LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME II. Cid Place of Whitehall, from the River. Temp. Frontispiece • Houses in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Feats 1817 The Teazen Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, - ng Pas it which Franklin worked n3use, Drury Lane, 1500 1 tuve Frau of Cid Drury Lane Theatre in Brydges pha Covent Garden Theatre, 1794 ment of the Period - Page 3 17 44 46 57 112 it St. Jan's Street, Leicester Square, eisance of Sir Isaac Newton, 1810 12. Fem Arris's Map, 1578 Pred a 0. From a Print 139 180 182 207 That signed by Holbein. THE TOWN. INTRODUCTION. Different impressions of London on different passengers and minds. Extendibility of its interest to all. London before the Deluge! Its origin according to the fabulous writers and poets. First historical mention of it. Its names. British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman London. General progress of the city and of civilisation. Range of the Metropolis as it existed in the time of Shakspeare and Bacon. Growth of the streets and suburbs during the later reigns. "Merry London" and "Merry England." Curious assertion respecting trees in the city. IN one of those children's books which contain reading fit for the manliest, and which we have known to interest very grave and even great men, there is a pleasant chapter entitled Eyes and no Eyes, or the Art of * Seeing. The two heroes of it come home successively from a walk in the same road, one of them having seen only a heath and a hill, and the meadows by the water-side, and therefore having seen nothing, the other expatiating on his delightful ramble, because the heath presented him with curious birds, and the hill with the remains of a camp, and the meadows with reeds, and rats, and herons, and king-fishers, and seashells, and a man catching eels, and a glorious sunset. In like manner people may walk through a crowded city, and see nothing but the crowd. A man may go from Bond Street to Blackwall, and unless he has the luck to witness an accident, or get a knock from a porter's * See Evenings at Home, by Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld. xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME II. Frontispiece Old Palace of Whitehall, from the River. Temp. The Theatre in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Printing Press at which Franklin worked Craven House, Drury Lane, 1800 Entrance Front of Old Drury Lane Theatre in Brydges - Page 3 17 44 46 57 112 139 180 182 207 246 271 292 Entrance to Old Covent Garden Theatre, 1794 Old Gate of Whitehall Palace, designed by Holbein. The Banqueting House, Whitehall St. James's Palace, 1650, from a print by Hollar The INITIAL LETTERS and Tail-pieces designed by J. W. ARCHER and C. T. THOMPSON. (The Initial Letter to Chapter XII. represents the Conduit at St. James's.) The COVER designed by W. HARRY ROGERS. THE TOWN. INTRODUCTION. Different impressions of London on different passengers and minds. Extendibility of its interest to all. London before the Deluge! Its origin according to the fabulous writers and poets. First historical mention of it. Its names. British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman London. General progress of the city and of civilisation. Range of the Metropolis as it existed in the time of Shakspeare and Bacon. Growth of the streets and suburbs during the later reigns. "Merry London" and "Merry England." Curious assertion respecting trees in the city. IN one of those children's books which contain reading fit for the manliest, and which we have known to interest very grave and even great men, there is a pleasant chapter entitled Eyes and no Eyes, or the Art of Seeing.* The two heroes of it come home successively from a walk in the same road, one of them having seen only a heath and a hill, and the meadows by the water-side, and therefore having seen nothing, the other expatiating on his delightful ramble, because the heath presented him with curious birds, and the hill with the remains of a camp, and the meadows with reeds, and rats, and herons, and king-fishers, and seashells, and a man catching eels, and a glorious sunset. In like manner people may walk through a crowded city, and see nothing but the crowd. A man may go from Bond Street to Blackwall, and unless he has the luck to witness an accident, or get a knock from a porter's * See Evenings at Home, by Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld. 2 DIFFERENT IMPRESSIONS ON burthen, may be conscious, when he has returned, of nothing but the names of those two places, and of the mud through which he has passed. Nor is this to be attributed to dulness. He may, indeed, be dull. The eyes of his understanding may be like bad spectacles, which no brightening would enable to see much. But he may be only inattentive. Circumstances may have induced a want of curiosity, to which imagination itself shall contribute, if it has not been taught to use its eyes. This is particularly observable in childhood, when the love of novelty is strongest. A boy at the Charter-House, or Christ-Hospital, probably cares nothing for his neighbourhood, though stocked with a great deal that might entertain him. He has been too much accustomed to identify it with his school-room. We remember the time ourselves when the only thought we had in going through the metropolis was how to get out of it; how to arrive, with our best speed, at the beautiful vista of home and a pudding, which awaited us in the distance. And long after this we saw nothing in London, but the book-shops which have taught us better. "I have often," says Boswell, with the inspiration of his great London-loving friend upon him, "amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different departments; a grazier as a vast market for cattle; a mercantile man as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; a dramatic enthusiast as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments; a man of pleasure as an assemblage of taverns, &c. &c.; but the intellectual man is struck with it as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible." It does not follow that the other persons whom Boswell speaks of are not, by nature, intelligent. The want of |