but great as it was, that shown in the English vaultings of the 14th century is greater. We may, without vanity, designate them the triumph of architecture ; for though the aggregate merit of each production of this art may not always be quite proportional to the geometric knowledge and thought put forth, it is so in general. Everywhere, hitherto, the exaltation or debasement of this art and its professors seems to have been always proportional to their geometrical science and the importance they attached to it. Hence it is lamentable to see the neglect and even contempt of geometry dis- played in the present architecture of England, which is now as singularly deficient on this point as it was formerly pre-eminent. 160 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD, to say probably lowered and much altered, so that it is difficult now to what was their original appearance, or how high was the roof, most likely a miniature of Westminster HalL The buttresses, though very prominent, hardly seem sufficient for such a roof, with the excessive bulkiness of parts that would be required to harmonize with the bold internal decorations. The panel-work round the dais is modern, and very poor. The monuments are on the orthodox principle, that every hero worth one at all, must excel all who preceded, and have a monument pro- portionally excelling theirs in size and conspicuousness, the only sure and ever ready and marketable modes of expressing importance. The two monstrous wooden figures called Gog and Magog have sprung up since the time of Stow, but when, how, or why, we have no record. St Bartholomews the Less, or the chapel of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, retains (among a mass of contemptible pseudo-Gothic) one genuine and noble arch of the Lancastrian era. The Gateway to the inner ward of the Tower, which has acquired the tragic name of " Bloody Tower/' from the room over the arch- way being the traditional scene of the murder of the royal infants of Edward IV., must have been erected before that time, but how long the simplicity of the external features does not permit us to say. The gates are genuine, and the portcullis is said to be the only one re- maining in England fit for use. The archway, by its slight curvature, angularity, and depth, forms a noble specimen of what may be called the Doric order of Gothic. For a prison entrance we know of no more perfect model. The vaulting within seems a later addition, and less artistic; but every detail being bold and strongly marked, without the intermixture of anything weak, thin, or shallow, there results that truth and consistency of expression which were then still con- sidered necessary, these qualities not having been abandoned till almost our own times. Crosby Place, Bishopsgate Street (immortalized by Shakspere as supposed residence of the infamous Richard), claims especial notice as the only remnant of the domestic architecture of Old London. It was built by Sir John Crosby, M.P., alderman and grocer, who obtained the ground on a lease of 99 years, in 146*6', and is sup- posed to have finished the erection before 1470. The present age of course condemns the folly of a person building what he cannot wear out, and what is certain to yield as much or more profit to others after him ; but it must be admitted that it was an amiable folly, and the inhabitants of most Italian and French cities owe some gratitude to those who were bitten with it. Though Englishmen at no time imbibed this spirit to nearly the same extent as the Vene- tians, or most other foreigners, still we were not without domestic architecture, and it reached its highest pitch about the time of Sir John Crosby. CROSBY PLACE. 161 The chief parts of this mansion surrounded three sides of a small deep quadrangle, open on the west end, to Bishopsgate Street, and having the whole east end occupied by the hall. The present remains consist of this hall (the ends of which, however, are modern); two rooms, one over the other, forming part of the north side; and extensive cellars under the whole mansion, covered with plain brick vaults, except that on the south side of the quadrangle, which has ribbed groining of stone. The hall (though some feet at each end are of modern design) retains its original proportions, viz., 54 ft. long, 27 ft. wide, and fo?1y ft- high* Such was the sacrifice then thought worth making for majesty of proportion, though no sacrifice was made to " respectability," to sym- metrical regularity, or to pic- turesque irregularity. This hall is lighted from both sides, near the ceiling, by Lancastrian arched windows, of singular beauty both ex- ternally and internally. We doubt if there be any speci- men of domestic windows, in any style, more graceful, or more void of superfluities and affectations ; and all the others in Crosby Place ap- pear to have been similar, though rather shorter. The crowning beauty, however, is the vaulted semi-octagonal bay window, or oriel, as it is called. Its interior is one of the most perfect things do- mestic architecture ever pro- duced; and the exterior, one of the best of its class, though disfigured by the atrophied representative buttresses at the corners. The two north rooms had a bay window of similar form and size, but different external appearance, owing to the intervention of a band of solid wall between the upper and lower lights, both of which, being governed by common sense, were arched, like the heads of all the other windows, the affectation of making the little OUTSIDE OF THE CROSBY ORIEL. 162 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. arches of the lights support, or appear to support, a straight mass of wall, having not yet come into vogue. Both stories of this oriel were vaulted; and the window side of both upper and lower rooms is lightened, as well as decorated, by deep Gothic panelling, which, like everything in mediaeval building (whether original or repre- sentative, decorous or nonsensical), rich or plain, is always handsome; because, prior to the rise in Europe of the principle of mechanical form-multiplying— of which brick-making was the first, and printing the most important instance — there was neither ready-made orna- ment nor ready-made design ; for it was never imagined that anything could be decorative or decorous which was not designed and made expressly for its place. These rooms measure 42 ft. by 22 ft., and about 20 ft. high. The upper has, like the great hall, an oak ceiling, of a depressed Lancastrian arch form, rising partly into the roof, though not high enough to prevent the latter being properly tied. The ornaments of the small ceiling have been renovated in papier mache, but those of the great hall ceiling, being less delicate and on a much bolder scale, remain. The arch-like curves, dipping into three rows of pendants, are playful, and consistent with the festive character of the building ; though the uselessness and falsehood of such append- ages should banish them from the purer and more severely decorous architecture proper to public, and especially ecclesiastical, buildings. The Guard-chamber of Lambeth Palace has a Gothicized roof, or rather roof-ceiling, of the simplest kind, and remarkable for its massive parts. It is probably of earlier date than Crosby Place, and seems to be an exact imitation of some extinct kind of stone roof. The same room has a Gothic (Lancastrian) window. The Gatehouse at Lambeth was rebuilt in its present form by Cardinal Morton in 1490. Though in a debased style, the design of the gateway itself is worthy of notice. The external archways give no idea of the inner one, which is finely proportioned ; and the interior has ribbed vaulting, a member which the mediaeval builders seem never to have omitted in any situation where the surrounding walls afforded sufficient butment. St. Johns Gate, Clerkenwell, is, with the east window of . the modernized church a little distant to the north-east, the only remnant of the great establishment of Knights' Hospitallers, who settled here in 1100, or some years before their rivals, the Templars. Their first hospital being burnt, was gradually rebuilt, and not finished till 1504. The present fragments cannot be referred to a much earlier date than this, as they have all the crabbed worn-out air of a very old and decrepid state of art. The gateway is not to be compared with that of the Bloody Tower, or even Lambeth; having, indeed, no beauty of proportion or detail ; but the universal groining was not omitted. The Porch of St. Sepulchre, opposite Newgate, marks the limit of the great fire in that direction, the church having been destroyed, but this fragment left. Its interior retains the original decorations, THE ROYAL TOMBS. 163 among which the vaulting, the forms of which seem correctly pre- served in a plaster imitation, is remarkable as showing one of the first approaches towards a refined modification, peculiar to England and to the Yorkist and Tudor reigns, and commonly termed fan vaulting. The changes by which this was produced are similar in principle to those affecting the other Gothic features — abridgment of real labour, but increase of apparent elaboration ; loss of real richness but gain of eye-catching fritter; abandonment of sculpture for carving, and of carving for mere mechanical stone-cutting. This is seen in the omission of the bosses, that in the earlier vaultings were so rich and yet so retiring as hardly to be noticed; and the substitution of a more glaring but infinitely less genuine ornament, the unmeaning arch-like panel heads, all alike, and only repeating in an absurd situation the forms that fill the walls and windows. Henry the Seventh's Chapel. — Before describing this most gorgeous of mausolea, it may be as well to glance at the neighbouring series of royal sepulchres, and, indeed, all those in this abbey church, which exemplify the growth of that singular spirit of tomb-building rivalry, which finally reached its climax in this unparalleled manifest- ation. As the earlier tombs, though always adorned with archi- tectural forms, hardly come under the term works of architecture, they have not been noticed in their chronological places, but left for the present, that objects so similar and closely connected might be all brought together. The Royal Tombs. — The first is that erected by Henry III., the founder of the present church, to enshrine the remains of its former founder, the canonized King Edward the Confessor. This being the most venerated relic was placed in the most distinguished spot of the new edifice, viz., under the centre of convergence of the apsidal vaulting of the chancel. The whole of this apsis, or semi- oval termination, has its floor raised some feet above that of the surrounding aisles, and approached from the choir by a gradual ascent of steps, at wide intervals, at the head of which ascent stands a screen, made to form a back to the principal altar, and to part off the apsis (called " St. Edward's Chapel"); but low enough to allow a glimpse of the top of the shrine, on which the remains of that luminary were elevated, " as on a candlestick, to enlighten the church." We doubt if any temple of a sensuous worship, Pagan or Christian, afforded an instance of a more grand and imposing arrange- ment. This screen is now covered on both sides with elaborate fretwork of niches and canopies in the style of the 15th century; but it retains, on the inner or eastern side, a frieze of fourteen rude but deeply under-cut sculptures, representing events, real or legend- ary, in the life of the royal saint. It is almost the only English example of that beautiful species of monument, peculiar to an early and growing state of civilization, the historical frieze, in which 164 SEPULCHRAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS. picture-writing, almost superseded by letters, seems to put forth, in the last struggle, its utmost luxury and elaboration*. To the weak partiality of Henry III. for foreigners, we owe some beautiful, though un-English, peculiarities of his church, its apsidal chapels, and its lofty proportions; but the same weakness appears disadvantageously in the three tombs he erected; one to his infant daughter, in the south aisle of the chancel, one to his sainted ancestor, and one to himself. These, being the work of an Italian, named Cavalini, exhibit no resemblance to the growing beauty of the early Gothic, but are in the irregular uncertain style then prevalent in Italy (called by some Trecentine), an undigested mixture of classic Arabian and Gothic features, overlaid with tawdry mosaics, which, however, have mostly disappeared from these monuments, by the depredations first of violence, and then of relic-hunting. The shrine of St. Edward has, above the stone portion, which is about 9 ft. high, an oaken addition representing two stories of Italian architecture, and was finished, it is said, by a miniature roof. The tomb of Henry himself resembles two structures piled one on the other, and is surmounted by his recumbent figure in brass, and above that, a flat and very plain wooden canopy, which was, no doubt, gaudily painted or gilt. This occupies one of the seven inter-columns of the oval or horse- shoe-formed apsis, and the other six openings are filled by six later royal sepulchres, thus completing, with the screen above mentioned, the inclosure of St. Edward's Chapel. Taken in their chronological order, they well exhibit the regular progress in architectural luxury and false richness, and the no less regular decline in decorum, grace, and sculptural excellence. The first, that of the renowned Queen Eleanor, has its sides decorated with the heraldic insignia of the mourners ; and as these required to be sunk in panels for their pro- tection, the panels, &c, take forms of great beauty, not so much adopted from as assimilated to structural architecture, plainly for the sake of harmony therewith, not imitation thereof. The little pillars, blank arches, and hoods, may be said indeed to represent construc- tions that an object cut in solid stone does not possess; but on a larger scale it would require them; besides, they imitate no more closely than, in classic art, the pedestal imitates a building with plinth and eaves, or the balustrade a miniature colonnade. The principle cannot be called representative. The effigy (by Torelli, an Italian,) is considered the finest piece of mediaeval sculpture in England. The tomb of her husband, on the other side of Henry the Third's, * There is a much longer historical frieze surrounding the chapter-house at Salis- bury, which in a length of about 150 ft. represented the Old Testament history, brought down as far as the passage of the Red Sea, but the earlier parts containing the creation are quite effaced. This was executed in the same reign, and probably about the same time, as the Westminster frieze. THE ROYAL TOMBS — HENRY V.'s CHANTRY. 165 appears never to have been finished by his unfortunate son, and forms a hiatus in the series ; but the next in date, that of Philippa, queen of Edward III. — in whose reign some have placed the culmination of English arts as well as arms — displays these mani- fest symptoms of decline ; the figure has less simple dignity, and more attempt to supply its place by minute imitations of costume, and florid surrounding accessories, in which we have the absurdity of architectural forms laid on their backs ; and in these, as well as those which decorate the sides of the tomb, we first find the overhanging niche-canopies representing arches and vaultings springing from nothing*. Edward the Third's own tomb is alto- gether a gorgeous composition; but here, in addition to the above instances of representative design, we first find mimic buttresses, those very defects w r hich the early Gothicists had taken such pains to overcome in the form of these necessary members, being here wantonly introduced as ornament, though certainly with such a change as to diminish greatly their unsightliness. All the former royal tombs are surmounted by wooden canopies, with such finish and decoration of mouldings, &c, as was appropriate to their con- struction, and, in one case (Queen Eleanor's), extremely elegant; but here we have this feature elaborated to a degree that almost throws the tomb into insignificance. Yet, how is this enrichment effected? Only by disguising the real with a fictitious structure, covering it throughout with forms w T hich would be beautiful indeed in the material for which they were invented (or any material possessed chiefly of compressile strength), and supported on appro- priate pillars ; but which, imitated in wood and hanging in the air, are false and absurd. In this mimic vaulting, however (which evidently afforded the model to that in St. Sepulchre's porch above noticed), we see, probably, the first hint both of the fan work construction of vaults and the absurd arched panel mode of decorating them. The next sepulchre is that erected by Richard II. to his queen, Anne of Bohemia; and into which his own remains were afterwards removed. Being nearly cotemporary with the last, it has nothing remarkable but the brass effigies of the king and queen, disgracefully mutilated. Lastly, the mausoleum erected by (or in pursuance of the will of) Henry V., who left the most minute directions concerning it, fills the eastern or central arch of the apsis, and is the only one that (after the example set by some ambitious prelates in their own cathedrals) expands into a complete edifice, a miniature chapel, or chantry as it was called, with an altar and every requisite for the ecclesiastics appointed to say masses, for ever, for the soul of the * The shields (one under each statuette, to describe whom it represented) had their bearings, not in relief, but in painting, which, having worn off, has afforded to modern builders a most valuable resource, the cheapest supposed ornament, for which precedent could be found, viz., Uanh shields ! Blank ribands for inscriptions had a similar origin. 166 TOMBS OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS. deceased*. The tomb in this case stands under a richly-vaulted sort of gateway, flanked by two turrets of open fretwork containing winding stairs (the very unseen soffits of which are of fan vaulting) leading up to the chantry. This is a loft or gallery supported partly on the vaulting already mentioned, over the tomb, and partly on a continuation thereof eastward, across the ambulatory, or circular aisle, to the entrance of the Lady Chapel, now replaced by that of Henry VII. This loft is surrounded on all sides by screens of minutely- fretted niche and canopy work, that on the east now forming the extremity of the Abbey Church in that direction. The chronological gaps occurring in this series are filled up by other monuments in the adjacent parts of the building, and we believe the following list contains all those possessing any Gothic architec- tural features. The dates are added as nearly as can be ascertained, and also the situations, which are all confined to the portions of the church lying east of the transept. The terms north and south square chapel, apply to those formed in the rentrant angles (marked H and in the plan, page 148). Gothic Tombs in Westminster Abbey Church, 1. Aveline, daughter-in-law of Henry III. . 1276 North side of chancel. 2. Queen Eleanor 1291 North-east of apsis. 3. William de Valence, half-brother to Henry III. 1296 South apsidal chapel. 4. Two infants of Humphry Bohun. Temp. Edward I. North apsidal chapel. 5. Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III., about 1300 North of chancel. 6. King Edward I. (unfinished) . . . 1307 North of apsis. 7. Sebert (King of Essex, original founder of the Abbey), erected by the monks in . . 1308 South of chancel. 8. Aymer de Valence ..... 1323 North of chancel. 9. John of Eltham, son of Edward II. . . 1334 South apsidal chapel. This had once a stone canopy on eight pillars, said to have excelled the beautiful ones of Aveline, Aymer, and even Crouchback. 10. Two infants of Edward III 1340 South apsidal chapel. 11. Queen Philippa 1369 South-east of apsis. 12. King Edward III. . . . . 1377 South of apsis. 13. Archbishop Langham 1379 South square chapel. 14. King Richard II. and Queen . . . 1394 South of apsis. 15. Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Grlocester . 1399 South apsidal chapel. 16. Sir Bernard Brocas 1400 Ditto. 17. Abbot William of Colchester . . . 1420 North apsidal chapel. 18. King Henry V 1422 East of apsis. 19. Philippa, Duchess of York .... 1431 South-east apsidal chapel. 20. Lord Bourchier, standard bearer to Henry V. 1431 North-east apsidal chapel. 21. Bishop Dudley or Sutton ... . . 1483 South-east apsidal chapel. 22. Sir Thomas Vaughan, treasurer to Edward IV. North apsidal chapel. 23. Abbot Fascet 1500 Ditto. 24. Bishop Ruthall . . . .' . . 1522 Ditto. 25. Abbot Islyp 1532 North square chapel. * This extravagant system seems to have begun with Bishop Edyngdon, who died in 1366, at Winchester, which cathedral contains no less than eight of these monu- ments of overgrown vanity and superstition, each excelling the last in costly magni- ficence, one erected by each bishop that occupied the see from that time down to the Reformation. ISLYPS CHANTRY HENRY VIl/s CHAPEL. 167 The tomb of Islyp is destroyed, but bis chantry is remarkable for its fine vaulting, and curious rebuses expressing his name (an eye, with a slip for planting, and a boy slipping out of a tree). Some attribute to this abbot the design of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, while others divide that honour between the King and Bishop Alcock, of Ely; Bishop Fox, of Winchester (both of whom erected most gorgeous chantries in their own cathedrals) ; or, lastly, with Sir Reginald Bray, whose name is most commonly associated with it ; but the will of Henry VII. expressly mentions as "master of the works" the prior of St. Bartholomew's, whose name was William Bolton, and is known to have been a famous builder. The statement, however, that the king or his architects imported these forms " of more curious and exquisite building" from France is without foundation, for the Continent affords no instance of the fan-vaulting, or any other of the peculiar subtleties of this extraordinary work ; all of which grew naturally out of ideas which the florid Gothic of England, and of no other country, had latterly developed. Determining to outvie not only his royal predecessors, but all tomb-builders, lay or clerical, and English or foreign, in the splendour of his monumental chapel and its endowment, Henry VII. pulled down the Lady Chapel (the easternmost part of the church, and that first rebuilt in the pointed style), to replace it by this larger erection, which he began in January, 1503, and left directions for finishing. But the building itself, exclusive of the tomb and internal fittings, appears to have been completed before his decease. The plan of the chapel is neither complex nor unusual, a simple central avenue terminating eastward in five sides of an octagon, and flanked by lower aisles, which would continue round this octagon apsis, did not six solid wedge-shaped masses divide this curved portion of the aisle into five square recesses, or chapels, as they are called, open to the central apsis, but not to each other or the side aisles. The outer buttresses take the form of octagon turrets, and are continued nearly as high as the central building, terminating in clusters of niches and great pear-shaped pinnacles. These weighty masses obviate the necessity for an outward extension of the feet of the buttresses. The flying buttresses to prop the central vaulting are double, the upper and lower of each pair being connected by open tracery of circles, at once graceful and structurally true. These features alone would give an extraordinary intricacy to the upper part of the fabric, which is prodigiously augmented by covering every part with panelling. But what makes the unparalleled fritter of the exterior, is the replacement of the usual aisle windows by a sort of glazed screen broken into angles something like the plan of a modern fortification, and borrowed from the most fanciful kinds of oriels used in the domestic architecture of that time. With the octagon buttresses and the zigzag curtains connecting them, the outer inclosure is broken into about 160 parts, no two adjacent ones in the same plane. 168 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE SECOND PERIOD. The puerility of this freak (which might be proper enough to obviate flatness in a greenhouse or an iron building) is contrasted by the simple grandeur of the upper story, which has common-sense win- dows of a tall and elegant form, and with hardly any of the perpen- dicular mannerism in their tracery. The mass of work above them serves a double purpose ; to fortify, by its load, the pillars against the inward thrust of the aisle vaultings ; and to afford headway between the main vault and the roof, which is very properly of a low pitch, for nothing could be more incongruous than a vast surface of plain roof, with its massive unbroken form, over the weak and delicate features of the late Gothic, even when interspersed with plain wall. The whole exterior of this edifice was renovated at the public expense, between 1809 and 1822. The cost, in the softest stone obtainable (which is unfortunately already perishing), was £42,000. The original forms are said to be strictly preserved; but this certainly cannot be the case with the upper parapet and pinnacles, which betray such extreme poverty of thought as never was tolerated by mediaeval builders. The interior does not disappoint, as is too often the case, the expecta- tions raised by a highly-enriched exterior, but keeps that predomi- nance over it in quantity of ornament which it always should keep. This more ornate character is obtained, not as usual, by its having less plain surface (for neither exterior nor interior has any surface not broken up with ribs and panels), but by the substitution, in many places, of carving for architectural forms, and sculpture for carving. The building is said to have contained 3000 full-length statues and statuettes, besides the cherubs and animal figures with w r hich there is "no jutty, frieze, buttress, nor coign of vantage" but seems alive. Nor is this sculpture much more remarkable for quantity than quality, for that art seems to have attained with us a second meridian about the time of the expiring Gothic ; and though the general mass of it found in rural buildings of this era displays a most depraved taste in those who suffered churches to be pro- faned wdth such trash, yet the specimens in this chapel, and that at Warwick, show that the immense demand did call up artists (most probably Italians), hardly inferior to those of the Edwardian era, though the style is far more artificial. Ranks of statues of saints, in close array, supported by cornices of angels equally crowded, line each of the five recesses round the apsis, and supply the place of a triforium round the whole interior. But the luxury of the English after-Gothic is most singularly displayed in the vaulting, which, in foreign buildings of this degree of enrichment, presents an incon- gruous baldness, but here a splendour altogether similar, in degree and kind, to that of the other parts. The eastern recesses present fan- work in its simplest form, though varied by a small central piece of flat ceiling, which is unnecessary and structurally false. In the side aisles, this central portion of each compartment is chiefly occu- st. Paul's cathedral. 191 with the very grave one of ill-distributed light. Nothing can atone for the fact that the dome, which ought to be the lightest, is the darkest part of the interior ; an effect now sadly exaggerated by the lower parts having been cleaned, while all above the central circular cornice remains lined with dust and smoke, a dark undis- tinguishable cavity. The defect, however, is radical and irremediable; and it seems to us that its avoidance would have been worth any sacrifice of external beauty. So, indeed, the architects of St. Peter's and its dormer windows evidently thought. The only remedy, if any, would be some arrangement of reflectors ; and if the windows of the rest of the edifice were deeply coloured, as in the early Gothic churches, perhaps the due proportion of light between the dome and other parts might be obtained. The technical defects of the interior exceed those of the exterior; and perhaps the greatest of them is the eking out the height of each pilaster by an ugly isolated bit of entablature, which is the more inex- cusable from the number of ways in which it might easily have been avoided. With regard to the attic that takes the place of the Gothic triforium, it is doubtful whether its 19 feet adds anything to the effective height, which appears much the same as if the vaults sprung at once from the entablature. Of the two orders (that continue inter- mixed in the Palladian manner throughout), it is to be regretted that the principal is every way more enriched than the subordinate one; its pilasters being fluted and its mouldings carved, neither of which ornaments is possessed by the smaller order. This is directly con- trary to the general practice of the Italian architects, founded on nature, which always bestows most ornament on the subordinate and weaker parts. The treatment of these two orders should have been just reversed, except the entablature of the small order, which is meanly and disproportionately small. The few r columns used near the west end give an idea of the enchanting effects that would have resulted from an occasional use of such members (in the small order) elsewhere, as is done throughout St. Peter's. The four extremities of the interior are its finest parts. In the portion under the dome, the four segmental arches are obviously an after insertion, probably on account of some symptom of unequal settlement observed in one of the arches over them. Their introduction must ever be regretted, as a blemish to the integrity of the most important part of the edifice, apparently useless, and really useless to the equilibrium of the work as designed; consequently betraying a discrepancy between design and execution. The meeting and interpenetration of the mouldings of the eight main arches has been censured quite enough for so unim- portant a point of detail. No one has shown how it could be avoided (retaining the present ground-plan) without introducing greater evils; and we are. tempted to think it one of the very few points escap- ing Wren's notice till after the foundations were laid. The great architect had prepared schemes for consistently deco- 192 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. rating the bare surfaces, at least of the vaultings, if not of other parts ; and the inner dome was to glow with the perennial freshness of mosaic painting, for which has been substituted stage scenery, appropriately inclosing the wretched counterfeit sculpture of Sir James Thornhill, both now happily unintelligible, from smoke and damp. The house or theatre painters seem to have taken possession of the chancel and apsis. The exterior of this fabric, no less than that of its Italian rival, is remarkable (as seen from its immediate vicinity) for deceptive small- ness. Few spectators from the surrounding roads would believe the dimensions of any part, if stated to them, This defect (which some by singular sophistry have tried to prove a beauty) arises here chiefly from the want of a scale, owing to the fence preventing our seeing any human figures near the foot of the building, or even judging of the distance that separates us from it. The hiding of this space, and giving us scale-objects only close at hand, amounts to the fur- nishing of & false scale; and it is difficult to conceive any contrivance more effectual for diminishing the building, unless it be a concave lens. An equally injurious addition, however, was made by the puppy who supplanted Wren in the last few years of his long life (see Architects, Wren). A late writer on architecture has said, re- garding the effect of scale or no scale on works of nature or art, that u it takes very little to humble a mountain. A hut will do it sometimes." It takes still less to humble a cathedral, and this little, Wren's contemptible successor contrived to add, in his mock balustrade over the second cornice ; a thing protested against by Wren without seeing it — how much mofe had he seen its barbarous design ! —and, what is worse, a thing studiously contrived to give a false scale ; for this is one of the very few architectural features (perhaps the only one), whose use requires a limited and almost invariable dimension, and it is therefore taken by every eye as a perfectly safe measure or scale. We know that a balustrade is meant to lean upon, and therefore, wherever we see one, we conclude it to be about 3 or 4 ft. high. A mock balustrade, nine feet high, never enters our calculations, so that when we see such an absurdity, on a building 90 ft. high, if we have other scales we are simply puzzled, but if, as in this case, we have none, the building is at once reduced to 30 or 40 ft. Hence it happens that the west front of St. Paul's is the only part whose magnitude has a chance of being appreciated ; and here we have actually no scale at all, true or false ; no balustrade, no living figures, and not only the foreground, but the flight of steps (the only scale-object the front itself contains), shut out from view by the fence. St Stephens, Walbrook, is considered the most original and beau- tiful of the fifty parochial churches rebuilt by Wren in consequence of the same immense fire. In many, perhaps most, of these struc- tures, the doggedness of the authorities confined him rigidly to the HENRY VII. S CHAPEL. 169 HENRY VII. 'S CHAPEL. pied by that extraordinary design — a pendent mass of stone made to resemble the springing and supporting parts of the vault. Repre- sentations of these parts (supposed to indicate richness of fancy) are by some critics condemned; nevertheless, the effect is most en- chanting, and the beauty of its workmanship is of such extreme richness that the mind is filled with amazement and delight by the solidity and permanency of its ornamentation. Its unique and bold I 170 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE SECOND PERIOD. style are evidences of the determination of its architect to avoid imitation in the execution of his task (see our illustrations in pages 169 and 171, both drawn with exactness and engraved in wood with fidelity). These lower vaultings, however, betray the fact, that the em- bayed and zigzag outer inclosures are an afterthought, for the vaulting is in no way adjusted to them, but terminates in a single arch, spanning from buttress to buttress; and its edge (by having no greater prominence than the other ribs) gives an unfinished appearance. The great, or clere-story vaulting, consists of a most ingenious combination of arches and arch-w r ork, in which the com- pressile principle of building reaches the utmost elaboration and refinement it ever attained ; and of which there are only two other examples (both much less ornate), erected about the same time as this, in the Cathedral and Divinity-School at Oxford. This may may be said to be a final triumph of architectural science. The fittings of this building, and the tomb, by the celebrated Torrigiano, were added pursuant to the will of the founder. It has been conjectured that the celebrated Benevenuto Cellini executed some of the finest of this work, but this being doubtful we do not give it as a fact. The screen of brass surrounding it is a most unique work, and was intended to enclose the chantry, in which prayers were to be oifered on behalf of the deceased "for ever." Unequalled monument of human shortsightedness ! He knew not that this whole overgrown system, accumulated for ages, was now ripe to its fall. He little thought in how few years the growing enlightenment of the land, and the selfishness of his own son, would sweep off this whole vast machinery, for ever silence the masses, and leave these gorgeous aisles a gazing-stock and a glorious wonder. St. Stephens Cloisters and Oratory, Westminster Palace. — This portion of the old Palace (lying in the angle between St. Stephen's and the Great Hall) was rebuilt by the u Defender of the Faith" himself, before his momentous troubles of conscience, and is, therefore, the last fragment of splendid ecclesiastical building in England. It is also the last decidedly decorative work that is unmixed with Italian details (which had already been introduced pretty extensively), and the last that contains the great structural essential of the Gothic architecture, viz., the vaulting, which has ever since been so completely abandoned, that everything relating to it is become practically a lost art. This is indeed, at present, a fortunate loss, as it preserves this one part of the ancient buildings — incomparably their most important and varied part, as regards either science or taste — from the present grievous " restoration," a more ruthless catastrophe than any that befel them under the Tudor tyrant, the Eoundheads, or the churchwarden beautifiers. Parsimony or inability precludes our restorers from touching this main feature, and thus leads us to hope, that when the storm has done its worst, though all the rest of these precious me- ST. STEPHEN S CLOISTERS. 171 HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL. the mentos be worse than destroyed — falsified, and made a forgery vaultings and their carved bosses will remain genuine. The St. Stephen's cloisters are on a very minute scale, but on the usual plan, surrounding a square court, and are remarkable for having had two stories, of which the lower only was vaulted. The windows and their mouldings occupy the whole of each inter-buttress, so as to admit all the light possible, and hence the upper ones have each light carried up to reach the flat ceiling, and no general arch spanning from buttress to buttress to relieve the minor arches over the lights. There being no mass of wall to support, this construction is here fit and beautiful ; not so in other cases, where this " Tudor" window is evidently used merely as the cheapest means of retaining those Gothic peculiarities that had come to be considered essential to gentility; and where the necessity for a concealed arch (often in ancient and always in modern instances) renders the whole affair a masque and a deception. The vaulting of the lower cloister presents four beautiful varieties. That of the west side, which was the most frequented as a corridor of communication, is the richest; that of I 2 172 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. the north and south rather plainer; and that of the east the plainest. These three modifications are all on the fan- work principle; but in the four corner compartments of the arcade a fourth design is used, similar in decorative style, but applied to an earlier form of vault, having greater appearance of strength. From the middle of the western arcade, between two of the immense isolated buttresses of Westminster Hall, a minute chapel or oratory projects into the centre of the quadrangle, and terminates in a semi-octagon apsis. It is divided into two stories, whose windows and decorations correspond to those of the upper and lower cloisters, the lower only having vaulting and arched windows ; and this forms, perhaps, the most com- plete architectural morceau ever compressed into so small a space. The whole design of this quadrangle (which we should be inclined to ascribe to Abbot Islyp) is a marvel of good taste for the age of its erection, being far more chaste and decorous than that of either Henry the Seventh's Chapel or those at Windsor and Cambridge. The Stalls of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, which, from their luxuriance of fancy, have a foreign air, form our latest effort in Gothic wood-work; and it will be observed, that this art never, even at so late a period, descended to that exclusively representative character which we remarked in the modern wood-work of the Temple Church, or anything approaching it. For here the artist, though borrowing many or most of his details, or rather the hints of them, from stone architecture, freely modifies, lightens, and varies them, and is as far as possible from being reduced to the most prosaic and starved expedient of making the whole (as a whole) representative, i. e., reducing it to a series of models of stone building. It took three centuries more to bring us down to that depth of inventive pauperism, and to give us, in a mock- Early-English " restoration," furniture whose details indeed may be Early English, but the governing principles and character more perfectly opposed to everything Early, than the latest Tudor, the Anglo-classic, or even the modern joiner's style. St. Peters in the Tower, the Savoy Chapel, near Somerset House, St. Helens, and St. Ethelburgds, near Crosby Hall, and the parish churches of Lambeth, St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Olave Hart Street, and Allhallows Barking, in Tower Street, contain remnants of the building fashion (for it cannot be called an architectural style) applied to the meaner buildings of the Tudor age. At this period all variety and invention was confined to works of regal splendour and luxury. Other structures, as those above mentioned, present only certain starved and withered vestiges of the Gothic system, now reduced, like the architecture of Roman Egypt, or of modern China, to a mere routine or fashion — a regulated costume for all buildings pretending to respectability, but having as little reference to beauty or design as the hat or coat of our present costume. It is curious to compare this effete state of art with the nascent TUDOR CHURCHES. 173 art of the eleventh or twelfth century, as displayed in the White Tower Chapel, or St. Bartholomew's. If poverty be a characteris- tic of both phases, what different kinds of poverty ! Meanness belongs only to the latter phase ; for though both may be poor and feeble, only the latter is impoverished or enfeebled. It is impossible to mistake between the feebleness of infancy and that of dotage. The indescribable freshness and suggestiveness of a young and growing art, and the directly opposite qualities — the worn crabbed mannerism, graceless grotesqueness, and lean de- crepitude — of an old and perishing one, must, we think, when brought into contrast, strike every spectator, however ignorant of technicalities ; and it would be easy, both in the architecture of the ancient world, and in that of the mediaeval Church, to distinguish at least " seven ages" by the mere gradations of character between these two extremes*. St. Andrew Undershaft^ Leadenhall Street, is a large specimen of the latest Tudor fashion (about 1540), less known than it deserves to be, if we regard only the fact of its being perhaps the xeryfast church erected with a view to the Protestant worship. Though everything ornamental bears the melancholy impress of an effete system, and points evidently to a past beauty, of which it retains the feeble remnants, pared down to the extreme of niggardliness, yet there is common sense and judgment in the innovations made to suit the new ritual. The deep stage-like vista called the chancel, which would withdraw the minister during an important part of the service as far as possible from his hearers, is omitted ; the pillars reduced to the smallest practicable size ; the arches throughout so depressed as to harmonize with the flat forms of the ceilings ; the whole plan made less oblong than the mediaeval churches, and plainly tending more towards the form and proportions of the early Christian basilicas ; a class of buildings which it also resembles unfortunately in other par- * A comparison between the styles of ancient and of mediaeval architecture will show a decided correspondence between the four chief periods ; the infancy, youth, decline, and senility of each : — Styles of ancient building. Styles of mediaeval building. EngliS VS£ 1 ter Cati ° nS 1. Egyptian, Pelasgic,&c. 1. Millennial .... J Saxon— Norman. ' ' [ bemi-JNorman. 2. Greek 2. Original Gothic . . ( S ar ! y lf lish ;. [ Jiarly Edwardian. 3. Roman 3. Representative Gothic J Late Edwardian. [ Ricardian. 4. Romanesque .... 4. Gothicesque . . . . i YorSsh— Tudor The characteristics of the first period, in each case, are rudeness, uncertain or un- methodical ornamentation, monotony in general design, and total absence of disguises ; of the second period, increasing decorum, consistency, and method, together with exquisite finish, and the highest art, without pretence; of the third, a tendency to save thought by compendious methods, and to seek striking effect rather than prolonged satisfaction ; of the fourth, increasing sameness in detail, quaintness, man- nerism, and uncertain graceless proportions. 174 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE— SECOND PERIOD. HALL OF LAMBETH PALACE. ticulars, its taste and artistic character bearing about that relation to the Gothic system of art which those buildings bear to the classic. The great Hall of the Middle Temple (see " Halls " for one illustration), and that of Lambeth Palace^ as above represented, are curious examples of the Westminster Hall form of roof, dressed in Italian instead of Gothic details. The Middle Temple Hall was built in 1572. It omits the principal arched rib, and multiplies the pendents and smaller curves. An old writer says it "is very scientifically constructed, and contains a vast quantity of timber/' The Lambeth roof was not constructed till about 1662, by Arch- bishop Juxon, who left directions to have it finished in the " old style," which it is as regards general form, and absence of ceilings. LINCOLN S INN CHAPEL. 175 Northumberland House, Charing Cross, is an example of the ulti- mate state of our degraded indigenous architecture at the time of its disappearance before the classic importations of Inigo Jones. Its front was commenced in 1605. St. Catherine Cree, Leadenhall Street, dates from the reign of James I., when the Italian fashion, already paramount in secular buildings, had just begun to invade churches; or rather when churches began again to be built, after nearly a century in which none were erected. With far more conceit and pretension than St. Andrew's, it has far less truth, and therefore less beauty. The windows are a sacrifice of every other quality to novelty, and remind one of the neighbouring Coal Exchange. The ceiling is perhaps the first example of a sham vaulting; the first example of our builders condescending to a direct lie as to the material of which their work is composed. It is the parent of our grained paint and jointed stucco, and all the tissue of falsehoods that make up the sum total of modern English building decoration — deceits that deceive nobody — ornaments that adorn nothing, and please nobody — that, it has been truly said, never attract or fix an eye except painfully ; and for which, no one pretends even to allege any reason but fashion ; or (the incendiary's reason for burning ricks), that they "give employment," that is, occupy and render useless a swarm of busy drones, who would otherwise have to learn and do something useful. The introduction of direct physical falsehoods, may be regarded as the main distinction between the second and the third periods of English architecture ; for the change of fashion from Gothic to Italian was comparatively a mere accident, though, being contemporaneous with this most decided change of principle, it forms altogether a convenient point of division between the first and second stages of representative design. This new period commences with the works of Inigo Jones. Lincoln s Inn Chapel, though not the earliest work in London by this master, is the only one in which he imitated (by the desire of his employers) the old national style. The interior, which is esteemed for its glass painting, has been so altered by the addition of a later ceiling (see illustration page 176) and end windows, that it cannot be viewed as Jones's work ; but the side elevation of the exterior plainly partakes of the boldness, stateliness, and harmony of his other designs ; and though the petty exactness of later imitators may yet find it convenient to make faults of every varia- tion from precedent in the details, this fragment has some rare qualities. We know of no mediaeval work even, in which apertures of so low and broad a proportion produce, as here, no ungraceful or mean effect ; and though most of the works of this scenic archi- tect differ from his masques only in being composed of more durable materials, there is an uncommon verisimilitude arising from 176 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. LINCOLN S INN CHAPEL. every deception being carried out as if it were a reality. Thus the buttresses here are as prominent and massive as if they sustained a real vaulting. To this, and the concavity of their outline, seems due much of the stately effect of this building. The Banqueting House, Whitehall (now used for a chapel), was the first structure from which all vestiges of Gothic forms were banished by the imported Italian taste, and is the chief work erected by Inigo Jones in London, though a very small portion of the vast palace projected by him and his patron James I. This will appear by the annexed block-plan, in which A represents the fragment executed. Of the remainder, no portion would have been lower than the present, while the parts shaded dark would have been higher by an entire order of columns, so that the imposing fronts of this building would have sunk almost into insignificance in the vast design. The extent of the northern and southern fronts was to WHITEHALL INTENDED PALACE. 177 PLAN OF WHITEHALL. be 1152 ft., and that of the eastern (on a river terrace) and the western, towards St. James's Park, each 874 ft. Of the seven in- closed courts, the smallest would have equalled in grandeur anything of the kind now existing ; while the largest, 740 ft. by 378 ft., and the circular one (surrounded by two stories of arcades, faced by colossal Persian and caryatid figures), would each have produced effects that modern architecture has never reached, hardly perhaps ever projected. The design of Whitehall is indeed the most stupendous for a secular building that has ever been actually commenced, at least since the times of the Csesars ; and, by excelling, in every respect, both Versailles and the Louvre, the Caserta and Escurial, it would have reversed the taunt that English sovereigns are the worst lodged in Europe. The variety, without breach of unity, that pervades the numerous fronts, external and internal, of this wonderful design, the well-studied adaptation of each to its aspect and light, together with the noble boldness, and total absence of petty breaks and divisions, are qualities that distinguish this greatest, but at the same time most un-English, of our architects, from all his successors ; and it seems marvellous that a work so ge- nerally in their hands, should have had so little effect on the national taste, which is chiefly distinguished by qualities exactly the reverse of those in which he excelled. Whitehall was to have replaced an older palace built by Henrv VIII., and was commenced in 1618, by the erection of the present apartment. Charles I. (who afterwards entered the scaffold from one of its windows) had its ceiling painted by Rubens, with mythic com- positions representing the apotheosis of his father, which have been retouched by Cipriani, but are now again too obscure to offend by their extreme unfitness to the place. The other portions of the Tudor palace remained till they were destroved by two fires in i 3 178 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 1691, 98. In Queen Anne's reign, it was again proposed to carry out the superb design. The ruins of the old work remaining, "for want of rebuilding the same, Mr. Weedon, an ingenious gentleman, supposed the city of Westminster was damnified above <£30 per cent, in their houses, trades, and properties. The same gentleman, therefore, of his own good will, to the reforming that most noble palace, for the honour and benefit of the queen and her kingdom, proposed in print, that an act of parliament should be made for the rebuilding of it, after the manner of a model or plan of Inigo Jones. "* He estimated the cost at £600,000, for raising which he proposed various means — the first was, "that the city of Westminster should be incorporated, to consist of a mayor, recorder, and twenty-four aldermen, and certain franchises and liberties to be granted them. That all profits arising to the said corporation, over and above all manner of expenses and charges the corporation would be at in supporting itself, be, for the next seven years, appropriated to carry on the said palace. That duties should be laid upon new improved rents within the said city of Westminster. That all officers that held two or more offices of above the value of £300 per annum, should pay so much in the pound. And that such as had any right or title to any house, or office, or lodging, within the said new intended palace, should pay likewise so much in the pound. That all improvements of any part of the ground of Whitehall, and the benefit arising to her Majesty of all future and new inventions, discoveries, and improvements, be for such a term appointed towards the said charge. And that all future forfeitures accruing to her Majesty, for a term of years, be likewise appropriated for the same charge ; but this work was thought fit to be laid aside for the present." This is to regretted, when we consider that all those public offices now scattered about, some under the grotesque chimney- pots of the half-built Somerset House ; some on the disjointed row of fragments of buildings facing the present (and occupying part of the site of the intended) Whitehall itself; some in rickety combustible builders' speculation hovels, about the neighbourhood ; and all ever craving more accommodation ; would all have had ample room in this building, of which any nation might be proud, instead of hiding in holes of which any one would be ashamed. Of the economy of Weedon's plan, compared . with the present, there can be no doubt; and this renders it perhaps not altogether hopeless that the design of the " British Solomon," and the British Hiram may even yet, at some future period (like that of the Cologne fane, after its slumber of cen- turies), be revived. St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, though twice almost rebuilt, retains the east front as in the original work, designed by Jones for the Duke of Bedford, who wished to erect for his tenants a church, but one " not much better than a barn." He accordingly en- deavoured to embody Vitruvius's description of the Tuscan temples, * Seymour's " Survey of London and Westminster/' 1735. jones's buildings — Greenwich hospital. 179 and this portico is remarkable as being the only attempt closely to follow that account. It was extravagantly praised for a long time after its erection, as it might well be by those who had never seen another portico, and whose ideas of splendour in building were de- rived from such works as Henry the Seventh's Chapel ; of simplicity, from such as St. Andrew Undershaft. The letters of Goethe present a striking instance of the impression produced by any classic archi- tecture on those so circumstanced. The broad unbroken surfaces and deep shadows of this porch are still striking, though much loss of grandeur arises from the too great diminution and entasis of the columns, and especially of the antaa, or pilasters. The portico and doorway were not originally a sham, and the reason for making them so is to us involved in mystery. It seems that the mediaeval custom, or ceremony of praying towards the east, led to the placing churches, when in an open site (as all, perhaps, in this country were when built), with their chancel in that direction. This did not, however, in foreign countries at any time, nor here for long after the Reforma- tion, supersede either the common-sense rule that the entrance should be as near the street or road as may be convenient, or that the sanc- tuary should be removed from the entrance. But, at present, this orientation is considered a point of such vital importance that it re- quires not only these rules to be frequently violated ; but even (as in this case) a whole church, if it have the misfortune to look the wrong way, must be turned round, and its ostensible entrance made into a bit of scenery. The houses w4th arcades lining part of the piazza before or behind this church, were intended by Jones to be continued round that quadrangle, which would then (not being blocked up by market sheds) have resembled those of many Italian towns. He thus intro- duced the squares of modern London, and laid out, besides this, the largest of them, called Lincoln s Inn Fields, in which are some slight vestiges of his architecture, or rather of the influence it exerted on the successive rebuilders. The only other conspicuous remnant of his works in London is the water-gate to an intended mansion, now called York Stairs, east of Hungerford Bridge — a very graceful and appropriate morceau. Greenwich Hospital, for naval pensioners, on the south bank of the Thames, four miles below London Bridge, is considered the most sumptuous building ever devoted to a charitable purpose ; which is nothing remarkable when we know that it was designed for no such purpose, but for a palace of the luxurious Stuarts. Its conversion into a hospital by William and Mary, in 1694, was a happy mode of disposing of an unfinished and cast-off palace; but to render this piece of liberality complete, we cannot but think that it should either have been left in its half-built state, or carried on upon the original design. An unfinished and abandoned building cannot give such an impression of meanness, as one broken off during its erection and 180 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. then eked out to the full dimensions with niggardly make-shifts, which (occupying the site of what was intended) prevent its com- pletion, and not only proclaim its abandonment, but seem to embody the sentiment " as we cannot finish this work, we will take care that nobody else shall." When we consider the entire dependence of every great work of this class on the caprice of successive rulers, we shall think it much more remarkable that every royal family, except that of England, should have been able to begin and finish a palace (and in some cases more than one), than that English sovereigns should have not yet achieved such a work. Greenwich is the attempt that most nearly reached realization ; and, as seen from the river, in some positions, the patchwork is out of sight, and the group becomes the most com- plete architectural scene we possess. The two northern masses of building are from a design of Jones, though the first was not erected till after his death, by his pupil and son-in-law Webb ; and the other not till Queen Anne's reign; after whom it is named. The older (or King Charles's) building was partly rebuilt in 1811-14, and distin- guished by sculpture of artificial stone in the pediment. The two southern masses are chiefly from a design of our second great archi- tect, Sir Christopher Wren, and were commenced by William and Mary, whose names they respectively bear; but their construction proceeding slowly, successive periods have left the melancholy marks of steadily declining taste and increasing parsimony; that which begins in Portland stone and Corinthian splendour, sinking at length into mean brickwork, or unable to afford in inferior stone the most ordinary degree of finish. The design of the brick portions is in the most corrupt taste of Vanbrugh, but whatever is visible from the centre of the group is by Jones or Wren. The inferiority of the latter is obvious in the comparative want of repose, and greater crowding and flutter of small and multiplied parts. The two pyra- midising masses crowned by domes are finely placed, and quite characteristic of his style, as is also the coupling of columns in the colonnades. There is nothing so majestic as either the inward or river elevations of Jones's work, but more picturesqueness and variety. The two not only show the distinction between the tastes of these masters, but also exemplify, in some measure, that between the Roman and Venetian schools of modern architecture, the northern buildings having some resemblance to the former; though, in general, both our great architects were followers of the latter. The chief dimensions of the exterior are : — the northern build- ings each 175 ft. by 290 ft.; the space between them 290 ft. square; the southern buildings each 205 ft. by 277 ft., exclusive of the attached colonnades, which project 19 ft. The avenue be- tween is 115 ft. wide, and the inner court of each of Wren's buildings 188 ft. by 150 ft. The general height of the buildings 65 ft., and of the domes 130 ft. The hall and chapel originally ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. 181 Loth resembled in arrangement the hall at present, which, but for its painted sham architecture, would be the fitter chapel of the two, being the more solemn and finely-proportioned room. The remodelling of the chapel with Grecian details was the work of James Stuart, the Athenian antiquary, 1780-90. St. Paul's Cathedral. — At length we are refreshed by the sight of an edifice fin ished, at least as far as regards substantial parts, though remaining without any of the numerous decorations for which its interior presents so splendid a field; and which the spirit that erected the structures which it emulates, would have continued to add and superadd, instead of thinking its office ceased when the last stone was laid. Commonly classed as the second of Christian temples, this cathedral is really the first in completeness, unity of design, and solidity of construction ; only the fifth in extent or capacity (being excelled by St. Peter's, Florence, Milan, and Amiens) ; and about the last in richness and variety of ornaments. The old cathedral having been patched in every style, and a plan by Wren for preserving the crazy fabric by still further innovations being under discussion, — in 1666, the memorable fire of London cut short these delibera- tions by placing the venerable pile evi- dently beyond repair. The self - taught architect of London, and greatest of archi- tectural constructors, now began various designs for a "fabric of moderate bulk, but of good propor- tion ; a convenient quire, with a vesti- bule and porticoes, ** and a dome conspi cuous above the bouses." It will be observed that here is no mention of nave or aisles. In fact, he was plan- ning what, strange to say, the world has not yet seen — a solemn and real Pro- testant temple, not a counterfeit Roman Catholic one. He would have erected ■ — - ~ "- lii ENCLISH TEET Sectiotis through the transept and d< me of St. Peters (1111), Florence Cathedral [2 £ , L ditto (3 3), aiid St. Geneciecc, Paris (4 4;, showing their comparative widths and heights. 182 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. an edifice on the principles and in the spirit of the mediaeval church-builders, viz., an edifice whose form should be governed, as theirs were, by fitness to the service for which it was built, and by nothing else. This fitness would be promoted, as it was in the old churches, by the unstinted devotion of the best of everything, by every excellence, and every useful and splendid addition that in- genuity could devise, but not by superfluities. Wrens idea seem to have been that the Creator is not honoured by superfluities — by things of which His own works afford no example. That his temple for - a reformed worship might truly resemble those once erected for the unreformed, it was not to be, like them, a church of altars and aisles, for masses and processions, but it was to consist chiefly of a clear space, large enough to contain the utmost number of persons that can hear one voice ; lofty enough for majestic proportion, and ample store of air ; approached by vestibules fit to intervene between the bustling world without and the solemn scene within; to guard one from the unseemly intrusion of the other by something more than a door ; to afford the church at least the acces- sories, that a cottagers room claims — vestibules proportioned to itself — naves, if we like to call them so ; but these were to be appendages to the prayer-house, not the prayer-house an appendage to them. Such were the leading ideas of the many designs Wren proposed for solving this new problem in building — still, alas, new and un- solved — a Protestant temple. He shrunk from the idea of mocking Heaven with a sham offering ; of worshiping in the cast-off clothes of an obsolete system ; or, rather, in a copy of them, made to save the trouble of cutting out new. But, though the king and the nation had abandoned the old system, there was a most important personage who retained it, and, of course, hoped to see its revival. The heir- apparent saw that, though the temples of his faith had, indeed, been made to serve for the new, they did so most imperfectly ; and only by shifts and fictions, such as his co-religionists would be too earnest to tolerate for a moment ; and he saw that an edifice built .for the new form of worship would be even less available for the old, than its cathedrals were for the new, which does just contrive to screw itself into one corner of them. It was, therefore, an object of his solici- tude to see that this costly structure should at least be of some use in the event of its expected change of destination, and in this he unfor- tunately succeeded most completely. No perplexity that can assail an architect can well equal the diffi- culty of Wren's task, between a Protestant nation and a Catholic future monarch, to plan a temple that might upon occasion serve for either religion, and therefore for neither well. Even in his ingenious plans for this purpose, however, he was baffled, not so much by the influence of the future king and his creed, as by that quality of his countrymen which, under the name of Conservatism, may be some- times a very useful one, but on this occasion became nothing less than st. Paul's cathedral. 183 an unreasoning animal obstinacy, whose rule was "what has been shall be, whether now fit or not." The clergy insisted that the new building should resemble a cathedral ; by which term they could or would understand nothing but the peculiarities of an English mediaeval cathedral, as patched up and made to serve its new destination ; for many cathedrals, even St. Peter's itself, resemble Wren's earlier designs much more than they do the present edifice. Many a deep study had to be wasted, many a beautiful invention abandoned, before he could descend to a design sufficiently tame and* common-place to meet their notions. It seems they would oppose, as M unlike a cathedral," every plan that was shorter than 500 feet, every one whose central avenue was wider than 40 feet, or which was without a complete circuit of aisles. Neither would they admit, in any member, a proportion for which there was not Gothic precedent ; nor could any customary part of the old churches, even to the triforium, be allowed to pass unrepresented. We believe they would have stifled the only remaining loophole for Wren's genius, by insisting even on the four central piers at the crossing, had there not fortunately been a precedent, and that an English one, for their omission, in Ely Cathedral. However, out of this, the sole concession he could wrest from dogged routine, he managed to make his work a new and unique one ; and, what is far more important, one that might, at some future period, be made to serve the purposes of the reformed worship; not indeed with the decorum he had contemplated in his favourite designs, but without any very flagrant absurdity. He foresaw that a time must arrive when the common sense of his countrymen (to say nothing of taste or right feeling) would revolt at the idle mockery of a temple large enough to hold 20,000 people, barely affording an oratory for 200 in one of its recesses, and these deafened with the tramp of gazers in other parts of the vast useless carcase. Though that time has not even yet arrived, he made provision for it, as far as they would let him. He provided a clear central space, loftier and far grander than the rest of the edifice ; large enough to serve conveniently for about 4000 worshippers, all within sight and hearing distance of two or three points ; large enough, or at least important enough to be the evident nucleus or main body to which the other parts of the building are appendages ; and lastly, if fitted as an auditory, nearly free from extraneous noise, because itself occupying the place whence the echo and resonance of footsteps almost entirely originates. It must be allowed, indeed, that even with the auditory in this its obvious place, and enlarged to the utmost extent that the best voice can reach, the eastern and western arms of the building would still be preposterous] v lengthy, the one for a chancel, and the other for a vestibule or ante- church; but this, as we have seen, he could not help. Beino* rigor- ously required to fill out the complete cathedral length of 500 ft., and give something corresponding in place and dimensions to everv 184 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. part and member of the Gothic model, — in a word, to make a fabric perfectly adapted to every requirement of the old worship, — -he could not, at the same time, make it also perfectly and decorously available for the new. That he did so to such an extent as he has done, will be matter of no small admiration, whenever the building shall be adapted to this purpose; which it would be an insult to our readers to pretend that it now is. A model of one of Wren's earlier designs (we may with some reason suppose it his favourite) is extant, in a very mutilated state, in a loft over the north-west chapel of the nave, and is equally worthy of notice with the existing building itself, if not more so, as showing the great master's ingenuity in the higher branches of his art, which the executed fabric cannot be said to do, the general form and pro- portions being none of his, but settled, as we have seen, partly by Romish views, more by stubborn routine, and merely given him to construct and decorate as he best could. Against the fancied conser- vatism, but really unprecedented innovation, that required a building planned not for its own purpose, but to imitate those planned for a different purpose ; against the spirit of plodding dulness that would have nothing but a copy of the average Gothic skeleton, stripped of all individualities, and dressed in a different style, — he fought hard and long, and yielded only inch by inch. He was hedged in by barriers of fancied rules, unknown to the mediaeval designers from whom they were professedly drawn, and having no parallel but in the art-banish- ing dogmas of nineteenth-century ecclesiologists. Yet all this, though it sadly curbed, did not paralyse the genius of Wren, which yet struggles forth at every possible opening, and might meet most of the I'LAN OF ST. PAUL'S. ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL. 185 criticism of his nation with the retort of the ancient artist, " What you admire is mine, what you condemn is your own." This vast work is the only one of its class begun and finished in one age ; and, what is still more remarkable, under one bishop by one master-mason, and (except a few contemptible super-additions) by one architect. It was commenced in 1675, nine years after the fire, and finished in 1711. The plan annexed will show that it resembles an Anglo-Gothic church of the largest class, except only in the breadth and fewness of the severies or compartments. The usual four piers at the crossing are omitted, so as to throw the weight of the dome on eight surrounding piers (as at Ely Cathedral), and the re-entering angles are strengthened by four massive towers, three containing vestries, and one a staircase, all continued to the height of the clere-story walls, or about 100 ft. from the ground. To the west front, which was intended for the principal entrance, are added laterally, beyond the breadth of the building (as at Wells and Rouen), two bell-towers which rise with pyramidal summits, to double the -height of the roofs ; and behind or east of them, are two oblong chapels rising no higher than the aisles, but having rooms over them, corresponding to the clere-story. On the eight central arches are built two concentric circular walls, the outer supporting a complete colonnade, 140 ft. in diameter, admirably contrived to abut the inner, which carries the domes. These with their lantern, crowned by a gilt copper ball and cross, rise altogether to thrice the height of the roofs, or 365 ft. from the ground, 35 6 from the floor of the church, and 375 from that of the crypts*. Simple ratios prevail between all the leading dimensions, and especially the ratio of 1 to 2 between the breadth and height of openings, avenues, and spaces. Thus the windows are chiefly 12 ft. wide by 24 high; the aisles 19 ft. in clear width by 38 in clear height; the central avenues 41 by 84 1 (a deficiency of only one foot in breadth); the beautiful domed vestibule at the west end, 47 square by 94 high; and lastly, the central space, 108 in clear width, by 216 high. In clear diameter, this space is exceeded by that between the four piers of St. Sophia, 162 ft.; between those of St. Peters, 157; the circular inclosure of the Pantheon, 144; the octagon (with four sides open) of Florence Cathedral, 138; and the crossing (with all sides open) of the mosque of Achmet, 130 ft. J * We cannot guess the origin of the 404 ft. copied into most accounts, unless it be taken from the bottom of the foundations, or the level of the Thames. The built structures (omitting framed ones) which exceed this in extreme height, are those at Strasburg, Rome, Landshut, Vienna, Salisbury. Chartres, Cremona, Freyburg, Ant- werp, and Brussels. But all these, except St. Peter's and Salisbury, are built from the ground, not suspended on arches. The only central or lantern erections exceed- ing St. Paul's are these two, and perhaps Florence or Milan, between which two last and our dome there seems an intended equality. f These avenues are (within a foot or two) half the width of those of St. Peter's, the widest, and half the height of those of Beauvais, the highest. X The common mode of comparison, by the diameters of the domes themselves, is 186 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. In height, however, it stands third, exceeding the Pantheon by 70 ft.; about equalling St. Sophia, but falling short of the Florence cupola by 50 ft., and of St. Peter's by 150. To show what various proportions have been admired : — at the Pantheon, the clear height is equal to the breadth, and at Achmet's dome about the same ; at St. Sophia, one-third greater ; at Florence and St. Paul's, twice ; and at St. Peter's two and a half times the breadth. (See comparative section, page 181.) Our view, projected from a point in the steeple of St. Martin's, Ludgate, with the houses omitted, will show the external form and decorations of the dome, incomparably the finest part ; and the west front, which is next in merit. With regard to the rest of the exterior, it is to be observed that the aisles are included entirely in the height of the lower order of pilasters ; and that the upper, which has empty niches instead of windows, is merely a wall or screeji, erected, as some say, to hide the unclassical forms of flying buttresses, but we cannot attribute to Wren so very clumsy and disproportioned an expedient. He certainly had invention enough to have given those features a form harmonising with the style of the rest ; and if not, no necessary features would be considered, except perhaps in the nineteenth century, to justify so gross an extravagance. Be- sides, the massiveness of this wall, about 9 ft. thick, precludes the idea of a mere screen, and seems to suggest that its chief motive may be to furnish a load like that of the Gothic pinnacles, but much heavier, to steady the piers below it against the thrust of the vault- ings, without requiring very prominent buttresses. This mock story, which is the most objectionable thing in the fabric, swells out its exterior, and gives it a false magnitude, but at the same time a flatness and sameness very opposite to the play and variety that would have arisen from the view of the upper story receding behind the lower, as in Gothic buildings, and only coinciding with it at the sheer precipices of the end facades, w r hich owe half their grandeur to the contrast with this broken precipice elsewhere. The same falsehood too (of raising the outer wall everywhere to the full height of the building), has induced the shallow criticism in every mouth, that there should have been but a single order 90 feet high, instead of two of 50 and 40 feet. Now this would, in the first place, have been a further deception, for the building is not, as Wren's own designs were, of one story, but of three, answering in every way to the Gothic aisles, triforium, and clere-story. Next, an order 90 feet high could not be, with any materials this country affords (and indeed never has been in any country), so erected as to be really what it affects to be. The present orders are real, like those of the ancient unfair, and places them in a very different order, thus: the Pantheon, 144 ft.; Florence, 142; St. Peter's, 139; St. Sophia, 115; St. Paul's, 100; Achmet's mosque, 92. But the real boldness and amount of available space is in the order given above. The palm still rests with St. Sophia, the work of the barbarous sixth century. ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. 187 WESTERN VIEW OF ST. PAUL'S, FROM LUDGATE STEEPLE. temples ; the 90 ft. order would have been a sham, for it would be impossible to make a real one on that scale. Lastly, to fancy the 188 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. building would have been grander, dressed in this colossal counterfeit, is utterly at variance with all experience. We estimate the magni- tude of a building, first, at a distance, by the number of parts ; after- wards, when we come nearer, by their individual size. Now, it is more important to make a good impression at last than at first — better that the work should improve on nearer inspection, than disappoint. Therefore, number of parts is to be sacrificed to size when we cannot have both, but the case is widely different when we can. It is essen- tial, indeed, to grandeur, that those features which the grand building has in common with others, should all be larger than in ordinary buildings ; but, provided they be decidedly larger, this is enough — any further enlargement of scale is mere waste, producing no commen- surate effect, as all our examples of orders on a very exaggerated scale testify, for no one gives them credit for their real dimensions. Now the lower Corinthian order of St. Paul's is decidedly the largest likely to be erected, in its neighbourhood; and one of 90 ft. would, in a near view, have appeared very little larger, and therefore have made the building appear very much smaller; while the fewness of parts would have precluded all originality of arrangement, and all that variety of combination in which Wren excelled, and without which a building (unless it have all the sculpture of a Doric or the minute ornament of a Corinthian temple) cannot amuse or occupy the mind two moments. This front is called by Mitford " the finest piece of [^complex]] external architecture in the world ; " the only one that caused him any hesitation in saying so being Perrault's front of the Louvre. More distance between the three chief planes, those of the portico front, the faces of the towers, and the small curtains connecting them, would have made it more striking ; but the vulgar demand for a prominent portico, like that for a colossal order, forgets to ask how it could be executed in the genuine, sterling, and imperish- able manner that characterises the whole of this noble work, no part of which depends for support or covering on either wood or iron. Its porticoes may be the least striking, but they are the only ones in England built, like those of antiquity, for all time. The chief real defect of this front is the coupling of the columns, for which there is literally no excuse. It is otherwise with the pilasters throughout the building, which, being in fact buttresses, required to be in pairs to give sufficient mass to each buttress, and also to avoid the solecism of the entablature making two external angles over the same capital, which gives whatever is below the appearance of total inutility, and, though common enough in nearly all other Italian and Anglo-classic architecture, never once occurs throughout the whole exterior of this vast work. The coupled and even overlapping pilasters are not nearly such an abuse as this. The porticoes of the transept fronts would be highly beautiful, if their columns were only equidistant, and the detail within them is the purest and most classic in the building. The upper parts ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. ] 89 of these fronts, however, are most corrupt; and the east end is the poorest part of the whole, singularly clumsy, and deformed by arches of double curvature. There is much nutter, or want of repose, about all the lower parts of St. Paul's, especially when contrasted with the simplicity of the dome and its accessories. These may safely challenge comparison with any composition of the same kind. The improvement on St. Peter's is no less remarkable in external design than in construc- tion, and renders the application of the epithet, a u copy," or an " imitation," simply ridiculous. It is such an imitation as Watt's steam-engine is of Newcomen's. The sectional view (see page 190) will enable the visitor to understand the form of this masterpiece of construction. Its great peculiarity is the invisible conical structure of brick, interposed between the inner and outer domes, resting on the lower circumference of the former, and serving to support the stone lantern, the size and weight of which air-suspended fabric may be conceived from the fact that, if placed on the floor of the churcb, it would not stand under the ceiling of the nave. The supporting cone is most ingeniously modified at its upper part, to leave eight windows, and support the concentrated weight of the eight masses of the lantern. Its remaining portions, though pierced with numerous apertures, form a mere shell, only two bricks or 18 inches thick, and its base is confined from spreading by a wrought-iron chain imbedded in melted lead. The surrounding butments, however, are so well placed and contrived, that this precaution is probably superfluous, as long as they stand complete. Every part of this building has, like the Gothic ones, two inde- pendent coverings, the inner of vaulted masonry, and the outer of oak framing, covered with lead. The beautiful outer dome, there- fore, cannot be called unreal; it corresponds in structure to the upper roofs of all the other parts, and is in the most economical (as well as beautiful) form for a timber roof to cover such a space. The waste of internal capacity, in the unseen spaces between tbe inner- most and outermost dome, is not nearly so great as in the roofs of Gothic buildings ; and no part of this structure can be said to be (like a Gotbic high roof or spire) erected for external effect alone, except the lantern. This, indeed, is so, for the highest windows visible from within, and which appear to form a lantern, are really situated below its base, in the upper part of the brick cone, and are inge- niously lighted from sunk areas, invisible from without, in the sum- mit of the timber dome. The interior of St. Paul's is very disappointing to those who, from the universal practice in the mediaeval and foreign churches, expect to find such an edifice adorned with the artistic contri- butions of every age since its erection. The want of ornament, however (which instead of exceeding, as it should do, falls short of the quantity lavished on the exterior), is a minor fault compared 190 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE —THIRD PERIOD. SECTIONAL VfEW OF THE DOME OF ST. PAUL S. ST. STEPHENS, WALBROOK ST. JAMES S, PICCADILLY. 193 Catholic routine of nave and aisles, and in these, of course, he could do little. The more licence he could ohtain to deviate from this everlasting mimic basilica, the better he succeeded; and to say that this is the building in which the greatest deviation therefrom was allowed, is tantamount to pronouncing it his masterpiece. Though the exterior and belfry of this church have uncommon grace and decorum for that age, it is the interior that constitutes its fame. Though a simple cell enclosed by four walls, the tameness of that form wholly dis- appears behind the unique and varied arrangement of its sixteen columns. They reproduce and unite almost every beauty of plan to be found in all the cathedrals of Europe. Now they form the Latin cross, with its nave, transept, and chancel ; anon they divide the whole space into five aisles, regularly diminishing from the centre to the sides ; again we perceive, in the midst, a square apartment with recesses on all its sides — a square, nay, an octagon — no, a circle. It changes at every glance, as we view the entablature, or the arches above it, or the all-uniting dome. With the same harmonious variety, we have every form of ceiling brought together at once — flat, camerated, groined, pen- dentive, domical — yet no confusion. The fitness to its destination is perfect ; every eye can see the minister, and every ear is within hearing distance of him, in every part of the service. It is the most beautiful of preaching-rooms; and though only a sketch, and executed only in coun- terfeit building, would, if carried out in Wren's spirit instead of his employers', form the most perfect of Protestant temples. St. James 's, Piccadilly^ is about the largest of Wren's churches, but at the same time the most meanly built, everything about it indicating such extreme parsimony, that he seems to have given up the exterior in despair, bestowing on it only a few of his favourite cherubs' heads. It has lately been improved by the addi- tion of a cornice, which it much wanted. But the fact is, that Wren, who had travelled no further than France, had, for want of seeing the Italian works, no idea of astylar architecture. He could do little without columns or pilasters. His taste was also thoroughly English in regard to projections and recessions, which are always petty and shallow. The interior of this church has an unique form of ceiling, contrived to mask an ingenious roof, which rests solely on the columns (independently of the walls), and has served as a model for that of some modern ship-building sheds. Christ Church, Newgate Street (see p. 195), is very similar to the last, but with an elliptic central ceiling, and is one of the best- proportioned churches on the basilican plan, with galleries. St. Anne and Agnes, north of the Post Office; St. Martins, Ludgate; St. Antholiris, Budge Row; and St. Swithins, Cannon Street, are among those which display the greatest originality of plan. In nothing was the fertility of Wren's invention so strikingly displayed as in the belfries of his churches, which, being frequently the only parts visible at all from a right distance, received much K 194 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. attention; and their extraordinary diversity of forms (as seen from either of the eastern bridges) has no parallel in any other city ; and contrasts strangely with the monotonous repeti- tion of two round tem- ples and an attic, per- vading the other parts of London, or the ever- lasting mock - Early- English pyramid that now succeeds them. Here, one self-taught man builds fifty things, strikingly different, and not one devoid of beauty ; there, fifty architects cannot make two that may be distin- guished by ordinary observers, nor one that is ever thought an or- nament, though built for nothing else. The steeples of Wren all rise from the ground, and not from the roof of a building; they all have a regular increase of decoration, from the plain and solid base- ment to the broken and fanciful finish ; they are all square and undiminished up to half their entire height, often more, but perhaps always to the middle of that portion ex- pected to be generally visi- ble above the houses; and in all, except ST. MAR\-LB-BOW. ST. BR. IDE'S. WREN S STEEPLES. 195 those of St. Paul's, the upper or pyramidal portion is so arranged that in almost every view its outlines may touch (and be confined bv) two straight * lines meeting at the summit. In later times all these rules have generally been reversed, espe- cially the last, our modern stee- ples affecting a convexity of out- line, whose pro- minent points are limited by the form of a pointed arch in- stead of a tri- angle. Wren employed this convex outline in the belfries of St. Paul's alone, plainly showing his sense of its fitness to a situ- requiring breadth CHRIST CHURCH. ation more and majesty; in fact, a character altogether dis- tinct from that of parochial steeples, where he has given a lighter and more feminine ex- pression by the triangular out- line» The pro- portions of his triangle vary from an equi- lateral to one whose height is six times its base. 196 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. St. Mary - le - Bow, commonly called Bow Church, Cheapside (p. 194); St. Bride s, Fleet Street (p. 194); Christ Church, Newgate Str 1 ., and St. Vedast's, Foster Lane (p. 195), have the steeples of the tallest proportion; and the two former are the tallest in London, having been apparently intended to equal exactly those of St. Paul's, or about 235 feet, but St. Bride's, which has suffered much from lightning, has, in its repairs, been reduced a few feet. The diversity of these four steeples is admirable. Bow has been the general favourite, pro- bably from the variety of plan in its different stories. In the other three, one plan, differ- ent in each, is preserved throughout the pyra- mid : in Christ Church, a square ; in St. Bride's, an octagon ; in St. Ve- dast's, a figure of four concave quadrants. The depth of hollowing in this last does not, in an English climate, form a sufficient substitute for thorough piercing or detached members, so that the whole is too solid and flat, but would answer well in Italian sunshine. ChristChurch has one great merit, that of more connection and mutual dependence between the stories than usual; but its outline has been destroyed by the removal of a few vases. St. Bride's is, considered by itself, far from the happiest of *■ Wren's works, and, if it stood alone, would be justly called puerile, but it adds a pleasing B variety to the general TE assemblage; and though || one design on this prin- ciple is enough, that one required to be on a M large scale to carry out st. james's, garlick hill, the idea thoroughly. St. James's, Garlick Hill ; St. Michael's, College Hill ; St. Stephens, Walbrook ; and St. Bennet's, Paul's Wharf, are some of the finest of his numerous steeples, whose upper part is limited by a pyramid of a lower proportion. St. Michael's, Cornhill, and St. Dunstan's, near the Custom House (p. 197), present, in their belfries, Wren's nearest approaches to the old Gothic style ; for his works present every shade of intermediate design between these and pure Italian. His faults, in the Gothic, are precisely the same as when following his usual style ; but the flatness, shallowness, and littleness of mouldings, become here far more glaring, simply because his tendency this way is not restrained by rules and proportional measures, such as the Italian systematizers had laid down. WRENS STEEPLES. 197 ;:; ST. MTCHAKL'S, CORNHILL. It will be observed, that though Wrens constant profession was to imitate the ancients, such an idea as that of the mere revival, or histrionic representa- tion, of any ancient style, could never have been entertained by him ; otherwise, his great admiration of Salisbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, and long employment on the repairs of both those matchless fabrics, could not but have led him to the production of some mock-Early- English, which, how- ever, was reserved for this 19th century. His words, if taken in their modern sense, would strangely contradict his works, for his expres- sions of reverence for antiquity, and endea- vour to follow its rules, could not have been more modest if St. Paul's had been only a sham temple, like the Madeleine or Walhalla. The churches erect- ed by Wrens succes- sors, Hawkesmoor and Gibbs, were more libe- rally built and far more ornate than those of the great architect himself, especially their exte- riors, which, however, were not, as in latere times, enriched at the expense of the interior. ST. DUNSTAN'S 198 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. Five churches by these masters are worthy of notice : — St. Marys, Woolnoth, in Lombard St., is the master- piece of Wren's pupil, Hawkes- moor, and by far the most original erected his time, exterior work since The seems to have been designed with a view towards the foreseen opening of a new street, which has since taken place ; and both the north and west faces are well fitted, the for- mer to its as- pect, and the latter to its present situa- tion. The in- terior is unique for a church, and apparently imitates Vitru- vius* descrip- tion of one sort of ancient atrium. Its great merit is, that the gal- leries, though very capacious, are not offen- sive. It seems ST. MARTJN'S church. incredible, did we not see proof of it on every side, CHURCHES BY HAWKESMOOR AND GIBBS. 199 that a problem of daily requirement in mo- dern times should, though solved more than once, be now given np in despair St. George 's, Blooms- bury, by the same ar- chitect, is remarkable for the picturesque grouping of its front, and majestic effect of its portico, which is on the principle of the ancient Roman ones, which style, indeed, this artist seems to have studied more than the modern Italian. The crowning of the tower, how- ever, by a pyramid of steps, is a sad mistake. That form is (or repre- sents) the most massive and solid in all archi- tecture, therefore the most unfit form pos- sible for a finish, and it should be replaced by some light open composition, inclosing and sheltering the statue, instead of hoisting it aloft to the storms. St. Mary-le- Strand, the first church erected by Gibbs, shows, altogether, a very tawdry taste, and is remarkable for the very singular conceit of making a single apartment appear externally of two stories. Even counterfeit littleness, however, is perhaps better than counterfeit greatness. St. George's, Hanover Square, is the best, or rather the least faulty, of the works of James, who introduced the fashion of placing the belfry centrally behind a portico; which in this case was, perhaps, from the peculiar plan of the neighbourhood, its only good position, for it falls nearly in the axis of three streets, Grosvenor and Maddox Streets and Harewood Place, and seen from the latter, ST. BOTOL.PH, BISHOPSGATE. 200 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. forms part of one of the very few groups in London that can be called picturesque. This belfry is also well fitted to its novel situation, and not too high for the portico below. The north side shows by its boldness, that aspect was still considered, and allowed to influence architectural composition, which, perhaps, it has never since done. St. Martin's in the Fields (see p. 198), now in Trafalgar Square, and the most conspicuous church in London, is by Gibbs, and, though shining like a gem among more modern works, cannot be considered an improvement on anything preceding it. The steeple is here too much for the portico, and should have been placed elsewhere. The whole air is pompous and ostentatious, and the enrichment, which was now almost turned out from the interior to the exterior of churches, seems working itself to the surface, and introducing us to an age in which beauty should not even be skin-deep. The interior is in a style only fit for a theatre. St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate (see p. 199), is a favourable specimen of the less pretending churches of the same age (that of George L). It is the only known work of its architect, James Gold. Somerset House, in the Strand, was commenced in 1776, by Sir William Chambers, the last adherent to the systematic and regulated architecture introduced from Italy by Jones, and it may therefore be regarded as terminating the third period, the brazen age, of English design. It consists almost entirely of small rooms, used as public offices, and, therefore, presents only external architecture ; and this is confined to the clothing of the street front, 155 feet long, the river front about 600 feet, and the interior of the quadrangle, 319 feet by 224 ; the east and west sides of the exterior (though the latter is now the most exposed of all) being abandoned to the ineffable hideousness of the deceits required by bricklaying re- spectability. All above the cornice also has been left to grow into a forest of the elegant and varied inventions of the chimney- doctor ; it having by this time become an admitted and esta- blished rule, that these, and many other parts of buildings (in fact, to define them in short, all necessary or useful parts), were ex- cluded from the architect's province — not expected to appear in his drawings, and, in the actual execution, made allowance for, as neces- sary evils, invisible to the practised and tutored eye, which is expected to see the building not as it stands (and always will stand while in use), but as it would appear with the necessary blots, the objects of vulgar utility, abstracted. In fact, architecture had now become, to all intents, a "fine art;" one whose business was orna- ment; not to make, but to apply and combine ornament; and the ornaments given it as its materials were — the useful members of ancient building. Strange, that an art professing only to adorn, and ignoring vulgar use, can find nothing to take as ornaments except objects of use! We thus learn, then, that when these ornaments were SOMERSET HOUSE. 201 . OHz L Jpr PL4.N OF THE CENTRE AND WEST WING OF SOMERSET HOUSE. made, the practice must have been just the reverse of the present; their ornaments must have been their objects of use, and their objects of use their ornaments; as we have seen was the case in the first age of English art : whereas, now, the very term ornament implies something useless, so that all the members of a building are divisible into two classes, — objects of use, and ornaments; i. £., things without beauty, and things without use; things which the eye abhors, but must suffer because they are necessary, and things which the purse grudges, but must pay for, because without them there would be no beauty. Out of these two opposite materials it is expected to make unity and harmony; harmony between utility and uselessness, and between beauty and ugliness. The task is utterly hopeless. Har- mony in building is peculiar to the ages that employed neither of K 3 202 ULTIMATE STATE OF REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE. SOMERSET HOUSE. these things — to those in which architecture was not a fine art — in which there were no fine arts — no distinction between useful and fine — because the two qualities had not been abstracted — because no one had entertained the idea of making things either without use or without beauty. Abstracting, then, its objects of use, the work of Chambers has much merit, excelling most of Wren's in breadth and repose, and all of them in purity of detail, which he studied more than any other English architect, and in which he excelled even Jones. In all qualities related to grandeur., however, he falls far short of the latter ; and in invention, whether constructive or decorative, cannot be named with the former. The total divorce of use and beauty seems to characterize the end of the third period, that of rule, .and to prepare or usher in the LONDON ARCHITECTS, MEMOIRS OF. 203 fourth, that of licence — that of many styles — that which can represent the works of every age but itself — and represent them not merely in details, but in whole things — the first age possessing only architec- ture, (< Which, looked on as it is, is nought but shadows Of what it is not." For an account of the chief buildings erected in this age, the reader is referred to their several names or general designations, as u Churches," " Public Buildings/' &c. Architects. — In connection with the above, we here add a short memoir of the three men who have contributed most to the modern architecture of London, or that of the third period. Inigo Jones, the father of modern English architecture, was born in 3 572, under the shadow, some say, of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield ; others, of St. Paul's ; the two no- blest edifices of old London. His father, Ignatius, is regarded by some as a poor tailor, by others, with more probability, as an opulent clothier; who gave his son his own name, but in the Spanish form, in compliment to some merchant of that nation. The former apprentice Inigo to a joiner, chiefly on account of some vague hints in certain satires of his subse- ! quent enemy Ben Jonson, which may more likely allude to his employ- ment on the court masques, which the same poet elsewhere calls " mythology painted on slit deal." In fact nothing certain is known of the original rank, education, or early life of Jones, except that he gave some promise of talent for painting landscape, of which a specimen is said to exist in the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick. Some say that this drew the attention of one or both of two noblemen, by whom the expense of his first journey to and residence in Italy was defrayed; but his son-in-law mentions no such patronage, and he himself opens a work inscribed to the king (they being alive), with the words, " Being naturally inclined, in my younger years, to study the arts of design, I passed into foreign parts to converse with the great masters thereof, in Italy," &c. His family seem, therefore, to have afforded him this advantage. During a residence of many years, chiefly in Venice, he is said to have become known for his architectural skill, throughout Europe (though the names of his foreign works are not known), so that be- fore 1604 he was invited to Denmark, by King Christian IV., who made him his architect-general. As he executed no works in that INIGO JONES. 204 LONDON ARCHITECTS. country, his stay was probably not long ; and, in 1605, we first hear of " Mr. Jones, a great traveller," preparing a masque to welcome King James on his visit to Oxford. Others say he came over in the suite of the king's bride, Anne, sister of Christian IV., though she did not arrive till 1606. He was now for many years chiefly occupied on the royal masques above named, of which Chapman, Devonport, Daniel, and Ben Jonson wrote the poetry. A quarrel with the latter began in 1614, and led him to satirize Jones unmercifully as long as he lived. Before his second residence in Italy, Jones seems not to have contemplated the wholesale importation of the style of that country (or rather of Venice), but only to engraft its details, as Holbein had done, on the Tudor littleness and baseness of general design. The chief permanent works in this, his first style, were — Sherbourne House, Gloucestershire; Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh; and the inner court of St. John's College, Oxford, which have a piquancy and spirit vastly superior to the dull insipid uncouthness of the Elizabethan. Some ascribe to him partly the decoration of St. Catherine Cree, a much inferior work, but, like the others, displaying more search after mere novelty than anything else. It is unknown in what year he again left for Italy, from whence he was after some years recalled, as the King had already made him his " surveyor in reversion," and that office was now vacant. He then showed what Walpole calls a Roman disinterestedness. The office of works* had, under his predecessor, contracted a debt, " amounting unto several thousands of pounds," and, being consulted " what course might be taken to ease his Majesty of it, the exchequer being empty and the workmen clamorous," he offered u not to receive one penny of his own entertainment, in what kind soever due, until the debt was fully discharged ;" and not only performed this himself, but persuaded the comptroller and paymaster to do the same. The King, who, if a Solomon in wisdom, was the very reverse in other respects, was yet not prevented from undertaking that magni- ficent work, with which the name of Jones is chiefly associated, and erecting that fragment which the richest of nations has never found means to carry further. — (See " Public Buildings," Whitehall.) — Among the many merits of this design, not the least was its capa- bility of progressive erection, without impairing the unity and sym- metry of the portion at any time left. Thus, the present fragment being (see plan, p. 177) the west side of one of the smallest quad- rangles, the two adjoining sides of the same might proceed progres- sively from it towards the river, always preserving uniformity and completeness, whether the square were closed by its eastern side or not. Again, after this, the opposite corresponding square, on the site of the present Horse Guards, might have been erected ; or, what is better, the south-east square, on the site of Richmond Terrace, and in either case two grand corresponding masses, as at Greenwich, would result. Supposing the north-east and south-east quadrangles thus erected, INIGO JONES. 205 they might he joined by either or both of their connecting ranges, and in either case a complete palace ^ would have been formed, some- £> what exceeding the present Palace of Parliament in extent, (though not in amount of build- ing,) and with two very different fronts, towards the street and towards the river, the latter affording no small instalment towards the lining of quays proposed from time to time, but never attempted, to assimi- late London with other capitals. Even this realization of one third of King James's project sounds wild and chimerical, but we men- tion it to show a peculiar merit of Jones's great design, w r hich no other perhaps ever possessed in such a degree. In 1620 he was appointed to repair St. Paul's, to which he added the Corinthian portico, at which critics have been so aghast, though always forgetting to show What they would have done in its stead, to preserve greater unity in the patched and crazy fabric. This famous por- tico, the first in England, was not inferior in scale to the largest of antiquity, or the masque of the British Museum. It had twelve columns in front, and three on the flanks, with no pediment, but balustrades and a statue over each column. Jones, however, was not, as events proved, well chosen as a repairer, having, perhaps, of all great architects, the least skill in construction. To this we may partly refer the paucity , of his works now extant, though I he was much employed on man- ji sions all over the country. The" 206 LONDON ARCHITECTS, chief remaining are, Wilton House, Wilts; the Grange, Hants; Cashiobury, Herts ; and Gunnersbury, Middlesex. In London, besides what we have mentioned, and old Somerset House> de- stroyed, there remain, much altered, Lindsay House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Ashburnham House near Westminster Abbey. We have elsewhere mentioned the water-gate of York Stairs, the two northern portions of Greenwich Hospital, and the exteriors of Lincoln's Inn Chapel, Coven t Garden Church, and the houses with arcades ad- joining it. Being both a royalist and a catholic, Jones felt heavily the troubles of Charles's reign and the Commonwealth. In 1640, under pretence of injury done to a little church abutting on the portico of St. Paul's, he was mulcted of <£545 ; and, though never rich, he had recourse to bury- ing money. He died in Somerset House, in 1652, his life shortened, it is said, by troubles, though it extended to eighty years. His tomb in the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, disappeared, like his portico, in the great fire fourteen years later. De Quincy observes of his style, that it was almost entirely founded on that of Palladio, but that " imiter comme il a su le faire, c'est etre toujours original." Neither were his works mimic Italian, nor those of his master mimic Roman. Yet they are representative to a degree exceeding all previous works, not indeed that the ornamental parts were more useless and foreign to the construction than in the later Gothic and Tudor, but that they were more cumbrous and costly. It would be hard if he could not make his works more effective than former ones, when incomparably more was spent on effect and mere superfluity. As a general rule, whatever renders them beautiful, is a sheer sacrifice of use to beauty ; but this was the fault of the age, not the man ; and it is unfair to charge it on him (as Walpole and Cunningham have done), for the art he practised did not profess to unite use with beauty, any more than our present architecture does, with its mimic buttresses, gargoyles, steep roofs, or sham belfries. But it did profess (which ours does not) to represent whatever it did represent, for the sake of beauty, not of mock antiquity; and to regard use and fitness in general form and arrangement, though not in details. Strip a modern Gothic church of its superfluous mock features, and where is its beauty ? Strip the Whitehall design of the same, and there remain the beauties of fitness, grace, variety, and unity in the general form and disposition. These make the differ- ence between the art of the brazen age and of the iron. Christopher Wren, one of the brightest exemplars of combined greatness and goodness that this or any country has produced, was born in 1632, at Knoyle, a village of which his father was rector, in the vale of the Nadder, west of Salisbury. The family had for more than a century been singularly fertile in men of talent or learning, the most famous of whom was the architect's uncle, Dr. Wren, Bishop of Ely, almost a martyr to the royal cause, and SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 207 SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. imprisoned for twenty years for his fidelity thereto. His father, also, a was Chaplain to Charles I., Dean of Windsor, and Registrar of the Order I of the Garter. Christopher was his f only son, and so weak and delicate in his youth, that he was reared with difficulty, and educated at home hy a private tutor, except a , short preparation under Dr. Busby, ' at Westminster, before his admis- \ sion to the University of Oxford in his fourteenth year. Even before ; this, he had invented some curious astronomical and dialling instru- ments, a machine " that shall plant corn equally, without want, and without waste," a " pneumatic machine," &c, to which were soon added a " diplographic instrument for writing with two pens/' and another for writing in the dark, a " weather- clock," a " treatise on spherical trigonometry, in a new method," a theory of the planet Saturn, and other contributions to the fresh dawn of physical science, too little remembered in her steady meridian blaze. He was the associate of Hooke in drawing his micrographia, (or, as one account says, the " inventor artis micrographise,") and made for Dr. Scarborough the first anatomical models, as he did also the first model of the moon's surface ; and, in maturer years, the first model showing practically the optic action of the eye. He became known over Europe, both as a mathematician and experimentalist, even be- fore the age of eighteen, at which he was made B.A. Three years later, he was unanimously elected a Fellow of All Souls' College, took the next degree, and was one of that small but choice band of philo- sophers who laid the humble foundation of the Royal Society. (See the Article " Learned Societies," and " Royal Society.") In 1 654, Evelyn, no exaggerator, speaks of him as " that miracle of a youth," and afterwards, as "that rare and early prodigy of universal science;" and about this time he had a very great, if not the principal, share in the greatest discovery or invention of the time — that of atmospheric pressure and the barometer*. * Oldenburg, a Saxon then resident at Oxford, is known to have " betrayed the secrets" of this scientific club to his friends abroad, who have thus obtained the credit of many discoveries really belonging to this nation, and especially, it is said, those of the modest simple-minded Wren. The famous experiments of Otto Guericke are .said to have emanated partly from this source ; and in a register of the Royal Society in 1678, relating to some barometric experiments on heights, is this passage : — a Here- upon it was queried, how this experiment of the different pressure of the atmosphere came first to be thought of ; and it was related that it was first propounded by Sir Christopher AYren, in order to examine Mons. Des Cartes' hypothesis whether the 208 LONDON ARCHITECTS. In 1657 he succeeded Hooke in the chair of Astronomy in Gresham College, London; and in 1659 he was made Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. In 1660, when the little society above men- tioned was consolidated under royal patronage, Wren, by desire of the rest, drew up the speech to be put into the mouth of the restored monarch, made ready their opening experiments on pendulums, and was desired to consider, with Dr. Petty, the philosophy of shipping, and report to them thereon. At this time we hear of fifty- three inventions, theories, or improvements by him, chiefly mechanical, but ranging through such a variety of subjects, that it would hardly be possible to parallel this curious list. There is an " hypothesis of the moon's libration," and a " way of embroidering beds, cheap and fair ;" " divers new musical instruments," and " inventions for making and fortifying havens ;* " easier ways of whale-fishing," and " the best ways for reckoning time, way, and longitude at sea." We believe a search among his forgotten studies would astonish by the number of famous inventions of later days that were present to his prophetic mind, but in vain, because the age was not ripe for them. It is singular that only two of this catalogue refer to the art that afterwards engrossed all his attention. We find among the crowd, " new r designs tending to strength, convenience, and beauty in build- ing," and " to build forts and moles in the sea." A year after this, however, he was made assistant to the office of royal surveyor, which, being held by Denham the poet, appears to have been merely nomi- nal. In 1663 he was ordered to repair St. Paul's; and now appeared the most extraordinary proof of his aptitude to learn. Never was a subject learnt at once so late in life, so quickly and so well, as building in all its most technical and practical branches, by this w r onderful man. In endeavouring to repair Jones's unscientific patching, and the original defects of the crazy pile, he made a most masterly proposi- tion, to remodel the centre on the plan of the octagon at Ely, and to replace the thin weak tower, By a majestic dome, which would pro- bably have most resembled that at Florence. To fit himself, how- ever, for his new office, he judged it necessary to glean instruction abroad, and therefore, in 1665, proceeded to France, but (to the great and irretrievable loss of our country) no further. What his geometric and constructive skill might have produced, if tempered with the pure taste to be drawn from the old Italian works, it is im- possible to overrate — we should have had buildings eclipsing all others in the modern world. But his taste, instead of being refined passing by of the body of the moon presses upon the air, and consequently also on the body of the water : and that the first trial thereof was made at Mr. Boyle's cham- ber in Oxford." Dr. Derham also says of the barometer, that, " to do every man jus- tice, the real use of it, and the discovery that it was the gravitation of the atmo- sphere which kept up the quicksilver to such a height, which the learned abroad, particularly Torricelli, had only before suspected, was first proved by Boyle, at the suggestion of Wren." SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 209 by the air of Italy, was only corrupted (in matters of detail) by that of France, where design was then nearly at its lowest ebb. His industry in drawing and noting what he saw in Paris and its neigh- bourhood was such, to judge from his letters, that he talks of bringing home " all France upon paper." He frequented the works at the Louvre, where 1000 artisans were then employed, and would have "given his skin" for a longer view of Bernini's design for its completion, of which that mean artist, the moral opposite of Wren, would only allow him a five minutes' glimpse. The next year saw that tremendous catastrophe which, sweeping off old London, its dark alleys, and overhanging plague-harbouring wooden dwellings, cleared the field on which all this lifetime of thought and observation was to be concentrated and thanklessly bestowed. There was no question about the architect of the new city. Fortunately for it, and for us, Wren was not the chief, but the only architect of his day. His design for rebuilding the 400 acres of wasted town was the most practical of the few ever made for such a purpose, and equally removed from the lower than animal instinct-work of American chequers, or the fairy dreams of Piranesi's Campus Martius. It was no " air-drawn Babylon," as one of his biographers calls it, though containing as much thought and con- trivance as any. It is observable that there are no curved streets, for though Wren could not, even if the High Street at Oxford were the only example, be unaware of their beautiful effect, he thought it too dearly bought by irregularity in every room. His narrowest streets were to be 30 ft., and widest 90, for he knew that (as Portland Place shows) there is no advantage in roads wider than we can afford to keep clean and in repair. The design, however, though the most humble that the occasion would justify, was too great for those who dwelt in and could understand nothing but littleness added to little- ness. The one golden opportunity was lost, and London rose again the most meanly planned and meanly built of cities. Private cupi- dity triumphed over convenience, health, and every other public good — not convenience over architectural display, as Ralph most strangely puts it. What convenience he could see in the narrow winding lanes, it is difficult to imagine. Wrens first architectural works, or those first finished, are said to have been the old Custom House and Exchange (both burnt down), Temple Bar, and the Theatre at Oxford, remarkable for construction, but not for good taste. About the same time (1668) he visited his native valley to rescue from threatened ruin — which he did with per- fect success, and without a touch of "Restoration" — that national Parthenon, that beauteous and unique monument of Young England's own unborrowed art, the Cathedral of Salisbury. Thus do we owe to the same hand the present existence of the two only great and uniform temples in Christendom ; the only two, of the largest class^ 210 LONDON ARCHITECTS. permitted, by a special favour to this nation, to resemble tbe Saviour's seamless robe*. The same genius preserved us one, and produced us the other. In 1673, Sir Christopher, as he was now become, resigned his astronomical chair, and in 1675 laid the first stone of his great work, after nine years' war against prejudice and parsimony that, actually, for no less than two years after the fire, would hear of nothing but still patching up the tottering ruins. Most of the fifty churches to be re- built in the city occupied him about the same time, to which were added, in 1682, the Military Hospital at Chelsea, of which he was not merely the architect, but contriver of its laws, regulations, and whole internal economy, which to this day are esteemed a model for similar establishments. About the same time Charles II. had a fancy to erect a palace on the site of that of his remote Saxon ances- tors, at Winchester, but it remains, of course, unfinished, and unsightly from the absence of the domes, and all other designed appendages. It occupies a space of about 300 feet square, and in style is very similar to Chelsea Hospital. Another abortive project of the same monarch, for which he made a gorgeous design, was a circular domed mauso- leum to Charles I.t With such an unparalleled amount of work on his hands, we cannot wonder that, in 1684, Wren resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society, of which, from its infancy, he had been the chief, often the only, working member. Till then, the care of all the public buildings rising in the new city, and the greatest in the provinces, did not prevent his supplying that body with nearly all the matter they received in pure mathematics, astronomy, and the laws of motion— with nearly all that rose above mere curious trifling, and that paved the way or received the grateful acknowledgment of the coming Newton, a name greater than that of his precursor in one respect, but not greater in breadth of genius, activity, or moral excellence. The disinterestedness of Wren was at least equal to that of Jones. His greatest failing was said to be his inability to enrich himself; and if success in an art is to be measured by the gain it brings the artist, he little deserved the place fame has assigned him, for never were the most paltry designer's labours sold so cheaply as his. His remu- * This expression, used by Bartholomew with reference to St. Paul's alone, applies equally to the Early English cathedral. Its central feature is not so different in style from the rest, as the corresponding part of St. Paul's from its other parts ; and has the advantage of differing in the right direction, the less simple style coming above the more simple, instead of the reverse. The only great foreign church comparable with these for unity, is probably the Cathedral of Pisa, far inferior to either as a work of art. The rarity of this excellence, even in churches of far smaller dimensions, is very remarkable. t The abandonment of this design cannot be regretted, as it was to have occupied the site of a work of the silver age of art, late indeed, but singularly fine and pure for its age, the small chapel east of St. George's at Windsor, commonly called the Tomb-housec SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 211 neration for the whole contrivance and superintendence of St. Paul's, in which he seems to have had only one assistant, was a salary of £200 per annum, one half reserved till the completion of the work, as an incentive to diligence. For all the other fifty churches he had £100 per annum. It must he remembered he was the only man in England capable of doing these things, and that the relative value of money and other commodities was nearly the same then as now. At the peaceful revolution in 1688 the fabric of St. Paul's seems to have reached the level of the aisle roofing, so that it was much too late to rectify any of the injurious modifications of plan required to suit the views of the deposed monarch. William and Mary employed Wren on the classical parts of Hampton Court, but their Dutch taste and crotchets so influenced this work that it is unfair to regard the design as his. For them he also commenced, in 1696, the southern portions of Greenwich, now first made a hospital, and to this, his second greatest work, that he might share in the charity, he gave all his services gratuitously. About this time he ceased to be the only English architect, his pupil, Hawkesmoor, and Vanbrngh, Gibbs, Archer, and some others having arisen, to show in the fifty new churches ordered for the metropolis in Queen Anne's reign, the wonderfully rapid decline of taste in the nation at large, and of every kind of skill in the artists, among whose increasing numbers it seemed to be divided ad infinitum. In 1710, he laid the last stone of St. Paul's, at the age of seventy- eight ; and, up to this time, seems never to have had an enemy. The anonymous pamplets that now appeared respecting his " frauds and abuses," he thought fit to answer, though to us at a distance they dwindle into their true insignificance, and contain their own refutation. The final shameful neglect of this great man, however, began with the accession of George L, soon after which he was actually degraded from the office he had filled for half a century as none else ever filled it, to make way for a glib pretender, whose utter incompetency required his almost immediate exchange for another of the same stamp. Classical antiquity, however, affords parallels to the treatment of this rare ornament and benefactor of his country, whose too long life, it has been well observed, enriched the reigns of many princes, and disgraced the last of them. From the age of thirteen to that of eighty-six, we search his memoirs in vain for any interval of time devoted to self, and even now, from his retirement at Hampton Court, the helpless old man was carried to see and superintend his last and only unsuc- cessful work, the west front of Westminster Abbey, of which it is too often forgotten that he did not live to direct the upper and more ob- jectionable parts. At length, in 1723, he gently sunk and expired without illness or pain, and was buried under his own great work, where, with a justice most rare in such matters, his memory is celebrated by an epitaph, one of the truest and noblest ever graven, one in the very taste he would himself have admired, and of which the only fault is 212 LONDON ARCHITECTS. its not appealing to the eyes and arousing the emulation of all his countrymen by using a tongue common to them all. BENEATH IS LAID THIS CHURCH'S AND CITY'S BUILDER, CHRISTOPHER WREN, WHO LIVED ABOVE NINETY YEARS, NOT FOR HIMSELF, BUT FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD. READER, IF YOU SEEK HIS MONUMENT, LOOK AROUND. While the general character of this great but most modest man seems one of the most spotless brilliancy that history affords, his qualities as an artist were just those which his peculiar and imperfect culture for that vocation would lead us to expect ; with one remark- able exception. It might be supposed that a self-taught and late- taught architect, and one of unequalled general learning and classic polish, would be deficient (as Jones undoubtedly was) in the practical constructive skill commonly supposed to be best learnt by early association with operatives. But this was the very point in which Wren especially excelled. He realized the demand of the obsolete writer quoted by Vitruvius, that an architect should understand the business of each artisan more deeply than the artisan under- stands it himself. He knew more of carpentry than any of his car- penters, and more of masonry than any of his masons. He trium- phantly refuted the vulgar notions about " rising from the ranks," for, instead of rising, he descended from higher pursuits to that of build- ing, — descended from theory to practice, and there incomparably excelled all our " practical men," with their own weapons on their own ground. There is no bench-sprung architect, who, in this prac- tical branch of his art, has ever passed mediocrity ; to let alone all comparison with this most theoretic, yet most practical of builders. He is the champion of science against "rule of thumb." The other excellence in which he has never been approached by any other modern, is just what his inventive turn and geometric culture might have led us to expect, variety and novelty of geometric combina- tions. In this he resembled the Arab architects, in constructive science the Gothic, in decorative style the Classic; thus uniting something of each of the three great schools of this art, but some- thing excellent of the two former alone. Decoration was his great defect, his details being always in a faulty taste, his general decorative design mostly still worse. With one splendid exception, the dome of St. Paul's, it is nearly always frittered, crowded, or deficient in shadow; sometimes all three ; and none ever pushed further the English false taste for shallowness of relief. At a time, however, when there is much said about progression and retrogression in architecture, it is worth remarking that Wren was the most retrogressive artist we have ever had, at least since SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS. 213 the Gothic times; for none ever struggled so hard as he did to stem the torrent of time, and move contrary to the universal tendency of modern art, by rendering his works less representative than previous ones, instead of more so. He so far succeeded that, in the absence of history, we should take his works to be older than those of Jones; because they are more real, have more union of utility with beauty, less pretence, less sham construction, and less expenditure wholly for effect. These changes we hold to be truly retrograde, and Wren our last truly retrograde architect. William Chambers, the last of the Anglo-Italian school of archi-/ tects, and the English systematizer ' of this art, was the son of a] Scotch merchant, and born at Stock- holm in 1726. Two years after- wards his father returned to Britain, and settled at Ripon. The young architect's only education was at the! school of that town, till, at the age l| of 16, he was sent as supercargo ^:^ in a Swedish vessel proceeding to China. Having a talent for drawing, he brought home numerous sketches | of the singular architecture and gar- dening of that country, which were engraved and published. It is doubt- ful whether he abandoned commerce for the study of architecture imme- diately on his return from this voyage, or went on a second. In either case, his skill in drawing seems to have been thought a sufficient reason for the new pursuit, and, about the age of 22, he proceeded to Italy to examine and imbibe the taste of the antique works and of the early revivers of classic art, as well as to measure and draw them, a step very necessary then in the absence of engraved collections (but not so neces- sary as the former). He is said to have combined the excellences of Michael Angelo, Sangallo, Vignola, Palladio, Scammozzi, and other Roman and Venetian masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; but we believe this really means nothing more than that he avoided the most glaring defects peculiar to each, especially in matters of detail, which were his forte ; while, in general design, he cannot be placed beside any one of those masters. He also examined the best works of the French architects — to one of whom, Perrault, his own style bears considerable resemblance, probably from having been formed much in the same way — and he studied under Clerisseau at Paris. Poverty is said to have finally driven him home, but he then soon obtained, through a friend of the Earl of Bute, the situation of tutor in architecture to the Prince, afterwards George III., who, on his accession, made him roval architect. SIR WILLTAM CH.AJJBERS. 214 LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. His first and one of his best works was the villa of Roehampton, near Richmond. Others are scattered over the country, but the greatest, and that which fully exemplifies his general taste, is Somerset- house, London, begun in 1776. Early in his career, he had published two works singularly opposite in character and tendency. " Designs for Chinese Buildings," which were soon deservedly forgotten, and " A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture," which has ever since been a standard text-book to the architects of this country ; being the only original one in our language on the plan of those of Vignola, Palladio, Perrault, &c. It seems hardly credible, that while laying down the law in such a purist and systematic manner, he should be actually engaged on the most anti-classic work of converting Kew Park into a Chinese garden, for the Princess of Wales, which he finished in 1765.' In 1768, he was made Surveyor-General; and soon after helped to found the Royal Academy. In 1771 he was knighted by the King of Sweden; and, a little later, he published a " Dissertation on Oriental Gardening," remarkable for its pompous style; which called forth anonymously (it is said from Walpole), " An Heroic Epistle," and other satires, on the Knight of the Polar Star. These finally turned the tide of taste against the Celestial Empire; but could not stop the headlong plunge of building art into its ultimate phase of supposed liberty and real slavery to fashion, novelty hunting, and the extreme of mere representation. Having lived to see the commencement of this new era ; and to see his own chief work the last of its class, and, with all its inferiority to those of his predecessors, unlikely to be rivalled by anything producible under the new system; this artist died of asthma in 1796, and has a memorial, in what may be called the artists' corner of Westminster Abbey. ALMSHOUSES. Almshouses, in which aged men and women are lodged and in most of them pensioned, are peculiar to England. They exist to a considerable extent in and about the metropolis. Their origin is of an early date, and a considerable accession of them for the retirement of decayed persons belonging to the principal London trades, have of late been endowed and located in the villages near London. The establishment and purpose of these benevolent institutions have emanated from the truly Christian spirit of pious persons. The stranger may be compensated by a walk from Whitechapel Church: in the Mile End Road, by proceeding eastward, he will first come upon almshouses, endowed 1698, by Mr. John Pemel, citizen and draper; a similar endowment, the gift of Mr. Lewis Newbury, citizen and skinner, 1690; almshouses wherein reside decayed masters and commanders of ships, or the widows of such, erected by the Corporation of the Trinity House, 1695. In this LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. 215 establishment of the Trinity House, there are thirty houses, most convenient and pleasant, with kitchen and outward entrances to the same; these quaint little houses are said to be from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. There is a chapel at the extremity of the ground, and in the centre of the green is a statue to the memory of Captain Robert Sandes, who bequeathed a sum of money to this establishment. The Vintners' almshouses, founded and supported by the Vintners' Company, in the Ward of Vintry, 1357, erected and established here after the fire of London, 1676. Almshouses founded by Francis Bancroft, Esq. (grandson of Archbishop Ban- croft), who bequeathed a sum of money, and died March 19, 1728; patrons and trustees the Drapers' Company, who, in 1729 built the chapel and school and twenty-four almshouses, and in 1803 built a dormitory for 100 boys, and again, in 1832, built four additional ones ; these houses, with one story above the ground floor, are most convenient and neat, faced with red brick. The almshouses, the gift of Captain Cooke, 1733, for poor seamen and their wives; there are only four houses, apparently less exteriorly neat. Crossing the street approaching to Old Stratford Church, are almshouses for poor sail- makers; Mr. John Edmonson left an estate to the Drapers' Com- pany, who built a chapel and sixteen almshouses, date 1706. In the same avenue are eight almshouses, four for each of the poor of Bow and Stratford. Still further east, on the same side, are almshouses bearing date 1744, endowed under the will of Mrs. Mary Bowry, for poor seamen and their widows, of Ratcliffe, Poplar, &c. Also, in the Whitechapel Road, the almshouses established in 1558, by William Megg, further endowed by Benjamin Goodwin, 1767. These nine separate endowments are all embraced within the mile, on a great public road on the Middlesex side, approaching the county of Essex, within two miles of Aldgate. Those of the Trinity Company, and Bancroft, are particularly interesting objects, and worthy of a visit. The almshouses of more recent erection are, for the most part, well and pleasantly placed, and extremely well designed, principally of the styles Early English and Gothic, giving them an indigenous, consistent, and picturesque representations suitable to English scenery and English habits. The following is a short account of them, as near as can with authenticity be collected : — 1. Alleyn's, Lamb's Alley, Bishopsgate Street, founded in 1614, by Edward Alleyn, for ten men and women, each to have 21. per year. — 2. Also, in Park Street, Borough Market, ten houses for the same number, each to have 6d. per week, and, every other year, a coat or gown. — 3. Ayre's Almshouses, White's Alley, Coleman Street, founded, in 1617, by Christopher Ayre; in the gift of the Leathersellers' Company, for six poor men. — 4. Susannah Amyas's Almshouses for eight poor persons, in George Yard, Old Street. — 5. Armourers' and Braziers' Almshouses, for the poor of the company, in Britannia Place, Bishopsgate Without, founded 1554, by Lady Elizabeth Morrice. — 6. Mrs. Allan Badger's Almshouses, Hoxton Old Town, founded in 1698, for six women, who are allowed 205. per year. — 7. Bancroft's, as before stated. — 8. Rev. Mr. Basemere's Almshouses, Hoxton, founded 1701, for eight women. — 9. Bethnal Green Almshouses, founded by Thomas Parmettier, in 1722, maintaining 216 LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. wk\ - -=" - BOOT-MAKERS ALMSHOUSES, MORTLAKE. six men, provided with coals, and 51. annually ; fifty boys are educated also, and supplied with shoes, stockings, and books. — 10. Charles Boone's Almshouses, founded in 1623, for six persons, a schoolmistress, and schoolhouse, at Lee, Blackheath ; in the gift of the Merchant Tailors' Company. — 11. Boot and Shoe Makers' Almshouses, erected recently by that society, at Mortlake, in Surrey, John Turner, architect, for the reception of twenty-five inmates. The centre part of the building has two towers ; on the first floor is a committee room, with an open roof. It is a red brick and Bath stone building. The accommodation for the present is for fifteen persons (see view). — 12. Bromley Almshouses, or Bromley College, at Bromley, in Kent, is for forty widows of clergymen, who receive each SSL yearly, and other allowances. — 13. Nicholas Butler's Almshouses, Little Chapel Street, Westminster, founded 1675, for two men and their wives. — 14. Bakers' Company's Almshouses, at Hackney. — 15. Brewers' Almshouses, Oxford Street, Whitechapel Road, for the poor of that com- pany. — 16. Mrs. Bowry's Almshouses, as before written. — 17. Butchers' Almshouses, at Walham Green, Fulham. — 18. Camden and Kentish Town Almshouses, Little Randolph Street, Camden Town, for twenty-four aged and deserving women. — 19. L. Camp's Almshouses, 1612, for six persons of the parish of Allhallows, London Wall, and twelve persons in houses at Barnet. — 20. Curon's Almshouses, Vauxhall, founded 1622, by Noel Baron of Curon, Dutch ambassador, for seven women of the parish of Lambeth, of 60 and above years of age. — 21. Capt. Cooke's Almshouses, as before stated. — 22. Coopers' Almshouses, Schoolhouse Lane, Ratcliff, founded in 1616, by Tobias Wood, for six persons. — 23. Case's Almshouses, Park Street, Southwark, founded in 1584, for sixteen men and women, by Thomas Case. — 24. Cutlers' Alms- houses, Ball's Pond Road, Islington, twelve houses for twenty-four inmates for the poor of that company. — 25. Mrs. Davis's Almshouses, Queen's-Head Lane, Islington, endowed 1793, for eight widows. — 26. Drapers' Almshouses, or Queen ^Elizabeth's College, founded in 1576, at Lewisham Road, Greenwich, by William Lambarde, the antiquary of Kent. There are twenty dwellings, with gardens, and the inmates re- ceive 15/. each yearly. — 27. Dulwich Almshouses, Bath Street, St. Luke's, founded by Edward Alleyn, for ten women and men ; the first brick was laid by the founder himself; each inmate is provided with 6d. per week, and, every other year, a coat or a gown. — 28. Dutch Almshouses, Crown Street, Finsbury, endowed by wealthy Dutch merchants at different periods, a handsome and commodious building for twenty inmates of above 60 years of age; fourteen tenements are for the poor of the Dutch in Austin Friars; and each have a pension of 8s. weekly. This endowment is derived from property at Highgate, Hammersmith, &c. ; one of the testators was Egbert Gent, of Overyssel, Holland, who died at Highgate, 1733. — 29. Dyers' Alms- houses, City Road, erected by the company, in 1755, for sixteen of their poor. — 30. LONDON-— ALMSHOUSES. 2 17 The same company have Almshouses for ten inmates in St. John Street, Spitalfields. — 31. East India Almshouses, Poplar, established at the granting of the first charter in the 17th century, for widows of mates and seamen dying in their service. The building consists of two quadrangles ; residences for thirty-nine persons, receiving each from 9/. to 10/. per annum, with coals and meat in the winter. An upper square consists of eighteen houses, with gardens, for the widows of captains, receiving pensions varying from 30/. to 80/. yearly. Sir Charles Cotterell likewise bequeathed an endowment for six sailors' widows. — 32. John Edmondson's Almshouses, as before stated. — 33. Edward Edwards's Almshouses, in Church Street, Blackfriars, for decayed housekeepers or widows of that parish. — 34. Emanuel Almshouses, in James Street, Westminster, founded by Lady Dacre, in 1594, for decayed persons of St. John's parish, Westminster. The estate, Brainbinton, in Yorkshire, yielding now 3000/., is appropriated to this charity. — 35. Fishmongers' Almshouses, or St. Peter's Hospital, were extensive buildings at Newington, for the poor of the company above 50 years of age, founded in the time of James I. These houses have been pulled down, and are reconstructed in the Tudor style, occupying three sides of a quadrangle, about 255 ft. by 235 ft., the fourth side opening towards the south, and upon the high road at Wandsworth, costing about 25,000/. Others are houses in distant parts.— 36. Framework-knitters' Almshouses, Kingsland Road, for twelve poor freemen. — 37. French Protestant Almshouses, founded in 1733, in Spitalfields, for supplying poor French Protestants with soup, meat, and bread. — 38. Also in Black Eagle Street, giving residence and allowance to forty-five poor men and women. — 39. Likewise for poor French Protestants and their descendants, in Bath Street, City Road, was founded in 1718. It is one of the relics of the great emigration after the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; at one time no less than 230 refugees were sheltered in it, but the number of inmates is now 54. — 40. Fuller's, Mile End Road, founded by Judge Fuller, 1502, for twelve ancient poor men of Stepney. — 41. Also others in Old Gloucester Street, Hoxton, for twelve poor women.-— 42. Free Watermen and Lightermen's Almshouses, in Surrey, established in 1839, for sixty inmates. — 43. Girdlers' Almshouses, Bath Street, Old Street Road, founded by George Palyn, in 1609, for six poor members of the company. — 44. Goldsmiths' Almshouses, founded 1703, by R. Morell, for six aged liverymen, who receive 21/. annually, two chaldron of coals, and a new gown of the value of 2/ 10s. — 45. Also one at Woolwich, endowed by Sir Martin Bowes, 1565, for five poor widows, parishioners of Woolwich, who receive 25/. per annum, besides coals. — 46. Alms- houses at Acton, founded by John Perryn, rebuilt in 1812. — 47. Graham's, founded in 1686, in Crown Street, Soho, for clergymen's widows or unmarried daughters. — 48. Gresham's, City Green Yard, Whitecross Street, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1575, for eight poor persons. — 49. Haberdashers' Almshouses, founded by Robert Aske, Esq., in 1692, Pitfield Street, Hoxton, by bequest of 31,905/., for twenty poor men of the company, each to be allowed 30/. per annum ; and for twenty boys, to be maintained, clothed, and educated, as much as would cost 20/. each. — 50. Harmar's Almshouses, founded in 1713, by Mr. Samuel Har- mar, for twelve single men and women. — 51. Heath's Almshouses, Frog Lane, Tib- berton Square, Islington, and at Monkwell Street, City, founded by John Heath, 1648, for ten freemen of the Clothworkers' Company. — 52. Henry (King) the Seventh's Almshouses, Little Almonry, Westminster. — 53. Hill's Almshouses, Old Rochester Row, Tothill Fields, founded in 1708, by Emery Hill, for six men and their wives, and six poor widows. — 54. Also, he founded houses for three men and their wives, in Petty France, Westminster. — 55. Rev. Rowland Hill's Almshouses, in Surrey. — 56. Hinton's Almshouses, Plough Alley, Barbican, founded in 1732, by Mrs. Alice Hinton, for twelve widows of the parish of Cripplegate. — 57. Holles's Almshouses, Curtain Road. — 58. Holles's Almshouses, Great St. Helen's, founded in 1539, by Lady Holies and Mrs. Alice Smith, for six men and women. — 59. Hopton's Alms- houses, Green Walk, Christchurch, founded in 1730, for twenty-six poor men who have been housekeepers, with 10/. and a chaldron of coals annually to each. — 60. Almshouses at Northfleet, just founded by Mr, Huggens, a merchant of large for- L 218 LONDON — ALMSHOUSES* tune, who has appropriated very handsome apartments for unfortunate gentlefolks, allowance 11. per week. — 61. Jeffery's Almshouses, Kingsland Road, founded 1703, by Sir Robert Jeffery; fourteen houses, with a chapel in the centre, for fifty-six persons of the Ironmongers' Company. — 62. Judd's Almshouses, founded by Sir Andrew Judd, in 1551, for six men of the Skinners' Company. — 63. Leathersellers' Almshouses, Clark's Place, Bishopsgate Street, founded by John Haslewood, in 1544, for four men and three women, decayed merchants of that company. — 64. Also, by Christopher Lyre, in "White's Alley, 1617, for six men and their wives. — Q5. And Robert Rogers, in Hart Street, Cripplegate, founded in 1612, for six men and their wives. — 60. London Almshouses, Park Hill, Brixton, built in 1832, to commemorate the passing of the Reform Bill, for freemen electors of London and their wives. — 67. Lumley's, City Road, founded by Lady Lumley, in 1672, for six persons. — 78. Megg's, Whitechapel Road, founded in 1558, for the support of twelve widows, as before said. — 69. Melbourne's, Crutched Friars, founded in 1535, by Sir John Mel- bourne, for thirteen women. — 70. Mercers' Company are invested with several almshouses. — 71. Merchant Taylors' Company are invested with almshouses in Princes Street, Rosemary Lane, for twenty-six widows. — 72. On Tower Hill, founded by Richard Hills, for twenty-six widows ; and since erected new almshouses at Lee, in Kent, at a cost of 9480£., increasing the number to nearly forty. — 73. Lady Muir's Almshouses, Stepney Church Yard, for twelve widows, each to receive 121. per annum. — 74. Morden College, Blackheath, founded by Sir John Morden, 1695, for decayed merchants. The founder demised, at the death of his lady, the whole of his estate to this institution. An allowance is made of 721. a year, with coals, candles, washing, bath, medical and clerical attendance. The chapel has some wood carving by Grindlay Gibbons — 75. Monox's Almshouses, Walthamstow, founded 1686, by George Monox, Alderman, for eight men and five women, with a school- house, and apartments for children. — 76. Mr. Lewis Newbury's Almshouses, 1690, as before stated. — 77. Norfolk Almshouses, or Trinity Hospital, near the "Waterside, Greenwich, an old Elizabethan building, founded by Henry, Earl of Northampton, in 1613. The Mercers' Company are the trustees; the revenue of which i3 about 1200L per annum. — 78. Owen's Almshouses, Goswell Street Road, founded by Lady Owen, in 1609, for thirteen women. — 79. Overman's Almshouses, Southwark, founded by Mrs. Alice Shaw Overman, of Newington, for eight single women, 11. per month, and 10s. each on New-Year's-Day. — 80. Packington's, Whitefriars, founded by Lady Ann Packington, 1560, for eight women. — 81. Palmer's, West- minster, founded in 1654, by the Rev. James Palmer, for twelve persons, and a school for twenty boys. — 82. Parish Clerks' Almshouses, at Camberwell. — 83. Pemel's, founded 1698, as before stated. — 84. Poulterers and Fishmongers' Alms- houses, a very elegant structure in the Green Lanes, Southgate. — 85. Rogers's Almshouses, Hart Street, Wood Street, founded, in 1612, by the will of Robert Rogers, pension 41. per annum. — 86. Printers' Almshouses, Wood Green, Totten- ham, at a cost of 17501., a handsome building. — 87. Rippon's Almshouses, New Park Street, Southwark.— 88. Salters', Monkwell Street, founded in 1775, by Sir Ambrose Nicholas, for seven men and five widows. — 89. St. Benet's Almshouses, Peter's Hill, Doctor's Commons. — 90. St. Clement Danes, Foregate Street, St. Clement's. — 91. St. Giles and St. George's, Bloom sbury, Almshouses, Smart's Build- ings, for twenty widows, with an allowance of 7s. a week, provided with coals, candles, and bread. — 92. St. Leonard's Shoreditch, Hackney Road. — 93. St. Mar- tin's-in-the- Fields Almshouses, Bayham Street, Camden Town, consist of thirty houses for seventy almswomen on the parish foundation, and thirty-five out-door pensioners. — 94. St. Peter's Almshouses, or Fishmongers' Almshouses, Newington Butts, founded 1618. — 95. Sion College Almshouses, London Wall. — 96. Stafford's Almshouses, Gray's Inn Road, founded in 1613.— 97. Surrey Chapel Almshouses, Hill Street, Wellington Street, erected 1811, founded and principally endowed by the Rev. Rowland Hill, for twenty-three destitute females. — 98. Smith's, founded in 1584, by D. Smith, St. Peter's Hill, Doctor's Commons, for six widows. — 99. Smith's Almshouses, Hackney.— 100. Tabernacle Almshouses, Tabernacle Row, LONDON — ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 219 City Road, consist of twelve houses. — 101. Tailors' (Journeymen) Almshouses, at Haverstock Hill, for forty persons and their wives. — 102. Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Road, as aforesaid. — 103. Trinity Almshouses, founded in 1537, at St. Nicholas, Deptford ; and another in Church Street, Deptford, founded by Sir Richard Browne and Captain William Maples, for decayed pilots and masters of ships or their widows. — 104. Vintners', Mile End Road, as aforesaid. — 105. Van Dun's Almshouses, York Street, Westminster, founded 1577, by Cornelius Yan Dun, a native of Brabant, for twenty widows. — 108. Weavers' Almshouses, Old Street Road, erected by Mr. Watson, for the widows of twelve weavers. — 107. Also an endowment in Blossom Street, Norton Folgate, founded by Nicholas Grarratt, 1725, for six decayed members of the Weavers' Company. — 108. Westby's Alms- houses, at Hoxton, founded in 1749, by Mary Westby, of Barking, Essex, for ten women. — 109. Whittington's Almshouses, Highgate Archway, founded in 1421, by Sir R. Whittington, originally built on College Hill. The present structure is a very handsome one, in the old English style, erected at a cost of 20,000^. There is a resident clergyman, named the tutor ; the inmates receiving 30/. yearly, besides other privileges. — 110. Walter's Almshouses, founded by John Walter, in 1651, for sixteen men and women, in Cross Street, Islington. There are man}" others of recent erection. For the information of our readers we will add the Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Inmates, as applied specially to the city of London's Almshouses. 1. The Inmates are expected to conduct themselves in a becoming manner; to appear clean in their persons, apparel, and apartments ; and to attend a place of public worship at least once on the Sabbath Day. 2. The Inmates shall not be allowed to receive lodgers or have young children residing with them ; nor be permitted to keep school, take in washing for hire, follow any trade, or engage in any occupation which may tend to interrupt the quietude, decency, and good order which at all times should be preserved. 3. No nails shall be driven into the walls ; nor shelves, cupboards, locks, or bolts be fixed or removed ; nor any alterations made in the rooms without the permission of the Committee. 4. No Inmate shall keep dogs, rabbits, poultry, pigeons, swine, or any other animal which may occasion a nuisance to others*; no slops shall be thrown out, or accumulation of dirt or ashes be permitted, at or near the doors ; but all sweepings or other refuse shall be removed at once to the appointed place. 5. The Inmates shall not be permitted to have any other residence than at the Almshouses, or to be absent from their apartments for more than a fortnight at one time without the special sanction of the Committee. 6. In the event of an Inmate marrying, he or she shall cease to derive any benefit from the charity ; and the next Ward in rotation shall be called upon to nominate and elect for the vacancy thus created. 7. The Warden is required to lock the outer gates at 10 o'clock in the evening, and unlock them at 6 o'clock in the morning, from Lady-day to Michaelmas ; and at 9 in the evening and 7 in the morning from Michaelmas to Lady-day. 8. The Warden shall keep a register of any deviation from these rules ; and make a monthly report of the conduct of the Inmates to the Committee. 9. Every Inmate is expected to conform to these rules and regulations, for the better observance of which a printed copy shall be given at the time of admission. ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. In attempting to convey to the reader a general idea of the state of the useful Arts, Manufactures, and Trades of London, we are tempted not unnaturally, to cast a glance at England as a manufacturing nation, L 2 220 LONDON. for it is a somewhat remarkable fact that the metropolis is by no means a fair exponent of the state of manufactures throughout the country. Our large manufacturing districts are, for obvious reasons, located in the vicinity of our coal-fields, and although large portions of the manufactured products find their way to, or are in some man- ner represented in London, yet very much larger portions obtain out- lets, and are diffused over the country, and over the world, without any direct reference to the metropolis. London may be regarded as a vast trading and commercial, rather than a manufacturing town, and hence, from the great subdivision of employments, and the multiplicity of objects to be noticed, it is much more difficult to convey a general, and at the same time an accurate idea of the useful arts and trades carried on in this great city, than it would be to describe the industry of a town devoted to large and important manufactures. As the eyes of the whole world are now being directed to London as the scene of the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations , the inquiry becomes deeply interesting as to what position this country is likely to occupy in that momentous trial of skill. It is not difficult to foresee that the contributions of Great Britain to the Palace of Glass, itself a triumph of manufacturing and constructive skill, will be calculated to display our superiority in the production of machinery and of machine-made goods. As respects taste in design, and a feeling for the beautiful in the application of artistic skill to manufactures, she will probably have to yield the palm of superiority to some of her continental rivals. But why, it may be asked, if England is inferior to some other coun- tries in so important a matter as taste, is her power in the production of machinery sufficient to give her so much celebrity as a manufac- turing nation ? This question will find its solution in a brief consi- deration of the causes which have led to the superiority of this coun- try in the production of machinery, and its results. These causes are, however, somewhat complex. But it may be stated as one of the chief advantages of England, that she possesses within herself abund- ance of raw material. She has vast subterranean stores of iron, copper, tin, lead, and other useful metals. The habits of the people lead to the production of much wool and leather. Flax is also grown in considerable quantities. If we had depended upon foreign nations for the supply of heavy and bulky articles, such as these, our advance must have been slow ; but having these, we have the materials of machinery at hand, and can supply them in a thousand different ways which ad- vancing science and improving experience from time to time suggest. But the possession of those important raw materials would have been comparatively valueless, but for another bounteous gift of Pro- vidence, without which we must have been importers of iron and the other materials of machinery. We have an almost inexhaustible sup- ply of coal. Had it not been for this, our steam-engines and spin- ning mules could not have had a profitable existence ; but having the ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 221 ores and the means of working them in greater abundance than any other people in the old world, if not in the new, our superiority in the production of machinery seems to be tolerably secure. The steam-engine is, as it were, the right hand of manufactures, and our coals are the muscles which set it in motion. Hence, our coals have been appropriately termed " vast magazines of power^ warehoused and ready for use." Waterfalls have now lost much of their value, except under peculiar local circumstances ; for steam may be supplied with greater regularity than water. It is under command at all sea- sons, while water is not. Any number of steam-engines may be erected in the immediate vicinity of each other, so that all the depart- ments of manufacturing industry may be brought together in the same town, thereby producing a combination and adaptation of employ- ments to each other, and a consequent saving of labour. The value of steam-impelled labour may be illustrated by the fol- lowing statement, which we borrow from Dr. Ure's " Philosophy of Manufactures." A manufacturer in Manchester works a 60-horse Boulton and Watt's steam-engine, at a power of 120 horses, during the day, and 60 horses during the night ; thus extorting from it an impelling force three times greater than he contracted or paid for. One steam horse-power is equivalent to 33,000 pounds avoirdupois raised one foot high per minute ; but an animal horse-power is equi- valent to only 22,000 pounds, raised one foot high per minute, or, in other terms, to drag a canal-boat 220 ft. per minute with a force of 100 pounds, acting on a spring; therefore, a steam horse-power is equivalent in working efficiency to one living horse, and one-half the labour of another. But a horse can work at its full efficiency only 8 hours out of the 24, whereas a steam-engine needs no period of repose ; and therefore to make the animal power equal to the physical power, a relay of 1^ fresh horses must be found three times in the 24 hours, which amounts to 4^- horses daily. Hence a common 60- horse steam-engine does the work of 4^ times 60 horses, or of 270 horses. But the above 60-horse steam-engine does one-half more work in 24 hours, or that of 405 living horses ! The keep of a horse cannot be estimated at less than Is. 2d. per day ; and therefore, that of 405 horses would be about 24/. daily, or 7500/. sterling in a year of 313 days. As 80 lbs. of coals, or one bushel, will produce steam equivalent to the power of one horse in a steam-engine during 8 hours' work, 60 bushels worth about 305. at Manchester, will main- tain a 60-horse engine in fuel during 8 effective hours, and 200 bushels worth 100s., the above hard-worked engine during 24 hours. Hence the expense per annum is 1565/. sterling, being little more than one-fifth of that of living horses. As to prime cost and super- intendence, the animal power would be greatly more expensive than the steam power. There are many engines made by Boulton and Watt 40 years ago, which have continued in constant work all that time, with very slight repairs. What a multitude of valuable horses would have been worn out in doing the service of these machines ! 222 LONDON. and what a vast quantity of grain would they have consumed ! Had British industry not heen aided by Watt's invention, it must have gone on with a retarding pace, in consequence of the increasing cost of motive power, and would, long ere now, have experienced in the price of horses, and scarcity of waterfalls, an insurmountable barrier to further advancement: could horses, even at the low prices to which their rival, steam, has kept them, be employed to drive a cotton-mill at the present day, they would devour all the profits of the manufacturer. 14 Steam-engines furnish the means, not only of their support, but of their multiplication. They create a vast demand for fuel ; and while they lend their powerful arms to drain the pits and to raise the coals, they call into employment multitudes of miners, engineers, ship-builders and sailors, and cause the construction of canals and railways ; and while they enable these rich fields of industry to be cultivated to the utmost, they leave thousands of fine arable fields free for the production of food to man, which must have been otherwise allotted to the food of horses. Steam-engines, moreover, by the cheapness and steadiness of their action fabricate cheap goods, and procure in their exchange a liberal supply of the necessaries and com- forts of life, produced in foreign lands." The possession of raw materials, the abundance of coal, and the steam-engine, have been powerful auxiliaries in erecting this country into a great manufacturing emporium for the whole world ; but these causes would probably not have been sufficient in themselves to produce so wonderful a result. We owe much to our insular position which enables us to maintain intercourse with all parts of the world, so that our manufacturers can obtain the raw materials and industrial products of other countries, and give in exchange for them the produce of our own manufactures. Surrounded as we are on all sides by the sea, the " great highway of nations," we can deal with the most distant as well as with the nearest people, by the cheapest method of transit. The soil and climate of this country are also highly favourable to industry. Although fertile, our soil produces few articles of value without the laborious exertions of man. Our climate is sufficiently severe to compel us to provide for wants which are less felt in more genial regions. Thus the difficulties of our situation call forth and stimulate our industry and develop qualities which produce a beneficial influence on the progress of society. Nor is all this manufacturing and commercial industry checked and impeded by oppressive fiscal regulations. Ever since the acces- sion of the House of Hanover, this country has enjoyed a free form of government, which has given a freedom to native industry, and at the same time has protected it by its strong arm. The manufacturer feels that the capital invested in his factory is as secure as if it had been laid out on an estate in one of the rural districts. If this were not the case, our mines of rich ore, our coal mines, the advantages of our insular situation, would all have been bestowed in vain ; for the moment the idea came to be generally entertained that property was ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 223 insecure, our career would be at an end. Ever since the celebrated Act of 1624, for the abolition of monopolies, industry, with some trifling exceptions, has been left quite free. It is true that we have not always been allowed to buy in the cheapest, nor to sell in the dearest market, but the most intense competition has always existed among producers at home. While France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other countries, have had their industry clogged and their ener- gies impeded by feudal and corporate privileges, every man in Eng- land is left to exert his own energies in his own way, to adopt every device by which he can best attain his object, and he is free to carry his labour and his produce to good markets. The influence of taxation on manufactures is supposed by some to be beneficial rather than otherwise, exerting a healthy stimulus, and actuating the manufacturer by the fear of falling, while the desire of rising is natural to him : he is stimulated to increased exertions to meet the burden which taxation imposes, and in this way a much larger amount of wealth is produced than is abstracted by the tax. The most injurious influence of taxation arises not from its being oppressive in amount, but from the partial manner in which it is assessed; from its inequality, and its interference with the processes and details of industry. Much, however, has been done* of late years to remove these injurious impediments, thus giving an assurance that those which still remain cannot long continue. One of the most precious results of the free institutions of this country is religious toleration. Every man's conscience is left free, and he can adopt whatever form of worship accords with his notions of the revealed will. Hence the religion of this country being founded on Scripture, and not on dogmas or tradition, partakes of the practical character of the people. The precept which requires the individual to be " true and just in all his dealings," has been adopted by the nation, and hence we have unbounded credit, the consequence of a strict maintenance of public faith, and almost illimitable wecdth, the effect of industrial and commercial enterprise. The progress of this country since the peace of 1815 has been perfectly marvellous. We have reformed our national system of representation — given free- dom to municipalities — extended the limits of religious liberty — given freedom to the press — conferred political privileges on the great bulk of the population — and by an extensive system of cheap and healthy literature, enlarged their views and elevated their tastes. We have enlarged our commerce, expanded our powers of production in manu- factures, and increased our agricultural wealth. The salutary con- sequence of all this has been, that the mind having been left free and independent, science has made gigantic strides, and enriched our useful arts and manufactures with most valuable discoveries. Our manufacturing towns have grown up into great cities — villages have expanded into towns — gigantic enterprises have been undertaken and completed with vigour, strength, and perfection — canals, docks, rail- roads, and other useful works, have been produced at an expense 224 LONDON. which must be estimated by hundreds of millions of pounds sterling. All these effects have naturally increased our power abroad, and our colonies have shared in the prosperity of the mother country. One of the consequences of this freedom is displayed in the con- test which has long been carried on, and now more fiercely than ever, between the rural districts and the great cities and towns— between land and trade — between the advocates of protection and the friends of commercial freedom — between the old and the new. The advocates of the old draw upon ancient associations for a standard by which to measure the imperfections of the present age. " The wide and pastoral valley, with all its flocks and spreading trees, sheltered and bounded by wooded hills, on the sides of which the hazel copse and wild hedge-rows are blended with the gorse, the bracken and heather; the white walls of the embowered cottage; the village-church ; the gray ruins of the ancient abbey overhanging a bright and living stream — these remembrances of natural beauty, now in many instances defaced, make the contrast between the past and the present still more harsh. In the same valley the green turf may now be disfigured by banks of coal or black shale ; the wood- lands on the hilly slope may have given way to a succession of lime- works, with their trailing fires creeping along the surface of the earth, and effacing all trace of vegetable life. In the room of the pic- turesque and consecrated ruin, the ungraceful lines of a dark factory, with its gigantic chimneys alternately breathing flame and smoke ; and, as if the pollution of all the elements was in a condition inse- parable from this great revolution, the air is loaded with murky clouds, and the waters of the river, no longer transparent, are stained with the dye-stuffs and refuse of a hundred mills. The rural cottage, with its roses and woodbine, is replaced by a stiff and formal line of square brick houses, the foundations and walls of which have given way, and disclose in their rents and fractures the excavations of the land beneath. The change in the appearance of the inhabitants is equally great. The begrimed and sooty collier, the artizan, the colour of whose skin can scarcely be seen through stains of ochre or indigo, seem but sorry representatives of the sbepherd or the plough- man. Peace, simplicity, virtue, order, stability, reverence for the laws of God, respect for the laws of man, are held up by the lovers of the poetic and romantic as the characteristics of the system which has passed, or which is passing away; whilst discontent, violence, love of change, an arrogant self-reliance, vicissitudes of pinching want, and vulgar indulgence, are, by the same class of reasoners, con- nected with our trading and manufacturing system."* One of the witnesses examined some years ago before the Hand- loom Weavers' Committee, gives in a very few words a satisfactory answer to the arguments of the Protectionists : — " If I make a piece of cloth, and meet a Frenchman with a sack of corn on his back, I should be glad to exchange ; but up steps a custom-house officer and * " Edinburgh Review," No. clv. ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 225 won't let me, and I may eat my cloth if I can." Now, unless Eng- land can produce a sufficient supply of corn for the whole of her immense population, which she cannot do under the best system of agriculture, and at the lowest rents, or with land free from all rent, we must supersede this custom-house officer, and allow the foreigner to exchange his sack of corn for our piece of cloth. But the prosperity of our home manufactures not only affords direct subsistence to immense numbers of individuals, but acts power- fully on the agricultural and other classes, supplying them with an infinite variety of useful and necessary articles at low prices, and creating an almost boundless market for their own peculiar products. Some dairy farmers in Cheshire informed Dr. Taylor * that they had not discovered the inseparable connection between the two interests, until the closing of a mill in their neighbourood deprived them of all their best customers. In periods of manufacturing distress, the sale of agricultural produce, particularly milk, cheese, and butter, is greatly depressed. Nor is the influence confined within the limits of the manufacturing districts. It extends throughout the land. The her- rings of Sunderland ; the wools of Sussex, the butter of Cork, the malt of Hants and Essex, offer a standard by which to judge of the state of industry in Yorkshire and Lancashire. There is no doubt that at the present time the low price of corn is operating disastrously on the corn-growers of this country. Every great change in our social relations calculated to benefit the great bulk of the population must prove injurious to a class. The few must suffer for the benefit of the many. The chief burdens of this country are borne by the manufacturing and operative population : it is by taxes collected from them that we keep faith with the public creditor, and support our army and navy. The burdens on land may, just now, be felt to be oppressive ; rents imposed during the long period of protection, cannot now be paid; but, the time cannot be far distant when the farmer will find it to his interest to grow some- thing more profitable to him than corn, and to throw into his pro- ceedings a portion of that energy and scientific skill which has had such powerful influence in raising our manufactures to their present point of perfection. The charge that has been brought against our manufacturing towns, that they are the seats of vice, turbulence, and infidelity, is not true. Large cities and small villages have their vices, for these belong to human nature. If the village is not disgraced by a gin-palace, it has its beer-shop. If the mill has not always been safe from the violence of refractory operatives, the rick-yard has not been secure from the midnight incendiary. In short, the vices of one system have their counterparts in those of the other. And may not their virtues be also similarly counterbalanced ? There is no doubt that if large towns are bad, they would Lave been much worse but for fac- * * Tour through the Manufacturing Districts." 1842. L 3 226 LONDON. tories. Factories have been the best academies for poor children, for they have thus been taken out of the streets, and brought up in habits of order, regularity, and industry : they have been regularly taught in the factory schools and in Sunday schools. Their health has been improved by working in spacious well- warmed and venti- lated mills, and their earnings have enabled their parents to feed and clothe them comfortably and respectably. A thoughtful and suggestive writer remarks, " As men con- gregate in large numbers, it is inevitable that the strong should act as an impetus on the weak ; in other respects also the pre- sence of numbers is mainly on the side of intelligence. It is a mistake to suppose that minds of the same class possess no more power collectively than they do separately."* A practical illustration of this position is to be found in the fact, that publishers consider Lancashire as the most book-buying county in Eugland, and the depression of manufactures is always found by its depressive effect on literature. The large number of writers engaged in popular literature look for readers more among tradesmen and artizans than among farmers and peasants; and, if it were necessarj^, numerous instances of this state of things might be quoted : one may suffice : — The Revising Barrister for Leicestershire stated a few years ago, that on the east or agri- cultural side of the county it was very common for overseers of parishes not to be able to write, and that generally when the population was exclusively agricultural, he found a degree of ig- norance he was utterly unprepared for in a civilized country. In coming now to notice the manufactures and trades of London, it will be found that the preceding details are by no means irrelevant. A very large proportion of the trade and commerce of the metropolis consists in receiving, appropriating, and distributing into innumerable channels the manufactured products of the provinces. There is scarcely a large factory in the kingdom that is not represented by some house in London, and many manufacturers have each their own special agent in London. In order to convey an accurate idea of the trade of the metropolis, we have gone carefully through the Trades' Directory of that useful and laborious annual, the London Post-Office Directory. \ We have summed up the numbers of houses or firms engaged in any one par- ticular occupation, and have re-arranged the whole into eight distinct and tolerably well defined sections, namely — Section I. — Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations, relating to the production of Food ; which is further subdivided into Solid Food, Liquid Food, and Miscellaneous. II. — Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations, relating to Dress and Personal Decoration. * Dr. Vaughan.— " The Age of Great Cities." f It will be understood that in this list housekeepers only are entered. The chief influence of this fact is upon section vi v a very large number of teachers in the metropolis not being housekeepeers. ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 227 Section III. — Trades, &c, relating to Houses and Furniture. IV. — Trades, &c, relating to Locomotion by land and water. Y. — Trades, &c, relating to the production of Artificial Heat and. Light. VI. — Trades, &c, relating to Literature, Education, Science, and the Fine Arts. VII. — Trades, &c, relating to Medicine, Surgery, &c. VIII. — Miscellaneous Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations. Some explanation will be required under each of these heads. By far the largest number of individuals who exercise any occupation are those engaged in ministering to our daily wants ; such employments fall naturally under the three denominations of Food, Skelter^ and Cloth- ing. With respect to one of the most important articles of food, Bread, the arrangements for its production do not in the metropolis partake of the character of a large factory. There are 430 dealers who trade in corn. The millers in the vicinity of London deal largely in corn, which they grind and prepare for their customers, the bakers, 2408 in number, each of whom has an oven and arrangements for baking immediately below the shop in which he supplies his customers With bread. Each baker employs one or more journeymen, the num- ber of whom cannot of course be ascertained until the census of this year shall have been taken, and the classified results published ; but it may be stated that in 1841, the date of the last population returns, there were 9110 bakers in London, including, of course, masters as well as journeymen. Meat is also supplied in a somewhat similar manner. The market salesmen, 158 in number, are the agents be- tween the grazier and the butcher. The London butchers, 1634 in number,'either kill their own meat for the supply of their own immediate neighbourhood, or they purchase meat at the markets ready killed and prepared for sale. At the present time about two million head of sheep and cattle are sold every year in Smithfield. In 1841, there were 6450 butchers in London, including journeymen. The skins of the slaughtered animals are collected chiefly in the skin market of Bermondsey, where a class of agents called Fellmongers prepare them for the Tanners, vrhose works exist in considerable numbers in Bermondsey and its neighbourhood. The entrails of sheep, pigs, &c, are transferred to the catgut makers, several of whom have establishments in or near White chap el, Smithfield, &c. Billingsgate is the chief market for fish; Leadenhall Market for poultry and game; Newgate Market for eggs and butter ; Covent Garden Market for vegetables. (See article u Markets/') In all these, and other articles, there are regular salesmen who act as agents between the growers and pro- ducers and the retail dealers. In the second division of this section we find manufacturing details unequalled in the world for extent and magnificence. The large London Breweries are among the wonders of the metropolis, and we may form some idea of the extent of their operations from the fact, that in 1849-50, Messrs. Meux and Co. consumed 59,617 quarters of malt, and Messrs. Reid and Co. 56,640 quarters, for porter only ; while in the same period, for ale and porter Messrs. Barclay and Co. consumed 228 LONDON. 115,542 quarters; Truman and Co. 105,022 quarters; Whitbread and Co. 51,800 quarters ; and other firms in decreasing proportions. In a large brewery lately visited by the writer the quantity of malt wetted during the winter brewing season, every Tuesday and Friday, is 320 quarters, and in the four other days of the week, 230 quarters. There are in this brewery three coppers of the capacities of 350, 500, and 600 barrels. The coal consumed per day is 10 or 12 tons, and the capacity of the largest store vat is 1568 barrels. Admission to these breweries is not difficult, provided the applicant be properly recommended. (See also separate article on " Breweries.") The produce of these large factories is distributed to the public through the medium of 4416 publicans, whose houses are distinguished by some sign which is often remarkable for its oddness, and the strange collocation of objects, as well as illustrating the loyalty or the prevailing public topic of the time. For example, among the public- house signs we have, as illustrative of loyalty, 66 Crowns, 19 Crown and Anchors, 5 Crown and Cushions, 8 Crown and Sceptres, 48 Rose and Crowns. We have also the Crown and Shears, the Crown and Shuttle, the Crown and Still, the Crown and Sugar Loaf, the Crown and Thistle, and the Crown and Two Chairmen. There are 92 King Georges, either alone or connected with some object more or less in- congruous. The sign of the King and Queen occurs 12 times. There are 86 King's Arms and 67 King's Heads, 7 Royal Georges, 2 Royal Sovereigns, 2 Royal Williams, 1 Royal Victoria, 22 Royal Oaks, 5 Queen Victorias, 1 Queen Elizabeth, 1 Queen Charlotte, 1 Queen Cathe- rine, 2 Queen Adelaides, 18 Queen's Arms, 47 Queen's Heads, 16 Prince Alberts, 28 Prince of Wales's, 9 Prince Regents. Then we have these signs again multiplied with the prefix Old y such as the Old Crown, the Old Crown and Cushion, the Old George, the Old King's Head, &c. We are also reminded of the times of the late war by finding 13 public-houses dedicated to Admirals, 117 to Dukes, of which 22 are Dukes of Wellington, and 31 Dukes of York. There are 18 Lord Nelsons, and 7 Rodneys. Anchors are also numerous and of various colours, and there are 84 Ships. There are 12 Kings of Prussia, and Pitt has contributed his head 9 times, Shakspeare 6 times. But perhaps the most curious are those which set natural history at defiance. There are 7 Flying Horses, 12 Pheenixes, 79 Red Lions, 26 White Lions, 7 Black Lions, and 16 Golden Lions; 18 Green Dragons, 29 Green Men, 5 Elephants and Castles, and 5 Griffins. Then there are Magpies with Stumps, or with Punch Bowls, or Pewter Platters, or Horse Shoes; 21 Nag's Heads, and 2 White Horse and Half-Moons. There are 26 Bull's Heads, 56 Coach and Horses, 21 Cocks, 19 Angels, 9 Angel and Crowns and 2 Angel and Trumpets; 21 Castles, and 6 Jacob's Wells; 65 Grapes, 22 Feathers, 22 Fountains, 26 Rising Suns, 29 Swans, and 26 Horse and Grooms. But we must pause, with the remark, that a glance at the list of public-house signs is amusing, and perhaps has its moral. The great distillers rank next to the brewers as important manu- ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 229 facturers, and their processes are in many respects the same. There are only 60 distillers and rectifiers in the metropolis, the numher being probably limited by the large outlay required for the carrying on of their business, and by the constant presence of the excise. The large number of grocers and tea-dealers, 2676', will show to what an extent tea and coffee drinking is carried on in the metropolis. The coffee-rooms of London are a great boon to many thousands of persons, who, thirty years ago or less, would have had no other public resort for their leisure hours than the tap-room or parlour of a public- house, or the gallery of a theatre. But in these warm and comfortable rooms they can sit for hours and employ themselves in reading the periodical literature of the day, or the more solid literature which many of these establishments provide. The sugar which is brought into this country consists entirely of raw or brown sugar. It is converted into white or refined sugar in the sugar refineries, which are situated at Whitechapel and its neighbourhood. These are conducted on a very large scale, and may rank among the most important and interesting manufactories of the kingdom. Both in a commercial and a scientific point of view, they well deserve a visit. The number of wine-merchants in London is large; but these are almost exclusively persons who import foreign wines, and dispose of them to their customers. British wines are manufactured by the vinegar-makers, whose operations are conducted on an extensive scale. There are only nineteen vinegar-makers in the metropolis ; and the reason why the two articles are associated, is, that the refuse of the British wine manufacture is an essential article in clarifvins: vinegar, so that in this way the vinegar-maker insures a constant supply of stalks and skins of raisins, &c. (called rape). In our second list, which comprises articles of dress and personal decoration, we may refer the manufacture of four great articles of clothing — cotton, linen, silk, and wool — entirely, or almost so, to the provinces. Cotton and cotton goods are manufactured in Man- chester and its neighbourhood; linen at Leeds and the north of Ireland; silk at Derby, Manchester, Macclesfield, Congleton, Leeds, and a few other towns ; woollen cloth in the West Riding of York- shire, and also in the west of England. Worsted goods are also produced in Yorkshire, hosiery at Liecester, hosiery and lace at Nottingham, crape at Norwich, ribbons at Coventry, silk gloves at Derby, leather gloves at Worcester. Now, when we find in our London list a large number of manufacturers of these and other articles, it must be understood that they are either the agents of the country manufacturers, or wholesale or retail dealers in the articles in question. It is true, that, to a certain extent, there are manu- facturers of textile fabrics in London ; in Spitalfields, for instance, the handloom silkweavers still struggle on, and, with much suffering and privation, maintain a feeble competition with the power-looms of the north. Most of the silk used in the umbrella and parasol manu- facture which belongs to London is woven in Spitalfields; but in 230 LONDON. this, as in many other cases, the employments belong rather to handi- craft trades than to manufactures. Hats are manufactured to a considerable extent in London. The beautiful and curious processes concerned in the manufacture of a beaver hat are fast disappearing before the cheaper and more expe- ditious processes of the silk hat-maker. The silk plush used for silk hats is largely imported from Lyons, and is also manufactured to a considerable extent in Spitalfields, Coventry, and Banbury. London produces annually about 150,000 dozen silk hats; and the number manufactured in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow, is estimated at 100,000 dozen more. There are 308 dyers in London ; but their establishments are very different to the vast establishments of the north. They are for the most part small workshops, where old, faded dresses are revived by being dyed a second time. The leather-dying establishments of Ber- mondsey are, however, important. Dunstable is the seat of the strawplat manufacture. The 352 London houses which deal in this article sometimes employ persons to make up the plat; but probably the art of making the plat is unknown in the metropolis. Sewing-cotton, thread, and silk are all produced in the north. Needles are manufactured almost entirely at Redditch, and pins at Birmingham and a few other places. Sheffield is the great seat of cutlery ; Birmingham of the cheaper kinds of jewellery, together with buttons, buckles, clasps and studs, hooks and eyes, and other small articles pertaining to dress. But a large quantity of superior jewellery is manufactured in London. Watches are manufactured in Clerkenwell ; and the great subdivision of the watch trade is very curious. There are no less than thirty distinct trades connected with the making of a watch ; and these, for the sake of convenience, are clustered together in a sort of colony. Nevertheless, a good deal of the wheel and pinion work of watches and clocks is made in Lancashire. In our third list some important manufactures belong to the metro- polis, but are by no means peculiar thereto. Of the raw materials of building many are imported into London : thus, we get stone from Yorkshire, Scotland, and Portland; slate from Westmoreland and Wales; timber from Norway and Canada; but, as the materials for bricks and tiles are at hand, these are largely manufactured in the vicinity of London. Building is carried on very extensively in and about the metropolis, giving almost constant employment to the bricklayer, the mason, the carpenter and joiner, and the slater. Marble is now worked by machinery; and ornaments in wood are carved by the same means. Flint-glass has always been one of the most im- portant of the London manufactures; but window and plate-glass are most extensively manufactured in the north. The glass for the Palace of Glass was manufactured at Chance's extensive works at Oldbury, near Birmingham. There are saw-mills for timber in London. The materials for the painter are, to a certain ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 231 extent, prepared in London ; but the great whitelead-works, colour- works, oil and varnish and turpentine- works exist in other parts of England. Carpets and rugs, grates, fenders, fire-irons, and various implements of iron and brass, plates, dishes, cups, saucers, knives and forks are chiefly produced in Kidderminster, Halifax, Sheffield, Staffordshire, &c. &c. ; but there are considerable manufactures of coarse pottery at Lambeth. Floor-cloth and paper-hangings are extensively manufactured in London ; as are also tables, chairs, bed- steads, beds, mattresses, glass-frames, and picture-frames. Furniture for hangings, &c, is made almost entirely in the north. In our fourth list, we may speak of coach-building as a London manufacture ; many of the persons concerned therein being congre- gated in Long Acre, Drury Lane, and the neighbourhood. Railway carriages and railway engineering generally are not confined to Lon- don, each company having its own workshops either at the London station, or at some distance from town. Ship-building is carried on somewhat extensively below Bridge, on the banks of the river, together with rope-making and other necessary trades. The gas companies, entered in our fifth list, are prominent features in London manufactures. (See separate article on " Gas.") A visit to one of the large London gas-works is full of interest. Candle- making has also, of late years, risen into an important manufacture. Price's patent candles are made at a very extensive factory at Vaux- hall. They are made from a beautiful white solid fat obtained from palm-oil, which has now become an important article of trade. It is obtained from the western coast of Africa to the extent of upwards of 20,000 tons annually, in exchange for goods of British manufacture ; and the cause of humanity requires that this traffic should be encouraged, since it has proved a most important instrument in the reduction of the slave trade, the native Africans being profitably engaged at home in the preparation of the oil ; thereby rendering it a matter of interest to retain their services, instead of disposing of them to the slave-dealer. The coal trade of London is also of great importance, between three and four million tons being introduced everv vear. A lar^e portion of this is used by the manufacturers of gas; but it is a curious fact, that, although gas-lights are used for street illumination, thereby superseding oil lamps, and gas is commonly used in shops, offices, counting-houses, and even in private dwellings, the consumption of oil for lamps, and of wax and tallow for candles, has increased in a greater proportion than the population. This increase may depend on the greater brilliancy of the streets leading us to be dissatisfied with the amount of light previously thought sufficient within our houses. Certain it is, that our houses are much more brilliantly lighted than they were before the introduction of gas. The trades and occupations entered under our sixth section are carried on to a much greater extent in London than in the provinces, or indeed in any other part of the world. A visit to one of our great 232 LONDON. printing offices, or to one of the large bookbinders, will show the amazing extent to which the arrangements and machinery for the mechanical production of books is now carried. At several print- ing offices arrangements are made for founding the type, for stereo- typing, and for printing by steam-driven machinery. At various bookbinding establishments it is not unusual for the whole im- pression of 1000 copies of an octavo work to be folded, sewed, and handsomely bound in cloth covers in the course of ten or twelve hours. The cloth covers with the gilt lettering, the blind and gilt tooling, are, however, prepared a few days before the sheets have left the printers' hands. The paper used by the printer is not made in London, but a few miles away, where abundance of pure water is to be procured. The same remark applies to writing paper. Account-book makers and vellum binders are distinct from bookbinders properly so called. It will be seen from our list that there are a large number of trades and occupations subsidiary to printing and bookbinding, and it may be stated that the consumption of calico or linen for the cloth cases of books is now very large. This is supplied by Manchester. Scientific apparatus is also made in large quantities in London, and it is curiously subdivided. Cheap barometers and thermometers are made by Italians, who reside in Leather Lane and the vicinity of Hatton Garden; and in passing through this district one is struck with the poetical names of the makers, such as Albino, Serafino, Cal- derara, Corti, Negretti, Pastorelli, Tagliabue and Zambra, Somalvico, Gugeri, Grimoldi, Martinelli, and so on. The instruments made by these poetical gentry are of very little scientific value. Compasses and metallic mathematical instruments are made by a distinct set of men. Ivory and box-wood scales and rules occupy another set. Lenses are made in large quantities by machinery at Birmingham and elsewhere. The brass parts of instruments also form a distinct trade. Nautical instrument makers occupy the regions of Wapping, but sellers of instruments and apparatus (who grandly style themselves opticians) are scattered over the metropolis. Musical instrument makers are important personages in London. It is doubtful whether a piano -forte maker would succeed out of the metropolis, but an instrument with the name of a celebrated London maker stamped upon it passes current everywhere. In this case, " warranted London made" is as much a recommendation as " Shef- field made" ought to be to a pie Waterloo Place. J English Widow's Fund, Fleet St. Equitable, Bridge St., Blackfrs. Equity & Law, Lincoln's Inn Fids. European, 10, Chatham PL, Blkfrs. Family Endowment, 12, Chat- "l ham Place, Blackfriars. J General, 62, King William St. General Benefit, 4, Farringdon St. Globe, Pall Mall, and Cornhill. Great Britain, Waterloo Place, T and King William St., City. / Gresham, 37, Old Jewry. Guardian, 11, Lombard Street. Hand-in-Hand, 1, New Bridge 1 Street, Blackfriars. ~ j Imperial, 1, Old Broad Street, [ndia & London, King William 1 St., and 14, Waterloo PI. J Indisputable, 72, Lombard St. [ndustrial & General, 2, Water- "l loo Place. j Kent Mutual, Old Jewry. Law Life, Fleet Street. Legal & Commercial, J3, Cheapside Legal & General, 10, Fleet St. Life Association of Scotland, 64, \ Old Broad Street. J Liverpool & London, 20, Poultry. London Assurance Corp. 7, Royal "i Exchange, & 10, Regent St. J London Lite Association, 81, "l King William Street. J London Mutual, 63, Moorgate St. London & Provincial, Nicholas ~i Lane, Lombard Street. J London & Provincial Law, 32, "i Bridge St., Blackfriars. J Medical, Invalid & Gen., Pall Mali, Medical, Legal & Gen. ,120, Straud, Mentor, 2, Old Broad Street. Merchants & Tradesmen's, 5, "» Chatham Place, Blackfriars. I Metropolitan, 3, Prince's St., Bnk Metropolitan Counties, &c, 27, "> Regent St., Waterloo PI. J Minerva, 84, K. William St., City. Mitre, 23, Pall Mall. Monarch, 4, Adelaide Place, City. Mutual, 39, King St., Cheapside. Mutual Insurance, 51, Thread- \ needle Street iNational Assurance, &c, 7, St. \ Trafalgar Sq. J Martin's PL, G. J. Farrance, Esq. Charles Ansell, F.R.S. G. H. Pinckard, Esq. W. T. Thomson, Esq. James Daniel, Esq.f William Clarke, Esq. J. M. Rainbow, Esq. George Howard, Esq. Charles Jellicoe, Esq. J. J. Downes, F.R.A.S. C. Staniforth, Res. Direc. Frederick Laurence, Esq. C. W. Bevan, Manager. J. Hill Williams, Esq. Thomas Walker, B.A. Arthur Morgan, F.R.S. J. J. Svlvester, F.R.S. W. B.'Ford, Esq.f William Lewis, Esq. David Oughton, Esq. John Brydie. Esq.f Fred. Hendricks, Esq. A. R. Irvine, Man. Direc. T. A. Pott, Esq.t Griffith Davies, F.R.S. James M. Terry, Esq. Samuel Ingall, Esq. A. R. Irvine, Manager. D. Alison, Esq.f F. G. P. Neison, Esq. W. E. Hillman, Esq. W. S. Downes, Esq. T. W. Farnell, Esq. T. R. Edmonds, Esq. Thomas Fraser, Esq.f B. Henderson, Esq.f Peter Hardy, Esq. Edward Docker, Esq. Henri C. Eiffe, Esq. Charles Ingall, Esq. John Knowles, Esq. F. G. P. Neison, Esq. F. G. Bigg, Esq.f Louis More, Manager. T. Musgrave, Esq.f R. Heathfield, Esq., Sup W.S.B.Woolhouse,Esq W. T. Robertson, Esq. S. P. Plumer, Esq.f J. T. Clement, Esq. Samuel Brown, Esq. Mr. James Bishop. f William Whitfeld, Esq. 1845 1 1829 1 1824 ; 2 1846' 1 1841 1846 l 1825 l 1342 1 1807:2 1823 1 1823 1 1848 1 1850.1 IS 15 13 19 62 16 7-2 19 IIP 7 9 10 9 9 9 ,ni 10 4 3 16 1 7 14 7 17 4 19 2 16 11 6 3 4 4 10 4 5 3 4 19 94 3 24 9 3|3 9 o ! 3 9 4 10 2 7 7 3 13 10 9 8 9 8 11 10 8 11 4 7 6 9 12 1 6 18 7 1 e 7 2 7 1 4 6 1 10 7 6 15 6 17 6 7 6 15 7 1 6 18 14 S 1839'l 19 6 1847 1 1762 2 1«44 1819 1835 183T 1820 1799 1844 184S 1821 1836 1820 1846 B48 1849 1849 1823 1845 183fi 1839 1836 1720 1806 1848 1846 1845 1841 1846 1848 1844 1835 1848 18 1846 1835 1834 18 3 i; 9 18 2 14 7 3 7 1 9 18 8 1 3 7 3 7 13 11 17 4 17 5 15 3 16 10 17 19 2 9 3 17 3 15 8 13 53 8 103 8 0j3 2 9 7|3 8 53 4 3 13 11 2 8 1 17 5 1 15 1 13 1 17 1 19 1 17 2 1 9 9,3 6 64 .1 4 6 4 64 4 4 9 4 11 4 4 6 11 10 10 9 7 8 0:6 10 8,6 10 9| 8 3.6 13 3 10 6!6 7 11 13 5 1 1U 7 5 5 13 53 7 S3 10 9 3 9 5 10 8 19 3 7 11 1 9 6 9 4 1 11 1 18 10 2 1 19 11 7 10 3 8 5 7 11 7 11 16 4 5 2 10 2 5 11 11 1 5 4 17 8 10 11 8 10 8 10 8 1 11 10 7 8 11 12 10 8 15 10 9 10 13 12 10 7 9 9 4 10 6 16 7 5 11 364 1844 1 IS 02 9 5 3 7 5 4 18 7 7 14 8 11 7 3 11 11 12 14 2 8 1 11 9 12 10 8 19 3 7 2 7 7 s 4 15 4 6 7 4 10 8 15 5 18 1 15 3 7 6 16 4 15 7 19 11 6 6 11 11 6 18 6 7 17 9 2 ASSURANCE OFFICES. ACTUARY, OR SECRETARY. f &ta Age 20 Age 30 1 Age 40 Age 50 Age 60 ANNUAL PREMIUM FOR ASSURING ^100. National Friendly Society, 18, *i Red Lion Square. J National Guardian, Moorgate St. National Life Society, 2, King') William Street, City. J National Loan Fund, 26, Cornh.* National Mercantile, Poultry. National Provident, 48, Grace- i church Street. J New Equitable, 450, West Strand. North British, 4, New Bank Bdgs. North of England, 11, Cheapside. Northern, 1, Moorgate Street. Norwich Union, Crescent, New\ Bridge St., Blackfriars. J Palladium, 7, Waterloo Place. Pelican, Lombard St., and 57, 1 Charing Cross. J Professional, 76, Cheapside. Promoter, 9, Chatham PL, Blkfrs. Provident, 50, Regent St., & 2, *> Royal Exchange Buildings. J Provident Clerks', 42, Moorgate St. Prudential Mutual, 14, Chatham *i Place, Blackfriars. J Reliance, 71, K. William St., City. Rock, 14, New Bridge St., Blkfrs. Royal, 29, Lombard Street. Royal Exchange, Royal Ex- "1 change, & 29, Pall Mall. J Royal Farmers', 346, Strand. Royal Naval, &c, 13, Waterloo PI. Scottish Amicable, 43, Lombard St. Scottish Equitable, Moorgate St. Scottish Provident, 12, Moorgate \ Street. / Scottish Widow's Fund, 4, Royal *) Exchange Buildings. j Scottish Union, 37, Cornhill. Solicitors' & General, 57, Chan- 1 eery Lane. J Sovereign, 49, St. James's Street. Standard, 82, K. William St., City. Star, 48, Moorgate Street. Sun, Threadneedle Street. Times, 32, Ludgate Hill. Trafalgar, 454, West Strand. Union, Cornhill, & Baker Street. United Guarantee, 36, Old Jewry. United Kingdom, 8, Waterloo PI. United Kingdom Temperance, \ 39, Moorgate Street. J United Mutual, 54, Charing Cross. United Service and General, 20, "1 Cockspur St., Charing Crss. J Universal, 1, K. William St., City. University, 24, Suffolk St., PI. Ml. Victoria, 18, K. William St., City. West of England, 20, NeWi Bridge St., Blackfriars. / Western, 3, Parliament Street. Westminster, Adelaide St., Strnd. Westminster and General, 27, "» King St., Covent Garden. J Yorkshire, Wellington St., Strnd. W. G. Reynolds, Esq.f W. E. Hillman, Esq. Mr. Charles B. Smith. W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq. Jenkin Jones, Esq. C. Ansell, F.R.S. Sydney Crocker, Esq. H. T. Thomson, Esq.f George Stewart, Esq. A. P. Fletcher, Esq.f Richard Morgan, Esq. Jeremiah Lodge, Esq. Robert Tucker, Esq. Edward Baylis, Esq. Michael Saward, Esq.f J. A. Beaumont, Man.D. William Ratray, Esq. David Jones, Esq. Osborne Smith, F.S.A. John Goddard, Esq. Percy M. Dove, Esq. John A. Higham, Esq. W. Shaw, Man. Direc. John Finlaison, F.S.A. J. E. C. Koch, Esq.f W. Cook, Esq., Agent. George Grant, Esq.f J. Mackenzie, Manager. James Barlas, Esq.f F. G. P. Neison, Esq. J. J. Sylvester, M.A. Peter Ewart, Esq.f W. E. Hillman, Esq. C. H. Lidderdale, Esq. H. B. Sheridan, Manager Edward Baylis, Esq. Thomas Lewis, Esq.f Edward Ryley, Esq. John King, Esq. Theodore Compton, Esq. W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq Charles Ingall, Esq. David Jones, Esq. C. M. Willich, Esq. William Ratray, Esq. James Anderton, Man. A. Scratchly, M.A. John Helps, Esq.f W. M. Browne, Esq. W. L. Newman, Esq. 1846 1850 1830 1837 1837 1835 1850 1809 1844 1836 IS 1824 1797 1847 1826 1806 1840 1848 1840 1806 1845 1720 1839 1837 1826 1831 1837 1815 1824 1846 1845 1825 1843 1810 1849 1850 1714 1849 1834 1840 1849 1850 1834 1825 1838 1807 1842 1792 1836 1824 15 1 15 10 8 17 4 19 19 7 7 6 10 10 17 9 18 2 14 18 10 19 6 2 3 7 19 3 16 8 16 1 3 7 3 6 16 10 3 1 15 8 13 33 43 10 8 9 10 4 8 5 8 6 4 1 18 19 19 1 17 16 11 15 1 16 3 19 18 15 18 19 6 18 1 16 11 11 16 7 3 7 1 14 4 11 1 9 11 9 5 9 4 10 8 9 5 5 13 11 2 9 3 8 10 10 9 9 2 11 3 6 11 13 4 10 7 5 7 6 4 12 13 5 1 4 12 34 11 104 12 04 7 4 10 5|4 7 04 6 5 9 3 5 3 1 3 13 7 11 6 5 1 3 3 7 11 5 10 7 11 4 1 4 10 4 10 4 9 4 14 4 10 4 12 4 5 4 14 4 10 4 8 10 4 14 4 8 3 5 6 3 5 5 6 5 2 4 11 4 11 6 6 2 11 7 11 5 11 3 4 1 6 5 7 4 10 3 4 7 6 6 6 1 11 7 11 4 6 19 7 1 6 18 i: 6 19 7 8 7 18 7 l 6 11 7 5 6 13 7 3 6 12 6 7 7 7 7 14 1: 7 11 6 13 6 18 6 7 6 14 7 6 18 7 6 5 7 12 12 8 11 8 1 10 8 11 11 10 7 7 1 6 19 6 11 7 4 7 14 1 6 15 6 18 7 7 6 6 17 6 7 7 6 12 66 13 m 7 6 19 4 9 1 5 11 10 10 9 11 4 9 6 7 6 7 6 7 * On the higher rates of the National Loan Fund the Assured may at any time receive an immediat advance to the extent of one-half the amount of the paid annual premiums, on paying interest thereon without personal liability or deposit of the Policy, but simply by endorsement. Or one-half of every annua premium may be retained, at interest from the commencement of the Assurance for any length of time, or fo the whole period of life. And should the Assured at any time desire to give up his Policy, one-half of th laid annual premiums would be immediately returned on application. ASYLUMS. 245 ASYLUMS. Asylums in and about London are also numerous. They are esta- blished for the maintenance and protection of deserving persons, in a degree of superior comfort to that of most other charitable esta- blishments. They are also applicable for the lodging, sustaining, and the education of indigent children left as orphans, or otherwise. There are no government institutions for bringing up the blind, or the deaf and dumb ; and though there are children so afflicted in the union houses, yet the system of district schools for pauper children has not yet been sufficiently extended to admit of special establish- ments. The schools and asylums for these two classes throughout the country are the spontaneous result of private benevolence. Although the School for the Indigent Blind in St. George's Fields was founded in 1799, yet Liverpool set the example to the metropolis. These schools are partly supported by the work of the inmates, and partly by chapel receipts. The school we have just named has 85 males and 89 females, — altogether, 1 74. The candidates must not be under 10 years of age, nor above 25 ; nor must they be able to dis- tinguish light from darkness. The Committee prefer pupils between 12 and 18, as the education is partly industrial, several trades being taught, as basketmaking, cordworking, &c. The pupils are to be seen at work between 10 and 12, and 2 and 5, except Saturdays. They acquire some proficiency in music, so that three have been lately appointed church organists. The inmates are educated, boarded, clothed, and lodged, at a yearly charge of 8000/., of which 2000/. is derived from investments, and 1300/. from the sale of work. The London Society for Teaching the Blind to read have a new school for boarders in the Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, near the New Finchley Road. The terms are low, and for a charge of 11. 10s. a child is in six months taught to read the raised character for the blind, suggested by Mr. Lucas. In this raised character a considerable part of the New and Old Testament has been printed by public subscription. Sometimes a blind man is to be heard in the thoroughfares reading one of the Gospels aloud, feeling the character with his fingers. The number of inmates of the school is 55, — 27 males and 28 females. Of the funds 450/. are contributed by the pupils, 750/. by subscription. The school can be seen daily. The society have an evening school near Gray's Inn Lane. The Indigent Blind Visiting Society supplies about 200 blind yearly with Testa- ments in the raised character, and with conductors to lead them to church. They are likewise visited by readers of the Scripture. On Sundays a group of blind is sometimes to be seen, led by a little boy or girl, on their way to church. Hetherington's Charity give annuities of 10/. to above 600 aged blind of the better classes. Mr. Charles Day (the blacking manufacturer) left 100,000/., from which annuities ranging from 12/. to 20/. are given to 271 blind persons. The Painters' Company distribute annuities of 10/. to 173 blind; the Clockmakers' and Cordwainers' Companies likewise relieve the blind. The Jews have an institution for giving 15/. a year to 12 blind. The Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Children is in the Old Kent Road, and was founded in 1792, but the example was taken from Edinburgh. The children are taught to speak by signs, to read printed books, and to draw. 290 children are 244 LONDON. hoarded, clothed, and lodged by the charity, besides about 20 boarders at 20/. yearly, and private pupils. The school can be seen every day, except Sunday, the best time being between 11 and 1 o'clock. The income is 10,000/. yearly. There is an Institution for relieving the Adult Deaf and Dumb at 26, Red Lion Square, with a shop at 21, Theobald's Road, for the sale of articles made by the inmates. The trades taught are tailoring, shoemaking, dressmaking, &c, in which nearly 20 persons are instructed, besides 30 who are weekly assisted. There is a Charitable and Provident Society for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Cordwainers' Company have a small fund for their relief. The Asylum for Idiots is in its infancy, having been instituted only in 1847, be- fore which no attempt was made in England to teach idiots. The asylum is at Park House, Highgate, and the number of inmates about 60. The age is unlimited. It will be observed that the union houses, and district schools in connection with them, provide for orphans of the poorer classes. In 1849 an Act of Parliament came into force, authorizing and enjoining the associations of unions for the estab- lishment of district schools for union children, several of which are now in progress. For the orphans of the better classes there are many schools established, in which they are boarded, lodged, and educated, such schools being supported by subscription (except Christ's and Foundling Hospitals), and the scholars being chosen by the votes of the subscribers or governors. Asylum for the reception of Friendless and Deserted Orphan Girls, Bridge Road, Lambeth, instituted in 1758, incorporated 1800, for females only, the settlements of whose parents cannot be ascertained, or of deceased parents. No child is ad- mitted under the age of 8 nor above 10 years of age. Upwards of 2500 children have been supported, lodged, and educated since its establishment. Asylum and School for Female Orphans, Church Street, Paddington, instituted 1786, for bereaved and destitute orphans from 9 to 12 years of age. Incorporated Clergy Orphan Society, St. John's Wood, Marylebone, founded 1749, incorporated 1809, for clothing, maintaining, and educating orphans of clergymen of the established English Church. Bayswater Episcopal Chapel Female Orphan School, established 1839, for the maintenance and instruction of from 15 to 20 females. Orphan Working School, Haverstock Hill, instituted 1758, incorporated 1848, for the reception of 20 female and male orphans. Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, instituted 1801, for orphan children of British soldiers, 350 of whom are supported, lodged, and educated (usually called the Duke of York's School). It is a most gratifying sight to see parade the boys of sufficient age to learn the military exercise, w T ith their military band, in the morning. The Foundling Hospital, Guildford Street, no longer answers to the name ; be- cause as there is now a full provision for orphan and deserted children, it would be mischievous to admit foundlings by means of a box or tour, and therefore it has become an asylum for poor illegitimate children whose mothers are known. This hospital is now richly endowed from the neighbouring houses belonging to it, and which have been built since 1739. The chapel, in which is an altar-piece by West, and which has a good choral service and good preachers, likewise adds to the funds, as the pew rents are high, and each visitor is expected to give 6d. or a larger coin. The income is about 10,000/., and the number of children main- tained 500, who are, while infants, sent out to nurse, and are afterwards kept until 15. In connection with the hospital is a society for the relief of foundlings, their widows and children. The kitchen of the Foundling, with Count Rumford's cooking apparatus, and the court-room, with pictures by Hogarth and others, are worth seeing. The London Orphan Asylum, at Clapton, founded in 1813, for children from 7 to 14 years of age: there are about 400 boarded and educated. The average expense of each child is — Food, firing, and washing, 10/. 18s. 6d.; clothing, 3/. 10*. §d. ; salaries and wages, 3/. 2s. 2d. ; building and repairs, 3/. 13s. 4d. ; outfit ASYLUMS. 245 and rewards on leaving, 11. 9s. 10d.; altogether, 221. lis. id. The income is about 8000Z. yearly. The British Orphan Asylum, Clapham Rise, was founded in 1827. There are nearly 100 children. The Adult Orphan Institution, St. Andrew's Place, Regent's Park, founded 1818, maintains about 80 orphan daughters of officers and clergymen, from the ages of 14 to 19. They are brought up as governesses, the instructions being of a superior description. The Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum, New Grove, Bow Road, brings up 110 children. Some of the boys are sent to sea. The Sailors' Orphan Girls' School, 29, Cannon Street Road, maintains 20 orphans, and educates and clothes 20 more. The Sailors' Female Orphan Home is another small institution. The Royal Asylum of St. Ann's Society, Streatham, Surrey, was founded 1709. It maintains and educates 151 boys and 76 girls, who are orphans or the children of necessitous parents who have seen better days. The income is QiOOl. Raine's Charity, St. George's in the East, provides an Asylum for some of the girls brought up in the school, who are eligible to receive a marriage portion of 100Z. The Ladies' Charity School, 30, John Street, Bedford Row, founded 1702, main- tains 51 poor girls. — The Hans' Town School of Industry, 103, Sloane Street, main- tains 50 girls till the age of 16 ; but a partial payment is required from each of 1/. 5s. per quarter. — St. John's Servants' School, 22, New Ormond Street, maintains 113 girls, who are trained as servants for two or three years. Some are kept till they are 18. Each child is paid for by its friends or other benevolent persons, the charge being 121. a year. The establishment is strongly supported. The Yorkshire Society's School, Westminster Road, maintains 34 boys and 13 girls.— The Westmoreland Society, founded 1746, maintains 26 children. The Welsh Charity School, Gray's Inn Road, founded 1715, maintains 200 children, born in London of Welsh parents. — The Royal Caledonian Asylum, Copenhagen Fields, founded 1808, provides in like manner for 72 boys and 47 girls, children of Scotchmen. They are clad in what is called the Highland garb, and have a band of music and some pipers, who occasionally attend charitable festivals. — The Benevolent Society of St. Patrick, Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, does not maintain any children, but clothes and educates 300 boys and 200 girls, born of Irish parents. — The Jews maintain 55 boys and 20 girls in their hospital ; and others in their orphan as} T lum, and in the School of the Gates of Hope. — The Westminster French Protestant Charity School, Bloomsbury, maintains girls, descendants of the refugees ; and they have an hospital and alms-houses. — The Dutch have alms-houses. The Royal Freemasons' School, for Girls, Obelisk, Westminster Road, maintains the daughters and orphans of decayed brethren. — The Royal Masonic Institution for boys, 7, Bloomsbury Place, maintains 70 of the other sex. The Licensed Victuallers' School, Kennington Lane, Lambeth, maintains 117 children. — The Commercial Travellers' School, Wanstead, maintains 70 children. The Marine Society, founded in 1772, is a peculiar institution. It has a ship, the Venus, lying off Woolwich, in which 100 boys are kept and trained for the sea service. In 1849, 40 were sent into the Indian navy, and 209 into the merchant service. The boys attend, with their flags, drums, and fifes, at the Lord Mayor's Show. St. Margaret's Hospital, Tothill Fields, Westminster, or the Green-coat School, founded 1633, maintains 25 children of the parish. — The Blue-coat School, Tothill Fields, founded 1688, maintains children of St. Margaret's and St. John's. — The Grey-coat Hospital, Tothill Fields, founded 1698, maintains 67 boys and 33 girls of the same parishes. — The Burlington Charity School, Boyle Street, maintains 110 girls, of St. James's, Westminster, till the age of 15. Infant Orphan Asylum, Wanstead, 1827, incorporated 1843, to board, clothe, nurse, and educate, on the principles of the Church of England, destitute children who are fatherless ; and, if necessary, to receive them from their birth. 246 LONDON. New Asylum for Infant Orphans, Stamford Hill, founded 1844, to receive the infant from its birth until 8 years of age. Cholera Orphan Home, Ham, Richmond, established 1849, at the present time for females only who have lost both parents, and for boys when the funds will allow. The Agricultural Orphan School is in the course of establishment. Corporation of the Royal Caledonian Asylum, Chalk Road, Copenhagen Fields, for supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, and marines, natives of Scotland and of indigent Scotch parents, resident in London, not entitled to parochial relief. Admitted between the ages of 7 and 10, and are retained until 14. Insti- tuted 1813, incorporated 1815. President, the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. Aske's Hospital and Episcopal Chapel, affording board, clothing, and education for 20 boys, from the ages of 7 to 14. Asylum for 20 men, who must be bachelors or widowers, and 16s. per week each, with an additional allowance in sickness. Founded by Robert Aske, 1690. Hoxton Orphan Asylum and Ladies' Charity School, for educating, clothing, and maintaining 51 poor girls from all parts of the United Kingdom, whether orphans or not. Admitted between the ages of 8 and 10. The trade asylums and alms-houses are of modern origin. — The Licensed Victuallers' Asylum, Old Kent Road, was established 1827, and is one of the finest of the modern foundations. The asylum contains 126 dwellings and 143 inmates; and for this purpose 25,0001. was collected within six years. Each dwelling has three rooms. The Bookbinders' Provident Asylum is at Ralls Pond. The Builders' Asylum is not yet erected. The Metropolitan Benefit Societies' Asylum, Balls Pond, Islington, was built in 1836, for members of benefit societies, of whom there are 50 inmates. The Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons was opened in 1850, at Croydon. It is for 36 inmates. The Aged Pilgrims' Asylum, Camberwell, is for 42 members of a religious society of the same name. The Christian Union Alms-houses, John Street, Edgware Road, is another dissenting foundation for 36 inmates. The Jews' Hospital, Mile End, provides for aged Jews. — The Spanish and Portuguese Hospital, Mile End Road, likewise provides for aged Jews, besides sick. There are many others which our space does not permit further to enumerate. The reader searching into the knowledge of these establishments, as well as charities generally of London, should procure a very painstaking and accurate work, entitled "The Charities of London," by Sampson Low, Jun. 1850. BANK OF ENGLAND. This, like most institutions of any stability or permanence, has grown from a very small beginning. The revolution of 1688 was followed by various schemes for the establishment of a national bank, chiefly to relieve the government from the very ruinous terms on which alone money could then be obtained ; the expense very fre- quently 20 or 30 per cent., and never less than 8 per cent., even to be repaid from the first returns of the land-tax. The difficulty and trouble of obtaining very moderate loans, even on these terms, was also very great, the citizens having to be solicited from house to house. William Paterson, a Scotch gentleman, suggested, in 1691, the plan which was finally adopted; and in 1694 an Act was passed, enabling government to take subscriptions for 1,200,000/. towards carrying BANK OF ENGLAND. 247 on the war with France ; some new taxes being expected to yield 1,500,000/. The interest to be paid was 8 per cent, and 4000/. a year was allowed for management. This subscription was raised in ten days, and the subscribers were incorporated under the name of " the Governor and Company of the Bank of England," and enabled to purchase lands, and deal in gold and silver bullion, and bills of exchange. The first Charter incorporating this company was dated 2?th of July, 1694; and its usefulness soon became so evident in various ways, that Bishop Burnet says, " all people saw into the secret reasons that made the enemies of the constitution set them- selves with so much earnestness against it." The original Charter was for fourteen years ; and it has since been renewed seven times, for terms varying from 21 to 33 years. On the first renewal, in 1708, the Bank was protected against the competi- tion of other large companies by prohibiting the formation of banking partnerships of more than six persons, a restriction which was removed, in 1826, for all places beyond 65 miles from London; and, in 1833, this exclusive right was surrendered entirely. The most dangerous crisis in the history of the Bank were — first, about three years after its foundation; again, after the South Sea bubble; thirdly, in the rebellion of 1745, next in 1797, and, lastly, in 1825. But the only occasions when it virtually suspended payment were in 1697 and 1797. The first crisis was occasioned by a recoinage, in which the old coin was called in and replaced by notes, which, being payable on demand, were returned faster than the new coin could be got ready. Coin was therefore given for them only by instalments, at first fortnightly, and afterwards at intervals of three months ; and the value of these notes sunk at one time to 20 per cent, discount. The difficulties commencing in 1797 were a far more serious affair, and sprung from a complication of circumstances, that drained off the precious metals from this country. The state of foreign exchanges, the commencement of war, and the necessity of importing corn at extravagant prices, all conspired to this effect The alarm of invasion caused a desire to withdraw and hoard money, and the country bank* were breaking on every side, when, on the 26th of February, the trea- sure in the Bank being reduced to 1,086,170/.; a council was held (the first, it is said, that George III. had even attended on a Sunday), and an order issued that the Bank should "forbear any cash in pay- ment until the sense of Parliament can be taken on that subject," &c. This was the beginning of a reign of paper-money that lasted no less than 21 years. The first Bank Restriction Act, which was passed about two months after the above order, continued the prohibition for 52 days. Fifty days having expired, the term was extended to a month after the commencement of the next session, then till six months after the peace, which was that of Amiens. On the occur- rence of this, however, the restriction was continued till March 1803, then till the conclusion of the war, and lastly, till July, 1818. Even 248 LONDON. then, in 1819, it was found necessary to renew partial restrictions, and the Bank did not finally resume its regular functions till May, 1823. During this long period of difficulty, various Acts were also passed to prohibit the taking of bank notes for less, or of gold for more, than their nominal value. The business of Government loans first began to be transacted at the Bank instead of the Treasury in 1718, and is now entirely managed at this immense establishment, which received for that service at one time as much as 250,000/. a year, but the rate of this allowance has been gradually much diminished. In 1822-23 the in- terest on a portion of the National Debt, amounting to 215,000,000/., was somewhat reduced, and the Bank paid off those who were dis- satisfied. This is supposed to have led to the excessive speculation of every kind in the years 1824-5, which ended in the celebrated panic of the latter year. The Bank had then a narrow escape, its treasure being at one time reduced to less than it contained at the memorable suspension of cash payments in 1797. Government, however, would not sanction the repetition of any such step ; and the storm being met with unparalleled boldness and spirit, at length it providentially blew over. Indeed it is curious to observe the different modes of treatment applied on the three last occasions of extreme pressure in 1745, 1797, and 1825. On the first occasion the Bank condescended, in order to gain time, to dole out its payments in silver, and even in sixpences. On the last this policy was reversed, and the gold paid away in bags of 25 sovereigns each. Bullion continually arrived, and the Mint was kept at work day and night. The Bank authorities consist of a governor, deputy-governor, and 24 directors, eight of whom are renewed every year, being nominally elected by the proprietors of 500/. or more, but the election is never contested. The governor must be a proprietor to the extent of 4000/., the deputy-governor of 3000?., and a director of 2000?., but they are not generally chosen from among the largest holders of bank stock nor the richest men, and in 1837 the governor was actually a bankrupt. A full meeting of the directors is held weekly, a court of ten sit every Wednesday, and the governor and a select committee of three, who have passed the chair, meet daily. A general meeting of the company takes place four times a year. The clerks, porters, engravers, printers, &c., employed in the Bank amount usually to about a thousand. Their salaries vary from 50/. at the age of 17, and increase yearly till they reach a maximum of 260Z.; the average of the whole being about 225/. They are promoted according to seniority. There are also about 200 superannuated pensioners, receiving on an average less than 200Z, a year each. The allowance to the directors is altogether about 8000/. a year. The accounts of the Bank, which, during the first year of its ex- istence, were kept in one ordinary ledger, now fill 300 such volumes daily, so that the mere bookbinding carried on within its walls is BANK OP ENGLAND. 24.9 no ordinary business. The notes, of which the circulation now com- monly amounts to 18,000,000/. or 19,000,000/., are no two alike, both in number and date, and the Bank never issues the same note twice, although the average period of their remaining in circulation does not exceed a few days. The printing and numbering, as w r ell as the weighing of sovereigns, is all performed by most ingenious self-acting machinery. Up to 1736 the business of the infant bank was carried on in the small building called Grocers' Hall, in the Poultry. It was then removed to a new building, erected by George Sampson, architect, near the church of St. Christopher, and on the site of what is now the centre of the Threadneedle Street front of the present immense building. To this nucleus two wings were added, between 1766 and 1786, from the design of Sir Robert Taylor, which enlarged that front to its present extent of 365 feet. Lastly, in 1788, Sir John Soane began to extend, modify, and rebuild, till the present structure, occu- pying not merely the site of St. Christopher's Church and Cemetery, but very nearly the w 7 hole parish, was complete, and may be said to be entirely of his design, except some of the faces of some internal courts which retain the work of Taylor, and the large office in the south-west angle, lately remodelled by the present bank architect, C. R. Cockerell, Esq., Prof, of Architecture in the Royal Academy. The accompanying plans and references will show that the building consists of an irregular assemblage of rooms on the ground-floor, rarely having any upper storey, and lighted chiefly by lanterns or skylights. The parts built by Soane are mostly vaulted, to avoid risk of fire, and many have no timber about them. Beneath are cellars, said to exceed in capacity the w r hole of the buildings above ground. The entire group is enclosed by a wall, too low, compared with its extent, to make any striking appearance in the centre of a city, but decked throughout its circuit with a variety of sham porticoes, sham windows and doors, and empty niches. The amount of this deco- ration, and its entire superfluity, must impress an idea of magni- ficence and profusion ; though it must be admitted that whatever objects of use will peep out are excessively mean. Still it is, perhaps, the most sumptuous piece of mere scenery ever erected, except that which has been found necessary to hide the British Museum. The details of this screen-enclosure, and of all Soane's parts within, consist chiefly of grooves, derived apparently from tattooing, w T ith other forms of extreme singularity, invented by himself. On the exterior this singularity, however, is not fully seen, being diluted or overpowered by the presence of the ordinary apparatus of column* and entablature. It is curious that an artist affecting so much ori- ginality should, for this most important part of the design, have merely used a ready-made pattern, the whole order being an exact reproduction of that of the round temple at Tivoli (only omitting the frieze sculpture). We doubt whether the practice (wholly peculiar u 3 250 LONDON. Mould-makers. Note office. Accountants' drawing office. Note store-room. Nightly watch. 10. Secretary's office and room. Chief accountant's par- lour. Secretary's house. Power of attorney office. Interior office. Silver office. Private room, Branch banks office. Deputy accountant's office. Chief accountant's. Chief cashiers.' Governor's rooms. Deputy governor's. 36. Committee rooms. Secretary's. Officers' rooms. Three per cent, reduced. Rotunda. Bullion office. Pay hall. Drawing office. Cash-book office. Posting ledgers. Store-keeper's. Servants' room. Coffee room. Discount office. 38. 53. 56, &c. Open courts for light. 23. 24. 33. 42. 60, 61. Pas- sages, lobbies, &c. 31. 62, 63, Waiting rooms. GROUND PLAN BANK ENGLAND. Jrom a Drawing in Sir John Soane's BY JOHN WE ALE, 1851. BANK OF ENGLAND. 251 252 LONDON. to this age, and, we believe, to England, or, at least, to the Anglo- Saxon race) of thus taking a ready-designed order, just as we find it, will ever succeed. All these things were designed for their places ; and, in this case, the fitness of the whole order to its original pur- pose is most admirable and deeply studied. Everything (including the bossy frieze, plainly an essential part) has been contrived for distant rather than near view, a small scale, and an edifice of light and airy form — rather a toy than a building. We certainly can see no fitness in its new application. The change which half-a-century, or less, produced in the general opinion of the architecture of Soane is perhaps without a parallel in the history of taste, fashion, or fickleness in any country. That it should at one time be only admired, at another only condemned, would be nothing strange. The mere fluctuation of fashion, which esteems now one kind of merit, now another kind, all important, would naturally lead us to expect this. But it is the peculiarity of English fashion, that its favourites are, during their brief hour, extolled either for every excellence for which language can find a name, or specially for those identical qualities in which the next age finds them specially deficient. Perhaps no observer at present will be brought to believe, without some difficulty, that the Bank, how- ever much admired, could ever have been so on the score of " clas- sical purity" " severe chasteness" and " beauty of detail; 1 still less on that of " grace" " majesty" " grandeur of manner," " air of sublimity" " solemn repose" " simple grandeur," or, lastly, " the poetry of the art." Yet all these expressions we quote from a description written during the architect's life, in a work of standard authority, and perhaps the fullest account of this building extant. This document is a true specimen of its time ; and, though not thirty years old, will soon become, if it be not already, one of the greatest curiosities in criticism. The research with which our language has been ransacked for terms of applause, and the industry with which the changes on them have been rung, render it such a complete pat- tern of adulation, that we doubt if any of the epistles dedicatory addressed to monarchs in the seventeenth century can equal it in extravagance. The misfortune is, that the writer, in his eagerness to exhaust the subject, attributed sometimes excellencies that are plainly incompatible; but still the whole would serve as a store from which to extract and recombine as many descriptions of this kind as can ever be wanted. The step from the sublime to the ridiculous seems in this case to have been short indeed ; for, twenty years later, we find almost the only writer that condescends to comment on this artist and his works, declaring, without fear of contradiction, that " Sir John was, in general, a sound constructor, but none of his works show one spark of superior science ;" " he could not, for the soul of him, fall into grandeur of style; he could not leave a surface of six inches without BANK OF ENGLAND. 253 tattooing it over ;" " all his works are a collection of littleness ; many of them are picturesque, but still littleness is the character of them." The fact seems to be, that, in the present state of their art, architects labour under the same disadvantage as kings, viz. entire exemption from any adverse judgment of their works while living. All other classes of men have a chance of self-improvement and progress ; but with these, whatever defects they begin with, great or small, must " grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strenth," for in their case a common adage is reversed, and is read de viventibus, instead of " de mortuis" &c. The impossibility of any progress, individual or general, under such a system, is evident. As long as it lasts, the public must be content to be perpetually making afresh the discovery, that all which it paid for and idolized twenty years before was trumpery, and all of which it then boasted a disgrace. By far the finest (if not the only graceful) thing in the ex- terior of this building, is the mock-entrance at the north-west angle. It well conceals the ob- liquity of the two sides ; and, at a distance sufficient to prevent the obtrusion of the Soanean de- tails, is certainly harmonious, and might pass for the work of a master. Chance plays curious freaks of this kind occasionally, as portraits in pebbles, &c. Yet, perhaps, the various features used in this vast building, if shaken into as many combina- tions as they here are, could hardly fail to produce one as fortunate. As respects the ground plan given in pages 250 and 251, it is that of the period of Sir John Soane, when architect to the Bank of Eng- land. It was too interesting a feature to be omitted in this work, although the drawing of it is publicly exhibited in the Soane Museum. The present architect to the Bank has made many very important alterations, not only in the exterior, but more particularly in its interior arrangements; yet, as an example of the interior of this building in a former age, it sets forth by contrast, the superior skill, in all probability, of existing arrangements. Much has been said of the skill of the plan-drawing of Sir Robert Taylor and Sir John Soane: architects, and others conversant with the present arrangements, may now judge of the merits of either, or both; and as the Introduction to this work is addressed to those capable of appreciating such matters, the plan is here presented for their judgment. ANGLE OF TUB BANK OF ENGLAND. 254 LONDON. BATHS AND WASHHOUSES FOR THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES. These institutions, which are now rapidly increasing in London as well as in the country, originated in a public meeting, held at the Mansion House in 1844, when a large subscription was raised to build an establishment to serve as a model for others, which it was anticipated would be erected, when it had been proved that the receipts, at the very low rate of charge contemplated, would be suffi- cient to cover the expenses, and gradually to repay the capital invested. The Committee then appointed partially completed the Model Establish- ment in Goulston Square, in 1847, and opened 40 baths to the public, the demand for which by the working-classes has established beyond doubt the soundness of the principles which actuated the Committee ; and such was the attention attracted to the subject by its proceedings, that the government, at the suggestion and instigation of Sir H. Dukinfield, Bart., induced Parliament to pass an Act to enable boroughs and parishes to raise money on the security of their rates, for the purpose of building baths and washhouses in all parts of the country. The provisions of this act have already been adopted by seven parishes in London. St. Martin-in-the- Fields (constructed by Mr. Baly), of which Sir H. Dukinfield was then the rector; St. Mary-le- bone (constructed by Mr. Eales); St. John and St. Margaret's, West- minster (constructed also by Mr. Baly); St. James's, Westminster; Poplar; Greenwich; St. Georges and St. Giles's, Bloomsbury, as well as in several boroughs in the country. The general arrange- ments of these establishments are based upon those of the model. No. 1. BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 255 No. 2. The success of the bathing department, as well as the necessity which existed for such means of cleanliness among the industrious classes, is to he found in the numbers who have used them since their first opening. At the Model, the St. Martin, and the George- Street establishments, 1,300,000 baths have been given in little more than 3 years, of which above 550,000 have been given in the year 1850. The laundry at the Model Establishment, the completion of which has been delayed from the want of funds, was not even in partial operation till after the erection of the parochial establishment in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and that erected by private subscription in George Street, St. Pancras. The anxiety of poor women to use the laundry has proved to be fully equal to that of the men to use the baths ; for in the short period which has elapsed since the opening of the three laundries referred to the clothes of nearly 1,500,000 persons have been washed, dried, and ironed. 256 LONDON. ' The progress of the ^ washing department, %= however, has been slowest in the dirtiest and poorest district, show- ing how difficult it is to induce those who have never known the luxury of cleanliness to adopt a new system, even when it is provided exclusively for their benefit, and the charge for its use is so low as to place it within the reach of all but pau- pers. Thus, in 1849, no charge was made at Whitechapel. The tubs, well supplied with hot and cold water, were opened gra- tuitously to the poor during the whole period that the cholera was raging, and yet but few availed them- selves of the advantages so offered; the numbers attending in the six months, from July 1 to December 30, 1849, being only 5695. In 1850, the tariff of charges was agreed to, viz. Id. per hour for the two first hours, and Id. per half-hour afterwards, for an unlimited supply of hot and cold water, well- No. 3. arranged drying closets, and irons and ironing boards. In the first six months but 4350 women attended, while in the second six months the number increased to 10,352 ; and this increase has been, and con- tinues to be, progressive week by week ; a progress so steady, and accompanied by such thankfulness on the part of the washers, that the committee feel satisfied they will soon be called upon to complete the remaining half of the wash-house, which is still unfinished for want of the necessary funds — about 1500/. The floors of the bath rooms and washing rooms, the divisions be- BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 257 tween the baths and||^ wash-tubs, are all slate. ^%x|j^. The baths are of zinc, ^^fife* The baths are of zinc, and each bath room con- tains 36 superficial feet of surface, and is pro- vided with a looking- glass, seat, pegs to hang up the clothes, and other little conveniences. The quantity of clean and fresh water for each bath is between 50 and 60 gallons. The price for a first-class warm bath is 6rf., providing 2 towels; and for a second- class warm bath, 2d., providing 1 towel. We cannot afford more space than is ' required for this hasty description of these useful institutions. In the largest sense they are charitable institutions, for they provide, by means of the super- abundant capital of the richer class, for the com- fort and health of the poorer class ; but whijst thus benefited, the poor have the satisfaction of feeling that they pay a price for tbis luxury and means of health fully ade- quate to reward the capi- talist, and to encourage the philanthropist to pur- No. 3*. sue his search for opportunities to benefit the poor without sacrificing their independence, or lessening their inducements to continue with cheerfulness their daily toil. We have now only to add, that foreign countries are following with alacrity and zeal the example we have set them. France, through the recommendations of a commission appointed by her President, has already voted 24,000/. to aid in the erection of Public Baths and Laundries in Paris. Belgium and the United States are also alive to the importance of 258 LONDON. the subject, and, as well as France, are in corre- spondence with the Com- mittee and Mr. Baly for plans which thus far have been stamped with the approbation of England, France, and America. The Model Establish- ment is open at all times to visitors; and by appli- cation at the committee room the assistant secre- tary will make arrange- ments to attend, and to afford every information in his power to foreigners who may wish to examine the apparatus in detail. o Tf-rrh- We will now proceed to explain the drawings with which we have been favoured by Mr. Baly. No 1. is the elevation of the Westminster Parochial Establishment, the most recently- erected. Its style is plain and bold ; simple, but conveying the idea of a public building erected with a view to durability and utility. It contains 64 Baths and 60 Wash-tubs, and 2 Plunge Baths ; and, including the pur- chase of the site, will cost 13,000£. No. 2 is a view of a woman at a wash-tub ; and of a woman, having washed her clothes, hanging them up to dry. No. 3 and No. 3 *, showing the linen in the drying chamber, heated by hot-water pipes, immediately above the wash-tub, as well as a woman hanging up for drying previous to sending them to the drying chamber, as at St. Martin's. No. 4. Section through the ironing chambers. No. 5 is the general ground plan of the Westminster establishment : — A. The boiler room, where the water is heated for the baths and wash-tubs. m. The chimney and the ventilating flues, which carry off the vapour and foul air from the bath rooms. BATHS AND WASHHOUSES 259 s --a£>3»™*— -14 o#— ■*<-• -IA.O&— * W^-- *B0 /BE 7 No. 5. b and c. The second-class men and women's waiting rooms and baths. D. The first-class men's baths and waiting room. The first-class women's baths are in an adjoining house, and not shown on this plan. F. The first-class plunge bath and dressing rooms. G. The second-class plunge bath and dressing rooms. The baths will contain respectively 20,000 and 40,000 gals, of water, will be 3J ft. deep at one end, gradually increasing to the depth of 5 ft. at the other. H and i are the washing tub and boiling tub, for the women washing, and are supplied with cold and hot water, and steam. K. The ironing boards. L. The drying chamber, heated by flues ; the temperature of which, when in full work, will be maintained at above 200°. N. The situation of the wringing machines, by the use of which the wet linen is deprived, by a small expenditure of time and labour, of above half its water before being put into the drying chamber. No. 6 and No. 6 *. The section of the building through the washing department, the letters on which correspond with those on the ground plan, and therefore require no further notice ; but we may call attention to the very ingenious construction of the wrought-iron roof, covered with glass and slate. Its light- ness and simplicity, the elements of cheapness, fit it especially for a building of this kind. No. 7 and No. 7 *. Section through the bath room. 260 LONDON. No. 6. No. 7 [Scale— 10 ft. BATHS AND WASH HOUSES. 261 c. J. 234567 89 10F££T ..LI L-l t-l 1-J L-T UJ No. G*. £*M 7 \ to an inch.] No. 7*.' 2tf2 LONDON. No. 8 and No. 8 *. The details of the roof over the bath department, showing how these chambers are connected with the ventilating shaft; a large flue A being formed in the apex of the roof, into which the foul air and vapour are drawn, through the interstices of the ceiling boards b. The number of bathers and washers at three of the principal esta- blishments now open in the metropolis are steadily progress- ing. The receipts ■ ' I ' i ' c ± FEET No. 8. of this year have been as follows :- ESTABLISHMENT. Total number of bathers. Total number of washers. Total receipts. The Model, Whitechapel, for 1850 . . . St. Martin-in-the-Fields . „ ... St. Mary-le-bone ... „ ... Totals For 1849 they were — The Model, Whitechapel St. Martin-in-the-Fields And for 1848 they were — The Model, Whitechapel 137,519 212,602 159,079 14,702 40,427 5,025 £ s. d. 2059 11 3 3722 9 5 2051 12 509,200 108,082 189,749 48,637 60,154 5,695 3,375 7833 12 8 1404 19 10 2877 19 1 580 9 4 Committee Room, 5, Exeter Hall ; and Model Establishment, Groulston Square, Whitechapel. Chairman of the Committee. — The Rev. Sir H. R. Dukinfield, Bart. Deputy Chairman. — William Hawes, Esq. Honorary Secretaries. — James Farish, Esq., and John Bullar, Esq. Engineer. — P. P. Baly, Esq., C.E. Assistant Secretary. — Gfeorge Woolcott, Esq. To those born in a sphere of life far removed from want, and living in ignorance of the miseries of the masses of human life located in many districts of this vast metropolis, more especially in the most eastern parts of it, where Jew and Christian, infidel and sceptic, live, BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 263 or rather exist, in houses badly constructed, ill ventilated and drained, and huddled together in filth — men, women, and children in the one room, and in many cases sleeping in one bed ; — it will scarcely be credited by those living in comfortable and cleanly houses that such vice, misery, and discontent daily and nightly occur at so short a distance from the palaces and houses of the rich. Can it be wondered that the epidemic of the year 1848 should have prevailed so fatally, and that its anticipated return is so alarming to us all? Yet these direful calamities still remain among our poorer countrymen, and the moral degradation of this numerous class furnishes inmates for the prison and union workhouse. The value of labour in the pro- duction of several articles of daily use is reduced by the monopoly of the more wealthy trader, and the tendency of the improvement of street architecture operates most injuriously to those ar- tizans living in lodgings, — the house occupier, either as freeholder or leaseholder, is compensated, whilst the poor must turn out and seek shelter in a more ex- No. 8*. pensive lodging, and in a more densly-thronged neighbourhood, with no provision for him whose voice is too feeble to be heard. The benevolent establishments of baths and washhouses and model lodg- ings are, however, a great step in advance towards amelioration. It is Christian, and it is politic in a w r orldly sense ; it is a beginning towards the salvation of soul and body, by cleansing the body and purifying the mind; it is an earnest in part payment of a debt due to those who labour for us. There is another and a most essential help yet required — the visitation by district committees of all houses wherein the casual nightly lodger is sheltered, the separation of the 264 LONDON. sexes, and the separation of children from the contamination of the thoughtless and the depraved. These good things are yet to he done, and it is the duty of the government, as well as of individuals, to aid in forming and carrying out measures to assuage these crying evils. BAZAARS AND SHOW ROOMS. London is not so largely supplied as might he supposed with insti- tutions in the nature of Bazaars ; the trade is too widely spread in the leading thoroughfares, which are here devoted to trade. What are here called Bazaars and Arcades, have shops for the sale of articles of female and fashionable demand. The shops of the Old Exchange, of the New Exchange, and of Exeter 'Change, were the predecessors of the present establishments, not one of which is of very old date. The Pantheon, in Oxford Street, was originally built for a theatre or concert-room. It now presents a large hall fitted up with stalls for millinery, jewellery, knicknackery, toys, and music, with an upper gallery similarly fitted, and affording a view of the lower area. The attendants of the stalls are young women, and the visitants chiefly women and children. Towards Oxford Street are galleries of pictures for sale. The most remarkable work is a great painting by Haydon, of the Raising of Lazarus. On the ground floor on the Marlborough Street side, by which there is another entrance, is a pretty conservatory, in the oriental style, partly occupied for the sale of florists' flowers and exotic plants, and partly for the sale of parrots, love birds, singing birds, monkeys, loris, white mice, squirrels, and gold fish. This is one of the prettiest parts of the scene. The Soho Bazaar, in Soho Square, does not present architectural features, but has fashion in its favour, and its stalls are a favourite female resort. There are no less than 400 saleswomen. The rent of a counter, 4 ft. long, is only a few shillings daily. The Bazaar in Baker Street, is best known by Madame Tussaud's Exhibition, and a carriage repository. At Christmas, the Smithfield Club show of fat cattle and agricultural implements is held there. There is a show of ironmongery, stoves, &c. The Burlington Arcade, in Piccadilly, is laid out in shops, and is occupied by tradesmen, principally foreigners, of some standing. Here are shops for foreign shoes, flowers, millinery, books and prints, and for hair-dressing. The Western Exchange, 10, Old Bond Street, may be considered an accessory of the Burlington Arcade. The Lowther Arcade, in the Strand, has less pretensions, but is thronged with children and their attendants, buying toys at the French, German, and Swiss shops. The Lowther Bazaar, opposite to it, in the Strand, has stalls for the sale of toys, and there are many objects of interest for the amusement of visitors. The Exeter Arcade, in Wellington Street, Strand, is only lately opened, and has as yet neither trade nor visitors. The Opera Colonnade runs round the four sides of the Queen's Theatre, in the Haymarket, and is occupied with shops, but is little frequented. In the range, en- tirely covered in, and parallel with the Haymarket, are several hairdressers' and other shops, where opera glasses and books of the opera can be hired, and great coats, bonnets, &c, left during the opera performances. The Piazzas, Covent Garden, formerly a fashionable lounge, have now no peculiar trade feature. The Hungerford Arcade is a short range of inconsiderable shops attached to Hun- gerford Market. BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOR THE LABOURING CLASSES. 265 The Pantechnicon, in Pimlico, is a bazaar for the sale of carriages, pianos, furniture, &c. Furniture and other goods can be warehoused. The New Bazaar, about opening in New Oxford Street, promises to be upon a splendid scale ; also a new one is now near completion for the use of the good people of Islington, in the Islington Road. BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOE THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES. It is a pleasing sign of the present times, that the condition of the labouring classes is attracting unwonted attention, and that the interest excited is of a thoroughly practical kind. The example has been set by the Sovereign, and it has been followed by the most influential and revered names in the kingdom; so that, within the last few years, united and effectual exertions have been made to better the condition of working men and women, in town and country, by the improvement of their dwellings, and by the ex- tension of the allotment system, wherever practicable. Of these praiseworthy efforts, the former is that which here demands our notice, so far, at least, as it relates to the metropolitan dwellings of the labouring classes. That there is great and urgent need for the exertions of the benevolent is abundantly proved by the facts recently brought to light. The filthy and crowded state of the common lodging- houses, and other dwellings in those parts of London where the great masses of the people con- gregate, is a disgrace to a Christian country, and a constant source of physical and moral evil. Those, who in the course of their philanthropic exertions have explored the ordinary lodging- houses, both in the metropolis and the provincial towns, describe the majority of them as the very hotbeds of vice and crime, a disgrace to humanity, a reproach to the Christianity of Eng- land ; and yet it is in such sinks of iniquity and contamination that the young artizantoo often takes up his abode on first arriving in London, or when quitting the paternal roof, and there has every good principle undermined by evil associates, until he becomes a pest to society, and either sinks through disease and want into an untimely grave, or forfeits his freedom "to the laws of his country. In fact, to use the words of the noble lord now at the head of the govern- ment, " As civilization progresses, we have not only the advantages but the evils of civilization, and unless we exert ourselves to counteract these evils among the people — and the greatest of these evils is over-crowding in insufficient dwellings — unless we exert ourselves from time to time to counteract such evils, our boasted civilization, instead of promoting religion, morality, and obedience to the laws, will tend to leave a great class of the population of this country without sufficient means for the comforts which they ought to have — without sufficient means of education — and, above all, without sufficient means for religious instruction and improve- ment." Such considerations as the above gave rise, in 1844, to the foundation of the " Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes," under the patronage of the Queen, Prince Albert, the late Queen Dowager, and a large body of the nobility and clergy. This society en- deavours to advance its objects by the following means : — 1st. By arranging and executing plans, as models, for the improvement of the dwellings of the poor, both in the metropolis and in the manufacturing and agricultural districts; by estab- lishing the Field garden and cottage allotment system, and also friendly or benefit and loan societies, upon sound principles, and reporting the results, with a view to "rendering them avail- able as models for more extended adoption. 2ndly. By the formation of county, parochial, and district associations, acting upon uniform plans and rules. 3rdly. By correspondence with clergymen, magistrates, landed proprietors, and others dis- f>osed to render assistance in their respective localities, either individually or as members of ocal associations. That this society has already done good service in the metropolis, is proved by the fact of its having erected three new model lodging-houses, and renovated and adapted three others, during the six years of its existence. These are : — 1. George Street, Bloomsbury, for 104 single men. 2. Streatham Street, Bloomsbury, for 43 families. 3. Model Buildings, Bagnigge Wells, for 23 families, and 30 aged women. 4." No. 76, Hatton Garden, for 57 single women. 5. At 2, Charles Street, Drury Lane, for 82 single men, with a small lodging-house also for men, in King Street, Drury Lane. Besides these undertakings, it has also commenced an important and substantial building in Portpool Lane, Gray's Inn Lane, to be called, Thanksgiving Buildings, being in- tended as a lasting memorial of "the deliverance of our country from the ravages of cholera', and mainly raised by the offerings of the people of the metropolis on the occasion of the General N 266 LONDON. Thanksgiving in 1849 ; offerings which were thus appropriated at the suggestion of the Bishop of London. In all these buildings the arrangements are of the most admirable kind; we give those of the George-Street " Lodging House for Working Men," as an example. The kitchen and washhouse are fvirnished with every requisite and appropriate convenience; the bath is supplied with hot and cold water ; the pantry-hatch provides a secure and separate well-ventilated safe for the food of each inmate. In the pay-office, under care of the superin- tendent, is a small, well-selected library, for the use of the lodgers. The coffee, or common- room, 38 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 10 feet 9 inches high, is paved with white tiles laid on brick arches, and on each side are two rows of elm tables, with seats ; at the fireplace is a con- stant supply of hot water, and above it are the rules of the establishment. The staircase, which occupies the centre of the building, is of stone. The dormitories, eight in number, 10 feet high, are subdivided with movable wood partitions, 6 feet nine inches high; each compartment, en- closed by its own door, is fitted up with a bed, chair, and clothes bok. In addition to the venti- lation, secured by means of a thorough draught, a shaft is carried up at the end of every room, the ventilation through it being assisted by the introduction of gas, which lights the apartment. A ventilating shaft is also carried up the staircase for the supply of fresh air to the dormitories, with a provision for warming it if required. The washing closets on each floor are fitted up with slate, having japanned iron basins, and water laid on. The contrast from their former wretched abodes to these most comfortable dwellings is so great, that workmen flock to the model lodging-houses in greater numbers than can be accom- modated. The rent is neither more nor less than they have been accustomed to pay, for it is an object with the society not to excite enmity, by appearing as rivals of other landlords. In their model lodgings for families the society has endeavoured to preserve domestic privacy and inde- pendence to the inmates, and also to prevent the communication of infectious diseases, by dis- connecting the apartments. This is done in the Streatham- Street houses by dispensing alto- gether with separate staircases, and other internal communications between the different stories, and by adopting one common open staircase leading into galleries or corridors, open on one side to a spacious quadrangle, and on the other side having the outer doors of the several tene- ments, the rooms of which are protected from draught by a small entrance lobby. The galleries are supported next the quadrangle by a series of arcades, each embracing two stories in height, and the slate floors of the intermediate galleries rest on iron beams which also carry the en- closure railing. These improvements in the dwellings of workpeople, taken in conjunction with the system of baths and washhouses already described, are the more valuable, because, although originating in the kind and charitable feelings of the upper classes, they are yet maintained by the exertions of the labouring classes, and keep alive in the people a spirit of honest independence. It has been well remarked by Lord Ashley, the excellent chairman of the society whose operations we have been describing, " All that is done by the wealthier classes is to provide that for the work- ing man which he cannot obtain for himself, namely, capital. But having provided the capital, and the institution founded upon it, they leave the working man the duty, and the pleasure also, of maintaining it entirely. These institutions are, therefore, of singular value, because they do not place the working man in any state of dependence whatever. They enable him to turn to account his wages and receipts. They enable him to do what is more — namely, to develope all his resources, physical, moral, and intellectual." The object contemplated by the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes has been the erection and completion of one model of each description of building required to meet the varied circumstances of the labouring classes, and at the same time the demonstration that such buildings may, with proper management, be made to yield a fair return on the outlay. This is all that can be expected from a society depending on the public benevolence for the funds necessary to the undertaking; but the good example thus set, and the experiment thus satisfactorily tried, has been taken up and followed in various quarters of the metropolis, in a way that is calculated vastly to improve the state and prospects of the working classes of Lon- don. And not only so, but our example is spreading on the Continent, and structures are rising in Berlin and Paris, similar in character to the model lodging-houses of our great city. A valu- able essay on the dwellings of the labouring classes having been published by Mr. Henry Ro- berts, Architect, Honorary Architect to the society of which we have been speaking, it is grati- fying to learn that it has been translated into French, and published by order of the President of the Republic, with the following prefatory remarks : — " This work is addressed to all good men, to all who love their country. It is offered to them as a sign of the lively interest which is awakened in another country for the amelioration of the condition of the labouring classes — it is offered as an example which may inspire them to imitation. " To provide for labourers in this country, as well as hi towns, dwellings well lighted, well ventilated, dry, and clean : such is the first problem to be solved. " We do not hesitate to say, that long since this problem would have been solved if every person was fully convinced that, these conditions once realized, a multitude of the causes of sickness, of misery, of disorder, and of corruption would disappear. " Who is the physician, ignorant of the fact that the want of light, vitiated air, dampness, and surrounding dirt, are as many causes which, singly, and with much greater certainty" when united, contribute more than everything else to shorten life, and to render it miserable, by in- flicting on those who are exposed to them, a multitude of personal and hereditary infirmities ? Who is the moralist who does not admit that the human soul itself becomes degraded under the prolonged influence of such conditions ? Who is the statesman who has not sighed to see all the hospitals and the prisons overcrowded with the wretched people which these causes have been the means of producing ? " Yet it is almost, always easy to obtain for rural dwellings the necessary amount of light. With regard to dwellings in towns, this is a feature most deserving the attention of the commis- sioners charged by the authorities with this important oversight. " The regular renewal of the air in dwellings is a new problem for science, — it has never ap- proached it. But is it not sufficient to propose such a problem, in order that it should give to it speedily, a happy and practical solution ? BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOR THE LABOURING CLASSES. 267 c ' In reference to dampness, the healthiness of dwellings is everywhere a desideratum, even in the houses of the middle classes. Let us, then, direct the attention of our young architects to- wards this important subject. It is a great honour to be judged worthy of going to Rome ; it is a great merit, in returning, to bring back the plans of some palace, destined to become the orna- ment of our cities ; but he who finds, or who invents the art of driving away the humidity which renders unhealthy so large a number of the dwellings of our town and country labourers, will have gained a right to the gratitude of the country, and will have prepared for himself a source of imperishable satisfaction. " In the meantime, let good men, especially let young men. teach the workmen by whom they are surrounded, to set some value on those habits of cleanliness which are the first steps taken in the path of progress towards well-being. " It would be so easy to have in each quarter the necessary implements for washing, for sponging, for whitewashing a room or a staircase; to hang paper", to stop up holes, in order to destroy insects ! The acquisition of these implements, impossible for every single workman, if made by a benevolent association, would serve to ameliorate the condition of the whole neigh- bourhood, almost without expense. " At first, the persons to whom the implements would be lent, might use them badly or indif- ferently ; but soon, with mutual instruction, every one would be able to mike a good use of them. " Now all this is practicable : let us then practise it. " When our so well-disposed and ingenious population consecrates itself to such works, they will soon understand their extreme importance, and their benefits will spread with rapidity over the whole country, for the greatest happiness of the working classes." The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes was incorporated by royal charter in 1845, and seems destined to carry out in the highest degree the aims and intentions of the benevolent party who first attempted the bettering of the prospects of working men. This association is established on a principle which, in this business-like age, is sure to be duly appreciated, and will doubtless ensure its permanence and success, namely, that of an investment of capital, with a prospect of a fair return. It is, in fact, a commercial speculation of a very safe and honourable kind. The capital of the association is 100,000/., in 4,000 shares of 251. each. The rate of interest to be paid to shareholders is not to exceed 51. per cent, per annum ; and the liability of the shareholders is limited to the amount of their respective shares. The first buildings erected by this association were those in the Old St. Pancras Road, whose lofty and imposing appearance must have arrested the attention of every one pasdng that way. These were arranged to accommodate 110 families, and were opened to the tenants in 1848. They have been constantly occupied since their completion, to the great advantage and improved health of the inmates. And it is a pleasing fact, that out of the rent accruing to the association from these dwellings during two years, and which amounts to the large sum of 2418/., there was only the sum of 1/. \9s. ~d. which could be pronounced a bad debt. This building was speedily followed by another in Albert Street, Spicer Street, Spitalfields, which was first opened for 234 single men, but also includes sixty dwellings for families, each with three rooms and a small kitchen, with water, water-closets, store. places, and every possible convenience. The building is five stories in height from the basement. The latter is surrounded by an open area, and con- tains baths and washhouses, with all the requisite appurtenances, extensive cellarage, and ample space for workshops. Upon the ground floor, the entrance hall is commanded by the superintendent's apartments, which are placed on the left, while the store-room and cook's apartments occupy about the same space on the right. Immediately in front of the entrance are the stairs, of fire-proof construction, which lead to the three stones of sleeping apartments ; and opposite the stairs, on the ground floor, is a good-sized lavatory for day use. The coffee room is directly in front of the staircase hall, and extends to the back of the building, commu- nicating on one side with a reading room, and on the other with a kitchen for the use of the in- mates. It is a lofty room, divided into aisles by iron columns supporting an open roof of stained timbers, lighted by a large window at the further end, two smaller side windows, and sheets of rough plate in the roof. Boxes are fitted with tables and seats round three sides, and the room is warmed by hot-water pipes. A cook's bar opens into the coffee room, for the supply of coffee, etc. The reading room, size 00 ft. by 21 ft. 9 in., is warmed by open fires, and" furnished with some of the daily papers and popular periodicals. The kitchen, 45 ft. by 21 ft. 9 in., for the use of the inmates, contains two ranges, provided with hot water, a sink with cold water, and common apparatus for cooking purposes. From this kitchen a stone staircase leads to a portion of the basement, containing 234 small meat safes, ail under lock and key, raised on brick piers, placed in ranges back to back, with ample space for ventilation. The cook's shop is connected with the men's kitchen by a bar, from which cooked provisions may be obtained at almost any hour of the day. The three upper stories are fitted with sleeping apartments on each side "of the corridors. Each compartment measures 8 ft. by 4 ft. 6 in., and is lighted by half a window, the upper portion only opening, and this is hung* on centres. These rooms are all furnished with iron bedsteads and'suitable bed furniture. There is also in each a locker for linen and clothes, with a false bottom for the admission of fresh air, so that the sleeping berths can be ventilated at the pleasure of the lodgers. All the doors are secured by spring latches, of which each inmate has his own key, and no key will open the lock of any other in the same wing. On each floor are lavatories," fitted with cast-iron enamel basins, set in slate fittings. The partitions forming the sleeping compartments are kept below the ceiling for the purpose of ventilation, and the corridors have windows at each end to ensure a thorough draught when necessary. With respect to ventilation, the principal agent is a shaft, which rises nearly 100 feet, into which several of the smoke flues are conveyed, and by which means a powerful upward current is maintained. The sleeping apartments and other" principal rooms are con- nected by vitiated air flues with the ventilating shafts, and the current is regulated at pleasure by means of dampers, placed under the control of the superintendent. Water.— Large cisterns in the roofs, and smaller ones in other parts of the building, afford an ample supply of water to every part of the premises. Dust. — Every floor has an opening, secured by an iron door, into a dustshaft, communicating with a dust cellar in the basement. Gas.— The whole building is N 2 268 LONDON. well lighted with gas. This building has been erected from the designs and under the superin- tendence of Mr. W. Beck, 33, Broad Street Buildings, and the builder is Mr. S. Grimsdell. The terms 3*. per week, payable in advance. Each inmate has, besides his sleeping apartment, the use of the coffee room, reading room, and the public kitchen, where he may cook his own food, or he can obtain ready cooked provisions from the cook's shop. Every lodger is furnished with a small larder under his own lock and key, has free access to the washhouse at certain times of the day, and can, by the payment of a small sum, have a hot or cold bath. The opening of these new buildings was thus noticed in a leading article in the " Times," of Dec. 13th, 1849. — " The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industri- ous Classes, some time since opened a handsome building, containing more than a hundred sets of rooms for as many families, near Old St. Pancras Church, and after a year or two's trial is able to show the most happy and profitable results. It has now brought to completion a build- ing of a similar character for single men in the eastern outskirts of Spitalfields. Yesterday, the Earl of Carlisle and the shareholders inaugurated their work for its useful purpose; and at this moment any man working in Spitalfields, or Whitechapel, or even in the city, may have, within a mile of his work, for 3s. per week, a good bed and a convenient partition in a well- ventilated dormitory, the use of a spacious, handsome, and comfortable coffee room and read- ing room, a commodious cooking room, of a washing, rinsing, and drying apparatus, of baths, and twenty other conveniences. The place is so clean, so airy, so wholesome, and altogether so inviting, that one almost longs to live in it one's self, and make use of its endless accom- modations in continual succession. The warming and ventilation are complete ; the latter being accomplished by a lofty shaft, which discharges smoke and foul air fifty feet above the roof of the building. Ecce signum. Several hundred persons yesterday met in the coffee room, which was not cold when the meeting began, nor too warm when it ended. " By the side of this pile another is rising as rapidly as hodmen and bricklayers can carry it, for the use of families, with much the same arrangements as those in the Metropolitan Build- ings of St. Pancras. The association is extending its labours, and has already spent 40,000?. in substantial buildings, calculated to last a thousand years, to continue in order at a very trifling cost, to pay ultimately five per cent., or even more if the constitution of the society allowed. Nay, already, with a staff too large for what it has to do, it pays as much as 2 per cent, on the outlay. "For the further designs of the company, for its sober and business-like character, for its incidental benefits in provoking imitation and rivalry, for its effect on the house and lodging market, and many other points of interest, we must refer to our report of the proceedings. We can add but little to what was said yesterday, but we cannot help ex- pressing our very warm sympathy with an undertaking which, at comparatively so little ex- pense, and so little effort, shows results so magnificent, so substantial, so complete, and so satisfactory to all the parties concerned. It quite grieves one's heart to think of the millions wasted in useless and unprofitable railways, besides a thousand other national follies, when forty thousand pounds has produced so much happiness, health, and goodness to the inha- bitants of these buildings, besides the never-to-be-forgotten profit to the shareholders. We do not hesitate to add ' goodness' to the benefit already achieved. It is a good and improv- ing thing to be quiet, domestic, methodical, and clean ; to live by rule ; and, above all, to f)ay one's rent punctually at the stipulated time. On this last point the results of the specu- ation are so marvellous, that one is ready to ask where the tenantry come from, as they can- not be of common mortal mould. Excepting a few shillings, there are no arrears still due on a rental of more than 2000?. paid by more than a hundred tenants. Weekly tenants, however, are now known to be the most punctual as well as the most profitable. This association only proceeds upon a principle known to many hundreds of low speculators in the metropolis and all our principal towns. Nothing is more usual than for men and women to double or treble the rent they pay their own landlord by subletting their houses to the poor. This they do with an utter disregard of comfort, health, morality, or any other proper consideration. The Metropolitan Association merely steps into their place, and by supplying a better article at a less cost, drives them either to improve their accommodation or to give up their trade." Besides the extensive and important operations of the Metropolitan Association, independent efforts have been commenced in Soho, in St. James's, in Marylebone, in Chelsea, and in the Borough ; and it is gratifying to learn that the example is spreading to such an extent, that we may look forward to see the old system well nigh destroyed, for who but the most de- praved is so completely lost to all sense of domestic comfort, as not to prefer a light, dry, clean, and wholesome abode, to a dark, damp cellar, when he can have the one on the same terms as the other ? In connection with this subject it should be known that as long ago as 1835, an effort was made in behalf of the seamen of the port of London, which, to a certain extent, led the way for the model lodging-house system, as now practised. In this effort one energetic naval officer was conspicuous for his unwearied and self-denying zeal, so that the buildings erected in Well Street, London Docks, may be considered a monument to the memory of one whose whole life was devoted to the good of sailors. This was the late Captain R. J. Elliot, R.N., whose open-hearted kindness and Christian charity are strong in the remembrance of the writer of this notice. How earnestly did he labour to procure a home for sailors, where they might be safe from the snares laid to entrap them as soon as they came ashore, and how zealously did he promote the building of an asylum for the sick and destitute ! Nobly was he seconded by other officers and friends of sailors, while the design of an asylum was generously bestowed by the same architect, H. Roberts, Esq., who has since given his honorary services to the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes. The Sailor's Home was opened in 1835, the cost of fitting up the last dormitory having been defrayed at the sole expense of her lamented Majesty, the Queen Dowager, a munificent patroness of the society just named, as well as of numerous other charities, and who is well known to have taken an especial interest in the well-being of sailors ! The Sailor's Home will lodge three hundred inmates, and is altogether admirably conducted. The Destitute Sailors' Asylum, in the same street, is likewise a useful institution, and its arrangements are well worth BREWERIES. 269 imitation in lodgings for the lowest class, such as ragged school boys, and common beggars — a description of lodging-house much needed, and which has not yet /as far as we know," entered into the plans of either of the great societies now in operation. To make the whole system for the good of sailors complete, a church for seamen frequenting the ports of London has been erected in Dock Street, London Docks, where the sittings are all free, and where commanders of vessels, mates, seamen, apprentices, and friends of sailors are invited to attend. The incum- bent of this church is the Rev. C. B. Gribble, M.A. The services are on Sunday morning at half-past ten, evening at six, and on Thursday evening at seven o'clock. BREWERIES. The Breweries of the metropolis may be considered as amongst its most important manufacturing establishments, whether in reference to the capital employed, to the extent of their premises, or to the age of the eight great establishments known as the London porter reweries. Before we proceed to a description of the process of brewing, or of the establishments themselves, we will give a slight sketch of the history of beer and brewing, which will enable our readers better to appreciate the extent of the present trade in beer than they would be able to do if we confined ourselves simply to a description of the process of brewing or to a statistical notice of the quantities of beer brewed by certain houses. Beer, then, was known to the Egyptians; but this was a fermented liquor without the addition of any bitter, made from corn of various kinds, but principally from barley. The same description of beverage is mentioned by Tacitus, and it continued to be manufactured until the Germans, from whom we learnt the art of brewing, made the first great improvement in the quality of beer, by adding to the saccharine solu- tion an infusion of hops with a view to its preservation, and to give it that beautiful aromatic bitter flavour which now so thoroughly distin- guishes the beer of England from that of every other country in the world. Were no other evidence at hand, the name at once denotes its origin, leaving no room to doubt, that in adopting the beverage we also adopted the name, corrupting the German word "bier" into our English " beer/' We also learn from Stowe that so lately as the reign . JO of Elizabeth more than one-half the brewers of the metropolis were foreigners. Long, however, before beer as it is now brewed was known, England was famous for its ale. Shakspeare tells us " A quart of ale is a dish for a king ;" and numerous proofs might be afforded to show how popular this beverage has always been in this country. We cannot, however, spare space to trace the gradual improvement in the quality of beer to the time when the virtue of the hop plant was thoroughly known. We must therefore confine ourselves to the simple statement of the fact that, until a bitter principle was added to malt liquor, no beer worthy the name was brewed ; the ,le of our forefathers being the fermented extract from malt, weet and luscious in flavour, very intoxicating, would not keep for any length of time, and various extracts from herbs and berries were added to it with a view to preserve it sound and in good 270 LONDON. condition. The introduction of the hop plant, however, to this country, in the 14th century, and its subsequent careful cultivation, not only altered the character of the beer, but, from its preservative properties and delicious flavour, made the business of brewer one of commercial importance, requiring for its full appreciation a sound knowledge of chemistry, and that practical turn of mind which distinguishes in all trades the successful, because practical, from the theoretical manufacturer. The extent of the trade in beer so far back as 1585 is shown by the fact that 650,000 barrels were then brewed in the metropolis ; a quantity, it is true, but little greater than is now delivered annually by one brewery, that of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co., but still a very large quantity when the period is considered. We may mention here that the Brewers' Company was incorporated in 1427, just the period of the first cultivation of the hop plant in this country, and therefore no doubt an era in the trade, thus well marked, when a beverage w r as first brewed, that was cal- culated to displace the use of other fermented liquors by the working classes ; it being essentially suited to supply a healthy stimulus to them, without necessarily encouraging habits of intemperance, and thereby want and misery; and being, in the w r ords of Pennant, "a wholesome liquor, which enables London porter drinkers to undergo tasks that a gin drinker would sink under." Happy, indeed, would it have been had they been able, in the early part of this century, when food w r as dear, and the means of obtaining the necessaries of life almost beyond their reach, if they could have resisted the temptation which was most artfully placed before them, to displace this truly English and wholesome beverage for that ardent spirit gin. Fortunately, however, this fatal passion, which seemed to have taken possession of the working classes for a time, is gradually dying away ; and whilst the consumption of spirits, if not decreasing, is stationary, with an increasing population, that of beer, the purity and quality of which is now superior to that of any former period, is steadily in- creasing. Beer has always contributed largely to the revenue of the country. An excise duty was first placed on beer in the reign of Charles II., but was, happily for the industrious classes, who are the great con- sumers of malt liquors, repealed in 1830. The duties on malt and hops are of a later date, that on hops having been imposed by the 9th, and that on malt by the" 12th of Anne. These duties now produce nearly 5,000,000/. annually to the revenue. We will now proceed to give a general outline of the process of brewing as adopted in our great breweries. The art of brewing consists mainly in the extraction of a saccharine solution from grain, and boiling it with certain proportions of hops, by which the aromatic bitter is extracted from them, and in con- verting this mixed solution into a fermented and sound spirituous beverage called beer (porter and stout) and ale. It is for porter and BREWERIES. 271 stout that the London brewers have obtained a world-wide reputation, and our brief account of the process will refer principally to that description of beer. The malt used is generally a mixture of pale brown and roasted, or pale and roasted malt, the proportions depending upon the quality of the pale malt, which varies with the season. It is first crushed (not ground) between cylindrical iron rollers, nicely adjusted so as to break every corn. The malt so bruised is then thrown into the mash-tun, where it is intimately mixed with warm water by means of a stirring or mashing machine worked in all large establishments by the steam-engine. The mash-tun is a circular wooden vessel with a pierced and movable false bottom, into which the water, or liquor, as it is called by brewers, is admitted, and from which the wort is afterwards drawn off into an under back, from whence it is pumped into the copper, where, the hops being thrown in, boiling commences. This is continued until the wort is of the specific gravity required, when the contents of the copper are let off through a large valve into a vessel called the hopback, from whence it runs into the coolers. This vessel, like the mash-tun, has a movable perforated false bottom, through which the wort runs, leaving the hops only partly spent, ready for use again with the second wort from the malt. The coolers are large shallow wooden vessels exposed as much as possible to the air ; but as it is of great importance that the cooling should take place very rapidly, various mechanical means are used to accomplish this object. Large fans, revolving with great rapidity, and driven by the steam-engine, create a strong current of air through the floor over the hot worts ; but as in the greater part of the year this would not produce the required effect with sufficient rapidity, all large breweries have a refrigerator — a worm of copper pipes placed in a shallow trough, through which a constant stream of cold water passes, entering at one end and running away at the other, the hot wort running into the trough in which the refrigerator is placed at that end where the water passes away. By these means united, where there is a good supply of cold water, and powerful machinery to drive the fans, the worts are cooled from the boiling temperature to about 60° in a short time, even in summer weather. From the cooler the beer runs into the fermenting tuns, and here the difficult and delicate part of the brewer's duty begins; for as each description of beer requires a fixed degree of attenu- ation (as the result of fermentation is called), and as the pro- gress of fermentation is more or less active according to the state of the weather, a large quantity of beer may be spoiled and rendered useless unless the brewer be always on the spot ready to stimulate or check the process, as the circumstances re- quire. The appearance of a large tun in a state of active fer- mentation is curious — a creamy scum first arises, which soon curls and assumes the appearance of a thick froth ; it then becomes 272 LONDON. coarser, and looks rocky and rugged, and the small bubbles or vessels swell and become large bladders charged with carbonic acid, which burst and cause that sweet pungent flavour familiar to every one who has been in a brewery. At this stage of the fermentation the beer is run out of the large tun into small vessels containing about five barrels each, called " pontos," where the heavy yeasty head is thrown off and is received into vessels below. When the fermenta- tion ceases the beer is " cleansed " and fit for storing. Here the business of the brewer ceases — the storing, the fining before send- ing out or in the cellar of the dealer, are subsequent processes which are determined by special circumstances, quite irrespective of the brewer or brewing, and into which we cannot stop to inquire. The machinery and apparatus required for a large brewery is ex- tensive and costly. The size of the apparatus necessary to produce the 1000 or 1200 barrels, or nearly 50,000 gallons of beer, delivered daily by Messrs. Barclay and Co., and Messrs. Truman, will be best conveyed to the readers mind by stating that 150,000 gallons of water must be pumped daily, from sources of supply 200 to 300 feet below the surface of the earth to a height of 80 or 90 feet above it ; that they grind and brew above 100,000 quarters of malt annually; employ 200 to 300 horses ; have vats in which they store the beer brewed in the winter for the supply of the trade in the summer, containing from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 gallons of beer; use steam power to the extent of 100 or 120 horses; consume from 4000 to 5000 tons of coal annually; have 80,000/. or 100,000/. invested in casks alone; employ from 400 to 500 persons ; and require, at the two large establishments we have referred to, from 8 to 10 acres of ground on which to conduct this vast amount of business. We have already stated that until lately London was only famous for its porter and stout. The release of the beer trade in 1830 from the shackles of the excise first gave an impetus to the ale trade, and soon raised it into importance. Before that time beer as well as spirits was only sold in houses licensed by the magistracy. The new Beer Bill, by allowing it to be sold under an excise licence only, opened the trade to a new class of dealers, who at once took up the ale trade, and were the immediate cause of the success of several new breweries which at first devoted themselves to the production of a class of malt liquors to compete with the old-fashioned porter and stout of the old-established porter brewers. The effect of this com- petition was so striking, that nearly all the porter brewers soon be- came ale brewers also, and the new ale brewers became also porter brewers, so that by referring to the list we shall introduce hereafter, it will be seen, that whilst the old brewers have rapidly extended their trade from 370,000 quarters in 1830, to 500,000 quarters in 1850, or 33 per cent., the six new breweries have risen in the same time, from 57,000 quarters in 1830, to 110,000 quarters in 1850. But for the wise alteration of the law in 1830, this enormous in- BRIDGES. 273 crease of trade must have been monopolized by the first houses, the public would neither have had such cheap nor such good beer, and the retail trade would have been confined now, as it then was, to licensed public-houses, nine out of every ten of which either belong to, or are under the control of, the large porter brewers. It is quite a different state of things with the best beer retailers, who buy their beer where they can get it the best and the cheapest, and whose business, confined as it is to the sale of beer, can only be retained, as in all other trades, by the supply of the best and cheapest article. The rapidity with which two or three of the new breweries have risen is one of the evidences of the facility with which capital is found in this country for every enterprise which shows a fair pros- pect of realizing a profit; though rapidly as these have extended their operations, it hardly equals that of their older rivals, for it is scarcely 70 years since that the vast establishment of Messrs. Bar- clay, Perkins, and Co., now employing a million and a half of capital, was bought of the executors of Thrale, the friend of Johnson, for the sum of 135,000?., Mr. Perkins having been previously to that time the manager of the brewery at a salary of 500/. per annum. The rise of Messrs. Truman and Co. has been equally wonderful. We will close this account of the London breweries, almost national establishments from their vastness, by a table showing the quantity of malt used in the fifteen largest houses in each of the three years, 1830-1, 1840-1, 1849-50. 1830-1 1840-1 1849-50 Barclay and Co 97,198 106,345 115,542 Truman and Co 50,724 88,132 105,022 Whitbread and Co 49,713 51,482 51,800 Reid and Co. 43,380 47,980 56,640 Coorabe and Co 34,684 36,460 43,282 Calvert and Co 30,525 30,615 28,630 Meux and Co 24,339 39,583 59,617 Hoare and Co 24,102 29,450 35,000 Elliott and Co 19,444 25,275 29,558 Tavlor 21,845 27,300 15,870 Goding 16,307 1.4,631 13,064 Charrington 10,531 18,328 21,016 Courage 8,116 11,532 14,469 Thome 1,445 20,846 22,022 Mann 1,302 11,654 24,030 433,655 559,613 635,562 We believe we may state that most of these establishments will be open to the inspection of respectable foreigners during the period of the Exhibition. We are sure they will find them well worthy of their attention, and will amply repay the time and trouble required to visit them. BRIDGES. There are few constructions in our metropolis capable of com- parison with the bridges which span the broad waters of the Thames, whether we regard them as mere works of art, or as ensamples of n 3 274 LONDON. the skill of our engineers. Some of them, such as the Westminster and Blackfriars' Bridges, were, it is true, erected before the peculiar action of our tides was ascertained (in fact, they were designed for a river with a totally different regime to that which now prevails), and before the nature and properties of the different materials were so well studied as they have been of late. Serious movements have been observed in them, of sufficient importance to "menace their instant ruin ; but, nevertheless, even these bridges were remarkable proofs of the boldness and skill of their projectors; and their con- struction, equally with their failures, have proved useful lessons to all interested in such studies. Foreigners often remark with surprise the small number of these structures over the Thames; and really the contrast between the innumerable bridges over the Seine with those, so few and far between, upon our river, is very striking. But, at the same time, the difference between the width and the volumes of the two rivers is equally striking ; and it is, undoubtedly, on account of the great difficulties attending the foundations of such structures in the Thames, that we possess so few points of communication, between its opposite shores. The Seine, in its progress through Paris, is traversed by twelve or thirteen bridges within a distance certainly not equal to half of that traversed by the Thames through London, yet the latter can only cite seven such structures. The character of the bridges is, however, totally distinct ; and it is not too much to assert that the cost of the latter has far exceeded that of the former, and that the difficulties overcome have been immeasurably superior. Taking the bridges over the Thames in a geographical order, they are — 1, London; 2, South wark ; 3, Blackfriars; 4. Waterloo; 5, Hungerford; 6, Westminster; and 7, Vauxhall. Battersea, Putney, Hammersmith, Kew, Richmond, and Staines Bridges, with the Rail- way Bridges at Barnes and Richmond, can hardly be considered connected with the metropolis. They merit attention for divers reasons however. Battersea and Putney on account of their supreme ugliness and great inconvenience; Hammersmith and Staines Bridges upon precisely opposite grounds ; the Railway Bridges on account of their economical construction; Kew and Richmond Bridges, as samples of the bridge-building of some fifty years since. 1. London Bridge. — This magnificent structure was erected under the superintendence of Mr. George and Sir John Rennie, upon the designs prepared by their illustrious father, Mr. John Rennie. Old London Bridge, after nearly a century of discussion, had been almost universally condemned as a nuisance to the navigation, and a disgrace to the architectural character of the town. In spite of serious oppo- sition, it was at length decided that it should be removed ; and, in 1823, an Act of Parliament was obtained regulating the mode of execution of the new bridge, and creating the ways and means of defraying the expense. The first pile was driven on the 15th of March, BRIDGES. 275 fit LOXDO-V BRIDGE. 1824; the foundation stone of the first pier was laid on the 15th of June, 1825; and the bridge was opened by King William the Fourth on the 1st of August, 1831. The elevation of the New London Bridge consists of five semi-ellip- tical arches, with their respective piers and abutments. The centre arch is 152 ft. 6 in. span, with a versed sine of 29 ft. 6 in. above high-water mark ; the piers between it and the second and fourth arches are 24 ft. thick each, measured on the longitudinal axis of the bridge. The second and fourth arches are each 140 ft. span, with a versed sine of 27 ft. 6 in. ; their piers on the respective land sides are 22 ft. thick each. The first and fifth, or the land-arches, are 130 ft. span each, with a versed sine of 24 ft. 6 in. ; the abutments on either side being 73 ft. thick. The upper portions of the piers form square pilasters upon the face of the bridge; their lower portions are protected bv advancing cutwaters, which are described by portions of circles, meeting at an angle of 60 c . The arches and piers are surmounted by a bold plain blocking course, which corresponds with the incli- nation of the roadway of the bridge, and is terminated by a solid parapet. At each extremity, and upon both sides of the bridge, are two straight flights of steps, with two intermediate landings for the facility of embarkation in each. The width of the carriageway is 36 ft. ; that of each of the foot- paths is 9 ft. ; that, measured from outside to outside of the parapets, is 56 ft. The total length of the waterway is G92 ft. ; including the abutments and piers, the bridge is 928 ft. long. The total height of the carriageway in the centre above the low- water line is 55 feet. The whole of the exterior masonry of this bridge was executed in granite obtained from Aberdeen, Haytor, and Peterhead, without any apparent reason for the mixture. The workmanship is as well exe- cuted as it is usual to see it in works executed under the control of engineers; though the manner in which many of the voussoirs were flushed, even at first, would rather indicate that proper attention was not paid to the mode of placing them. The filling-in was of Bramlev Fall, Derby, and Whitby stone, mingled with the materials derived from the pier of the old bridge, demolished previously to commencing the new 276 LONDON. one. The footpaths are of 'granite flagging, from the Haytor granite ; and the roadway is paved with deep narrow granite stones. Details of the very beautiful centering, and of the mode of carrying down the thrust of the land-arches to the horizontal surfaces of the abut- ments, are to be met with in Britton and Pugin's London^ in Tredgold's Carpentry, &c. It is to be regretted that greater precautions were not taken to guard against the danger to be apprehended from the alteration expected to be produced in the bed of the river by the removal of the dam formed by the old bridge. The nature of this, and the importance of its action upon the flow of the river, may be estimated from the fact, that the waterway at low- water was so contracted by the starlings of the old bridge as only to leave a clear space of 231 ft. at low- water, and to give rise to a cascade of not less than 5 ft. 7 in. between the low-water above and below the bridge, at certain periods. The removal of this dam has necessarily modified the flow of the river to an extent alluded to in the introductory part of this work ; one of its most disastrous effects has been to compromise the safety of several of the bridges; amongst which, unfortunately, the magnificent structure under notice must be included. It is also very much to be regretted that the city authorities have not prevented the encroachments, alike remarkable for their bad taste and their opposition to public interest, which have lately been allowed to mask the proportions of the noble structure erected at such an expense. The great works connected with the approaches to the New Lon- don Bridge were so intimately connected with it, that it would be impossible to state precisely its cost. As an approximation, we may consider it to have been about one million pounds sterling. SOUTHWARK BRIDGE. 2. Southwarh Bridge. — This bridge was also designed by the late Mr. John Rennie, who directed its execution throughout. At the time of its erection it was regarded as a master-piece of engineering science ; and even at the present day, although the late researches of such men as Tredgold and Hodgkinson have led to a knowledge that the material has not been employed in the most economical condi- BRIDGES. 277 tions, yet still Southwark Bridge must ever remain a monument of the genius and practical skill of the eminent engineer who de- signed it. Southwark Bridge consists of three segmental arches of cast iron, the centre one of which is 240 ft. span hy 24 ft. versed sine; the piers are 24 ft. wide; the two land arches are each 210 ft. span, with 21 ft. rise ; the width hetween the parapets is 42 ft. The abut- ments have nights of steps to the water, as at the London Bridge. The middle arch is composed of eight ribs, of 13 voussoirs in each, whose depth at the crown is 6 ft., and at the springing is augmented to 8 ft. ; they are bolted to diagonal cross bracing, maintaining the rigidity of the system. The total height of the centre arch, from the low-water line to the roadway, is 55 ft. The side arches are constructed upon the same principle as that in the centre, and the courses of the masonry are radiated in the thickness of the abut- ments, so as to bring the thrust upon the horizontal bed of the foun- dations. The total weight of the cast iron in this colossal structure is said to be 5780 tons ; the weight of the wrought iron is at least 50 tons. The piers and abutments are of Bramley Fall, and Whitby stone ; and the sheet piling originally driven round them appears to have effectually protected their foundations. The clear water way is 660 feet ; the width from face to face of the abutments is 708 ft., the Thames being narrower at this point than at any other during its passage through the metropolis, properly so called. The works of this bridge were commenced on the 23rd of Septem- ber, 1814 ; the first stone was laid on the 23rd of May, 1815 ; and the bridge was opened on the 7th of June, 1S17. It was built by a joint- stock company, who have a right to levy toll upon all parties using it. The total expense of the bridge, and of the approaches, amounted to about 800,000/. sterling. BLACKFRIARS' BRTDGE. 3. Blackfriars Bridge. — On the 7th of June, 1760, the first pile of this bridge, for many years the only means of communication between the Middlesex and Surrey shores, from Westminster to London Bridges, was driven into the middle of the river. The first stone was laid on 278 LONDON. the 31st of October in the same year, and in 1770 the work was completed, having thus occupied no less than ten years and three quarters. It was built upon the designs of Mr. Robert Mylne, and consists of nine semi-elliptical arches ; the central one being 100 feet span, and those on each side diminishing gradually. Their spans are respect- ively 98, 93, 83, and 70 ft. The total length of the waterway is thus 788 ft. ; the distance from face to face of abutments is 996 ft.; the width of the carriage way is 28 ft., and there are raised footpaths, on each side, 7 ft. wide. Originally the cornice was surmounted by an open stone balustrade, which returned in the recesses formed over the Ionic columns and pilasters placed, somewhat incongruously, upon the projecting portions, or cutwaters of the piers. The ends of the bridge widen out into quadrant corners, and they have flights of steps leading to the water. The original net expense of building this bridge was about 152,840/.; but owing to the nature of the foundations, and of the materials em- ployed, it has been repaired so often as almost to have given rise to an outlay equal to the first cost. The foundations were laid by Mr. Mylne upon caissons, sunk upon piles driven so as to leave an even surface ; the upper structure was executed in Portland stone. Such settlements took place in consequence of these defective systems of construction, and of the decay of the stone, that Mr. James Walker was employed, about 1833 and 1834, to repair the bridge thoroughly. This work was effected with great skill and ingenuity ; but unfor- tunately not in so perfect a manner as to secure the bridge against future accidents, for in the present day its state inspires serious apprehensions. The taste of Mr. Walker's alterations upon the or- namental parts of Mylne's original design is, perhaps, questionable. Columns and pilasters are always out of place in the elevation of a bridge; but as long as they were retained it certainly appears that it would have been preferable to have retained at the same time all the other details connected with them, and not to have altered their proportions. 4. Waterloo Bridge. — Can ova used to declare that this was the finest work of modern times ; but the subsequent erection of London Bridge, and of more modern railway constructions, have diminished, to our eyes, the beauty and merit of this noble bridge, for which we are again indebted to the genius and skill of Mr. John Rennie. It consists of nine semi-elliptical arches of equal span and rise (namely, 120 ft. span by 35 ft. versed sine), with piers 20 ft. thick. The width of the carriageway is 28 ft., with two raised footpaths, each 7 ft. wide, defended by an open balustrade, with a frieze and cornice. The piers are made with a batter from their foundations to the springing of the arches. At the former level they are 30 ft. thick, at the latter 20 ft., as above stated. Their width from point to point BRIDGES. 279 WATERLOO BPvIDGE. of the cutwaters is 85 ft. ; and they are surmounted, in the parts where they project beyond the line of the bridge, by two Grecian Doric columns on each pier, supporting a recess upon the roadway of the bridge. The total waterway thus left is 1080 ft., measured on the line of the springing of the arches. The clear height above high water is 30 ft., measuring to the underside of the keystone. The abutments are 40 ft. thick at the base, and 30 ft. thick at the springing; they are 140 ft. long, including the stairs on each side. The roads or approaches to this bridge are nearly as remarkable as the bridge itself. They are carried upon a series of semicircular arches, 16 ft. span. On the Surrey side there are not less than thirty-nine of these arches, besides an elliptical one of 26 ft. span over the Belvidere Road, and a small embankment about 165 yards long. The whole length of the brick approaches on the Surrey side is 766 ft.; that on the Middlesex side is 310 ft. ; and the total length of the bridge from the ends of the abutments is 1380 ft., making a total length of 24.56 ft. The total cost of this bridge was about 1,000,000/.; and it has proved a sad speculation for the shareholders, who erected so noble a monument. Their only consolation must be that the works were so judiciously executed as to enable them to remain intact notwith- standing the changes in the bed of the river. It is to be remarked, that the works entirely constructed by the late Mr. Rennie have re- sisted these changes better than any others. 5. Hungerford Bridge, — A very remarkable adaptation of the suspension principle has been lately made at this bridge, by Mr. I. K. Brunei. The span is, perhaps, the largest of any existing work of the kind ; but the economy in the materials is far from being equally admirable with the conditions of their employment. The Hungerford Bridge consists of a main span of 676 ft. 6 in. between the piers, with a clear distance between the abutments of 1352 ft. 6 in. The main chains have a deflection of 0*074 of the chord line considered as unity, or about 50 ft. They are double on each side, or there are four chains in all, consisting of alternatelv ten and eleven links, each of which are 24 ft. long, and of iron ? 7/ X 1 ;/ ; excepting upon the piers, where the number of links in each chain is respectively eleven and twelve. The side chains enter 280 LONDON. the abutments below the roadway, which is supported upon the lower parts by standards, and in the upper parts by rods If in. diameter. The piers are of ornamental brickwork, of very questionable taste, and apparently of doubtful solidity, if compared with the enormous mass of the chains. The platform is 14 ft. wide, with a clear height of 32 ft. 6 in. above high water in the centre, and of 28 ft. 6 in. at the sides, presenting thus a rise of 4 feet. The span of the centre division of this bridge is, however, the only part worthy of notice, for there is little co-relation between the dimensions of the different parts of the work. The chains w T ould support any possible load of carriage traffic; but the suspension rods are barely more than sufficient for the purposes the bridge is actually used for, and the piers are comparatively feeble. Hungerford Bridge places the west end of London in direct com- munication with the worst part of Lambeth. The construction of this bridge is indeed a phenomenon, when we consider the state of its southern access ; and the enormous expense it gave rise to has certainly not been justified by its commercial results. It is said to have cost not less than 100,000/. 6. Westminster Bridge. — This structure, which will soon either be demolished, or fall of its own accord, was for many years regarded as a triumph of engineering. Had it been erected in a river with a less changeable regime than that of the Thames, or had the original conditions of the flow of that river been still maintained, Westmin- ster Bridge might still have resisted, until the natural decay of its materials had rendered its removal necessary. But when the dam created by the Old London Bridge had disappeared, the scouring action of the tides soon affected this, the nearest bridge chrono- logically. Labelye, the architect of Westminster Bridge, introduced a system of foundations which has answered very well in numerous cases, but which failed utterly here. It consisted of dredging the intended position of the piers, and sinking caissons with the lower courses already built upon them. During the progress of the works some trifling disturbances of the bed of the river gave rise to settlements, which were easily repaired at the time. Upon the enlargement of the tideway, however, the increased scour of the river became such as to carry away the substratum of several of the piers; and now, after many years' labour, great expense and much discussion, it seems to be allowed on all hands that the total demolition of the bridge is necessary. The great waste of public money on these repairs may, perhaps, be accounted for by the fact of the existence of a commis- sion for the superintendence of the works, paid out of the proceeds of the bridge estates. Westminster Bridge is 1223 ft. in length by 44 ft. wide, and con- sists of a carriageway with two footpaths. There are thirteen large, and two small, semicircular arches, springing about 2 ft. above low- BRIDGES, 281 water mark. The centre arch is 76 ft. span, and the others decrease on each side by regular intervals of 4 ft. each, excepting the small arches, which are 25 ft. span each. The clear waterway at the springing line is 874 feet. The material employed in the superstructure of this bridge is the Portland stone, which has certainly not withstood the action of the moisture and atmosphere it has been exposed to. The first stone of this structure was laid on the 29th of January, 1739; and the last on the 10th of November, 1750 ; the time occu- pied in its erection being thus eleven years and nine months. The total expense, including the repairs of the pier, which sank during the erection, was 389,500/. 7. Vauxhall Bridge, — The second cast-iron bridge erected over the Thames is far from being of an equally monumental character with its contemporary at South wark. It is, in fact, very plain, if not decidedly ugly, the disagreeable effect being attributable to the ver- tical spandril filling, and the balustrade. There are nine arches of equal span, whose chord line is 78 ft., and whose versed sine is 11 ft.; the width of the piers is 12 ft. at the springing of the arches; the breadth of the roadway is 36 ft.; and the whole length of the bridge, from face to face of the abut- ments is 798 ft., measuring from the springings. There are ten girders in each opening, of three pieces each. The height above high water to the under side of the arch is 29 ft. The first stone was laid the 9th of May, 1811, and the bridge was opened July, 1816. The engineer was Mr. James Walker, who completed it for the sum of about 300,000/. Tabular V 'ew of the Bridges across the Thames. Length. Width. Height. Arches. Span, centre. Materials. Waterway. London . . - 928 56 55 5 150 Granite 690 Southwark . . 700 42 53 3 240 Iron 660 Blackfriars . . 996 42 62 9 100 Portland 793 "Waterloo . . . 1326 42 54 9 120 Granite 1080 Hungerford . . 1352 14 32 3 676J Iron — Westminster . . 1066 42 58 15 76 Portland 820 Vauxhall . . . 798 36 — 9 78 Iron 702 We may mention that, in consequence of the requirements of modern locomotive habits, piers for the embarkation of passengers by the river steamers have been erected at several of the above bridges. They are many of them very remarkable for the construc- tive ability displayed in their designs, especially those at Blackfriars and Hungerford Bridges. The piers at Southwark, Waterloo, West- 282 LONDON. minster, and Vauxhall, are simpler; but under their peculiar local conditions equally efficacious. The engineer who would desire to stud}' this class of constructions, would do well to examine those at East Woolwich and on the opposite Middlesex shore. For further information upon this subject consult Weale's Work upon Bridges, and the Supplement; "The Public Works of Great Britain;" " Tredgold's Carpentry (the Centres) ;" etc. CANALS. The canals of London have lost much of their importance, both in a political and commercial point of view, like all similar constructions, in consequence of the more rapid means of transport offered by railways. That they are susceptible of still rendering great service to the public, and of producing a better interest to their shareholders, if managed upon other principles than those hitherto adopted, is, however, certain. But it is also to be observed, that in no country in the world is the maxim that, " time is money," so invariably practised as in England ; and it is to be feared that its universal application will lead to the gradual abandonment of the cheap but comparatively tedious mode of transport offered by canals. The works for the improvement of the internal navigation of the streams leading to London appear to have occupied the attention of government at an early period of our national history. In 1423 a com- mission was issued for the improvement of the river Lea, and shortly afterwards the present system of management of the navigation of the Thames was established in its essential details. In the reign of James the First, the upper portion of the river as far as Oxford was rendered navigable. In the reign of Charles the Second many such works were executed. It was not, however, until the latter end of the eighteenth century that extensive works connected with the creation of lines of artificial navigation were undertaken. At the present day it is calcu- lated that there are not less than 2400 miles of navigable canals in England. Near London, however, the number of such works is very limited. The Thames, the Lea, the Kennet, and some of the other tributaries of the main stream, have been canalized, as already mentioned in our intro- duction. The artificial canals which lead into the Thames, or pass directly into London, are the Grand Junction, the Oxford and Birming- ham, the Thames and Severn, the North Wilts, the Kennet and Avon, and the Basingstoke Canal. The Thames itself is canalized as far as Lechlade ; the Lea, as far as -Ware ; the Wey, as far as Godalming. The canals which really pass through London are the Paddington Canal, the Regent's and the Surrey Canals, and the Lea Cut and Sir George Ducket's Canal. The Croydon, and Thames and Medway Canals have been diverted from their original destinations to be turned into rail- ways. Examining these canals in a geographical order, we meet firstly the Thames and Severn, which leads from the Stroudwater Canal at Wall- bridge, near Stroud, to the Thames navigation at Lechlade. It was executed under the orders of R. Whitworth about 1793, and is about 30 miles long. The breadth on the water line is 42 ft.; at the bottom it CANALS. 283 is 30 ft., with a depth of 5 ft. The barges used on this canal are 80 ft. long, and draw 8 ft. of water when at their full load of 70 tons. From Stroud to Sapperton, in a distance of 7 miles 3 furlongs, there are 28 locks to overcome a rise of 241 ft. 3 in. ; the summit is passed by a tunnel 4500 yards long, and only 15 ft. wide, the rock above it being in some parts as much ,as 250 ft. The difference of level down to Lechlade, 136 ft. 6 in., is overcome by 14 locks. There is a branch from this canal to Cirencester, and at Lutton it receives a branch from the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal. The Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal makes a junction from the upper part of the Thames to the Kennet and Avon Canal, through Wantage, Calne, and Chippenham. The point where it locks into the Thames is about 180 ft. 4 in. above the sea ; from thence to a point near the com- mencement of the Wantage River, in a length of 7f miles, it rises 96jft.; thence to the east end of the summit level, in a length of 15 miles, it rises 71J ft. The head level is 9f miles long. From the west end to the branch to Calne, the fall is 130 ft. in 10 J miles ; thence to the Chip- penham branch, in 1J mile, there is a fall, of 17 ft.; thence to the Junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal, there is a fall of 54 ft. in 7f miles. This canal was constructed in 1795 ; its total length being 52 miles nearly, with a total rise of 168 ft., and a total fall of 201 ft. The Oxford Canal, executed in 1769, commences at Longford, on the Coventry Canal, where it is 312 ft. above the level of the sea. The summit level is at Marston Wharf, where it is 387J ft. above the sea ; from thence it falls towards the Isis at Oxford, where it is still 192 ft. above the same level. In the valley of Brinklow there is a viaduct of twelve arches, each 22 ft. span ; at Cosford and at Clinton are two others. There is a short tunnel at Newbold 125 yards long, and another at Fenny Compton 1118 yards long. The total length of the canal itself is 84 miles. On the water line the width is about 28 ft., with a depth of water of about 5 ft. The smallest locks are 75 ft. 6 in. long by 7 ft. wide. The North Wiltshire Canal is merely a connection between the Thames and Severn, and the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal. It begins on the latter, near Swindon, at an elevation of 345 ft. above the sea, and falls into the former at Weymoor Bridge. Its total length is about 8J miles ; the total fall is 58 ft. 6 in. ; the date of construction 1813. There are no very important works upon it. We next meet the Kennet and Avon Canal, by means of which Lon- don is placed in direct water communication with Bath and Bristol, and the lower part of the Severn. It was executed in 1794 by the late Mr. John Rennie. The total length is 57 miles from the point where the canal locks into the Kennet at Newberry, in Berkshire, to the junction with the Avon about one mile beyond Bath. The rise from the Kennet to the summit level is 210 ft., which is effected by 31 locks ; the descent into the Avon is 404 ft. 6 in., with 48 locks ; the summit is 474 ft. above the level of the sea. At the bottom the canal is 24 ft. wide j on the water line it is 44 ft. with a depth sometimes of 6 ft., but usually only of 5 feet. The locks are 80 ft. long between the sallies of the gates by 14 ft. wide, to suit barges carrying from 50 to 70 tons. There are two aqueducts of some importance in the valley of the Avon, but no other works calling for particular notice. The total cost of this canal is said to have been 881,369/. nearly, or about 15,4:631, sterling per mile. The 284 LONDON. Kennet is canalized from Newberry to Beading, a distance of 18 J miles, in the course of which a fall of 126 ft. is overcome by means of 20 locks. From the town of Reading itself to the Thames, there is a navigable cut about 1J mile long, with a lock into the river. The width of the cut is about 54 ft. on the average ; the depth 5 ft. ; the locks are 120 ft. long by 19 ft. wide, and they receive boats drawing 4 ft. of water. Further down the river we meet the Basingstoke Canal and the Wey Navigation. This affluent of the Thames is rendered navigable from its junction near Weybridge to Godalming. In the portion from the Thames to Guildford, a distance of about 20 miles, there is a rise 6f 68 ft. 6 in ; thence to Godalming the rise is 34J ft. At a point between Guildford and Godalming, near Shalford Powder Mills, the Wey and Arun Canal begins, and by it the Thames is placed in connection with the south coast of England, for this canal terminates in the Arun Biver, after a course of 18 miles. The locks upon the Wey are 81 ft. long by 14 ft. wide ; the boats intended to navigate it, as well as the Wey and Arun Canal, have only a draught of water of 3 ft. 1 in. At 3 miles from the junction of the Wey and the Thames is the point at which the Basing- stoke Canal locks into the former river. This canal, constructed in 1778, is 37 miles long, and it rises to the summit level near the river Blackwater 195 ft., within a distance of 15 miles, by means of 29 locks. The canal then keeps upon a level to Basingstoke for the re- mainder of its course. In the former part of the canal the width upon the water line is 36 ft., with a depth of 4 ft. 6 in., the locks being 72 ft. long by 13 ft. wide ; in the latter portion the width is 38 ft., with a depth of 5 ft. 6 in. At Aldershot is a large reservoir for supplying the canal, which is also fed in some parts of its course by the Loddon. At Brentford the Grand Junction Canal locks into the Thames, and places the metropolis in connection with the midland coal and iron fields. It was one of the principal works of Mr. William Jessop ; and its execution led to the construction of some of the most remarkable engineering works antecedent to those upon the modern railways. There are two summits upon the line, the first near Braunston Mill, which is 37 ft. above the point of junction with the Oxford Canal. The canal then runs for about 4^ miles on a level ; it then falls 60 ft. in rather more than § of a mile ; it then runs on a level about 13f miles ; then falls 112 ft. in a length of 6| miles. A rise of 192 ft. in 21^- miles succeeds, with a summit level near Tring 3| miles long ; the fall is thence resumed towards the Thames, being 395 ft. in a length of 34J miles nearly, broken by a level reach 4| miles long. The total rise from the Oxford Canal is thus 229 ft.; the total fall towards the Thames is 567 ft., which together are overcome by 90 locks. There are several very extensive cuttings in the line of this canal, and two very remarkable tunnels. The one upon the first summit level is in the lias, and is 2045 yds. long ; that of Blisworth is 3080 yds. long, and in the blue clay. The internal width is 16 ft. 6 in. ; the depth below the water line is 7 ft.; from that line to the soffit the distance is 11 ft. In the total length of the canal there are not less than eight reservoirs for the supply of water, whose united capacity is assumed to be about 260 millions of cubic ft. There are steam engines at several of them to pass the water from one to the other. Numerous branches were also made from the main line ; as, for instance, to Strat- CANALS. 285 ford, Northampton, Buckingham, Newport Pagnell, Aylesbury, Wen- dover, and, lastly, from Uxbridge to Paddington. ^ This last-named branch is 14 miles long, and level throughout, maintaining an elevation of 90 ft. above low water at Limehouse. It terminates in the very centre of the new part of the town, springing up near the Great Western Railway Station. The date of the execution of this canal was 1793 ; its total length is 90 miles ; its cost above two millions sterling, or about 22,2231. per mile. The width of the canal upon the water line is 43 ft. ; at the bottom 24 ft. ; the depth of water 5 ft. The length of the locks is 82 ft., the width 14 ft. 6 in., the barges generally carrying 60 tons. At Padding- ton the basin is 400 yds. long by 30 wide, with wharfs let to private merchants and carriers on either side. Regent's Canal joins the Grand Junction Paddington Branch at a point near Maida Hill ; and after skirting the north side of London, it falls into the Thames near the Commercial Road, where a large dock has been constructed to receive colliers. The total length is 8J miles, and the difference of height between it and the low-water mark at Lime- house (90 ft.) is gained by 12 locks. The width upon the water line is about 48 ft. ; at the bottom it is 30 ft., with a mean depth of 6 ft. The towing-paths are about 12 ft. wide, and upon the opposite bank is a foot- path 3 ft. wide. All the locks have double chambers, and they receive similar barges to those used upon the Grand Junction Canal. At a short distance from the junction with the latter, the Regent's Canal passes under Maida Hill by a tunnel 370 yds. long. At Islington there is another tunnel under White Conduit Street 900 yds. long. Several short branches, forming in fact so many basins, are also con- structed in the length. Thus there is one on the east side of the Regent's Park, near Cumberland Market ; another near the Great Northern Railway Terminus ; a third near the City Road ; a fourth called the Wenlock Basin, a little to the east of the last. The tidal dock near the Commercial Road was originally 10 chains long by 6 chains wide ; but, as new works are in progress for its aggrandisement, these dimensions must only be considered approximate. The advantages of water communication with the river were so much appreciated some years since, that several other short canals or basins were formed from it upon the north and upon the south shore. Thus, the Kensington Canal was made from the Thames a little on the west of Battersea Bridge, terminating near the Hammersmith Pvoad. The Grosvenor Basin, from near the Chelsea Hospital to the Commercial Road, Pimlico, enables barges to enter the heart of that rising district of our enormous metropolis. On the southern shore of the Thames, in its course through London, the Surrey Canal, which formerly served as the terminus to the Croydon Canal, may be said to be the counterpart to the Regent's Canal on the north. It commences at a point nearly opposite the eastern entrance of the London Docks ; and after forming a large basin able to accommodate 300 ships, round which are immense stores and granaries able to hold 4000 tons of grain, it follows nearly the line of the canal cut by Canute, the Dane, for the purpose of transporting his vessels into the upper part of the river, past the defences of old London Bridge and the South-work. The Surrey Canal runs as far as the Camberwell Road, and has a branch towards Peckham. It would be very easy to convert the Mill-pond to some such useful purpose. 286 LONDON. The last canal in the district we are examining is that formed for the regulation of the river Lea. The navigation of the river itself is about 26 miles in length, from Hertford to the outfall in the Thames, with a series of locks to overcome the fall from the former place, where the Lea is 111 ft. 3 in. above the level of the sea. The barges are limited to 40 tons burthen by an Act of Parliament, dated 1805. The Stort and Lea are connected above Hertford by a canal 5 miles long. We have already mentioned the canal called Sir George Ducket's Canal, and the Lea Cut, which were made for the purpose of facilitating the intercommunication between the upper portion of the Lea and the Thames. Some years since the city of London sold a canal they possessed across the Isle of Dogs to the West India Dock Company ; it now forms a portion of that splendid establishment, and is principally used as a timber dock. With the exception of the tunnels upon the Grand Junction line, and the ship basins of the Regent's and Surrey Canals, there are few works upon these lines which may be considered worthy of notice. Indeed, the only merit they possess lies in the choice of the directions they follow, although some of them, especially the Basingstoke, would well justify considerable outlay to secure a better line. The bridges are usually very mean, contemptible structures on most of our canals near London : the towing-paths are badly kept ; the lock-gates are clumsy and ill-maintained ; the beds of the waterway, as in all old canals, are entirely formed by the awkward and expensive process of puddling. The commercial movement is, however, very astounding, and a visit to the establishments of some of the large carriers would be a source of great interest and instruction. Perhaps the Regent's Canal basin and Messrs. Pickford's wharf at the City Road basin, may be consideredthe most worthy subjects for examination. Foreign engineers are invariably much astonished to find that nearly all our canals are constructed of different dimensions, so that boats which suit one cannot pass upon another. It is very much to be re- gretted that such should be the case ; but as we have no central admi- nistration of public works, this inconvenience was almost inevitable. Our consolation must be that, owing to the uncontrolled liberty of action thus left to capitalists, we have been long in possession of a system of navigation so perfect that we may almost assert that no place of note in England is at more than ten miles distance from water car- riage. The tolls authorized to be raised by Acts of Parliament are rarely enforced ; the opposition of the railways, in fact, is so great, that the canals have been obliged to lower their tolls lately, and as the working of railways becomes more and more economical, they must be lowered still more to retain the present traffic. CEMETERY COMPANIES. From an early period it was the practice in London to bury without the abodes of the living. The Romans and Britons had their graveyards in Good- man's Fields and Spitalfields. When our fathers took London from the latter people, they formed a small village on the ruins, and buried at Aldermanbury, Lothingbury, and Bucklersbury. In the middle ages, the mischievous plan of burying in the churches was largely followed, and so it has been until, in 1850, CEMETERY COMPANIES. 287 this was partially forbidden by Act of Parliament, In the 17th century, the city of London opened a graveyard in the Bunhill Fields ; and large parishes, as St. George's, St. James's, and St. Martin's, have likewise opened graveyards in the outskirts ; but London has grown beyond what could have been foreseen, and these intended extramural cemeteries have become intramural nuisances. Within the last twenty years the wish for extramural cemeteries, fostered by the example of Pere la Chaise, has become very strong, and such establish- ments have been formed in the neighbourhood of London, and now have the countenance of royalty. The General Cemetery Company was that first formed in 1832, and has an establishment at Kensal Green, in the western suburbs. Here are buried H.E.H. the Duke of Sussex, H.E.H. the Princess Sophia ; and there is a vault purchased by the Queen. The tombs of Andrew Ducrow, the equestrian, and George Eobins, the auctioneer, are among the largest and most showy. There are likewise buried the Eev. Sydney Smith, Thomas Barnes, editor 3f the Times for many years till 1841, Thomas Hood, Allan Cunningham, J. C. Loudon, George Dyer, the historian of Cambridge, Dr. Birkbeck, the promoter of mechanics' institutions, Sir A. Calcott, E.A., T. Daniell, E.A., Sir W. Beatty (Kelson's surgeon), Sir Anthony Carlisle (Surgeon), Dr. Talpy, John Murray, the publisher, Anne Scott, and Sophia Lockhart, daughters of Sir Walter Scott and John Hugh Lockhart, his grandson, the " Hugh Little- ohn" of the "Tales of a Grandfather," Liston, the actor. There are likewise tombs of Dwarkanauth Tagore, a Calcutta baboo, Sir Edward Hyde East, an Indian Judge, the Baroness Feueheres, Eight Hon. Joseph Planta, Right Hon. Sir George Murray, Sir John Sinclair, Lord Granville Somerset, Chief Justice Tindall, Eight Hon. P. H. Abbot, Charles Buller, M.P. Of Admirals and Generals, Sir Chas. Rowley, Sir William Anson, Hon. Mr. Bathurst, Sir A. Brooke, Sir James Cockburn, Sir Moore Disney, Sir E. W. Otway, Sir M. Maxwell, Sir Hector Maclean. — The Duchesses of Argyll, Leeds, and Roxburgh. — Marquisses Graham, Sligo, and Thomond. — Marchioness Head- ? ort. — Earls of Athione, Cavan, and Galloway. — Countesses Castle Stuart, Clare, Galloway, Kinnoul, and Westmeath. — Lords C. S. Churchill, De Eos, Fitz- gerald, Garvagh, Hartknd, Glentworth, Howden, Hallyburton, Langford, W. Lake, Portarlington, St. Helen's, Arthur, and Allan Stewart. — Bishops of St. David's and Quebec. — Ladies Elizabeth Arrnsbury, F. Anson, H. T. Ash- aurnham, M. C. Bentinck, C. and L. Browne, A. Baynes Baker, H. de Bla- miere, Briggs, E. Colville, Spencer Churchill, C. Campbell, S. dimming, Cole- aine, C. Capel, F. Cole, M. Cockburn, E. Dundas, M. Drummond, T. Dillon, De Clifford, C. M. Dallas, East, E. Elliott, Fitzroy, H. Fitzgerald, M. Gardiner, A.. Garrett, AnnF. and E. D. Hamilton, Hughan, G. M. A. Hope, Juliana Howard, i. Treby, Jane Lyon, M. Lamb, Louisa and A. C. Murray, C. Morrison, E. Monck, H. Pringle. A. Palmer, M. M. Paslev, Eossmore, Helen Stewart, J. Stanley, Stuart, J. Tuite.— Sirs H. Bell, G. M. Cox, C. Colville, T. Corsellis, Herbert Compton, W. Douglass, H. Duncan, W. Erskine, Francis and G. H. Freeling, E. C. Ferguson, T. Fuller, G. Farrant, T. Gambler, James Leighton, T. Hamilton, J. Hawker, G. W. Lefevre, E, Macfarlane, H. W. Martin, Wm. Vlurray, D. Macleod, Arthur Pigott, N. L. Peacock, M. W. Ridley, T. B. St. jleorge, E. Stanley, T. A. Wright, H. Y. Webster, Marchese Brancaleone. — founts de Pollon, De Lusi, Eeventlow, Yon Sehivylenburg. — Countess Bat- hyany, De Yalmer, De Dourville, De Charlespont, De Wints. — Baroness De £atzleben. — Honourables F. Bowles, Elizabeth A. Buchanan, Pierce Butler, Charles Cholmondeley, W. Is. E. Colborne, Eobert Claxton, Anne Dunning, IT. Fraser, Margaret Fraser, A. G. Hood, Blanche Howard, Miss Charlotte rby, Caroline C. Kennedy, John Kennedy, Katherine King, F. Leslie, D. Hacdonald, Thos. H. Xugent, J. Steward, Chas. Stuart, James Stuart (85th jight Infantry), Mary Tollemache, John Tollemache, Arthur C. Tollemache. The Cemetery of the West London and Westminster Cemetry Company is 288 LONDON. in Fulham Road, Brompton, and has little variety of surface. Here is a con- spicuous marble tomb with a lion couchant to Jackson, a pugilist. The London Cemetery Company have cemeteries at Highgate to the north, and Nunhead to the south, each in a most picturesque situation, and command- ing a fine view of the giant city, lying below. Abney Park Cemetery is at Stoke Eewington, and has entrances from Stoke Newington Eoad, and from the high road to Edmonton. It has some fine trees. A statue of Dr. Isaac Watts, by Bailey, R.A., is in memory of his residence in the house now included in the cemetery, and after which it is named. The City of London and Tower Hamlets Company has a cemetery at South Grove, Mile End. Another cemetery in the eastern suburbs is that of the East London Com- pany, White-horse Lane, Stepney. The South Metropolitan Company has a cemetery at Norwood, in a most picturesque situation on the southern range of hills. Bunhill Fields burying ground, in the City Road, was opened as a suburban cemetery in 1665, in the time of the great plague, and was a favourite bury- ing place with the dissenters. There is no tomb of artistic pretension. Here are buried Daniel Defoe, author of " Robinson Crusoe ;" John Bunyan, the author of the " Pilgrim's Progress ;" Dr. Isaac Watts ; Joseph Ritson, the anti- quary ; Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the chaplain who attended Cromwell's death-bed ; George Fox, the founder of the Quakers ; the mother of John Wesley ; Lieut.- Gen. Fleetwood, a son-in-law of Cromwell ; Thomas Hardy, tried for sedition in 1794 ; Thomas Stothard, R.A. ; William Blake, the painter ; Dr. Daniel Williams, founder of the Public Library in Redcross Street ; John Dunton ; George Whitehead, a Welsh bard ; and other minor literary men. In the burial ground of the Wesleyan Chapel opposite are buried John Wesley and other authors of Methodism. The churches and churchyards which contain the most interesting tombs are Westminster Abbey (poets, statesmen, and generals), St. Paul's (artists and admirals), St. Saviour's, Southwark, St. Giles's, Cripplegate (literary), St. Paul's, Covent Garden (actors), the Temple (literary), Marylebone, St. Pancras, Paddington, Lambeth (ecclesiastical), St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, Stepne}^ Chelsea, Battersea, St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, St. Margaret's, Westminster, St. James's, Westminster, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. THE CHARITIES OF LONDOK. Notwithstanding our remarks in pages 263, 264, it is gratifying to observe, that amidst all our luxuries of life, the ways and means for enjoying the " luxury of doing good" is advancing. London, .for this, as for most other purposes, forms the grand focus from which the great ma- chinery of charitable usefulness emanates ; and it is no slight test of the spirit pervading our country, and a cause almost we might say for national congratulation, that in the face of heavy taxation and poor-rates, there are in and near the metropolis no less than 491 charitable in- stitutions, exclusive of charity schools, and mere local and district funds. These institutions are supported at an annual cost of 1,764,733/., of which amount 746,8697. arises from secured sources, and 1,023,864^. is derived from present voluntary contributions. This bare fact appears eminently calculated to excite a corresponding feeling of thankfulness and contentment amongst the poorer classes, and we would, for this, as well as for other reasons, that the little volume from whence we gather the information * should find an extensive circulation. We believe that in the hands of the benevolent, wealthy, or actively charitable, it would be found invaluable. To the former it serves to point out a system of almsgiving, and to the latter a means of as great usefulness, by imparting the requisite information whereby the benefits of each charity may be obtained for the objects of their solicitude ; and beyond this, it will, it is hoped, form a successful advocate of many a needy but deserving charity, and serve to develope at once what remains, or is still required , to be done. The following appears the summary of the 491 metropoli- tan charities referred to, each of which is treated of in detail : 12 general medical hospitals, making up beds to the number of 3326, relieving a total number of patients in 1849 (out and in patients) 329,608; 50 special medical charities (including hospitals and infirmaries for consump- * " The Charities of London, their Orgin and Design, Progress, and present Position, by Sampson Low, Junior," London. See also pages 240, 246 of this work. CLUB-HOUSES. 289 tion, asthma, fever, distortions, &c. &c.), granting relief last year to 105,997 patients, and 35 general dispensaries, affording relief during the same time to 140,869 persons. Besides these medical charities, there are the following societies and establishments:— 12 for the preservation of hope and public morals ; 18 for reclaiming and reforming the fallen; 14 for relief of general wants and distress; 12 for relief of specific distress; 14 for aidingthe resources of the industrious ; 11 for the blind, deaf, and dumb; about 150 colleges, asylums, and almshouse institutions for the aged; 40 societies for church and school extension, clerical and Christian visiting ; 35 Bible and Missionary Societies, &c. Of these 500 and more institutions, it is peculiarly interesting to ob- serve the dates of origin ; thus about 300 appear to have been established or commenced during the last fifty years ; 109 during last century, and as many as 88 remaining of the 16th and 17th centuries. See pages 64—68. CLUB-HOUSES. As at present constituted, the London clubs and club life have produced a new phase in English society, at least in the metropolis — one that will claim the notice of some future Macaulay, as showing the very " form and pressure of the time;" while to the more patient chronicler of anecdotes, club-house traditions and reminiscences will afford materials all the more interesting, perhaps, for not being encumbered with the dignity of formal history. Our task is merely to touch upon and attempt a slight characteristic outline of them ; not to trace the history of clubs to their origin in the heroic ages of Greece. We shall not go back even to the clubs of the last century, except just to indicate cursorily some of the special differences between them and those of the present day. Until about thirty years ago a club was seldom more than a mere knot of acquaintances who met together of an evening, at stated times, in a room engaged for that purpose at some tavern, and some of them held their meet- ings at considerable intervals apart. Most of them were anything but fashion- able — some of them upon a footing not at all higher than that of a club of mechanics. Among the regulations of the Essex Street Club, for instance (instituted by Dr. Johnson shortly before his death, and which was limited to twenty-four members), one was, that each person should spend not less than sixpence; another, that each absentee should forfeit threepence, and each of the company was to contribute a penny as a douceur to the waiter ! At that period the chief object of such associations was relaxation after the business of the day, and the enjoyment of a social evening in a homely way in what would now be called a snug party. The celebrated " Literary Club, " which was founded by Reynolds in 1763, and whose meetings were held once a week at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard Street, Soho, now a very unfashionable locality, consisted at first of only nine members, which number was, however, gradually increased to the large number of thirty-five ; yet, limited as it was, it would not be easy even now to bring together as large a number of equally distin- guished characters. That club dined together once a fortnight, on which occa- sions "the feast of reason and the flow of soul" were, no doubt, enjoyed in perfection. In most clubs of that period, on the contrary, the flow of wine, or other liquor, was far more abundant than that of mind, and the conversa- tion was generally more easy and hilarious than intellectual or refined. The bottle, or else the punch-bowl, played too prominent a part ; and sociality too frequently partook of bacchanalian festivity, if not revelry, at least, of what would now be considered such according to our more temperate habits; — and it deserves to be remarked that, though in general the elder clubs en- couraged compotation and habits of free indulgence as indispensable to good- fellowship and sociality, the modern clubs, on the contrary, have done much to discourage them as low and ungentlemanly. "Eeelinghome from a club" used to be formerly a common expression ; whereas now inebriety, or the symptom of it, in a club-house, Would bring down disgrace upon him who should be guilty of such an indiscretion. The old clubs have passed away, for though some of them, or similar societies, may still exist, it is behind the scenes, instead of figuring conspicuously upon O 290 LONDON. the stage. Quite a new order of things has come up, the clubs of the present time being upon quite a different footing, and also, comparatively, gigantic in scale. From small social meetings held periodically, they have become per- manent establishments, luxurious in all their appointments ; and of some of them the locales are quite palatial. No longer limited to a few acquaint- ances familiarly known to each other, they count their members by hundreds, and, sleeping accommodation excepted, provide for them abundantly all the agremens of an aristocratic home and admirably-regulated menage, without any of the trouble inseparable from a private household, unless it be one whose management is, as in a club-house, confided to responsible superintendents. In fact, a modern London club is a realization of a Utopian camobium — a sort of lay convent rivalling the celebrated Abbey of Thelem§, with its agreeable rule, of " Fais ce que voudras," instead of monastic discipline and mortifica- tion, Even a Sybarite might be content with the studied and refined comfort which pervades every department of a West End club-house, and which is such as to be unattainable in a private family, except by the opulent, though here brought within the reach of those whose means are comparatively moderate. Besides those staple features, news-room and coffee-room, the usual accom- modation of a club-house comprises library and writing-room, evening or drawing-room, and card-room, billiard and smoking-rooms, and even baths and dressing-rooms ; also a " house-dining-room," committee-room, and other apart- ments ; all appropriately fitted up according to their respective purposes, and supplied with almost every imaginable convenience. In addition to the pro- vision thus amply made for both intellectual and other recreation, there is ano- ther important and tasteful department of the establishment; which with many, perhaps, stands foremost among the attractions of a club-house — namely, the Cuisine ; nor is its auxiliary, the cellar, to be overlooked. The first-mentioned of these is presided over by a chef, sometimes one, like Soyer, whose fame is widely spread among the adepts in gastronomy, as an accomplished artiste — a professor whose performances do not fall short of his professions, but who shows himself skilled in the most recondite mysteries of culinary philosophy and science, and to be worthy of a niche in the " Classiques de la Table" or of honourable mention by some future Anthus, in a series of ticklingly piquant " Vorlesungen uber Esskunst." * Although it does not bear those words in- scribed upon it, the carte seems to say fare well, not as a phrase of dismissal, but of welcome and invitation, its contents being such as to adapt themselves to the humour of every palate, since they range from roast beef and other joints au nature! to the most recherche sophistications of edible substances. Besides, the more material advantages, the completeness of the attendance, the admirable good management, and the style in which everything is conducted, ought to be taken into account ; and what not least of all recommends a club- house to those who have no establishment of their own, is the economy of the system. To live upon the same scale and footing, to be surrounded with the same atmosphere of luxuriousness and refinement elsewhere, at anything like the same cost, is utterly impracticable. The moral influence of club life is also, upon the whole, a favourable one ; if there be no longer that heartiness of sociality which characterized the clubs of the last century, when their meet- ings did not exceed in number that of a private party of friends, there is more * Apropos to kitchen matters, Anthus himself has recorded the sausage-making achievements of Leo X., though whether the flesh of papal bulls formed any of the ingredients is not specified. " The gentle Elia," too, has given us a most amusing account of the *« Origin of Roast Pig;" but no one has yet pretended to discover that of pickled onions. Yet the inventor of them was obviously no less a personage than Queen Cleopatra herself, who was the first that steeped a unionem or onionem in vinegar. Now that it is here pointed out, the matter is as clear as mid- night — and that there are bright moonshiny midnights, as well as dark ones, the most captious cannot deny. Apropos, again, to the diners at club-houses, if we are to believe the late Lady Blessington, many a wealthy old bachelor is compelled to starve at home upon spunge-cake and a bottle of Madeira — a substitute for a dinner — when he is prevented from going to his club ; it being impossible, it would seem, in such a place as London, even for those who can afford to pay for it, to procure a dinner from a tavern. CLUB-HOUSES. 291 of the polish of gentlemanly manners and decorum, and infinitely les3 of in- temperance, or rather intemperance is banished altogether as a low and dis- graceful vice, and what, if openly indulged in so as to exhibit its effects, would disqualify for companionship, and lead to loss of caste. Great is the improve- ment which has taken place in our English habits in this respect ; and it is one which has partly, if not mainly, been brought about by modern club habits — after-dinner compotations and evening symposia being quite out of the question. In fact, club-house statistics would warrant our concluding that, instead of aught approaching excess, abstemiousness is the general rule, the average charge a head for wine and liqueurs being under two shillings per diem — a most monstrous falling-off from the days of six-bottle heroes in the annals of bacchanalian achievement; although the degeneracy from such heroism may fairly be considered an advancement in civilization. For those who avail themselves of it, the refectory part of the club-house system recommends itself by extraordinary cheapness in comparison with the superior quality of the viands ; which cheapness, marvellous as it may appear, is at once accounted for by the fact that whatever is consumed in the way of eating and drinking, is charged to the actual consumers at only cost price, and is further supplied in large quantities by the best purveyors. All other ex- penses, such as rent, rates and taxes, salaries, servants' wages, &c, fall upon the club or general body, and are defrayed out of the fund arising from entrance fees and the annual subscriptions; both which last vary, they being in some clubs considerably higher than in others, according to the style and status affected for the institution. The advantages held out by clubs of this description are such that they would be abused were it not for one wholesome regulation, and, indeed, quite indispensable precaution, which is, that no one can be admitted as a member unless he be first proposed by some actual member, who thereby becomes responsible for his pretensions and eligibility ; nor is even that suffi- cient, for the candidate must afterwards undergo the ordeal of the ballot-box. Another precaution is, that each member must leave with the secretary his bond fide address, or place of residence for the time being. Thus a club is tolerably well fenced in from those "loose fish"' of society, who might else, by clever manoeuvring, contrive to get out of their own proper element into that higher one, where, after all, perhaps, they might chance to find themselves pretty much in the condition of fish out of water. As to the management of a club household, nothing of the kind can be more complete or more economical, because all its details are conducted quite systematically, consequently without the slightest confusion or bustle. The whole may be compared to a skilfully-contrived piece of machinery, regularlv wound up and kept in order. Even' one has his proper post and definite duties, and what contributes to his discharging them as he ought is, that he has no time to be idle ; wherefore many a private establishment might take an excellent lesson from that of a club-house. The following is the scheme of government adopted :— At the head of affairs is the Committee of Manage- ment, who are appointed from among the members, and hold office for a cer- tain time, during which they constitute a board of control, from whom all orders emanate, and to whom all complaints are made, and irregularities re- ported. They superintend all matters of expenditure and the accounts, which last are duly audited every year by others, who officiate as auditors. The committee further appoint the several officers and servants, also the se- veral trades-people. The full complement of a club-house establishment con- sists of secretary and librarian, steward and housekeeper ; to these principal officials succeed hall-porter, groom of the chambers, butler, under-butler : then in the kitchen department, clerk of the kitchen, chef, cooks, kitchen- maids, &c. ; lastly, attendants, or footmen, and female servants, of both which classes the number is greater or less, according to the scale of the household. The regularity which pervades the domestic economy generally, is par- o 2 292 LONDON. ticularly remarkable in the kitchen department ; for instead of anything like bustle, or that/wss which notable housewives seem to think essential to good management, all the culinary operations, multifarious as they are, are con- ducted with activity and despatch, at the same time in the most orderly and methodical manner, towards which the arrangements of the place contribute not a little. In the Reform, and some of the other large club-houses, the kitchen, with its manifold apparatus, machinery, and modi operandi, consti- tutes a perfect laboratory for scientific preparations of the most appetite- enticing kind. In fact, the greatly-improved apparatus, appliances, and con- trivances here adopted, render this part of a club-house well worth the study of the practical architect, more especially as scarcely any information what- ever respecting kitchens, and other domestic offices, is to be obtained from books even professedly on the subject of domestic architecture. Besides the kitchen itself, properly so called, there are various dependencies belonging to it, for stores of the ammunition du bouche — special larders and pantries for every kind of materiel, viz., not only for meat generally, but for cold meat, game, fish, vegetables, confectionary, separately. That there are various store- rooms and cellars hardly needs to be said ; and in addition to them, there are one or more servants' halls, a clerk of the kitchen's room, butler's do., toge- ther with others for the principal domestics. Hence the basement of a club- house requires quite as much or more study and contrivance than any other part of the plan ; and in order to double the space to which it would else be confined, it is usually sunk to a very great depth, so as to obtain an additional floor within it, that is, an entresol between the lowermost or kitchen floor and the apparent external ground-floor. This economy of plan — which may be said to be peculiarly English — provides a complete habitation for the domestic and official part of the establishment, and an invisible one also, pro- vided it be properly screened out by dwarf parapet walls or balustrading, to prevent the area being overlooked, as is done at the Travellers' and Beform, where such inclosure below enhances not a little the general effect of the elevation by producing a suitable architectural base, and substituting the ornamental for the unsightly. In those club-houses which have baths, they, and the dressing-rooms annexed to them, are placed in the entresol. On the ground-floor the principal hall is sometimes entered immediately from the street; in other instances it is preceded by an outer vestibule of smaller dimensions and far more simple architectural character, which disposition is by far the better of the two, inasmuch as it produces greater extent of approach, secures greater privacy and protection from draughts of air to the inner hall and the rooms opening into it, and also keeps in reserve what may be called the focus of architectural effect. At a desk near the entrance is stationed the hall-porter, whose office it is to receive and keep an account of all messages, cards, letters, &c., and to take charge of the box into which the members put letters to be delivered to the postman ; his function is therefore one that re- quires unremitting punctuality and attention. The two chief apartments on this floor are the morning-room and coffee-room *, the first of which is the place of general rendezvous in the early part of the day, and for reading the news- papers. They are, of course, very spacious apartments, but of comparatively sober character — though for the new " Carlton " coffee-room a high degree o1 ornateness has been studied. The only other public room on this floor is the House-Dining room, yet it can hardly be reckoned among them, at least no1 among the " show " rooms, it being, it would seem, etiquette that it should be of extreme plainness, however lavishly other parts of the interior may be decorated. With regard to its particular denomination and purpose, it ma} be proper here to explain that, although the habitues of the club take theii meals in the coffee-room, some of the members occasionally — perhaps aboui * Tn some of the club-houses there is also what is called the «* Strangers' Coffee-room," inft which members can introduce their friends as occasional visitors. CLUB-HOUSES. 293 once a month, make up a set dinner party, for which they previously put down their names, the day and number of guests being fixed ; and such social gwosi-private reunions around the " mahogany," which may be termed reminiscences of the clubs of other times, are in club parlance styled house- dinners. Another room — which, however, is wanting in some club-houses- is an ante-room or waiting-room, where a stranger can have an interview with a member. Ascending to the upper or principal floor, we there find the evening or drawing-room, and card-room, the library, and writing-room ; the first-men* tioned of which is made the superlative degree, if not always of architectural effect, of the embellishment aimed at. With regard to the card-room, Honi soil qui mat y pense ! — gambling and games of chance are interdicted ; not even so much as what Lady Townley calls " poor, piddling, five-guinea whist" is permitted ; therefore, if any gamblers there be, they must either do penance at their club, or seek refuge in some less scrupulous and strait-laced society*. For many, no doubt, the intellectual refectory or library possesses as strong attractions as any other feature, since it supplies them with all the journalism and the cream of the literature of the day. The writing-room is also a very great accommodation, for many gentlemen write their letters at, and date from, their club. Upon this floor is generally the committee-room, and likewise the secretary's room. The next or uppermost floor, which, however, does not show itself externally, it being concealed within the roof, is appropriated partly to the billiard and smoking-rooms, and partly to servants' dormitories, which divisions are kept distinct from each other. Being quite apart from the other public rooms, those for billiards, &c, make no pretensions as to appearance, neither is commodiousness of approach to them always so well studied as it ought to be, the staircase leading to them generally contrasting very strangely and disagreeably with the " grand staircase" below, so that, after all, another room remains, namely, room for further improvement in club-house architecture. There is opportunity, too, for doing more than has yet been attempted, were it only by throwing greater variety and architectural effect into the plans them- selves, and by occasionally adopting circular, octagonal, and other polygonal forms, and combinations of them, for the rooms ; whereas at present we find only rectangular ones, without other variety or distinguishing effect than what can be produced by mere wall decoration, upholstery, and furniture. There is, moreover, one elegant luxury which, as we have seen remarked, has not yet been thought of for a club-house, to wit, a conservatory or covered garden, a more agreeable lounging-place than which, provided it were suitably adapted to such purpose, could hardly be devised. Having explained the present club system, and the usual arrangements of a club-house, we shall now speak of the external character of buildings of the kind, as features formerly quite unknown in our street architecture. Upon Pall Mall and its immediate vicinity — the former more especially — they have bestowed a certain nobleness of physiognomy, of which no other part of the town affords an example, they being marked by a certain unmistakeable quality as well as character, both of which combined distinguish them from all our other buildings, whether public or private. They may be said to be the only structures in the British capital that answer to the palazzi of Italian cities, the town residences of even the wealthiest of our nobility being, with here and there an exception, of the most unpretending, not to say homely, appearance ; and those exceptions become fewer still, if we confine them to such as not only show themselves to be aristocratic mansions, but also exhibit something of the grandiose also in their stj^le and design; such, for instance, as Spencer House, and Bridgewatei House, to which might be added Burlington House, were it not unfortunatel} * What with half pints of wine after dinner, and half-guinea whist at the card table, it must he confessed that the present age has so greatly degenerated that " Fuimw Troes" ought to be its motto. UNIVERSITY CLUB-HOUSE, ELEVATION AND PLAN. shut out from view, therefore, perforce, ignored by the public. Even of the club-houses themselves the earlier erected ones do not evince much study oi design, or exhibit anything striking, unless it be the " University," in Pall Mall East (first opened in 1826), the number of members of which is limited to 1000 ; 261. 5s. entrance fee ; 61. annual subscription. The "Union," limited to 1000 members, entrance 321. 10s., annual subscription, 61. 6s.; and the " United Service," limited to 1500 members, entrance 30£, and 61. annually which are about the same date, namely, 1827 and 1828, bear upon them the mark of their respective architects, Sir Robert Smirke and John Nash. The Athenaeum, by Mr. Decimus Burton (the next club-house in point of date, i1 being opened in November, 1830), showed considerable progress with regard tc ornateness and finish, for it presented the then somewhat extravagant novelty of a sculptured frieze : the only other instance, at that time, was the one o the portico of the India House. The richness so given to the upper part o the Athenaeum is, however, attended by one bad effect, since it causes the CLUB-HOUSES. 295 ~TmFZrWT-zz:^ ::-"-;. r ™ r ^^::. ;:.;::: ~~"~: TI IB ^ ATHENJ1UM CLUB-HOUSE, ELEVATION AND PLAN. cornice of the corresponding mass of building on the east side of Carlton Place, (the United Service), to appear still more insignificant and mean than it else would do — a circumstance that seems to be either unperceived or ignored, or else that club would no doubt have deemed it worth while to bestow a nobler cornice upon their building ; and another easy improvement would be to en- large one of their ground-floor rooms by throwing out a bay to correspond in general appearance with the opposite entrance porch of the Athenaeum. The number of members of this club is limited to 1200 ; 261. 5s. entrance fee, and 61. 6s. annually. After the Athenaeum, the next in succession, as in date (1 8 31), is the Travellers', a structure that fairly makes an epoch in the architectural history of club- houses, as being almost the first, if not the very first, attempt to introduce into 296 LONDON. travellers' club-house. this country that species of rich astylar composition which has obtained the name of the Italian palazzo mode, by way of contradistinction from Palladianism and its orders. Grecianism, N ashism, and Smirkeism had been exhausted, when, in an auspicious hour, both for himself and for architectural design, Charles Barry seized upon a style that had all along been quite overlooked by English architects. What had till then been kept out of sight from the general public was hailed, not only as a welcome novelty after the previous season of architectural dulness and insipidity, but received as originality also, though, in fact, there is very little of the latter in the facade towards Pall Mall, far less, indeed, than in the design of the garden-front, which is not only greatly superior to the other, but shows a happiness of invention which the architect has certainly not surpassed, if approached, in his later works. That production of Mr. Barry's may be said to have given a fresh impulse to architectural de- sign, and one in a more artistic direction. It almost at once brought the style then adopted by him into vogue ; not, indeed, exactly for club- houses — perhaps, because so applied, it would look too much like the direct imitation of a successful and too well-known model — but for various other buildings, in the provinces as well as in the metropolis; and its influence has likewise manifested itself in some of our recent street architecture, although longo intervallo in regard to taste. The " Travellers' " has, more- over, obtained a distinction which has not fallen to the lot of any other con- temporary structure, it having been the subject of an elegant volume of archi- tectural illustrations (published by Mr. Weale*) ; a circumstance that has, perhaps, contributed to diffuse an acquaintance with the genius and resources of that so-called Italian-palazzo style, all the chief features and details of that club-house being there shown at large. A similar office has not been per- * About 1000 members. For a list of names, see Weale's publication, subscription annually, 101. 10*. Entrance fee, 21/. ; CLUB-HOUSES 297 PLAN OF TRAVELLERS' CLUB-HOUSE. formed for any other edifice of the same class, notwithstanding that some of them are more ambitious in their architecture and their internal decorations ; yet, surely it would be a very trifling matter for a Club to publish the plans, &c of their building, at their own cost, even were copies intended only as presents to their friends. Stronger reasons than pecuniary — for they are slight, indeed — there may be for this not being done, and foremost among them, perhaps, is indifference *. Of the three club-houses forming the insula or l block ' of * The Travellers' had a very narrow escape from destruction on the 24th of last October (EJSO), when a fire broke out in the billiard-rooms, and did great damage to that part of the structure, which was, by the by, an after-thought and addition to the original building, but by no means an improvement upon the first design, for it gseatly impaired the beauty of the garden-front. o 3 298 LONDON. buildings on the west side of Carlton Place, the Reform is, though the latest, not the least, and although it does not make pretension to striking originality, it assuredly is not, as has been repeatedly said of it, a copy of the Palazzo Farnese ; unless general similarity of treatment where there is similarity of subject can justly convict of direct imitation or copyism. At all events, in this case, the points of difference between the two buildings are far more numerous than those of resemblance. In one respect, too, this club-house dif- fers from all the others, for, whereas their elevations show only a ground floor and another over it, the Eeform exhibits an additional upper story, which is appropriated exclusively to sets of chambers or lodgings for such members as may engage them, which extra accommodation is quite peculiar to that club. That floor is, however, kept quite distinct from the rest of the interior, it having a separate staircase, and entrance to it from the street, placed in the break or compartment between that club-house and the Travellers'. As to the Reform Club-house being after the Palazzo Farnese, if we are to understand 'after 9 chronologically, it certainly is so; but in point of design, the only resemblance between the two structures consists in both of them being astylar, with columnar-decorated fenestration, while in all other respects, the differences between them are so strong as to put likeness entirely out of the question. The blunder itself—for it can be called nothing else — would be hardly worth noticing, did it not show what inane and random stuff may be uttered with impunity, and pass uncontra- dicted, on the subject of architecture. The number of members is 1400 ; entrance fee, 2§l. 5s. ; annual subscription, 10?. 10s. Extra charges are made for the occupation of the dormitories or sleeping rooms. The insula formed by the three club-houses just spoken of, possesses a merit which ought not to be so great a distinction as unfortunately it is ; it being re- markable for being treated architecturally throughout, and finished up on all its four sides ; whereas, in too many instances, the effect of a front elevation is marred by design being dropped altogether for other parts, which, although not belonging to that elevation, are nevertheless offensively visible from some points of view. CARLTON CLUB-HOUSE. The Carlton Club-house, which is the next immediately after the Reform, exhibits in its present state a singular architectural antithesis, the addition made to it in 1847 by Mr. Sydney Smirke, being utterly dissimilar in style and taste to the original structure erected by his brother Sir Robert. Extremes certainly meet there, for we find what may be called ultra-Italian in juxta- position with that sort of Anglo-Greek which, after a short-lived vogue, has CLUB-HOUSES. 299 now fallen into discredit ; a taste for the florid having now superseded that for the frigid and the bald, which last passed in its day for the classical and the chaste. The new portion is little more than a direct and undisguised copy of Sansovino's Library of St. Mark at Yenice — a work whose celebrity converts into admiration the censure that this imitation of it would, were it an original composition, else incur for the monstrousness of its proportions, and violation of all orthodoxy and rule : nothing less than monstrous, in fact, can the entablature of the Ionic or upper order be pronounced, if it be tested by ordinary rules, more especially as it is considerably more pon- derous than that of the Doric order below. Besides a degree of enrichment almost unprecedented in our metropolitan architecture, this addition to the Carlton Club-house exhibits a decided novelty and singularity in another respect, the shafts of all the columns being of red Peterhead granite highly polished, in consequence of which they tell very strongly, perhaps rather too much so, for as the same colour is not extended to any other part, they appear to be too much detached from all the rest, and instead of their being relieved by shadow or by a darker ground, the reverse of such effect takes place. At present, however, we behold only a mere specimen of what is intended ulti- mately to become a facade upwards of 130 feet in length, with nine windows on a floor, and which will therefore form an imposing mass, in all but imme- diate juxtaposition with the group of club-houses between it and Carlton Place. (We have, however, made an elevation of the building, as it will be when complete, that our readers may justly criticise it as an entire design.) Whenever it shall be so completed, the granite columns will probably help to render the extent of frontage more noticeable than it would otherwise be, where- as at present, by attracting the eye strongly to it, they cause, what is already built to strike it as being a mere narrow upright bit in comparison with some of the other club-house facades. The completion of the fa$ade will not, we hope, be deferred. The whole of the lower floor of the part recently erected, is occupied by the coffee-room, which extends the full depth of the building, from north to south; is 92 feet in that direction, by 37 in width, 21 1 high ; and is divided by screens of Corinthian columns of green scagliola, into three compartments, each of the two end ones being lighted by three windows, and the central one by a glazed dome. There are 800 members ; entrance fee, 151. 15-5. ; annual subscription, 101. 10s. At no great distance from the preceding is the Oxford and Cambridge Uni- :0:t23 : -!rn^w;^^-s OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY CLUB-HOUSE. 300 LONDON. versity Club-house, said to be the joint production of the two Smirkes; and, indeed, the design betrays some conflict of opposite tastes. For the interior, econo- my seems tohave been chiefly con- sulted; and appearance has been, somewhat unpardonably, altoge- ther disregarded for itssouthside, although it should have been attended to there— because it is seen from the court-yard of Marl- borough House. The number of memberslimitedtoll70;entrance payment, 26J. 5s. • annual, 61. 6s. The new Guards' Club-house (erected in 1848, Henry Harrison, Esq., Architect), is remarkable for its compactness and conveni- ence, although its size and ex- ternal appearance indicate no more than a private house. Not so the Army and Navy Club- house, on the opposite and sunny side of Pall Mall*, for it makes a very ambitious display, ap- parently out of rivalry to the Carlton. In like manner as for that building, here also a design of Sansovino's has been made use of, though with con- siderable deviations from the original, little more of it, in fact, being retained than that of the lower part or basement, which is, nevertheless, more exceptionable in many respects than it is tasteful. One objectionable circumstance, if no other, is that an appearance of littleness is incurred very unnecessarily by the diminu- tive windows, which give the idea of comparatively low ground-floor rooms, with a low mezzanine between them and the upper floor, whereas both tiers of windows serve to light the same rooms; nor can the upper ones be productive of good effect internally. By merely arching the lower windows, and making them correspond with the three open arches of the entrance loggia, not only the basement, but the entire structure, would have been improved, both in regard to unity of general composition, and increased loftiness for the ground- floor windows. Square-headed windows below do not accord particularly well with arched ones above, for such arrangement is the reverse of what construc- tion would usually dictate. In the present case, too, the upper windows are only apparently lofty arched ones, the actual apertures being square-headed — a species of deception anything than either praiseworthy or ingenious, if, only because it must be detected at once on entering the rooms. No doubt, it was had recourse to in order to fill up the space between the tops of the apertures and the entablature ; yet that might have been accomplished differently, by * It is to be regretted that some clubs did not— while thev had the opportunity of doing so- concert together to purchase for a building site the entire block of houses between St. James's Square and Pall Mall. The structures would have had the advantage of a double frontage either way of a very desirable kind. Although varied in design they would have formed a con- tinuous range of stately facades, an insula similar to that on the west side of Carlton Place; pesides which, St. James' Square itself would have been most materially improved, for the houses which now occupy its south side rather disfigure its general appearance than not. THE GUARDS' CLUB-HOUSE. CLUB-HOUSES. 301 PLAN OF THE GUARDS' CLUB-HOUSE. filling up the tympana of the arches with panels or other ornaments in stone, instead of glazing them. As the ground-floor plan is here given, we leave it to speak for itself, and perhaps also to confirm one of our previous general remarks. There were two competitions for this club-house, in 1847, to the first of which sixty-eight architects sent in designs, and on that occasion the first premium was adjudged to Mr. Tattersall. After that the site was en- larged, a greater frontage being obtained towards Pall Mall by the purchase of an adjoining house, and a second competition took place; but, instead of 302 LONDON. ARMY AND NAVY CLUB-HOUSE. PLAN OF ARMY AND NAVY CLUB-HOUSE. being an open one as before, it was limited to six architects who were specialty invited to it. The design chosen was that by Messrs. Parnell and Smith, and the building was commenced in 1848. The Conservative Club-house* in St. James's-street, erected in 1844, from the designs of the late G. Basevi and Sydney Smirke, is by far the most ornate and stately structure there situated. The design of the lower part is, how- * The Conservative stands on the site of what was formerly the Thatched House Tavern, and which, notwithstanding the homeliness of its name, was a rendezvous of considerable vogue in its day, for it was patronized by the Dilettanti Society, who used to hold their meetings in the great room, where there are many portraits of distinguished members of that body. The Dilettanti now assemble at No. 85 in the same street. CLUB-HOUSES. 303 CONSERVATIVE CLUB-HOl'SE. ever, not very satisfactory, and is, moreover, rather insipid and tame, in com- parison with the rest. The interior is well arranged, and contains some strik- ing points ; for besides a sufficiently handsome entrance hall, there is a larger central inner hall, with a kind of upper saloon over it, which is seen from be- low, through a large circular opening in its floor, through which the hall on the ground floor is chiefly lighted, the domed skylight of the upper hall, or saloon, being immediately over it. These two halls and the intervening stair- case are decorated throughout, both on their walls and ceilings, with painting in encaustic, by Sang, which style of embellishment — here, perhaps, of too florid a cast — forms a strong contrast to the studied plainness and absence of colour previously affected for such parts of an interior, when our architecture seemed to labour under a sort of chromatophobia. In other parts of this build- ing, too, colour has been liberally employed. The number of members is limited to 1500. Entrance fee, 261. 5s. ; annual subscription, 8?. 8s. On the same side of the way, and not far from the Conservative, is Arthur's Club-house, which, together with the club itself, is said to derive its name from Arthur's chocolate-house (originally White's), which stood on the same site. The present building was erected about twenty-five or thirty years ago, by Thomas Hopper, architect, at which time it passed for more than average ar- chitectural design (see p. 304), although it now attracts less notice ; so greatly have we added to this class of Club Architecture. This club is limited to 600 members, the payment of entrance fee is 211., and 10/. 10y the city of London) is supposed to apply only to those born within the sound of Bow Bell. 312 LONDON. Jewry. 7. St. Olave's, Jewry, one of the smallest and poorest of Wren's erections, and we believe almost the only one with a ceiling entirely flat. The variety of forms he gave to this most important part redeemed even the humblest of his other works from absolute meanness. Back to Gresham Street. Lothbury. 8. St. Margaret's, Lothbury, chiefly remarkable for a carved font by Grinling Gibbons, with allegorical figures on the cover, and three Scripture pieces below. Back to Gresham Street. Coleman Street. 9. St. Stephens, Coleman Street. Back to Gresham Street. Basinghall Street. 10. St. Michael's, Basinghall (corruptly Bassishaw), densely surrounded, and the only building of Wren's that shows a decided deficiency of foundation. St. Michael's Court. Aldermanbury. 11. St. Mar y's, Alder- manbury. Love Lane. 12. St. A Iban's, apparently a restoration of the former church, which was either rebuilt or repaired by Inigo Jones in 1632. If not a restoration it must be considered the best speci- men of Wren's Gothic. Wood Street (southward) to 13. St. Michael's, Wood Street. Huggin Lane. Gresham Street 14. St. Anne and Agnes, north of the Post Office, a square interior, similar to St. Martin's, Ludgate, and originally very symmetrical. Aldersgate Street. Little Britain. Duke Street. 15. St. Bartholomew's the Great, a remnant of Rahere's Priory church (see " Architecture," pp. 131-135). Of the more remarkable of Wren's churches it is observable that St. Mary le Bow, St. Lawrence, and St. Stephen's, Walbrook, were among the first designed ; — St. Vedast's, St. Bride's, Christ Church, and St. Magnus, among the last. The erection of the churches ex- tended from 1668 to 1705, but it does not appear that any were commenced later than 1680. All Wren's churches, fifty in number, replaced old ones, except St. James's, Westminster, which was a new parish taken out of St. Martin's, which had itself, in Henry VIII. 's time, been taken out of St. Margaret's, and was yet to be the parent of several, each larger than the whole original city. Except this, and St. Clement Danes, they are all within the city as now defined, and with the further exception of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and St. Bride's, were all within the walls of the city proper. Six of Wren's churches have now disappeared, viz. : — St. Christopher's le Stocks (destroyed for the enlargement of the Bank), St. Bartholomew's (for that of the Exchange), St. Michael's, Crooked Lane (for the clearing of King William Street), St. Benet Finch to afford a site for a building not yet commenced ; and St. Mary at Hill and St. Dunstan's in the East (except its tower) have been rebuilt on new designs. V. Churches that escaped the Fire, but have been rebuilt since. Besides the group of old churches above mentioned, still standing in the east end of the city, all those situated along its northern boundary escaped, but were, in the last century, rebuilt with excessive mean- ness and parsimony of thought. These are, beginning from the east, CHURCHES. 313 — St. Botolph's, Aldgate ; St. James's, Duke's Place, Aldgate ; St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate ; Allhallows, London Wall ; St. Alphage, London Wall; St. Giles's, Cripplegate (partly burnt and patched up); St. Botolph's, Aldersgate ; St. Bartholomew's the Great, and the Less; St. Sepulchre's; and St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street (rebuilt in handsome modern Gothic in 1831-3). Four churches also in the heart of the city were so little injured as to admit of patching, viz. : St. Catherine Coleman, Fenchurch Street ; St. Mary's Woolnoth ; St. Peter le Poor, Broad Street; and St. Martin Outwich, at the junction of Threadneedle and Bishopsgate Streets. The second of these Hawkesmoor replaced in 1716, by a beautiful erection already mentioned with those of Wren, as one of the admiranda. The others have been rebuilt by later artists, and contain nothing remarkable. The following are the churches rebuilt since Wren's time throughout the metropolis. Those marked Conv., replace con- ventual churches ; and those with an asterisk will repay inspection as architectural works. Old St. Luke's, Chelsea. Chiefly in the 17th I St. Mary's, Islington. 1751-4. L. Dowbiggin. century. Allhallows, London Wall. 1765. Dance, jun. St. Mary Magdalen 's,Bermondsey. [Conv.) 1680. ! St. Mary's, Whitechapel. St. Margaret's, Westminster. 1682, and at : St, Mary's, Kensington. various later dates. , St. Mary's, Battersea. 1776. St. Giles's, Cripplegate. At various times. , St. Alphage, London Wall. 1777- Dance, jun. St. Thomas's, Southwark. 1702. I St. Bartholomew's, in the Hospital. (Pseudo- St. Marv's, Rotherhithe. 1714-15. Gothic). 1789. Dance. *St. Mary's Woolnoth, City. 1716. By Hawkes- St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. 1790. Dance. moor. St. Peter's le Poor, Broad Street, City. 1790. ^Christ Church, Spitalfields. (Coiiv.) Hawkes- I J. Gibson. moor. j St. Mary's, Paddington. 1788-91. St. John's, Clerkenwell. (Conv.) 1723. St. James's, Clerkenwell. [Conv.) 1788-92. *St. Martin's, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, j St. Paul's, Covent Garden (Jones's Church). 1721-6. Gibbs. , 1795. Hardwicke, sen. St. James's, Duke's Place, Aldgate. 1727. ! St. Martin's Outwich, Threadneedle Street. *St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. 1725-8. James Gold, j 1796. Cockerell, sen. St. Catherine Coleman," Fenchurch Street. 1734. ! St. Augustine's, Hacknev. 1798. St. Giles's, Bloomsburv. 1734. Flitcroft. *St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street. 1830-33. Shaw. St. Olave's, Tooley Street, Southwark. Flit- St. Saviour's, Southwark. [Conv.) 1840. The croft. nave only. St. Sepulchre, Newgate. St. Margaret's Chapel (now Christ Church), St. George's, Southwark. 1733-6. Broadway, Westminster. 1843. Christ Church, Blackfriars Road, Surrev. 1737- ; St. Pancras', Somers Town. (Pseudo-Norman.) *St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. 1740. Dance, sen. j 1848. St. Botolph's, Aldgate. 1741-4. Dance, sen. j Thus, out of thirty-eight old structures (all except four, anterior to the Reformation), some displaying the genuine splendour of the monastic architecture, and nearly all containing that abundance of refined thought by which the medieval builders endeavoured to glorify God with the best of all He had given them ; out of all these, only six have been replaced by buildings with any claim whatever to be considered works of thought. Shame would now gladly draw a veil over the rest of these disgraceful productions. It has been well asked, who could ever have anticipated in any previous stage of church architecture, and especially of its ancient glory in this country, that, in the nineteenth century, an English church would come to mean four screens of plastered brick, covered by about an eighth of an acre of plastered laths ? To such a pitch did the con- p 314 LONDON. stant pursuit of an object the direct reverse of art (viz. — economy of thought), at length reach. It is not the economy of handiwork in these buildings that offends us, for some of the Norman churches have nearly as little; and the ever-esteemed St. Sophia quite as little in proportion to its size. Still less is it their economy of material (a quality distinguishing the works of nature, and therefore a beauty in temples to the Author of nature). No, with all their parsimony, these frail tottering erections have no economy of matter, for, as a late architect calculated, about a fourth of what they contain is always useless burthen, and another fourth employed in supporting that burthen ; — and the same author truly observed, " w r hat a shame is it to man, to pile up in a rude coarse crazy and unhandsome manner, the good materials with which Providence has blessed him, to mar them by folly and ignorance [wilful ignorance in order to save thought] and to call such an assemblage of mal-formation a temple !" To object to these buildings for their fancied plainness is a double error: first, because plainness has no necessary connection with ugliness or profanity in building (as the Norman and Byzantine examples above mentioned prove); and, secondly, because these odious works are the reverse of plain. Plain ! — why everything visible in them is ornament. What is the ceiling ? — what are its hanging mouldings and lumps of plaster ? — what are the walls and all other surfaces? — what are the sham stone? — the sham marbles, the sham oak ? — What is every feature and appearance in the exterior ? — the mode of arranging the bricks * to hide the real structure, the mode of counterfeiting in the windows the appearance of holes, the mode of disguising how the wall above them is supported, the mode of hiding the roof or its commencement, by keeping it behind the wall ; and yet adding a sham cornice to counterfeit the effect of its projecting over ? If all these things be not ornaments, what is their use ? We assert that these hideous preaching-boxes are more ornamented than Henry VII/s chapel, for their real structure is en- tirely hidden by ornament, within and without. With the present century came the next change in church building; from the bricklayer's mock packing-case to the architect's mock temple and mock minster. Both the pseudo-Greek and the pseudo- Gothic treatments appeared about the same time, though the former held for some years nearly undisputed sway. Our next list of churches will contain most of its productions. In this as the former list, the buildings near the beginning exhibit the final stage of church architecture properly so called; the body of the list being chiefly composed of the anti-artistic meeting- houses of the reign of George II. and III. ; and the end of it showing the rise and progress of the new substitute for art, the histrionic representation of past productions. The seventy or eighty years absolutely without church architecture, form indeed a fit and * Technically, the "Flemish bond facing." CHURCHES. 315 necessary pause between the last lingering vestiges of the reality and the gradual appearance of its counterfeit. VI. Churches of New Parishes and Districts formed since the Fire, including those built by Queen Anne's Commissioners, but not those built by the aid of her Majesty's present Commission. Name and Situation. Mother Parish. Style, Date, Architect, &c. *St. James's, Piccadilly 1680. Wren. 1686. Hakewill, sen. *St. Mary's le Strand St. Clement Danes' St. Margaret's St. Martin's..., Stepney Whitechapel St. Giles's 1714-17. Gibbs. 1721-8. Archer. 1724. Gibbs. 1730. Hawkesmoor. 1729. Hawkesmoor. ♦St. George's, Hanover Square ........ St. George's in the East St. Anne's, Limehouse *St. George's, Hart St., Bloomsbury St. Luke's, Old Street St. George's, Queen Sq., Bloomsbury St. John's, Gt. James St., Bedford Row. . Providence Chapel, Gray's Inn Lane Cripplegate St. Andrew's, Holborn St. Andrew's, Holborn St. Andrew's, Holborn 1733. 1736. Bedford Chapel, New Oxford Street St. G eorge 's , Bloomsbury. . St. Pancras' Remodelled 1844. Curzon Chapel, Mav Fair St. George's, Hanover Sq. . . Marylebone Foley Chapel, Portland Road 1766. Fitzroy Chapel, London St., Fitzroy Sq. . . Bayswater Chapel, Oxford Road Portman Chapel, Baker Street St. Pancras' Paddington Marylebone Margaret Chapel, Margaret Street St. Peter's, Vere Street, Oxford Street Marylebone Marvlebone Quebec Chapel, Quebec Street Marvlebone Brunswick Chapel, Upper Berkeley St.. . *New Marylebone Church, New Road. . West Street Chapel, Seven Dials Marylebone Marylebone 1813-17. Hardwicke, sen. St. Giles's. St. Martin's York Street Chapel, St. James's Sq Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street .... St. Mary's Chapel, Park Street Abp. Tenison's Chapel, Regent Street . . St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road. . . . Christ Church, Paradise Row St. George's, Hanover Sq. . St. George's, Hanover Sq.. St. George's, Hanover Sq. . St. George's, Hanover Sq. . Pancras Chelsea St. Saviour's, Turk's Row Chelsea All Saints', Poplar *St. John's, Clapham Road *New St. Pancras', New Road Limehouse 1817. Clapham Pancras Ditto. 1819-22 Inwood. St. Paul's, Shadwell St. Peter's, Trafalgar Sq., Walworth. .. . Holy Trinitv, New Road St. Paul's, Deptford Stepney Newington Marvlebone Deptford 1821. Walters. 1823-5. Soane. Soane. St. John's, Waterloo Road Lambeth 1823-4. Bedford. St. Mark's, Kennington Common Christ Church, Albany St., Regent's Park St. Peter's, Eaton Square, Pimlico All Saints', Caledonian Road *St. Katherine's, Regent's Park St. Peter's, River Lane, Islington * St. George's, Battersea Lambeth Pancras Soane. St. George's, Hanover Sq. . Islington Pancras Pseudo-Grecian. 1826. Pseudo-Gothic. Ditto. 1827. Povnter. Islington Ditto. 1835. Barry, R.A. Ditto. 1845. Battersea *St. John's, Notting Hill, Oxford Road. . All Saints', Westminster Road Ditto. 1845. Lambeth . *St. Michael's, Chester Sq., Pimlico ♦St. Stephen's, Rochester Row, West- minster St. George's, Hanover Sq.. St. John's, Westminster. . St. Paul's, Knightsbridge . St. John's, Westminster. . Gothic. 1847. Ditto. 1848-50. Ferrey. Ditto. 1849. St. Barnabas', Pimlico ♦ (Unconsecrated), Vauxhall Bridge Ditto. 1851. (Unfinished.) Among these buildings, those marked with an asterisk are worth inspection, externally at least, though but very few, indeed, of them have any pretension to internal design. This is especially the case with the earlier ones, or those of Wren's successors, for, as already observed, beauty, at length driven out of the churches, still lingered awhile on their exterior, among the cumbrous superfluities p 2 316 LONDON. that represented the features of classic building. Some of these works, (as St. Martins, St. John's, Westminster, and Greenwich Church,) were very costly, and Walpole observed of St. Mary-le- Strand, that it was "more creditable to the piety than the taste of the nation;" which was true enough of all Queen Anne's churches, if piety be displayed by money rather than by expenditure of thought and love of truth, which is a question admitting of doubt. The conspicuous situation of St. Martin s has rendered it a favourite and the best known of these buildings ; but St. George's, Hanover Square, displays in almost every part more genuine taste. St. George's, Bloomsbury, has a finer portico than either of them, but little else to admire (see Architecture^ p. 199). The visitor should not neglect the exterior (only, for the interior is excessively poor) of St. John's, Westminster, which is noble in its general form and arrangement, though disfigured in the detail by conceits more false and corrupt than this country ever saw before or since, till within the last few years*. With regard to the buildings towards the end of the list, or those belonging to the age of mimic architecture, whether representing Grecian or mediaeval patterns, one description will apply to them and to those in the next and last catalogue. VII. Churches Erected wholly or partly by the present Church- building Commission (for List, see pp. 320, 321). It will be seen from the whole of this and the latter part of the previous list, that, in the present century, our church building has at length become a mere matter of scenic representation; first of Grecian and then of mediaeval building ; a mere art of manufacturing mock- antiques. This fact cannot be more prominently displayed than in the authoritative documents whence our last table is compiled — the annual reports of the Church-building Commissioners. Besides the date on which each building is begun or finished, they state, in another column of their schedule, the date of its "style and charac- ter," i.e.) the precise period in which (to borrow an expression from other works of fiction) " the scene is laid" in what century, from the eleventh to the fifteenth, in what reign, sometimes even in what * The criticism copied into every account of this church, we believe since its erection, is a capital instance of what, in England, passes for taste. It has been the fashion to say nothing of its abominable details, but object to its really fine form, as "resembling a parlour table upset, with its legs in the air." The resemblance consists in having four summits — " There is a river in Macedon ; and there is moreover also a river at Monmouth " — There are four legs to a table, and four turrets to St. John's; but further than this we cannot conceive what inverted table could bear the most distant likeness to this building (though most modern tables would certainly very closely represent the cornice, parapet, and pinnacles of the stereotyped Anglo-Gothic church tower; but of this resemblance we hear nothing). As for the principle I of the objection, it is obvious that, if it be worth anything, St. Paul's and all domes must | be at once condemned as resembling inverted basins ; all the Gothic spires, as resembling I extinguishers; all columns, as resembling posts; and, in short, all straight-lined objects must I be banished for resemblance to furniture, and all curved ones for resemblance to pottery. I Even if those forms only which other arts have borrowed from architecture are to be forth- I with abandoned by her (as fashionists abandon a garb when it has descended to the vulgar) , I what refuge remains ? and what becomes of truth in design if novelty is to be the main object ? I Meanwhile, the result of a total absence of real criticism is that the richest city in the world I erects, and (what is worse) boasts of, such works as the Coal Exchange. CHURCHES. 317 year. And, as, in a playbill, we have first tbe name of each charac- ter, and then that of the actor ; so, in the programme of this stone masquerade, there comes first the date of the building to be repre- sented, and then of that which is to represent. With regard to the success of this new kind of art, the first great experiment, that of mimic Hellenism, carried on for many years at vast expense, is now universally regarded as a failure. The imitations of the most sublimely beautiful productions human art has ever achieved or is likely to achieve, are now shunned by all for their intense ugliness *. Whether the second experiment, that now in process upon medievalism, succeeds any better, the next generation must decide; for the experience of all fashion seems to show that we have now no means of knowing what is beautiful or what ugly, till it has gone out of fashion. The detection of the true causes of failure in the Grecian experiment might be supposed (since we may readily see that the very same causes must operate on the Gothic) to afford some clue to a right anticipation of the character our present works will permanently bear. But no ; we cannot " see ourselves as others see us." Omnipotent fashion learns nothing from experience, but must have her course, though it cover the land with monuments that our children will hide for shame. The " Grecian " churches make no attempt to imitate more than the exterior of a temple ; for, in the interior, as in every other part for which no pattern remains, the English designer is of course left to his own resources; and his utter impotence the moment the Greeks desert him necessarily appears in every feature of use (as distinguished from disguise\ from a window-bar to a bell-tower, and from a pew-door to the whole interior ensemble, which accordingly differs in no way from the bricklayer's chapels of the last century, being simply a cell inclosed by five plastered planes, and encumbered with the packing-boxes called galleries, hanging without visible support or propped on iron rods. It has been well observed that these interiors, by their low proportion and vast inverted floor overhead, seem to aim at an expression exactly the reverse of all former * And instead of drawing thence the true conclusion, that the so-called "copies" were no copies at all, but only apish mimes, some of the nation disgraced by them actually think to throw the blame on the originals themselves ! Englishmen, of all men" in the world, are the first to have the ridiculous audacity to condemn Grecian art ! To perceive the supreme richness of this farce we must remember that to the Greeks belonged the unique power of producing, in architecture (as in their literature and other arts), things fashion-proof— ridicule proof— things that, amid all the changes of 2000 years, whether neglected or admired, have never been laughed at ; never, like the fashions of ye'sterday, become quaint or antiquated; while to the modern English belongs the no less peculiar talent of erecting things whose premature celebrity may be trumpeted through the world, and yet not survive their own completion ; things the idols of one generation, and the laughing-stocks of the next. To the former alone did it pertain to erect things that the rest of the world, without exception, should admire even to mimicry ; to the latter alone to mimic the works of every other age and clime, and fail ridiculously in every case, confess ourselves beaten at every point, plead our poverty in every comparison, even with the works of poor savages, and, in all our search after styles, to find not one so poor, so cheap, so easy, that we may rival it ; not one that we can do more than "limp after in base imitation." Thus ancient Greece and modern England are exact antipodes in the world of art ; and when, on such criteria as St. Pancras and the outside of the British Museum, we presume to blame the Greek architecture, it is as if some Japanese, having failed in an attempt to copy a Maudslay's engine, should pretend to condemn our physical science. We, forsooth, to set the Greeks ri^ht in taste ! This is teaching our grandmother indeed ! 318 LONDON. temples, and, instead of raising, to prostrate the eye and mind into the dust. New St. Pancras (which was erected at an expense somewhat ex- ceeding that of the seven most costly of Wren's churches) is the type of these curious monuments; and was meant to represent the Athenian triple group of temples to Minerva Polias, Erectheus, and Pandrosus ; but with the former enlarged sufficiently to hold a preaching-room ; with the two latter (as they are mere ornamental excrescences) made to correspond ; with the addition of a steeple dressed with columns from the porch of another Athenian building ; and with the omission, of course, of the sculptures, except those subordinate carvings (meant as a supporting accompaniment) which, from their repetition, ad- mitted of being cast by the hundred in artificial stone. These at- tracted much attention during its erection, but a London atmosphere destroys all the illusion of Grecian scenery in a few months. It is to be regretted that the open air should have been chosen for such an exhibition (cramped, too, by the requirements of a modern build- ing), and so much stone spent in showing us what might have been both far more perfectly and more permanently displayed by a little canvas and paint. The interior is treated as in the rest of these structures. The discredit of all these edifices is unjustly given to their architects. For all the shams about them we are indebted to the Greeks, and for all the realities to the joiners. Nearly cotemporary with this, the most extravagant of the pseudo- Grecian buildings, was new St. Luke's, Chelsea, one of the first of the pseudo-Gothic, and the most costly of them in London, excepting, per- haps, that lately finished by the liberality of a single individual, in Ro- chester Row, Westminster. Between the erection of the first and the last, there have been considerable changes of fashion : improve- ment, of course, in the correctness with which details are imitated ; and also a general tendency to recede from the latest to the earliest varieties of Gothic ; chiefly from a most mistaken notion that the earlier and simpler are more capable of being cheapened to meet modern parsimony, forgetting that a main element of their simplicity is their real pretenceless elaboration ; forgetting, too, their lofty, noble, and costly proportions, for want of which our humble imitations (retaining the exact forms of the old roofs) are recognised at once by the intensely shabby peculiarity of being nearly all slated roof; not the only peculiarity that, while thought too mean in a stable, is considered appropriate to temples. Another most marked feature of the latest fashion is what may be called the disuniting or patch- work principle, which we confidently affirm to be the greatest novelty that has ever appeared in architecture. It is carried out by breaking the exterior into as many parts and as irregularly grouped as the internal unity of purpose will possibly permit, and making no two of equal height, or with any horizontal correspondence of their lines ; for such correspondence (which w r as always hitherto practised CHURCHES. 319 in all temple-building) is sure to give an idea of unity, which is the very reverse of what we want. Two reasons may be found for this i ] st, because it is notorious that the structures most favourable to the painter's art are ruined or patched ones ; and hence when this art became more nourishing than architecture, and the difference of a better or a worse building was considered of less moment than whether it would make a better or a worse picture, these picturesque qualities (of patchiness, dirt, irregularity, &c.) came to be esteemed in stone as well as on canvas, and (being inconvenient in other structures) to be, by a sort of inverse symbolism, specially consecrated to the house of the Holy, Undivided, and Equal. In furtherance of which principle, we would suggest that every new church should have its officers selected from the most picturesque cripples to be found, and that no sexton be without a wooden leg. But, 2ndly, it may be traced to the nature of modern art, which, as we have seen, is representative or deceptive, and has its merit measured by the difficulty of the representation, or rather the difference of the thing represented from that which represents. Hence it is an object that old things should look new, and new, old ; that many littles should pass for one great, and one great for many little. A row of houses, being several and mean, how can art be shown but in making them appear one palace ? So also a church, being one thing and naturally uniform, must be made to seem multiform and a group of things. Otherwise, where would be the art?— where the deception? — for these words are synonymous in England. Descending from the whole, to the two great divisions or classes of parts, those of use and those of ornament (or those to be concealed and those meant to conceal them), we find the two systems quite as independent, as mutually adverse and jarring, in this present fashion, as in any former one, or rather more so ; while the loss is much more on the side of the realities (sacrificed to the disguises) than it ever was before. Indeed, the long exhausting war between the two parties of architectonic members, the disguisers and the disguised, seems now turning quite against the latter, to judge from the number that have disappeared, the piteous appearance of the few that dare show themselves (galleries for instance, now vastly more clumsy and ugly than even in the Georgian or Bricklayers' era) ; and the over- grown triumphant air of their antagonists ; frequently, half the ground, and more than half the money, being shared between a bell- less belfry that, at one end "Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies," and a sham Lady-chapel, that, at the other end, serves to make part of the service inaudible ; there remains not enough of either material to make the pitiful nave between them hold its small appointed number without these hideous remedies. On the whole, w r hile the imitation of the peculiarities of plan in 320 LONDON. the mediaeval Romish churches (or rather groups of chapels) — gene- rally carried to an exaggerated degree of disunion, lengthiness and incompactness — prevents any of these structures (whatever their intended capacity) from really serving for more than about 500 hearers (thus rendering about six churches necessary where one might suffice), the superfluities required only for the purpose of disguise (as sham belfries and steeples, mock-chancels, mock-but- tresses, &c.) are more vast, cumbrous, and costly than any employed before (even in the Grecian sham temples) ; so that few, even of those adverse to medievalism, have any idea of that which perhaps is the only circumstance capable of putting an end to this evil, the prodigious expense of this most refined and elaborate mode of dis- gracing ourselves and dishonouring Heaven. List of Churches and Chapels built in the Diocese of London by the Commis- sioners for building New Churches, Parish or Place. Stepney Westminster, St. James Chelsea, St. Luke Hackney Marylebone (Wyndham Place) . . Marylebone (Langham Place) . . Old Street, St. Luke Pancras (Regent Square) Pan eras (Somers Town) Marylebone (Stafford Street) . . Hanover Square (St. George, Regent Street). Clerkenwell Hanover Square (St. George, South Audley Street). Hanover Square (St. George, Pimlico). Marylebone (Portland Road) .. . Shoreditch ( Hoxton) Shoreditch (Haggerstone) Bethnal Green Chelsea (Hans Town, Sloane Street). Edmonton (Winchmore Hill) . . Hanover Square (St. George, North Audley Street). Hoiborn (St. Andrew, Saffron Hill). Highgate Kensington (Brompton) Marylebone (Portland Road) .. . Old Street, St. Luke St. George in the East (Watney Street). St. Martin in the Fields (Bur- leigh Street). Bethnal Green (St. Matthew) . . Fulham (Hammersmith) Fulham (Walham Green) Islington (Ball's Pond) Islington (Cloudesley Square) Islington (Holloway) Style of the Building. Gothic : Grecian Doric, with cupola . . Gothic, with tower and porches. Doric, with portico and cupola . Ionic, with portico and tower . . Grecian, the lower order Ionic, the upper Corinthian. Portico and spire. Roman Ionic, steeple and por- tico. Grecian Ionic, with portico and tower. Gothic, with tower and pin nacles. Roman, of the Ionic order, with portico and cupola. Ionic, of the temple of Minerva Polias at Prieni, two belfries, portico, and cupola. Gothic, with tower Grecian Ionic, with turrets . . . Grecian Gothic Grecian Ionic, with tower Gothic, with tower Grecian, with tower Gothic, with two small towers j and spires. i Gothic, with bell turret . . . \ Grecian Ionic, with turrets Gothic, with turret and vaults. . Gothic, with tower and spire . . Grecian Norman, with two towers Gothic, with turret spire Grecian, with tower Grecian Doric, with tower Gothic, with tower Gothic, with tower Gothic, with turrets Gothic, with tower Accom- modation. Esti- mate. 1338 1500 2005 1828 1828 1761 16,500 20,000 19,514 1608 15,065 1832 16,528 1985 14,291 1844 19,743 1580 1622 1500 14,383 1657 2000 1732 1700 2000 1402 23,800 14,920 12,998 17,309 7,025 560 1610 4,306 1783 10,490 1557 1250 2000 2000 1249 8,000 21,829 5,685 934 5,534 2000 1601 1370 1793 2009 1782 18,003 12,975 9,683 11,205 12,143 11,613 Cost. 15,302 18,746 17,633 12,853 16,025 13,580 17,872 14,350 14,270 12,980 5,849 3,843 9,004 8,330 21,525 6,028 5,302 17,638 12,223 9,669 10,947 11,535 11,890 CHURCHES. List of Churches and Chapels — continued. 32J Parish or Place. Kensington (Addison Road) . .. Kensington (Brompton) Heston, Hounslow Style of the Building. Accom- modation Tottenham St. Botolph, Bishopsgate (Skin- ner Street). West Ham, Plaistow Barking, Ilford Hampton Wick Paddington St. Giles, Queen Street St. George, Bloomsbury (Wo- burn Square. Clerkenwell (Sharp Square) Cheshunt West Ham, Stratford Westminster, St. John's (Vincent Square). St, Andrew, Holborn (Gray's Inn Road). St. Bride's, Fleet Street (Pem- berton Row). St. James, Westminster (Ber- wick Street). Great Ilford (Barking Side) Upper Chelsea (Hans' Place) . . Bethnal Green (St. Peter's Cha-, pel) (Bonner's Hall). Bethnal Green (St. Andrew's) . . Bethnal Green (Friar's Mount) . . Gothic, with four cupolas Gothic, with tower Gothic, with turrets and dwarf spires. Gothic, with four turrets j Gothic Gothic, with turrets and belfry . Gothic, with tower and spire \ Gothic, with lanthorn Gothic, with belfry Gothic, with turret and spire Gothic, with tower and spire. . Gothic, with belfry , Gothic, with belfry , Gothic, with tower and spire . . Gothic, with steeple Grecian, with tower. Gothic, with tower . Gothic, with belfry . Norman, with belfry Norman " Norman, with tower and spire. . (Lombard, with tower and belfry i Norman, with two low cam- paniles. Norman, with tower and spire. . Gothic, with tower Bethnal Green (St. James) , Hanover Square (St. George's Wilton Place. Bethnal Green, St. Bartholo-^ Gothic, 13th century mew's Chapel. Paddington Westminster (St. Margaret) Broadway. Cliiswick (Turnham Green) . . . Gothic, with tower and spire Gothic Chelsea (Kensal Green) St. Giles in the Fields (Bel ton Street). Kensington (Norlands) Rickmansworth (West Hyde) . . Bethnal Green (St. Jude's Church). Hackney, South Halstead (Essex) Paddington Hackney, Homerton St. Marylebone (Hamilton Ter- race), "Christ Church district. St. Marylebone (Wall Street), All Souls district. Whitechapel Bethnal Green, St. Matthew's, (St. Matthias D.). Paddington (Cambridge Street). Greenwich, East Islington | Highbury) St. Pancras (Camden Road Villas). Bethnal Green (St. Matthew), district of St, Thomas. Hammersmith (Shepherd's! Gothic, of the 14th centurv . . . Bush). | Early English, with tower and: spire. Anglo Norman, with two small towers. Gothic, with spire Gothic, with tower and spire . . Norman, with tower Romanesque, with tower Gothic, with tower and spire . . I Gothic, with tower and spire . . j Perpendicular Gothic,with tower and spire. Gothic, with tower j Decorated Gothic, with tower and spire. Perpendicular Gothic, withtower ' and spire. Early English Gothic, with tower at south-west angle. Romanesque, with tower and spire. Gothic, with bell turret Gothic, with tower Gothic, with tower and spire Decorated of the 14th century, with tower and spire. Early English, 12th century 1330 1505 1035 801 1200 584 851 800 1439 1980 1526 1106 572 850 1219 1524 1100 1545 466 1188 1130 1091 1112 1133 1520 1058 1616 1500 930 580 1000 759 314 1000 1507 7<»3 1617 607 1454 1200 1006 893 1400 1333 732 1189 632 Esti- mate. 5,310 5,250 5,578 3,735 4,554 4,352 8,529 9,507 8,140 4,541 3,549 8,745 5,000 6,944 4,000 7,047 7,893 10,3/9 4,845 5,436 5,145 5,400 6,837 4,950 4,941 p 3 322 LONDON. List of Churches and Chapels — continued. Parish or Place. Style of the Building. Accom- modation. Esti- mate. 1308 8,798 500 2,900 841 4,580 1425 1209 9,750 7,150 Cost. Westminster, St. Margaret, (Ermismore Gardens). Brompton (St. Mary's Church), West Brompton. Charlton District of St. Thomas, Woolwich. St. Pancras, Haverstock Hill . Westminster (St. John's), Great Peter Street. Italian, of the 14th and 15th cen- tury. Gothic, of the 14th century Romanesque, of the 11th cen- tury. Gothic Gothic, of the 14th century Her Majesty's Commissioners for building new churches for such parts of England requiring the same, report, July 29, 1850, that in the whole, 470 churches have been completed, and pro- vision made for 498,066 persons, including 291,190 free seats, appropriated to the use of the poor, and, additionally, that 32 churches are now in the course of building. Of Protestant Episco- palian Chapels there are 84. Of Baptist Chapels there are 69; of Independents, 79 ; of Irvingites, 3; New Christian or New Jerusalam Church, 3; Scotch Church and Scotch Secession, 13; Wesleyans, 46; of other Dissenters there are 31 Chapels. Roman Catholic Churches and Chapels in London and Vicinity. The City. St. Mary's, Moorflelds. St. Boniface, Great St. Thomas Apostle, Bow Lane, Cheapside. Eastward. St. John the Baptist, Hackney. SS. Mary and Michael's, Ratcliffe Highway. Central. Sardinian Chapel, Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. SS. Peter and Paul's, Upper Rosamond Street, Clerkenwell. St. Patrick, Sutton Street, Soho. Westward. Bavarian Chapel, Warwick Street, Golden Square. Spanish Chapel, Spanish Place, Manchester Square. French Chapel, Little George Street, King Street, Portman Square. Farm Street, Berkeley Square (Jesuits). St. Philip Neri, King William Street, Strand. Westminster. St. Mary's, Romney Terrace, Marsham Street. Western Vicinity. Chelsea Chapel, St. Mary's, Cadogan Terrace, Sloane Street. Kensington, Holland Street. Hammersmith, No. 8, King Street. „ Brook Green. , , Convent of the Good Shepherd. Acton Chapel. North Hyde, near Southall.— St. Mary's Or- phanage. Isleworth, Shrewsbury Place. Fulham.— St. Thomas of Canterbury. Northern Vicinity. Our Lady's Church, St. John's Wood, Grove Road. Hampstead.— St. Mary's, Holly Place. „ Poplar House. Kentish Town.— St. Alexis, Gospel Terrace. SomersTown.— St. Aloysius, ClarendonSquare. Islington — St. John the Evangelist, Duncan Terrace, Walthamstow.— St. George's. Eastern Vicinity. Poplar — St. Mary's, Wade Street. Isle of Dogs.— Mill Wall, St. Edmund's. Bermondsey.— Church of the MostHoly Trinity, Parker's Row, Dockhead. *** The Catholic population attached to this church is above 9000. Stratford.— SS. Patrick and Vincent de Paul's. Tottenham — St. Francis de Sales' Chapel, Chapel Place, White Hart Lane. Southern Vicinity. St. George's Church, St. George's Fields. The Southwark Catholic charity schools are under the spiritual directions of the chaplains, who have also to attend Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospital, the Queen's Bench, Surrey, Marshal- sea, and Clink prisons, and many large work- houses. St. Mary and St. Michael, Virginia Street, St. George's Street. Webb Street Chapel, Southwark. Wandsworth.~St. Thomas of Canterbury. Norwood Chapel. ,, Convent of our Lady. Wimbledon Chapel. Barnes Chapel. Mortlake Chapel. Richmond.— St. Elizabeth, Vineyard, Surrey. Clapham.— St. Mary's Chapel. Kingston-on-Thames Chapel. Deptford. — Church of the Assumption. Greenwich.— Clarke's Buildings, East Street, Maize Hill. Woolwich.— St. Peter's, New Road. Total number of churches and chapels in the London district, 48. Population of the several denominations, 4,101,806, including Middlesex, Berkshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Sussex, Kent, &c, corresponding with very nearly the Protestant diocese of London. COLLEGES. 323 Foreign Christian Churches. Danish and Foreign Sailors', Well Close Square. I Greek Church, London Wall, between Nos Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars. | 81 and 84. French Protestant, St. Martin's-le-Grand, near Italian Protestant, Dufour Place. Golden the General Post Office, and Bloomsbury i Square. Street. ^ Royal German Lutheran, Marlborough Court German Catholic Church, Great St. Thomas j Yard, St. James's Place. Apostle, City. j Russian Greek Church, 32, Welbeck Street. German Lutheran, Great Trinity Lane, City. \ St. Mary Lutheran Church, Savoy St., Strand German Reformed, Hooper Square, City. j Swedish Protestant Church, Prince's Sauare German (St. George), Great Alie Street, Good- ! Ratcliffe. 4 man's Fields. { Swiss Presbyterian, Moor Street, Soho. Of Jews' Synagogues there are 7. (See article " Jews in London.") COLLEGES. Arms (College of), Doctors' Commons, near and on the south side of St. Paul's Cathedral, a very ancient corporation, comprising 13 gentlemen, 3 kings at arms, 6 heralds at arms, and 4 pur- suivants at arms, appointed by the Earl Marshal of England, and holding patent places. The duties of this office are to record the genealogy and heraldic arms of all those families known and collected in the several visitations made from time immemorial in all parts of the kingdom, and likewise the pedigrees and arms of noble and baronetal families carried down to the present day. For the ordinary search of the records, the fee is 1/., and for more than one search, also 1/. Is. Fees for a new coat of arms, 10/. 10s., or more. Chemistry (Royal College of), No. 16, Hanover Square, founded 1845; its purpose, the establishment for the promotion of the study of practical chemistry, with a well-appointed laboratory. Fees for the session, daily attendance, 15s., four days in the week, 12s,, three days, 10s. t two days, 7s., and one day in the week, 5s. See " Learned Societies." Independents (College of), New College, London, for religious and secular education. The endowments are appropriated to the instruction of non-resident students, preparing for the Christian ministry among Independent churches. It has been instituted under the provisions of an Act of Parliament, sanctioning the union of Highbury, Homerton, and Coward Colleges. The buildings, which are situated about half a mile north of Regent's Park, are of Bath stone, and built in the English collegiate style, from designs furnished by J. T. Emmett, Esq. The total length of the front is 270 feet. The main building contains lecture rooms, council room, laboratory, museum, and students' day rooms. At the north end is the residence of the prin- cipal ; at the south, a library, containing about 20,000 volumes. The central tower, which is 80 feet high, commands a most extensive view of the metropolis and surrounding country. King's College and School, east wing Somerset House, Strand. See article, " Learned So- cieties," also p. 63. London University College, or University College, Upper Gower Street, Bedford Square. See article, " Learned Societies," also p. 63. Gresham College, in Basinghall Street, originally established by Sir Thomas Gresham in Broad Street, subsequently re-established in the building of the Royal Exchange, instituted for the de- livery of lectures in divinity, civil law, astronomy, music, geometry, rhetoric, and physic. The "first lecture was delivered in 1597- The lectures are delivered during the law terms. Physicians (College of), Warwick Lane, Newgate Street, erected by Sir Christopher Wren, in 16/4, "and finished in 1689, now in disuse. Physicians (Royal College of), in Pall Mall East, Trafalgar Square, built by Sir Robert Smirke, architect, at an expense of 30,000£., and opened by Sir Henry Halford, June 25th, 1825. See article, " Learned Societies." Surgeons (Royal College of), Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the south side of, built, and afterwards improved, at a cost of near 40,000/., by Mr. Chas. Barry. See article, " Learned Societies." Sion College, London Wall, was founded by the Rev. Thos. White, in 1623, for the use of the London clergy, with free access to the extensive library. To this library all publishers were for- merly compelled, by Act of Parliament, to contribute a copy of each of their publications. There are several portraits in the hall and library. Almshouses are endowed for twenty poor persons, and in the lower part of the same building. Doctors of Law (College of), Bell Yard, Doctors' Commons, incorporated in 1768, of which there are thirty D.C.L's. Mr. H. Watts, under treasurer. Dulwich College, founded by Edward Alieyn, 1619. Master must always be of the name of Allen, or Alieyn. The present master is Geo. J. Allen, Esq., M.S. See article, " Gallery of Pictures." East India College, established in 1805, at Harleybury, Hertford, consisting of a visitor, prin- cipal, dean, registrar, and ten professors. Visiter in the Oriental department, Professor H. H. Wilson, M. A. Morden College. See ''Almshouses." St. Peter's College, Dean's Yard, Westminster, founded by Queen Elizabeth, in 1560, for 40 foundation or Queen's scholars, from six to ten years of age. Dean, W. Buckland, D.D. Eight masters. Royal Veterinary College, founded in 1791, by Mons. Chas. St. Bel, a French professor of veterinary art, for the study of Diseases incident to the Horse, and for the improvement of farriery generally, and a pharmacy for medicine. The building is extensive, and well situated, in St. Pancras, Camden Town. There are also the colleges for educational and professional purposes— as Hebrew College ; Addiscombe ; Sandhurst ; W T oolwich ; Converted Jews' College, Hackney ; St. Bartholomew's ; St. Thomas's ; Putney ; College for Ladies ; College of Preceptors, Bloomsbury Square, &c. 324 LONDON. CONCERTS. See Article " Music." Concert Rooms are in all parts of the town. Concerts are held at the principal hotels, &c. ; also in the large rooms of the several theatres, especially those of the most fashionable. At the Italian Opera House, in the Haymarket, which is very handsomely fitted up, con- certs and balls are held. Also at Almack's (sometimes called Willis's Rooms), King Street, St. James's. Built by Robert Mylne, Architect. Exeter Hall — Concerts are held here during the spring and summer months. Queen's Concert Rooms, Hanover Square.— The concerts of the Philharmonic Society and of the Ancient Concerts are held here; likewise the concerts of the Royal Academy of Music. The great concert room is beautifully decorated, 90 ft. by 35 ft., and will hold 800 persons. The panels of the ceilings are decorated with the paintings of Cypriani. At The Royal Academy of Musrc, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, incorporated by royal charter, expressly for the cultivation of musical science. Concerts are held also at the Argyle Rooms, Argyle Street; Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street; Crown and Anchor, Strand; City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street; Albion, Aldersgate Street. Concerts are likewise given at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Holborn, and other places of spacious accommodation. CONTERSAZIOKES. It is one result of London being the chief seat of the professors of science, that it provides numerous occasions for their reunion ; but the assemblages called Conversaziones are almost peculiar to the metropolis. Besides the celebrations which take place in the day time, and be- sides dinners, the Conversaziones give each class of men of science the opportunity of associ- ating together. The invitations for these meetings are given by the presidents of the several societies, and are extended to the members of their own society, the professors of the sciences having any connection with it, and the leading personages in the worlds of literature, science, art, and politics. Refreshments are provided, and objects of interest are contributed, by the friends of the president for the amusement of the visitors. The Conversaziones of the President of the Royal Society may justly be placed at the head, as they are the means of bringing together, not the votaries of one branch of study, but the whole world of science. The latest inventions, the newest discoveries, illustrated by models and drawings, are brought under the consideration of the visitors, and they present the oppor- tunity of being discussed by some of the most eminent men. Nor is it merely a technical con- sideration which is given to these subjects, but very often some valuable economical inventions, some new means of propulsion, or some new telegraph, is brought under the immediate notice of the leading political personages,who are most interested in its promotion. Distinguished and learned foreigners, receiving explanations from the authors, spread abroad a knowledge of these inventions and discoveries, and extend the reputation of those by whom they are made. The Institution of Civil Engineers has commonly, by the hospitality of its president, been favoured with two or three Conversaziones yearly, but sometimes there is only one. The ar- rangements are under the direction of Mr. Manby, the secretary, and wherever given, the taste and skill of their manager make them among the most agreeable and most important of these re- unions. When held in the house of the institution, in Great George Street, the apartments are arranged, en suite, so as to give the greatest means for comfort and display ; and to those unac- customed to these scenes, they are the more attractive as exhibiting in their visitors and in the fittings the intellectual resources of a great metropolis. The model room is the peculiar feature. There are to be seen working models of the newest machinery, and the greatest works of en- gineering, and an opportunity is presented for their examination and review. A book has great advantages in its descriptions and its drawings ; but in the model room are not only drawings, but models, and not only these at work, but the engineer present who has constructed them, and the living experience of his brethren, to whose judgment they are submitted. It is not sur- prising this celebration is a favourite resort of the most eminent statesmen. But though the model room is thus occupied, the fine arts are not neglected, and the walls present a gallery of works by great living masters, while on the tables are portfolios of original drawings, with busts, bas-reliefs, and sculptures. Thus side by side are brought the most material and most imagina- tive works and their professors. The President of the Institute of British Architects gives, in his mansion in'St. James's Square, a similar reunion to the architects, and many interesting drawings are there displayed. The physicians are assembled in their college at Charing Cross, by their president. The meetings of many of the societies are in the nature of Conversaziones. After the scien- tific business of the meeting has been concluded, the fellows and visitors adjourn to the library and museum ; tea and coffee are served round, the proceedings of the evening are further dis- cussed, some object of interest placed on the tables or to be found in the collection is examined, strangers are introduced to the leading men of science, and the party breaks up at a late hour, looking forward to the next occasion of reunion. Such are the meetings of the Royal Society, the Antiquarian, the Geological, the Ethnological, the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the Institute of British Architects. The Society of Arts usually devotes some few evenings in the year to assemblies, when ladies are invited, the galleries lighted up, and the objects of exhibition are thrown open to the inspection of the circles of literature and fashion. The Lord Mayor Musgrove announced, in 1850, that he would, in the year of the Great Exhi- bition, hold Conversaziones, to which men of science and foreigners should be invited. THE CORPORATION. 325 The British Institution have likewise evening meetings to which their members are privileged to bring ladies, and where the artists have the opportunity of conversing with the patrons of art, on the works contributed to the gallery. It isfmuch to "be regretted that there are not more of these evening exhibitions of art, bringing the artist more in communion with the literary world. The Royal Institution and the London Institution give a number of evening meetings, to which ladies are likewise admitted, and at which some subject of interest is illustrated by an eminent man of science. After the paper or lecture is finished, the company take refreshments, and inspect the various objects of art and science exhibited in the rooms. The City of London Institution, and the Whittington Club, give occasional Conversaziones. This class of evening meetings, to which ladies are admitted, and which is of a more popular character, has had great influence in interesting the public in the progress of improvement, for there is a rivalry for distinction among the 'managers of the societies, and inventors readily avail themselves of such opportunities of making their labours known. The stranger will see, that great as is the power of the press in spreading knowledge, there are other and not less effec- tive ways of influencing the public mind. Among the features of a vast metropolis those are not least interesting which illustrate the causes of its moral influence on the country and the world at large. It is not only that by masses of men being drawn together on one spot, the means for forming various institutions are provided, but it is that a vast moral organization is consti- tuted, by which the public mind is agitated, influenced, and inspired. The opening of some of the medical colleges, as St. Bartholomew's, is generally attended with an evening meeting. The inaugural lecture is read in the theatre, and the professors, stu- dents, and old members of the college meet together in the museum, where objects of profes- sional interest are displayed. The Conversaziones of the Royal Botanic Society differ from all the others, in no refresh- ments being provided, and as being held in the afternoon, and partly in the open air, the con- servatories and gardens being the place of meeting. Not only scientific, but economical botany is the subject of illustration, and many interesting applications of vegetable substances are shewn, as well as drawings, carvings, and models of flowers. Ladies are invited. THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON Is constituted in a peculiar manner, and is one of the few remaining of the great town commonwealths and federal institutions of the Middle Ages. Within the last twenty years, the old local institutions throughout the country have been restricted or abolished by general measures of centraliza- tion ; but in the City of London, as at the time of Domesday, the citizen still has the government in his own hands, and the head of the State has only a local jurisdiction. Even the parliament of the three kingdoms acknow- ledges in a distinctive manner the independent existence of the City. In the City alone are to be found many of the old English customs brought from the meadows of Jutland, and, although having many Norman and later modifications, the ground-work of the constitution is English, or what is sometimes known as Anglo-Saxon. On the inroad of the English tribes, and on the Welsh being driven out from the Roman towns, London was burned to the ground, as all the exca- vations show, and the new English population was too scanty to fill the space within the vast walls ; so that, not only were cattle fed among the Roman ruins, but the barrows of the leaders elsewhere at a distance from the home- steads, were within the circuit. Such were Aldermanbury, Bucklersbury, and Lothingbury (Lothbury). The space within the walk was shared out in marks, or wards, to which additions were afterwards made. In each of these wards an alderman was chosen. At a later time, these wards were further shared out into what are now called precincts. The precinct is the same as the township or parish elsewhere, the ward is the hundred, and the city a shire, folkland, or commonwealth. At the present time the precinct commonly has its common-councilmen, its inquest- men, clerk, beadle, constable, or headborough, overseers of the poor, and tax collectors, as well as its church establishment. As elsewhere, the precinct or township and the parish have not always the same bounds or jurisdictions, though commonly they have. In some parts, too, the precinct jurisdiction is not kept up, or is merged with the parish. The ward has an alderman, the several common-councilmen (of whom one is deputy alderman), a full inquest, ward clerk, and ward beadle. The city has its Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen, Court of Common Council, Sheriffs, and other chief officers. 326 LONDON. A few days before St. Thomas's day, in each year, that is, before Yuletide, a meeting is called for the precinct, which is perhaps only half a street, and to which all indwellers, whether citizens or not, that is, all above "fifteen years old, can come and speak. At this precinct meeting, the doings of the officers of the last year are gone into, and a new roll of officers is drawn up. The number of inquestmen sent by each precinct is enough to make up for the whole ward an inquest of not less than sixteen. The inquestmen are taken in turn, from a roll of the householders, and are not necessarily citizens. The common-councilmen, constables, beadle, and collectors are not now taken in turn, but those are named who are thought most fit. On St. Thomas's day the wardmote, or meeting of all the citizens of the ward is held, when the alderman takes the chair. He is in his robes, wearing a gold chain, and attended by the ward beadles with silver or gilt maces. One of these latter makes proclamation in the following way : — " Oyez ! Oyez ! All ye good men of the ward draw nigh, and attend to the business of the ward." A precept is read from the Lord Mayor, commanding certain elections to be made. The precinct returns of inquestmen are then read^ and commonly confirmed. The new inquestmen are then called to choose a foreman, and are forthwith sworn before the wardmote to do their duty. The precinct returns for common-councilmen are read, but any other can- didates can be put up. The names are put to a show of hands, or in case of dispute a poll is taken. The business of choosing other officers, ex- amining the accounts of the ward rate, and giving thanks to passed officers, is proceeded with, and the ward beadle makes proclamation, " Oyez ! Oyez ! All ye good men of the ward depart hence and go ye to your homes. God save the Queen." The inquest meet together at the ward house or inquest room, and divide themselves into committees for the discharge of their several duties, which include the inspection of weights and measures, and of public houses; the removal of nuisances, the indicting of houses of ill fame, and the prosecution of non-citizens for trading within bounds; and generally the watching over the interests of their ward. At an early day the inquestmen, in their furred robes, proceed in divisions, each having its foreman, treasurer, and secretary, and attended by a beadle, to collect funds from the inhabitants for charitable distribution. These funds are partly given to poor residents, but partly to respectable persons, who, having formerly lived in the ward, have fallen to decay. Thus, many poor tradesmen and widows are relieved. Inquestmen not attending to their duties are fined, and these fines go in part payment of a dinner, to which the alderman and other authorities are invited. On Plough Monday, the Monday next after Twelfth-day, the inquests go up in their furred gowns to Guildhall, where the Court of Aldermen is sitting, and make their presentments of the common-councilmen chosen, and of the several matters in which they desire the action of the community, as in the removal of nuisances beyond their power, or in the prosecution of offenders. Any inquestman dissenting from a presentment, can address the Court. It will be seen that two English principles are carried out, one, that each fraction of the population is represented; and another, that where it can be done, each citizen must serve personally and in turn. The citizens exercising the franchise within the wards are, since 1849, those on the parliamentary voters list who are freemen of London. The citizens exercising the franchise for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, &c, are freemen of London, being liverymen of some one of the companies or trade corporations. Each son or daughter of a freeman of London, born while the father was free, is entitled to take up the freedom at the age of twenty-one. These freemen by birthright are very many, and some have inherited their freedom during several generations. Most members of the peerage are thus citizens of London. On payment of a very small fee, persons of any sect being of THE CORPORATION. 327 English birth, and carrying on business within the city, are allowed to become free. Most of the citizens are likewise free of a company, and their ap- prentices are likewise entitled to become citizens. The magistrate who admits and swears in the citizens is the Chamberlain, or Treasurer of the City, who holds his chamber or court in the Guildhall, and who exercises magis- terial jurisdiction over the apprentices. The court is open, and commonly every day about noon, the admission of some citizen or apprentice can be seen. The number of trade companies is about ninety, twelve of which are called the great companies, and are first in honour and state. These twelve are the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Yintners, and Clothworkers. Other considerable companies are the Leathersellers, Saddlers, Carpenters, Weavers, Stationers, Apothecaries, Spectaclemakers, Clockmakers, Coopers, Tallowchandlers, and Wheelwrights. These several companies will be described hereafter : for the present it is enough to explain, that those following a trade within the city mostly belong to the company of that trade; but the great body of the freemen of each company being so by birthright, are not neces- sarily mercers, or cooks, as the case may be. Of the freemen of each company, some 200 or 300 of the more considerable are made liverymen. The livery- man of London should be worth not less than 1000Z., and must be a master and not a servant or journeyman. On state occasions he wears a gown of the livery of his company. The livery, whether dwelling within the city or not, vote for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Chamberlain, Bridgemaster, and Auditor of the City Accounts ; and the livery dwelling within seven miles vote for Members of Parliament. The liveryman pays a fine or fee of admission, commonly of about 20Z., which goes to a fund for providing dinners. The livery of some companies have several banquets within the year, to which each can invite a friend. A meeting of the livery of the whole city is called a Common Hall. A citizen of London living within the city, besides his corporate share of its immunities, is free from tolls and customs through all England, and parts of the sea; he cannot be pressed for the sea service (wherever resident), nor be ballotted for the militia; he has the exclusive privilege of carrying on retail trade, and is free from toll on his carts and goods, at the gates. Among his privileges (now of little value) is that of hunting in Middlesex. The citi- zens are very particular in giving offices and patronage only to those who are free. The widow of a freeman is free and privileged, and his orphans have the right of placing their property in the Chamber or Treasury of the city, at 4 per cent., whereby they become wards of the Court of Aldermen. The freedom of London is one of the honours granted to public men. The freedom is conferred by vote of the Corporation, and on some public occasion the new citizen is received by the Chamberlain. In the Chamber are to be seen, richly illuminated, copies of the votes of thanks given to the great statesmen and captains of the present century. The City of London forms two portions : London within the Walls, and London without the Walls. London within the Walls is the most ancient part, within the Eoman walls ; the other part consists of the suburbs or liber- ties formed in the Middle Ages, without these walls. Of the walls few remains exist; but it is worth while to refer to the boundary, as it will assist the archaeologist in determining the site of the Eoman settlement, and will enable him to follow historically the growth of the city. The boundary of the old city is very nearly that of the great fire of 1668, and, consequently, within those limits, the architecture is not earlier than Wren's time, and it is on the bounds we must look for mediaeval monuments. Temple Bar, an outer bar in the liberties, is the only remaining gateway, and by which is the state entrance for the King or Queen. On such an occasion the gates are shut to, and the authorities drawn up within on the city side. A herald, or other officer of the King, knocks at the gate, and informs the Marshal that the King asks 328 LONDON. admission. The Marshal reports this to the Lord Mayor, who gives orders that the gate shall be thrown open, and proceeds to offer the king the city sword. The gate is sometimes strictly kept, for the Lord Mayor being within his bounds second to the King alone, is jealous that his precedency of other great personages is preserved. Troops arriving at the city bounds must not pass through with drums beating, or colours flying, or recruit, unless with leave of the Lord Mayor, one regiment only excepted, the Old Buffs, who were originally raised within the city; and who, when in England, are always welcomed in the exercise of their privileges. At the bars of the city without the Walls, as at Temple Bar, Holborn Bar, and Smithfield Bar, officers of the city may be seen levying toll on the carts of all nonfreemen, that is, all carts not marked with the city arms, the red cross of St. George, and the dagger. The wards of the city are twenty-six, for each of which there is an Alder- man (except the two wards of Cripplegate, which are joined), and one for the Borough of Southwark, or Bridge-without, which is for certain purposes within the city jurisdiction. Five large wards, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Farringdon-within, and Farringdon-without, are subdivided and have each a separate deputy-alderman. The number of parishes is 110; the number of precincts is not well ascertained. The style of the corporation is the mayor and commonalty and citizens of London, and the head of this is the Lord Mayor. This officer is chosen bv the Livery, on the 29th of September, being commonly the senior alderman, who has been sheriff, but not Lord Mayor. The office is seldom given twice. The Common Hall name two aldermen, and the Court of Aldermen claim the right of choosing the one to be mayor. The forms of the elections are peculiar. The Lord Mayor Elect goes in procession to be presented to the Lord High Chancellor, who signifies the assent of the Government to the election. On the 8th of November, the Lord Mayor is sworn in before the Court of Alder- men, invested with the golden collar of SS. and jewel, and signs a bond for 4000£. to restore the plate and jewels of the office, which are however worth 20,000£. These two ceremonies are worth seeing. The grand day is the 9th of November, kept as a city holiday, under the name of " Lord Mayor's Day." Business is suspended in the principal thoroughfares, and in the afternoon the whole population are let loose. During the passage of the procession, the City officers close the streets against omnibuses and other carriages. In the morning the Lord Mayor breakfasts at Guildhall with the Court of Aldermen. About mid-day he sets out from Guildhall with a procession, which includes the late Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, sheriffs, and City officers in their carriages, bands of music, pageantry, and the households of the Lord Mayors. These are attended by processions of the companies to which the Lord Mayors and sheriffs belong ; and in honour of the dignitary of their company, the master, wardens, and Court of Assistants, dressed in their robes, follow in their carriages with music, and with banners borne by their watermen and pensioners, dressed in uniform and armed. On extraordinary occasions, all of the great companies attend in state, and swell the procession. At one of the bridges or other waterside stair, the company take water in the barges of the city and great companies. These are richly gilt and carved barges, with banners flying on the roof, and having a band of music on board. They are sometimes rowed by watermen, but most commonly towed by steamers. This is one of the few water processions in Europe, and on'a fine day and during a liberal mayoralt}^, has a good effect seen from the river or one of the bridges. During the voyage the authorities amuse themselves with luncheon. On arrival at Westminster, the Lord Mayor lands with his immediate suite, and enters the Court of Exchequer in West- minster, where he is presented to the barons, and takes an oath of office. By the mouth of his own judge, the Kecorder, he invites the Judges in the several courts to dinner. During this time the barge of the Stationers' Company goes THE CORPORATION. 329 to Lambeth Palace to present the Archbishop of Canterbury with copies of the Company's almanacks. The company return by water to Blackfriars'-bridge, where a grander procession is formed, and which at the foot of Ludgate-hill receives the addition of the Lady Mayoress, the Princes, Ministers of State, Judges, and Foreign Ambassadors. The houses in the line of procession are decorated with flags, and filled with company, who are feasted by the citizens. The morning procession is through the ward to which the Lord Mayor belongs ; the afternoon procession from Blackfriars-bridge, through Ludgate-hill, Lud- gate-street, St. Paul's-churchyard, Cheapside, and King-street, to Guildhall. Some few houses are let on this occasion, and strangers can obtain seats at various prices to view the procession, if they prefer avoiding the crowd in the streets. Guildhall is decorated and illuminated inside and out by the City architect, as becomes a great occasion ; and a magnificent banquet is laid within the hall. This is the inauguration dinner of the Lord Mayor and sheriffs, who with the City furnish the expenses. The guests are the members of the Corporation, and their wives and friends. Each member of the Corporation has tickets to give away. The King or Queen sometimes dines with the City on this occasion, and all strangers of importance are in- vited. A minister of the Crown always attends, as this is a suitable occasion to keep up sympathy with the Corporation, and to appeal to public feeling. The observances of the dinner are like those of other City dinners. The Mayor of the City of London is styled Lord, and Eight Honourable, holds within the City the first place after the King, and on the occasion of the death of the King is one of the great functionaries summoned to the Council, where he has signed first the declaration of the title of the new King. He presides in the Court of Aldermen, Court of Common Council, Central Cri- minal Court, Lord Mayor's Court, and Common Hall; is a Judge of the Criminal Court, Justice of Peace for the neighbouring shires, and has the nomination of other Justices ; he is Lord Lieutenant, and at the head of the military force of the city ; he is Admiral of the Port of London, and Conservator of the Thames from Staines Bridge to Yantlet Creek, and of the Medway from Colemouth Creek to Cockham Wood. In a general assessment in 1377, he was assessed as an earl, and at the coronation of a King attends as Chief Butler, and receives a golden cup as his fee. He resides in the Mansion House, which is fitted up as a palace for his reception, has the use of the City plate, furniture, state carriage, barge, officers and servants, and receives a stipend; but his own further disbursements often exceed 4000?. a-year. The whole expense of the office maybe reckoned at 15,000Z. a-year. The common crier, the water bailiff, and the sword-bearer, are esquires of his household, and commonly act as his chamberlains and secretaries, assisting in the arrangements of his ban- quets and state festivals. On state occasions, the Lord Mayor is dressed in a knotted gown, like that of the Lord Chancellor ; when preceding the Monarch, a crimson velvet gown ; on occasions of less importance, a scarlet cloth gown, or one of mazarine blue silk. When not in robes, a golden chain and badge is nevertheless worn! The Lady Mayoress partakes of the state of her husband. In case the Lord Mayor is not married, the Lady Mayoress is some female relative, or the wife of ano- ther alderman. It is customary on certain public occasions, as a royal visit to the city, or great public event, to create the Lord Mayor a baronet, and the sheriffs knights. The Lord Mayor is expected to keep up the hospitality of the city by giving balls and dinners at the Mansion-house, to the members of the corporation, their wives and children, and to the several public authorities and persons of eminence. Admission to these celebrations can be obtained through members of the corporation. The Egyptian-hall and the inside of the Mansion-house are worth seeing on such occasions, as likewise the princely state of the chief magistrate, which, in the middle ages, was common to every great dignitary. 330 LONDON. The Lord Mayor's state carriage, built in 1757, is worth seeing. This and the Queen's state carriage are the only remaining specimens of the pompous vehicles of the last century. It is richly gilded, and the paint- ings, which are in a superior style, are illustrations of a former branch of high art-coach-painting. They are by one of the original Royal Academi- cians — some say Cipriani, and some Dance. At either window of the carriage sits the sword-bearer, with the sword of state, and the common crier, wearing a fur cap, called the Cap of Maintenance, or City Cap of State, a mark of dignity highly prized in former ages, when princely coronets were run after. The alderman is chosen for life by the freemen, householders of his ward. He is usually a merchant, or some wealthy tradesman. He is a Judge of the Central Criminal Court, a Justice of Peace for the City of Southwark, and within his ward has the authority of two justices. The junior aldermen are styled Worshipful, but those who have held the mayoralty are styled Right Worshipful, and take precedence of all knights. Within the city, they hold rank next to the Lord Mayor, as barons of the city. The aldermen, when performing their functions, wear robes of state and a gold chain, and are attended by their ward beadles with the maces. As a bod} 7 , they form the Court of Aldermen, which is the House of Peers, Privy Council, and Senate of the City, and sits in state at Guildhall, presided over by the Mayor, and at- tended by various officers in their robes. This Court has, in particular, the oversight of the city police. The Court of Common Council, or City Parliament, consists of the Alder- men and Common Councilmen, presided over by the Lord Ma} r or. One Com- mon Councilman for each ward is named as deputy alderman, or more shortly deputy, and as such has the title of esquire, and is a deputy-lieutenant for the city. The Court sits at Guildhall in the day time, and much form is observed. The aldermen are on a raised bench near the Lord Mayor, having a sheriff at each end of the bench. At the table are the Recorder, and other officers of the corporation. In the body of the hall are the deputies and Common Council- men, who only wear their blue mazarine gowns on state occasions. Below the bar are stationed the city marshals and the doorkeepers, and there is a gallery free for strangers. The mode of proceeding and powers of the Court assimi- late to those of the House of Commons. The legislative proceedings of the Court are called Acts of the Common Council, and there is full power in the Court to determine the number of its members, the qualification of the voters, and the mode of voting, which elsewhere are determined by the central go- vernment, or some general law. Much of the business is transacted by com- mittees, as those for lands, markets, the navigation, &c, or by commissions named by the corporation, as the Court of Sewers, the Irish Corporation, Lieutenancy, &c. These Committees receive an allowance for their attend- ances, which is appropriated for dinners, to which the members can invite strangers, or for excursions in the city barge on the river, when ladies are invited. The Courts of Aldermen and Common Council constitute the governing body, to whom is committed the care of the franchises and the general admi- nistration of the property of the commonwealth. The franchises of the city arising from the independent rights of the first English settlers, are confirmed by Magna Charta, and several charters and Acts of Parliament. They include the right of being impleaded within their own bounds, for which purpose separate sittings of the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, are held at Guildhall, besides local courts. The Court of Chancery has, how- ever, evaded this franchise, and does not sit within bounds. The City courts have particular privileges and powers of sequestrating money and property within bounds by attachment. The City forms a separate jurisdiction in every respect, and has its own magistrates and police. The conservancy of the Pool, THE CORPORATION. 331 and of the Thames and Medway, and of the navigation and fisheries thereof, are within the jurisdiction. The possessions of the City include about 3000 houses within its bounds, in the manor of Finsbury, and elsewhere in London, and large estates throughout the country ; a great domain in Ireland, and jurisdiction over the City of Londonderry, Town of Coleraine, and Borough of South wark ; allowances from the government for privileges surrendered ; the metage or measuring of coal, corn, &c. ; and rates levied for sewers and police. The city name their judges and other officers, and two sheriffs, who are likewise Sheriffs of Middlesex, which shrievalty is farmed from the crown. They have likewise the property or superintendence of several hospitals and schools. L T nder the statute of 2 William and Mary, session 1, c. 8, no Act of Parliament affects the city customs, unless the city be particularly named therein. To secure the maintenance of the city rights, the Kemembrancer attends in the House of Commons during its sittings to watch the progress of measures. When the city send a petition to the House of Commons, it is presented at the bar by the sheriffs in their robes, instead of being presented through a member. Their own members of Parliament are four (the usual number for cities being two), and, on the first day of every new Parliament, claim the right of taking precedence of all other members, and sitting in their scarlet gowns and hoods. On a bill being pre- sented from the city to the House of Commons, instead of leave being asked by a member, it is immediately read by the clerk at the table. The city has, too, the exclusive privilege of their addresses being received by the king seated on the throne. The Lord Mayor and Corporation then go up in state. A monu- ment in Guildhall records a lecture given by the Lord Mayor Beckford to King George III. Whenever the city speaks it is by the mouth of the Re- corder, and by him it gives evidence in courts of law of its customs, and not by any book or writing. Many of the officers of the city are of considerable importance. The Sheriffs are for London and Middlesex, and are two chosen yearly by the Livery in Common Hall. The Lord Mayor may name a candidate, which is done by drinking to the health of the candidate. The election is held on Midsummer Day. A person refusing to serve must pay a fine of £600, unless he can swear he is not worth £15,000, and must bring six citizens as compur- gators of his oath. A freeman, by birthright, must likewise bring six compurgators to prove his claim ; but this ancient English law is now little more than a form. The office is honourable but expensive, and the cost is as much as £2000 for each sheriff beyond the fees. The Sheriff has a state carriage and chaplain, gives a banquet on his installation, contributes to the great dinner in Guildhall, and gives six dinners to the aldermen and other judges, at the Central Criminal Court. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs are ex- pected to attend the dinners of certain charitable institutions, and contribute to their funds. Each Sheriff chooses a solicitor as under-sheriff, who likewise takes part in the city ceremonials. All considerable officers wear a court dress on great occasions, unless they have some distinctive gown or other uniform. On the 28th of September, the Sheriffs are sworn on the hustings in the Guild- hall, and, on the 30th, they go in procession with the Lord Mayor, city officers, and sixteen citizens of the company of each sheriff, to be sworn before the Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, wfysn the Recorder makes a speech in praise of each sheriff. The Recorder of London is the chief local judge, and one of the chief functionaries of the corporation. He holds a court at the Central Criminal Court, as do two other officers, the Common Sergeant, and the Judge of the Sheriffs' Court. The salaries of all the city officers are liberal, and retiring pensions are given. The Recorder is as highly paid as a Scotch judge. He is the orator for the city on public occasions. The Common Sergeant, the Judge of the Sheriffs' Court, and the Secondaries of the Sheriffs, are other judicial 332 LONDON. functionaries. The Town Clerk, or secretary of the city, the City Solicitor, and the Eemembrancer, are law officers. The latter is a kind of agent in Parliament, and at the Council and Treasury boards, and employed to preserve generally the rights of the city. Among these is an allowance of wine from the Treasury, and of summer and winter venison from the Woods and Forests, which are shared among the Lord Mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, and great city officers. The Chamberlain is chosen by the Common Hall, and has usually held the office of alderman. Besides the care of the city income, he has charge of the apprentices, and admits to the freedom. On his coat of arms is borne the key of the City Treasury. The Comptroller of the Chamber has the charge of the city muniments and title-deeds, and is Yice-Chamberlain. The Sword Bearer is marshal and regulator of the officers of the Lord Mayor's household, and has large emoluments. He wears a silk damask gown. The mode of bearing the sword is the subject of ceremonial ; and, in 1849, the Lord Mayor, Duke, was called to account for allowing it to be borne before Prince Albert, at the opening of the Coal Exchange, in the same way as before the Queen. The sword borne is the pearl sword given by Queen Elizabeth. The Common Crier is likewise a sergeant-at-arms to the Lord Mayor and the courts, and bears the cap of maintenance, and the great gold mace given by Charles I. The "Water Bailiff is also an officer of the household, but principally attends to the conservancy of the rivers. He wears a silver oar, and has a state shallop, manned with eight men on state occasions. These are the chief officers of state of the city, but the Lord Mayor is like- wise attended by the upper and under-marshals of the city. They wear a military costume, and attend ;the Lord Mayor in his public processions. In the Courts of Aldermen and Common Council they act as sergeants-at-arms. Among the scientific officers of the corporation are the clerk of the city works, the surveyors, the librarian, and the officer of health. In the patronage of the corporation are the markets of Smithfield, Newgate, Leadenhall, Farringdon, and Billingsgate ; the Coal Exchange, (and, with the Mercers' Company,) the Koyal Exchange, the meters of corn, coals, fruit, and salt ; the locks on the Thames, the mooring, navigation, and hydraulic works of the Pool and rivers ; the regulation of the colliers ; London and Blackfriars' bridges ; the prisons of Newgate, Whitecross Street, Giltspur Street, and the New Prison ; the hospitals of Christ, Bethlehem, Bridewell, Emanuel, St. Bar- tholomew, and St. Thomas ; Gresham College, the Freeman's Orphan School, and the City of London School. The watermen, carmen, and porters are under the control of the corporation. Most of the brokers are under the jurisdiction of the Court of Aldermen. The city is allowed to superintend the tax on coals, levied for the rebuilding of London Bridge. The trade companies, or guilds, of the city are of interest on several grounds. They were originally voluntary fellowships, guilds, or associations for convivial, trade, or religious purposes ; and, during the middle ages, a regular system of these guilds was formed with charters from the king or city, under which they possessed the power of regulating the trade interests of their members, and at one time they held the administration of the corporation as the Court of Common Council was chosen from the trade guilds, and not from the wards. At present, instead of governing the corporation, they are under its rule, and the corporation claim the right of constituting new guilds, and of regulating the old ones, in their by-laws, livery, and disputes. In the year 1848, the corporation exercised the privilege of increasing the livery of a company, thereby conferring the parliamentary franchise. The guilds are formed on the same principle as the English guilds before the Norman invasion, but of their early history we have no records. At a later time these guilds either took the form, or were formed, as religious THE CORPORATION. 333 bodies, under the invocation of a saint. The style of the Drapers' is, " The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Brotherhood of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London." These bodies were benefit societies for helping old and sick members, for at- tending their burials (the Fishmongers yet have their pall), for causing masses to be said for their souls, for upholding the chapel of the patron saint, and for feasting. As the guild of a trade became considerable it received endowments of lands and goods, and bought charters confirming its jurisdiction over the masters, journeymen, and apprentices, over the quality of work, and the rate of wages. They grew so much in influence that, from the time of Edward III. to that of Eichard IL, they superseded the wardmotes and chose the Common Council, and other officers. The guild of Weavers became so powerful that the city was jealous of it, and obtained its banishment. Contests between leaders of the wards and those of the guilds for supremacy frequently disturbed the peace of the city ; but the growth of the latter, and their possession of common purses and treasure, pointed them out for the exactions of the Tudor kings. When a forced loan or benevolence was levied on the city, it was found readiest to reassess it on the guilds. In the time of James I., the city and the guilds were called upon to take part in the plantations of Ulster, and thus were acquired the several Irish estates. In the last century the internal jurisdiction of the guilds was virtually superseded by general Acts of Parliament ; but the importance of the guilds W T as kept up by the parliamentary and common-hall franchise being restricted to the liverymen, instead of continuing with the body of the freemen. In the present day, the guilds or city companies may be looked upon a3 fellowships of members of a trade, and of descendants of such, who enjoy the livery franchise, and the benefit of the endowments for purposes of festivity and charity. A company commonly consists of a Court of Assistants, self- elected for life, or by seniority,- a Livery, named by the Court ; and Freemen. The Court of Assistants yearly choose a Master (though some companies have none), and three or four Wardens (called prime or upper, middle, key, renter and younger, under or junior wardens). A fine of a large sum is paid (to the dinner fund) on coming upon the Court, and others in succession on serving the several wardenships and the mastership. In some, the fine for master is 100 guineas, which is supposed to pay for the installation dinner. The Court of Assistants are the governing body. They have several banquets yearly. The livery pay a fine on admission, commonly 20 guineas, sometimes as much as 100 or 200 guineas. They likewise have their funds for festivity. The freemen, unless strangers, seldom pay a heavy fine; nor have they dinner funds. The company has commonly a hall, flags, maces and plate, and some funds for charitable purposes. The more considerable have hospitals, almshouses, schools, scholarships, livings, and pensions. The companies and their offi- cials are styled "Worshipful." Histories have been written of the twelve great companies and others. The freedom and livery of the companies are given for political services, as that of the city is, but more freely, or are sold to party men. The Fish- mongers are now the great Whig club, and give Whig banquets; the Mer- chant Tailors the Tory club. The yearly dinners are occasions for political reunion and display, and it is therefore an object of interest to take part in them. Many of the ceremonies observed at the city dinners are peculiar. At great dinners the loving cup is passed round. A richly chased gold or silver standing cup and cover (the gift of some deceased benefactor), is placed before the Lord Mayor, or Master, and the master of the ceremonies pro- claims, " The Master bids all welcome, and greets you all in the loving cup." The Clothworkers boast their Pepys, and other cups; the Painter Stainers that of Camden; the Barbers those of Henry YIIL, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles II. 334 LONDON. The cup or cups, filled with spiced wine, are passed round. As each receives the cup, his nearest neighbour rises, takes off the cover, and, standing, holds it until the drinker has done, when he passes on the cup, and is in like way helped by his neighbour. This old custom of pledging, one of the earliest observed by the English on their entry in this island, as the tale of Vorte- gern and Rowena exemplifies, is reverentially kept up by the citizens as implying the mutual service and brotherhood of all. The chased gold salver with rose water, follows the loving cup. The Master's installation is variously observed. In some companies (as the Carpenters'), the new Master and War- dens are crowned with silver coronals, garlands, or chaplets; in some (as the Clothworkers'), a procession enters after dinner of the late and new masters and wardens, each of the late officers bearing a standing cup; pro- clamation is made, that A B has been chosen the Master for the coming year, the old Master drinks the loving cup to him, and the new Master returns the pledge. Proclamation is made for each Warden, and a like form gone through. It is a current belief that the citizens consume in their rich feasts the incomes left for the poor; but on the contrary, funds are expressly provided and kept up for these banquets. The late Mr. Thwaites left to the Clothworkers' Company 30,000Z., half for charities and half for feasting. The livery dinner is a club, whereat a kindly feeling is kept up among men having the same common interests, and it is an institution zealously upheld. At these banquets, not only are all the luxuries which modern research has found out to be met with in profusion, but many of the dainties in which the mediaeval epicure delighted ; here are sometimes to be found the baron of beef, the boar's head, the swan, the crane, ruffs, and reeves, the warden pie, and other rarities in the modern bill of fare. Some dinners have distinctive names ; venison feast comes in season, and excursions are made to Blackwall, Green- wich, or Richmond, to taste suburban luxuries. It is not uncommon for parcels to be placed before each guest, of sweetmeats and cake, to take home to his wife and children, that they too may partake of the festivity. The dinners are usually confined to the men, but the greater companies do not fail to provide balls and excursions for the fair sex. Most of the wards and in- quests likewise have dinners. The apprentice and the freeman are admitted with ceremony in the full Court of the Assistants, robed in their gowns. The freeman by birthright is brought in by the beadle, and produces his baptismal certificate, and the copy of his father's freedom. Two or three old friends, freemen of the company, appear as compurgators, to give witness he is " son of his father." The oath of fidelity to the guild is administered to him, the Court standing, and he pledges himself faithfully to follow the trade in which he is enrolled, and neither to counterfeit nor defraud. Thereupon the Master and assistants each shake him by the hand, and hail him as a brother, and the renter warden points out to him the box for the relief of poor freemen. After being admitted by the Court of his company, the beadle attends him to Guildhall, to receive the freedom of the city. The papers of the company are taken as authorities for the admission, and the clerk and officers of the Chamber put down their names as compurgators. The Chamberlain ministers to him the oath of fidelity to the city, and shaking hands with him, delivers, under the city seal, the copy of his freedom. This is a small slip of parchment, the warrant of his franchises and that of his children. For some wards, this is stamped with the seal of the inquest, on the admission oi a freeman into the ward. The charity funds provide usually for the relief of decayed freemen, their widows, orphans, and in some cases of their aged daughters. The Stationers' and Clock-makers' provide for blind compositors and watch-makers, whose trades much affect the eyesight. There are reckoned on the list eighty-nine companies, some of which are THE CORPORATION. 335 extinct, and some nave no livery (as the Apothecaries and Parish Clerks), be- sides which there are the fellowships of the porters. The companies are arranged by precedency, not dependent on seniority, and twelve, as has been said, are styled great companies. The companies embrace nearly every trade in existence at the beginning of the last century, and many trades now obsolete, or nearly so, such latter are Girdlers (makers of griddles), Bowyers, Fletchers (arrow-makers), Longbowstring-makers, Lorimers, Hatband-makers, and Fan-makers. The Mercers' is the first in rank, and has a hall. Its oldest charter is one of Eichard II. The oath of the freeman contains several passages, which show the nature of these old pledges, and that there was the same patronage of secrecy as in modern associations of the trading classes. " You swear that you shall be true unto our sovereign lord the King. You shall be obedient to, and ready to come at lawful summonses and warnings of the wardens of the Mercery, when and as often as you be duly monished and warned by them. All lawful ordinances and rules by the Fellowship of the Mercery or- dained, made, and stablished, and hereafter for the weal, worship, and profit of the said Fellowship to be made, you shall hold and keep. All lawful com- munications, necessary ordinances and counsels for the welfare of the said Fellowship, and the secrets thereof to you showed, you shall keep secret and hold for counsel, and them or any of them not discover or show, by any means or colour unto any person or persons of any other Fellowship. You shall also be contributary to all charges to you put by the Wardens and Fellowship, and to bear and pay your part of charge set for your degree, like as other of the same Fellowship shall do for their degree." The bearings of the Com- pany, the bust of the Yirgin Mary, are to be frequently seen on city buildings. The Company are half owners of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College ; and owners of St. Paul's and Mercers' Schools; Whittington's College, at Highgate; Trinity Hospital, at Greenwich; and Stepney Hospital. They have the patronage of several lectureships in churches (among others, of the Golden Lectureship), and of exhibitions. The Grocers' Company is the second, and is a great and hospitable company, The two Pitts .were members of this company. The Hall was used in 1641 by the Committee of Parliament that met to settle the reform of the nation; and in the last century by the Bank of England. The Drapers' Company is the third. There are several freewomen in this company, who are admitted to partake of its charities. It likewise grants liberal pensions to decayed members; to one who had served sheriff, 2001. The income in 1833, was 23,811?., great part of which was from the large estates in Ireland; 4000?. or 5000/. is yearly spent in court, livery, and public feasts. Attached to the Hall is a pleasure garden, in the heart of the city, and which is free to the public. The Fishmongers' Company is the fourth, and is the great Whig Company. It has 100 freewomen sharing in its charities. The income is about 20,000?. yearly (8000?. from Ireland). Of this, 10,000?. is spent in charities, and 3000?. in entertainments. St. Peter's Hospital, at Wandsworth, is liberally endowed. The Goldsmiths', the fifth Company, is one of the few which still exercise trade functions. At their Hall are assayed and stamped all articles of gold and silver ware made within the London district, and the Government duty on plate is assessed. On plate are put several stamps; the Queen's bust, the Government mark ; the leopard's head, the Company's mark ; a mark to denote the quality ; and a letter to denote the year of manufacture. It is by members of the Goldsmiths' Company, that is peformed the occasional ceremony of the assay in the Court of Exchequer of the pyx of Mint coins, in order to deter- mine whether the national coinage is in conformity with the standard. This company gives splendid banquets and balls. The Merchant Tailors', the seventh in rank, maintain a school of high 336 LONDON. reputation, and send many scholars to St. John's College, Oxford. Three dinners are yearly given to the livery; a grand political banquet on the 11th of June, on the occasion of the examination of the school by the President and Fellows of St. John's; a dinner to the Master and Wardens of the Skinners' Company, in pursuance of a decree made by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, in 1824; a yearly dinner at Richmond, and seventeen court dinners. Many members of the Stock Exchange belong to this company. The Duke of Wellington is a Merchant Tailor. The Yintners' Company have the valuable privilege that its members are exempted from the licensing acts, and the title of "Free Vintner," on a house or booth, enables its holder to sell wine without an excise or magis- trate's licence. The Clothworkers' Company give some good dinners in the course of the year, where much old plate, many ancient customs, and old cookery, may be seen. The Dyers' Company, now the thirteenth, was anciently one of the twelve great companies. It has the rare privilege of keeping swans in the river Thames, on which as much as 300?. a year has been spent, besides a swan- hopping excursion to look after them. The Coopers' is a wealthy Company, and keeps two good schools and an almshouse. The Brewers' is a wealthy Company. Each of the companies collect a small contribution from its freemen, called quarterage ; but in the Brewers' Company this is paid on the quantity of malt consumed by its members. The Leathersellers' Company have an income of about 4000?. yearly, of which 400/. is spent yearly in feasting, and 1500?. in charities. The Pewterers' Company have an assay master, for assaying pewter ware, and the members of the company are entitled to use a peculiar mark, or touch, which is registered on *a pewter plate kept by the company in their hall. Their income is about 1300?. yearly. The members of the Barbers' Company (formerly the Barber Surgeons), are still exempted from serving the office of constable, or upon the nightly watch, and from serving on all juries, inquests, attaints and recognizances. Their hall pictures and plate are ancient. The Armourers and Braziers' Company have in their hall a collection of armour; the suits are sometimes used on Lord Mayor's Day, though, now, the armour is usually borrowed from the Tower Museum. The Butchers' Company consists of about 1500 members of the trade, and the livery elect the Court of Assistants. The Carpenters' Company invest their wardens with garlands, and give three dinners yearly to the livery, cakes to the members of the Court on Twelfth Day, and ribbon money to them on Lord Mayor's Day. Their income is above 2000?. yearly, of which 500?. is spent in feasting. The Painter Stainers' Company assist diseased and paralysed painters in going to Bath for the waters. The Cooks' Company are exempt from serving on juries in the City Courts. The Fruiterers' Company present the Lord Mayor yearly with twelve bushels of early apples, and are entertained by him. The Stationers' Company keeps a register of the copyrights of books, which dates from the time of Elizabeth, and is likewise of antiquarian interest, having been largely drawn upon for Shakspearian illustrations. The mem- bers of the livery are allowed to share in a trading stock, devoted to the publication of the Company's Almanacks. The income, exclusive of the trading stock, is about 2500?. yearly. The Basket-makers' is one of the few unincorporated Companies, but of great antiquity, and recognized by the city. In 1825 a livery of thirty was granted to it by the Court of Aldermen. Their income is only 10?. a year. CUSTOMS— CUSTOM HOUSE. 337 The Paviers' is another unincorporated Company, and has no livery. The Apothecaries' Company exists as a local institution and a general medical college. The licentiates of the latter are not members of the com- pany. The membership, or freedom, is acquired by apprenticeship, the apprentice having to pass an examination in Latin, and the freeman the same examination as the licentiate. The quarterage is 10s. 6d. yearly, which goes towards the Botanical Garden. Members have privileges in forming the ruling body (the Court of Assistants), and the Court of Examiners, in holding stock, and in partaking of the funds of the company. The King's Apothe- cary claims the right of coming on the Court, independent of seniority. The company appoint examiners to grant licences to practise as apothecaries in England and Wales, and also to search their shops. In the Hall is a shop, extensive laboratories, a mill-house, and large pharmaceutical establishments. In 1623 a dispensary was set up at this hall, and in 1671 the chemical labora- tory was set up. In Queen Anne's time, the company undertook the supply of drugs for the navy, and then the navy stock was formed. This is divided into two classes of shares, the first of 120 members, and the second of 220. The capital brings a good return. Sir Hans Sloane gave them the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, in 1722. These gardens cost the company a large sum, and they maintain professors of botany and chemistry, and give a botanical medal to the students, who are taught free of charge. Five botanical ex- cursions take place yearly for the students, and are called the general herb- orizing, in the month of July, for the members only, when a dinner is given, at which several physicians and other professional men are invited as visitants. The livery have a dinner on Lord Mayor's day. The Shipwrights' Company had their livery increased in 1830, from 100 to 200. The Lorimers' Company and the Spectacle Makers', are two companies in which candidates for the city freedom and livery, not having connection with any particular trade, generally enrol themselves. To the latter, several civic dignitaries and members of Parliament belong. The Needle-makers' is another Company deriving its income from the same persons. It was first chartered by the Lord Protector Cromwell, in 1656. The Clock-makers' Company is strictly a trade company. They have a lending library, rich in English and foreign works on horology and the allied sciences, with a printed catalogue and a cabinet of specimens of watches, containing many rare objects. This latter, by the liberality of the Master, is sometimes lent for exhibitions at scientific conversaziones. The office of Master of the Wheelwrights' Company is burdensome, for he has to pay a fine of 100?., appropriated to dining the Court. The Distillers' Company give to their freemen, on admission, a " book " con- taining various receipts for distilling strong liquors. The Gunmakers' Company have a proof-house and proof-master, for proving and stamping gun and pistol barrels. Gun-making is one of the London trades. There is another proof-house at Birmingham, founded on the same plan, for the great gun-making district. The Parish Clerks' Company do not confer the freedom of the city, nor the hereditary freedom. CUSTOMS— CUSTOM HOUSE. The Port of London is well known to carry on the largest business in the world. (See p. 114.) Its tonnage has no rival. The Customs receipts are about twelve millions yearly, or half those of the two islands (the receipts from all Scotland and Ireland being little more "than one-third of those of London), or about equal to those of Liverpool. The Custom House at London is likewise the central esta- 338 LONDON. WAN OF THE FIRSTFUNK SOUTH OR WATER FRONT PLAN OP THE CUSTOM HOUSE. blishment, but it is not so large as might be expected, arising from so much of the business being carried on in the docks, private warehouses, and elsewhere out of doors. London is the great place of import for East and West India produce, that is to say, groceries and wines, besides carrying on a great trade with the corn, timber, and tallow countries, and in wool, drugs, and manufactured articles of luxury. The tonnage of ships entering from foreign parts is about 1,500,000 tons yearly ; from the colonies, 500,000 tons ; and from the Eng- lish and Irish coasts, 3,000,000 tons ; making an aggregate of 5,000,000 tons. The coal trade largely employs the coasters. Much of the foreign business of the port is in the intercourse of steamers with France, Flanders, Holland, and Dutchland. As London is the great entrepot for England, for the supply of shipping, and for the neighbouring Continent, the warehousing business is large. The Custom House business has, therefore, a relation to these various cir- cumstances. From the time of the Normans, the Customs have formed a large part of the government reve- nues ; and from the Revolution of 1688, direct taxation has been so little applied, that the prejudices of many of the population, and the interests of others, are strongly enlisted in favour of indi- rect taxation. The impositions of duties for protecting home interests likewise upheld this feeling. Within the last thirty years, however, this system has been greatly modified, and the Customs transactions of the port of London have been altered in conformity. Begun by Hus- kisson, and carried out by Peel, all duties on exports are abolished, as are those on raw mate- rials, corn, and most articles of food, while as far as possible all duties of small returns are ab- rogated. Thus the duties are chiefly levied on groceries, wines, spirits, and tobacco. Upon all other articles, therefore, the functions of the Custom House are virtually statistical, and although returns are made of them, there are no charges. The export business gives some trouble to the Custom House, as articles are taken out of the bonded warehouses, and have to be examined; and wine, spirits, and tobacco, being subject to inland excise, are under peculiar regulations for shipment. (See pp. 121-123.) Two great aids of the Custom House are the warehouses and the docks (see article " Docks"). The landing-places were anciently at Billingsgate and Queenhithe, where the examination of goods could be readily effected; but now the landing, instead of taking place at the King's Quays, is car- ried on along the whole shores of the Thames, below bridge, and from time to time the government has authorized wharfs to be places for the landing of goods , under the name of ' * Sufferance Wharfs." Warehouses are likewise licensed for the storing of goods until payment of duty, under the government and merchants' keys, and as a bond is given for the due security of the goods, these are called " Bonded Warehouses." At these wharfs and warehouses departments of the Customs are established. These establishments, the wealthy proprietors of which are known as wharf- ingers, are, however, surpassed by the docks and warehouses belonging to the great corporations, each of which carries on the trade of a sea-port, and requires a large customs' staff. The bonded warehouses are likewise seats of manufacture, for many articles are allowed to be pre- pared and manufactured in bond, for use at home, or for shipment abroad. The merchant can thus, without the payment of duty, receive goods from abroad, and prepare them for the use of some other foreign market. The Custom House, in Lower Thames Street, is the chief seat of business, and the establish- ment is presided over by a board of commissioners, with a chairman and deputy-chairman. None of the commissioners or officials is allowed to sit in Parliament, or even to vote for a member, as the patronage has always been looked upon with jealousy. It is under the control of the Treasury, who undertake the parliamentary responsibility. The board have a secretary and staff, surveyor for buildings, and staff, and solicitor and staff. The chief departments are those of the surveyor-general, the receiver-general, the examiner, and comptroller of accounts, the inspector-general of imports and exports, which is the statistical office, the registrar-general of shipping, the long room, the landing department, the check, the Queen's warehouse, the coast guard, the water guard, and the alien registration. In the Long Room of the Port of London,in the Custom House (see plan above), notices are given of the arrival and departure of shipping, the entry and clearing of goods (see interior view, p. 339.) The landing department, the check office, and the water guard, take charge of a ship on arrival, put officers on board, examine the goods on landing, and assess the duties. The superior staff consists of landing surveyors and landing waiters, under whom are 30 gaugers, 120 lockers, and 180 weighers. On the water guard are tide surveyors, having a staff of 500 tide waiters, 60 watchmen, and 80 watermen. The registrar-general of shipping gives certificates of registry to English shipping, which are the title-deeds of the ship. Lloyd's register is for shipping of all nations, and has reference to the character of the ship. It is the business of the Alien Office to register all foreigners entering by sea, but the regulations of importance in time of war are now much relaxed. DOCKS. 339 INTERIOR OF CUSTOM HOUSE. The Customs establishment is regularly organized, with scales of promotion for the severa ranks of officers, and having superannuation and other benefit funds. Although the Customs regulations are greatly improved, they are much open to objection, the Treasury and the board, from jealousy of their officers, causing serious impediments to business. The landing surveyors and waiters have arduous duties imposed upon them in the assessment of charges, according to quality or value, and even ad valorem duties are found to be productive of evils. The Custom House has the power of taking goods which it considers undervalued, at the merchant's valuation, with 10 per cent, added, and these are sold at the periodical Custom House sales, when, if a profit is realized beyond the duty, the officer shares in it. It therefore happens, sometimes, if the importer has made a good bargain, it is taken from him by the Customs, and the profit beyond 10 per cent, becomes theirs. DOCKS. The Docks of London show at once to the observer the great enter- prise and prosperity of the port of London. It will readily be con- ceived that a population of 2,000,000 of persons must necessarily, to a great extent, be supported by its trade and commerce — its proceeds in money value far exceeding in amount that of any other com- munity in the world. The merchant is the dealer with the trading universe, the tidal Thames bringing with its flow the treasure of near and distant nations ; and, with the aid of steam, persons of all nations come to us with objects of business and mutual interchange. The plan in p. 341 shows the singular figure of the Thames, and the rela- tive situation of each dock ; see also pp. 344, 348, and 349, for diagrams of Her Majesty's Dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich.' Q 2 340 LONDON. The following are the names of the Docks of which there are public companies, to which are added those of the Government Yards. H. M. Dock Yard and Arsenal, Woolwich. Superintendent, Commodore H. Eden. Master Shipwright, Oliver Lang, Esq. Deputy do., James Peake, Esq. H. M. Dock Yard, Deptford. Superintendent, Master Shipwright, In addition to the above, there are a great many private docks for the building and re- pairing of ships, for the construction of iron vessels, and for the fitting of engines to vessels of all tonnage, and the making and embarking of steam engines. East and West India Docks, instituted 1799. East India, instituted 1803; united 1838. Dock Master, Captain Evans. London Docks, 1802. Secretary, J. D. Powles, Esq. Commercial Docks, 1807. Superintendent, William Jones, Esq. Grand Surrey Canal Dock. Superintendent, William Mc. Cannon, Esq. St. Katherine Docks, 1828. Secretary, Sir John Hall. East Country Dock. Secretary and Superintend., A. Sherriff, Esq. Regent's Canal Company, 1812. Secretary, E. L. Snee, Esq. i By King Richard the First's first charter granted to the citizens of London, the corporation became conservators of the River Thames, extending westward from London Bridge to the River Colne, near Staines ; and, eastward, over the port and waters of the Thames, ports and creeks, and also over the River Medway, as far as Yantlet Creek, in Kent, and Leigh, in Essex. The Corporation of London have the right of regulating shipping, and of all other things concern- ing the navigation, and of licensing and permitting wharfs, docks, &c. Subsequently the extent and limits of the Port of London, as far as relates to Her Majesty's Customs, are declared by the Court of Exchequer to extend to the North Foreland, in the Isle of Thanet, then northward fn an imaginary line drawn to the opposite point, called the Haze, on the coast of Essex, through the Gunfleet Beacon, excepting the privileges of the Ports of Sandwich and Ipswich, and the several creeks, harbours, havens, &c, belonging to them. (See woodcut, p. 354.) The property in the rivers and rivulets that fall into the Thames, their fish, and the soil beneath, within certain boundaries, are vested in the Corporation of London. The divisions of the Port of London, as defined by the by-laws and customs of the harbour service, are the Upper Pool, the Lower Pool, Limehouse Reach, Greenwich Reach, Blackwall Reach, and Bugsby's Reach. Several dredging machines are constantly in operation for effectually cleansing the river. Since the institution of the Corporation of the Trinity House, in the vear 1515, 400,000,000 tons of ballast have been raised in the River Thames. In an account taken in the year 1831, the Receipts were £30,239 17s. 9d. Cost of procuring the same . . . 23,741 15 11 Net profit for one year 6498 1 10 St. Katheriptjs's Docks being the nearest to London Bridge, we shall briefly describe these the most recently-constructed docks. The old Hospital of St. Katherine, and 1250 poorly-tenanted houses which stood on the site, were happily removed, together with the vicious and badly-housed inmates, who numbered nearly 12,000 persons. The company for the construction of these docks was formed in 1824, and the docks were opened on the 25th October, 1828. The capital first raised was £1,352,800, and an additional sum of £800,000 was also raised. The space included within the outer wall is about 24 acres, about eleven of which are wet docks ; they consist of two docks, communicating with each other by basin, and are surrounded by large and lofty stacks of warehouses, and wide and commodious quays. The lock leading from the river is 180 ft. in length, and 45 ft. in width, between the entrance gates, and is so constructed that vessels of upwards of 600 tons burden may pass and repass three hours before high-water, so that outward-bound ships from these docks can reach Blackwall before the tide begins to recede. The depth of water at the top of the spring tides, on the sills, Trinity datum, is 28 ft. ; at the dead neap tides, 24 ft. ; at low water spring tides, 10 ft. ; and at low water neap tides, 12 ft. ; so that vessels of upwards of 800 tons register are docked and undocked without difficulty, and the depth of the water at the entrance exceeds that of any other wet dock in the Port of London, as may be seen by the table in p. 342 :— References to the Engraving apposite. 1. London Bridge. 2. Custom House. 3. The Trinity House. 4. The Tower. 5. The Mint. 6. St. Katherine's Docks. 7. London Docks. 8. St. Saviour's Dock. 9. Wapping. 10. Thames Tunnel. 11. Tunnel shaft. 12. Rotherhithe Church. J3. Shad well Church. 14. Commercial Railway. 15: Regent's Canal. 16. Basin. 17* Bromley Canal. 18. Grand Surrey Docks. 19. Commercial Docks. 20. Ordnance Wharf. 21. Greenland Dock. 22. Victualling office. 23. Royal Dock-yard. 24. Deptford Creek. 25. Drunken Dock. 26. Ferry house. 27. Royal Hospital. 28. Royal Naval Asylum. 29. Norfolk College. 30. Mr. Beale's iron works. 31. Messrs. Enderby's rope works. 32. Folly House Tavern. 33. West India House. 34. South-west India Dock. 35. Timber dock. 36. West India Dock res< voirs. 37. East India Docks. 38. Bow Creek. 39. All Saints' Church. 40. Chapel. 41. Limehouse Church. DOCKS AND PORT OF LONDON. 341 FIGURE OF THE THAMES. 342 LONDON. Depth of Water on the outer Sill of Gates at low water, Spring Tides, Trinity datum. Feet. Inches. St. Katherine Docks 10 London Docks, Hermitage entrance 3 „ ,, Wapping ditto 5 „ „ Shadwell ditto 6 6 Regent's Canal, entrance of Basin 1 West India Dock, Limehouse entrance 4 3 „ „ South ditto, formerly the City Canal .... 6 ,, ,, Blackwall entrance 6 East India Docks, entrance 6 6 East Country ditto ditto 5 6 Commercial ditto ditto 9 Grand Surrey Canal ditto , 1 6 Vessels are also docked and undocked by night as well as by day; an advantage first intro- duced in the Port of London by the St. Katherine Docks Company. These docks have also a wharf between the Tower and the dock entrance, of 187 ft. river frontage, for the accommodation of steam-vessels, where passengers land and embark free of expense, at any time of the tide, and without the intervention of boats. Convenient waiting- rooms for passengers and their luggage are constructed, and excellent arrangements made for the landing and shipping of carriages, horses, cattle, &c. The warehouses, vaults, and covered ways, will contain 110,000 tons of goods. The diameter of the columns to support the superincumbent weight above are sufficiently ample to support the greatest weight. The works were designed and executed from the designs and under the superintendence of the late Thomas Telford, and the warehouses under that of Philip Hard- wick, Architect. In 1846, the gross receipts were £22.9,814 14s. 10d. ; gross debits, £124,269 14*. 7d«» leaving a balance of profit amounting to £105,545 0*. 3d. The next undertaking of this nature, going down the river, are The London Docks, which are nearly adjoining to those of St. Katherine, and are situated in Wapping. They extend from East Smithfield to Shadwell, and were originally intended principally for the reception of ships laden with wine, brandy, tobacco, and rice. These docks consist of two capacious docks ; the western dock covers an area of above 20 acres, being 1260 ft. long, and 960 ft. wide, and the eastern dock an area of 7 acres. The tobacco dock and warehouses are between them, the dock exceeding 1 acre in extent, and used solely by tobacco ships. The entrances to these docks are — the Hermitage, or upper entrance, which leads to the western dock through the Hermitage basin; the Wapping, or central entrance, which com- municates with the same dock through theWapping basin, covering an area of more than3acres; and the Shadwell, or lower entrance, which communicates with the eastern dock, through the eastern basin. This lower entrance, which is of recent construction, is one mile below the Hermitage entrance, and three-quarters of a mile below the Wapping entrance. The entire quantity of ground comprised within the outer boundary wall of the docks is 71 acres and 3 roods. The warehouses are capacious in size, convenient in arrangement, and magnificent in design and execution. The great tobacco warehouse, on the north side of the tobacco dock, is the largest, finest, and most convenient building of its sort in the world. It is rented by Govern- ment at £14,000 per annum. It will contain 24,000 hogsheads of tobacco, and covers the immense space of nearly 5 acres. There is also a very large tobacco warehouse on the north side of the tobacco dock. Under the warehouses is a series of the most magnificent vaults in the world, which include an area of more than 18 acres, and have convenient and ample stowage for 66.000 pipes of wine and spirits : they are the great depot for the stock of wines belonging to the wine merchants of London. These docks, constructed by the late John Rennie, Engineer, were opened on the 30th January, 1805, and the first vessel admitted was a fine brig called " The London Packet," from Oporto, laden with wine. All ships bound for the Thames, which were laden with wine, brandy, tobacco, and rice (except ships from the East and West Indies, which use their own docks), were obliged to unload in these docks for the space of 21 years from the date of their opening ; but this monopoly having expired January 30th, 1826, the use of these docks is optional, as is the case with the others. The entrance from the Thames at ShadweTl was constructed in 1831, by H. R. Palmer, Engineer, and the lock-gates of these docks are ingenious and scientific examples of the skill of both these engineers. In 1844-45, the new tea warehouses, capacious enough to receive 120,000 chests of tea, were erected. This great establishment comprises in the whole an area of 90 acres ; with three entrances from the Thames, viz., Hermitage, 40 ft. in width; Wapping, 40 ft. in width ; and Shadwell, 45 ft. The whole structure cost £4,000,000 of money. The next important work of skill and science in our Port, proceeding down the river, is The Grand Surrey Canal, the spacious and convenient docks of which are situated at Rotherhithe, adjoining to and on the upper side of those belonging to the Commercial Dock Company. The entrance from the Thames is between King and Queen Stairs and King's Mills, nearly opposite the lower entrance to the London Docks. The situation, plans, and extent of this and all the docks, are fully described in " The Public Works of Great Britain," large folio. Proceeding downwards in this survey, toward Blackwall, the next scientific work is The Regent's Canal and Bastn, which was projected by John Nash, Architect, and reaches from the Thames at Limehouse to the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington. The basin is commodious and well suited to its trade, and the canal, having two tunnels, proceeds up the DOCKS. 343 country 8k miles, with a fall of 90 ft., by 12 locks, exclusive of the tide-lock at the Thames, through Limehouse, Stepney, Hackney, "Islington, the Regent's Park, and onwards to Padding- ton. It was commenced October, 1812; opened from Paddington to the Regent's Park Basin in 1814; and throughout to the Thames, in August, 1820. Mr. James Morgan was the Engineer. It is used largely for coals from the up country. The next scientific work," going downwards, is The Bromley or Poplar Canal, which was made about seventy years since, from the Thames at Limehouse, where it has a capacious and secure lock for barges, through Poplar into the River Lea, at Bromley, to avoid the long and circuitous route from Bow round the Isle of Dogs to Limehouse (see woodcut, p. 341). This passage is as dangerous for barges, and such other craft as navigate the Lea, as it is circuitous, and liable to constant impediments from contrary winds and tides. ' The entrance is between that of the Regent's Canal and Lime- kiln Dock, and is about l£ mile in length. Our next step is to that magnificent establishment The West India Docks, which were the first wet-docks ever constructed in the Port of London. Constructed by William Jessop, Engineer. It is singular that, notwithstanding the obvious utility of wet-docks, and the vast trade of the metropolis, there was no establishment of this sort on' the Thames till nearly a century after a wet-dock had been constructed at Liver- pool. This may have arisen from the lesser need of such establishments in the Port of London (from its superiority to that of Liverpool as a natural harbour), till the increased trade compelled its adoption. These docks are not only the earliest, but are still the most extensive of the great ware- housing establishments in the Port of London, covering 295 acres. They were begun in February, 1800, and the first stone laid by William Pitt, in July, and were partially opened in August, 1802. They are situated, as may be seen in the woodcut, p. 341, across the isthmus which connects the peninsula called the Isle of Dogs with the Middlesex side of the Thames. They consisted originally of two docks, one for imports and the other for exports, the former holding 204 vessels each of 300 tons ; each communicating, by locks, with a basin of nearly 6 acres in extent, at the lower end next Blackwall, and with another basin of more than 2 acres, at the upper end next Limehouse : they both communicate with the Thames, by means of capacious locks and extensive pier heads. In addition to their already extensive premises, the West India Dock Company purchased from the Corporation of London, in 1829, the City Canal, with its adjacent grounds and buildings, three-quarters of a mile long, cutting off the great bend of the river. It runs parallel to the two other docks, is now called the South Dock, and is appropriated to the wood and timber trades, for the greater accommodation of which the Company have since excavated a pond of 19 acres in extent, for the reception of bonded timber. The Export Dock, or that appropriated for ships loading outwards, will hold 195 vessels ; is about 2600 ft. in length, by about 400 ft. in breadth, and covers an area of nearly 25 acres. The North, or Import Dock, is the same length by 500 ft. in breadth, and has a superficial area of nearly 30 acres. The north side of the Import Dock is bounded by 1 1 large stacks of extensive warehouses for sugars, coffee, and other dry goods ; the south side by an extensive quay and warehouses for rum ; and an eastern and western wood quay and sheds. The Import Dock has large sheds for the reception of goods sent down for shipment, and numerous offices for the Excise, Customs, &c, and other necessary out-buildings. The whole are surrounded by lofty boundary walls ; and the side next Poplar, from the Blackwall Basin to that at Limehouse, by a broad and deep moat or ditch. Northward of the Blackwall Basin are a large elevated reservoir and two settling reservoirs below. The South Dock is nearly 3700 ft. in length, with excellent lock entrances at both ends, being nearly § of a mile in length from pier head to pier head. Both the locks of this dock, as well as that which opens into the BlackwallBasin, are 45 ft. in width, which is wide enough to admit vessels of 1200 tons burthen. At spring tides the depth of water in the docks is 24 ft., and the whole will contain 600 vessels, from 250 to 500 tons burden. The Company have now the East India Dock, and are called the East and West India Dock Company. The wood-sheds, in which enormous quantities of mahogany, ebony, rosewood, &c, are deposited, do credit to the ingenious machinery of railways attached to the girders, for the use of the locomotive cranes for transporting and depositing the enormous blocks of timber, often of 4 and 5 tons weight, in their respective places, by the aid of only 4 or 5 men, which were invented and executed by the late John Rennie, who completed these docks after the death of Mr. Jessop, their prior and original engineer. He says the sum saved in wages by this new process in the first half year, was sufficient to defray the whole expense of the machinery. Proceeding still downwards from the Limehouse entrance of the West India Docks, is the extensive establishment called The Commercial Docks; the docks, yards, and warehouses of which and also their rela- tive situation in the Port, which is nearly opposite the upper entrance to the West India Docks, are shown with great accuracy, and to a large scale, in "the Public Works of Great Britain." They consist of 6 docks, of which No. 1, formerly the Greenland Dock, covers a surface of 9| acres. The entrance to these docks is through "that numbered 1, and is nearly opposite the King's Arms Public-house, Mill Wall. No. 2 adjoins the former to the westward, and covers a space of If acres. No. 3 is northward of No. 1, with which it is connected by a cut, and contains 3| acres. No. 4 is northward of No. 3, and is similarly connected therewith, and contains 10 acres. No. 5 adjoins No. 4 to the north-east, and contains 15 acres ; and No. 6 adjoins the former to the northward, and contains 18| acres. It contains several spacious bonding yards, timber sheds, warehouses, granaries, drying-kilns, &c. From the situation of these very extensive docks, which include within their boundaries nearly 70 acres, of which about fifty-eight are water, they might easily be made, now the trade of the Port of London has so wonderfully increased, and is still increasing, to rank among the most prosperous establishments of the metropolitan harbour. 344 LONDON. Pursuing our course down the river, and passing the lower or eastern entrance of the West India Docks, the next large commercial establishment is that called The East India Docks, which are situated at Blackwall, 3£ miles from the Royal Ex- change. The first stone was laid in March, 1805, and the Docks opened in August, 1806. They were° originally intended for the accommodation of ships belonging to or employed by the East India Company, or in that country trade; but they are now, in consequence of the dis- solution of that Company as a commercial corporation, open to vessels from all parts and in all trades, now united with the East and West India Dock Com- pany. They consist of an im- port dock, 1410 ft. in length,and 560 ft. in breadth, covering an area of nearly 19 acres; and an export dock, 760 ft. in length, and 463 ft. in breadth, covering a surface of nearly 9 acres ; be- sides a spacious entrance basin, which connects the dock with the river, of nearly 3 acres. The various works of these excel- lent docks were executed from the designs an d under the super- intendence of the late Ralph Walker and John Rennie. The length of the entrance lock is 210 ft., and the width of the gates 48 ft. in the clear. The depth of water in the docks is never less than 23 ft., so that they can accommodate ships of larger burden than any other docks in the river. There is at- tached to these a splendid quay fronting the river, called the Brunswick Wharf (now also used for the termini of the Blackwall Railway) , nearly 700 feet in length, with water suffi- cient at all times of the tide to float the largest steam ships; and the export dock is fur- nished with a powerful and lofty machine, which is able to mast and dismast the largest ships. This new steam-boat wharf was designed and exe- cuted with cast-iron plates and sheeting, by James Walker, late President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, in the first volume of whose Transactions it is most elaborately detailed. On this wharf is the Brunswick Tavern, built for the accom- modation of company arriving or departing by the larger class of steam ships, and for white bait and dinner parties. Deptfokd, a large old town on the south bank of the Thames, in the county of Kent, about 3 miles from London Bridge, has two parishes and an ancient dockyard, used as a Royal dockyard, established by Henry VIII., who also first erect- ed here a storehouse. It has since become a vic- tualling establishment, a Yard gate. /> Spinning house. c Shop. d Smiths' shop. fi Saw pits. f Pitch house. g Rigging and sail house. h Store houses. i Ropery. k Plank shed. / Docks. m Building slips. n Basin. PLAN OF DEPTFORD DOCK. DOCKS — DEPTFORD. 345 and, recently, a capacious naval storehouse, with batteries of biscuits for the Royal Navy, the very ingenious machinery for which, and for other purposes, has been constructed by the Messrs. Eennie. The finest ma- chinery in the world is employed in Deptford Dock-yard, for spinning hemp and manufacturing ropes and cables for the service of the navy. The whole detail of this machinery is to be found in Vol. 8 of the Papers of the Royal Engineers. A striking proof of the relative superiority of rope manufactured upon Capt. Huddart's principle over that made by the old sys- tem, in point of strength and durability, was formerly afforded in the instance of the London and North Western Railway, employing it to propel the engines from Euston station to Camden-town, by an endless rope running upon pulleys, urged by the power of the fixed steam-engine. DIMENSIONS OF THE DIFFERENT VESSELS BUILT AND LAUNCHED AT DEPTFORD, SINCE THE BEOPENING OF THE DOCK-YABD IN 1844. £ QQ Date when launched. (inns. Length be- tween Per- pendiculars. Length of Keel for Ton- nage. Breadth, ex- treme. <*c3 1 ! ~2 c n • s ss ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. Nog. Worcester. . Oct. 10, 60 172 144 9 43 8 .... 14 6 1468 1843, be- Frigate. fore the yard was 're-esta- i blished. Porcupine. . June 17, St. VI. 141 124 71 24 2 24 23 6 13 6 j 382JJ 1844. Terrible .. Feb. 26, St. VI. 1845. 21. 226 196 10£ 42 6 42 41 2 27 4 ' I«7jR Spitfire .... March 26, St. VI. 1846. 147 4 130 2| 25 1 24 11 24 5 14 6 429|4 Hound May 21, 10 1846. 95 74 630 4 30 1 29 7 13 6 35811 Sidon May 26, St. VI. 211 185 3 37 36 6| 35 10 27 ^m 1846. Odin Julv 24, St VI. 1846. 208 187 U 37 36 6 35 10 24 2 1326& Termagant. Sept. 25, Screw 208 3 181 40 6 40 39 4 25 9 1540$ 1847- Reynard . . March 21, Screw 1848. 147 8 128 4& 1 27 9f 27 51 26 11| 14 6 515^ Phaeton . . Nov. 25, 50 1848. March 27, Screw 1849. May 28, Screw 1850. Nov. 5, St. VI. 1850. 186 10 ■ 152 8£ 49 5| 48 10| 48 1| 15 10| 1941^3 Archer 180 ; 162 71 33 m 33 6h 32 10| 18 11 973|2 Wasp 180 i 162 71 33 10J 33 6| 32 m 18 11 973** Leopard 218 194 37 6 37 26 4 25 2 1412JJ Hannibal . . Now 90 Building. ! 208 170 7# 58 57 2 56 4 24 2963JJ Emerald . . Now j 60 185 152 2J 52 51 6 50 8 15 8 2146|i Building, i Imperieuse Now j Screw 212 180 8§ 58 49 6 48 8 ! 16 9 23554| Building. • 93 In 1515 a Society was founded at Deptford, by Sir Thomas Spert, knight, incorporated by Henry Till. The grant was made to institute, to the " ho- nour of the Blessed Trinity and St. Clement, a guild or brotherhood, concern- ing the cunning and craft of mariners, and for the increase and augmentation of the ships thereof, " and all proceedings and matters concerning sea-marks, and to erect lighthouses upon the several coasts of the kingdom, for the secu- rity of navigation, &c, now called the Trinity Board, and located in Tower- hill. Captain Richard Maples, who died commanding a shin in the East Indies, in 1680, left to the Trinitv-house 13002., with which a part of the alms- Q 3 346 LONDON. houses was built. The Emperor Peter the Great of Russia worked as a ship* wright in the dock-yard, and upon his return to Russia and founding the city of Petersburgh, adopted the English 12-inch rule, which to this day is the ordinary measure for practice in the building operations of the artisans of that country. In this dock-yard many large ships-of-war have been constructed. The Hannibal, 90 guns, is now in the course of construction, and the Leopard, steam ship-of-war ; also ships have been fitted for scientific discoveries, particu- larly those of Capt. Cook, the great navigator of the globe. In the illustration in page 344 is shown the present plan of this dock-yard, and a list, in page 345, of the ships built here is an interesting fact. Master shipwright, Charles Willcox, Esq. Woolwich, in the county of Kent, about 8 miles east of London- bridge, is one of the most interesting and important situations (within the port of London) for the maritime and military operations of Great Britain, possessing a most commodious dock-yard (see accompanying plan across pages 348-9) and arsenal, barracks for troops, depots of all the appointments for war purposes and the defence of the country, and a Royal military academy. It was anciently a small fishing village ; but its peculiar situation on the banks of the Thames, and its proximity to the capital, and therefore facility of control by Government, render it a natural, national, and political position. The Royal Arsenal. — On the right and left of a spacious gateway are two lodges ; the one on the right is occupied by one of the gate-keepers of this ex- tensive establishment; and that on the left is an office for the bombardier of the royal artillery on duty, to enter the names, designations, and places of resi- dence of the parties applying for admission to visit the arsenal, in a book kept for that purpose. Orders were issued in 1840, immediately after the destructive fire at Devon- port dock-yard, not to admit any person into the buildings in the royal arsenal, except on business, and only to allow the public to walk over the grounds; but as there is every reason to believe this restriction will soon be removed, the following information may prove interesting. The first place visited by strangers is the foundry for casting brass guns and howitzers. The original foundry possessed by government was established in Upper Moorfields, London, near Finsbury-square ; and its removal from thence to Woolwich was in consequence of the following accident : the Duke of Richmond, Master General of the Ordnance at that period, having ordered a large re-cast of the guns taken by Marlborough from the French, several of his friends, and a large concourse of spectators, attended to witness the opera- tion. A foreigner of the name of Schaleh, who happened to be present, felt convinced, by observing moisture in the moulds, that an explosion was to be apprehended, and warned the Duke and the surrounding spectators of their danger. No sooner had the burning metal been poured into the mould than it exploded with great violence, by the force of the steam which it generated, and severely injured several of the bystanders. M. Schalch, having given proof of his knowledge in this department, was offered a commission to select a spot within 12 miles of London for the erection of a new foundry, and also to be made superintendent of the whole concern. The proposal being highly advantageous, he readily accepted it, and fixed on the Warren at Woolwich as the most eligible situation. The foundry was originally erected by Sir John Vanbrugh, and finished in 1719. The machinery and tools employed in the manufacture of cannon, in the Royal Arsenal, have been recently constructed and erected bv Mr. Napier, of London. Previous to that tims the manufacture was" carried on in the most primitive manner. The jhomg rai#s &r lathes which came from Holland about eighty years ago were in separate DOCKS — WOOLWICH. 347 | j Iron Fo un T. HOPE, ESQ., M»P„ 413 A Nymph and a Sea C. Poelemberg, Monster. Van der Ulft. A View in Rome. Ochterveld. A Musician and two Women drinking. Berkbeiden. The Stadthouse at Amster- dam. Van Os. A Group of Flowers. G. Coque3. A Cavalier and Lady, with Attendants. Schumann. The Connoisseur. Van der Werff. The Incredulity of St. Thomas. William Mieris. A Gentleman proposing to a Lady. Van der Werff. The Magdalen reading. Wynants. A Road traversing a barren Scene. Paul Potter. Cattle in a Storm. D. Teniers. Soldiers playing at Draughts. G. Dow. Woman at a Window, with a Hare, &c. D. Teniers. Soldiers in a Guard-room smoking. Paul Potter. Figures. Van der Werff. Lot and his Daughters. Van Tol. The Interior of a School. Slingelandt. A Monk reading. P. Wouvermans. The Halt of a Hunting Party. Adrian Ostade. Figures outside a Cot- tage. Exterior of a Stable, with The General Writing De- Hobbima. View in a Forest, with Cottages. Terburgh. spatches. P. Wouvermans. Landscape, with Fi- gures, and a Bagpiper. One of the painter's most celebrated works. Metzu. A Lady in a Blue Velvet Tunic. A. Cuyp. Cattle on the Banks of a River. Gyssells* Dead Swan and many small Birds. C. Du Jardin. Horses in a Landscape. G. Flink. The Portrait of a Lady. Berkheiden. A pair of Town Scenes. Gyssells. A Kermesse, with a multitude of Figures. Hugtenberg. A pair of Battle Pieces. Ouwater. A View in Amsterdam. A. Storck. A pair of Sea Pieces. Berkheiden. Another pair of Town Scenes* G. Flink. The Portrait of a Gentleman. Breughel and Rottenhammer. An Alle- gory* Griffier. View on the Rhine. William Mieris. The Judgment of Paris, Van der Ulft. The Old Town-hall of Amsterdam. Verkolie. Jupiter and Saturn. Berkheiden. Four Views at the Hague. C. Poelemberg. Nymphs bathing. Dubois. Damocles. G. Lens. Bacchus and Ariadne. The possessor of this remarkahle gallery has usually favoured ap~ plicants, properly introduced, with a card of admission for a party on one day in each week of the months of May and June, st. james's palace. In this edifice the Sovereign holds the Levees and Drawing Rooms* The first are attended by gentlemen only, and usually take place on appointed Wednesdays during what is termed "the season" in London. The "Drawing Rooms" are destined for the Royal reception of ladies as well as gentlemen, and are held on appointed Thursdays. The suite of apartments used for these purposes have windows looking into St. James' Park, and are of considerable dimensions. They may be said to be handsomely furnished, but fall very short of any regal magnificence worthy of the mighty kingdom of Great Britain. There were for- merly some fine pictures by the great masters, and decorative furni- ture, but they have been removed since Her Majesty's accession, and they now contain only some good portraits with inferior ones and copies. On ascending the grand staircase, a guard chamber, adorned with a number of military arms in fanciful devices, is on the left hand. Passing through a similar one, usually decorated with arms, 414 LONDON. ST. JAMES'S PALACE. the first room of the state apartments is entered. This is called the Tapestry Room, as the walls are hung with this material ; the an- tique fireplace still retains the initials of Henry VIII. and Ann Boleyn, interlaced with true lovers' knots. The Ball Room succeeds, and is the first grand apartment facing the park. Two large pictures of the Siege of Tournay and the Siege of Lisle hy the Duke of Marl- borough are hung in it; and there are likewise portraits of George L and George II., Queen Anne, and some of the females called King Charles's Beauties, copies of those at Hampton Court. The next room in succession is the Drawing Room : it contains portraits of George III., the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, all by Sir Joshua Reynolds; and the Admirals Lord Nelson and Earl St. Vincent, painted by Hoppner. There are also here some of the female por- traits above named. The Throne Room follows in succession. At the western end the Royal Chair of State is placed under a canopy em- blazoned with the heraldic bearings of the Sovereign. On the walls are hung large pictures of the Battles of Vittoria and of Waterloo, by G. Jones, R.A.; whole-length portraits of George IV. and the Duke of York, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; a portrait of Charles II. ; GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — H. A. J. MUNRO, ESQ. 415 and a picture of a young Lady returning from fishing. Immediately behind theThroneRooni is a smaller apartment, called the Council Chamber. It contains two magnificent whole-length portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Count La Lippe and the Marquis of Granby ; a portrait of Lord Rodney, by Hoppner ; and portraits of George II., Admiral Keppel, a German Prince, and George III. ; the last by Sir Joshua Reynolds* Returning to the guard room first entered, a long corridor, called the Entree Gallery, contains the following whole-length portraits : — Henry VIIL, said to be by Holbein. Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIIL Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero. King James I. Charles I., copy after Vandyck. Charles II. James II. William III. and Mary his Queen. The state apartments are permitted to be viewed by strangers on application to the Lord Chamberlain, at his office in the Stable Yard. The chapel royal connected with the state rooms is 6hown to strangers on application to the keeper. It has nothing remarkable in art but the highly-decorated ceiling, the design for which was from the hand of Hans Holbein. H. A. I. MUNRO, ESQ., OP HAMILTON PLACE, PICCADILLY, Is the collector of a great number of fine pictures of the ancient foreign, and of the modern English schools. In the latter portion are several of the finest landscapes and compositions of J. M. W. Turner, R.A.; also pictures by Richard Wilson, Bonington, Etty, and most of our celebrated artists. The ancient part comprises among the number the celebrated Eaffaelle. " La Vierge aux Candelabres." It was originally in the Borghese Pa- lace, Rome, and afterwards in the col- lections of Lucien Bonaparte and the Duke of Lucca. There are numerous engravings of this singularly important and enchanting performance. Raffaelle. The Holy Family, with St. John, engraved by Forster under the title of "La Vierge a la Legende." It was formerly in the gallery of Charles I. Claude. A grand Landscape; from the Palazzo Spada. Murillo. St. Anthony holding the Infant Saviour in his Arms ) from the Royal Collection of Spain. A. Watteau. Portraits of Two Young Ladies, known by the title of