Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE GROWTH OF LONDON.

LONDON,-the opulent, the magnificent, the illustrious; or the squalid, the mean, the degraded, regarded now from the standpoint of St. James's and now from that of St. Giles's, -though oft described, is yet indescribable. No other city in the world has ever beheld the same vast concentration of interests, the same aggregate of wealth, the same triumphs of civilisation. As a distinguished French writer has remarked, if we enter London by water, we see an accumulation of toil and work which has no equal on this planet. The intellect of Greece and the power of Rome find here their modern rival developments. "Paris, by comparison, is but an elegant city of pleasure; the Seine, with its quays, a pretty, serviceable plaything. Marseilles, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, furnish no idea of such a mass. From Greenwich to London the two shores are a continuous wharf: merchandise is always being piled up, sacks hoisted, ships moored; ever new warehouses for copper, beer, ropework, tar, chemicals. Docks, timber yards, calking basins, and shipbuilders' yards, multiply and increase on each other. On the left, there is the iron framework of a church being finished, to be sent to India. The Thames is a mile broad, and is but a populous street of vessels, a winding workyard. Steamboats, sailing vessels, ascend and descend, come to anchor in groups of two, three, ten, then in long files, then in dense rows; there are five or six thousand of them at anchor. On the right, the docks, like so many intricate maritime streets, disgorge or store up the vessels. If we get on a height we see vessels in the distance by hundreds and thousands, fixed as if on the land; their masts in a line, their slender rigging, make a spider web which girdles the horizon. If we enter one of these docks, the impression will be yet more overwhelming; each resembles a town; always ships, still more ships, in a line showing their heads; their wide sides, their copper chests, like monstrous fishes under their breastplate of scales." As far as the eye can see London looms before us, colossal, sombre as a picture by Rembrandt. "The universe tends to this centre. Like a heart to which blood flows, and from which it pours, money, goods, business arrive hither from the four quarters of the globe, and flow thence to the distant poles." London is the eye of the world. Regarded from a myriad aspect, it still overawes us by its unrealisable dimensions. It is the city of extremes-the home of the obscure and the great;-it ministers to the humility of the one and affords scope to the loftiest ambition of the other. When a man is tired of London," said Dr. Johnson on one occasion to Boswell, "he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." And again :-"Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and

squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists." Charles Lamb, writing to Wordsworth, said:"I have passed all my days in London, until I have formed as many and as intense local attachments as any of your mountaineers can have done with dead nature. I often shed tears in the motley Strand from fulness of joy at so much life." Cowper also, in his quiet retirement at Olney, asked:

Where has Pleasure such a field,

So rich, so thronged, so drained, so well supplied,
As London-opulent, enlarged, and still
Increasing London ?

It

It

Here, indeed, is a boundless field for the archeologist, the man of letters, the historian, the antiquarian, and other investigators in a thousand fields of knowledge. It is the London of Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, and Johnson; the London of kings and statesmen; the London of poets, philosophers, merchants, philanthropists, martyrs, and patriots. Such are a few general and abstract views from the limitless variety which might be taken of this mighty centre of the universe. Nor are the actual and concrete facts which have been compiled upon the magnitude of London less surprising, and they will enable us to form a more adequate conception of the city. From the computations of authorities, it appears that London (with all its suburbs) covers within the fifteen miles' radius of Charing Cross nearly seven hundred square miles. numbers within these boundaries over four millions of inhabitants. contains more country-born persons than the counties of Devon and Gloucester combined, or thirty-seven per cent. of its entire population. Every four minutes a birth takes place in the metropolis, and every six minutes a death. Within the circle already named there are added to the population two hundred and five persons every day, and seventy-five thousand annually. London has seven thousand miles of streets, and on an average twenty-eight miles of new streets are opened, and nine thousand new houses built, every . One thousand vessels and nine thousand sailors are in its port every day. Its crime is also in proportion to its extent. Seventythree thousand persons are annually taken into custody by the police, and more than one-third of all the crime in the country is committed within its borders. Thirty-eight thousand persons are annually committed for drunkenness by its magistrates. The metropolis comprises considerably upwards of one hundred thousand foreigners from every quarter of the globe. It contains more Roman Catholics than Rome itself, more Jews than the whole of Palestine, more Irish than Belfast, more Scotchmen than Aberdeen, and more Welshmen than Cardiff. Its beershops and gin palaces are so numerous, that their frontages, if placed side by side, would stretch from Charing Cross to Chichester, a distance of sixty-two miles. If all the dwellings in London could thus

year.

have their frontages placed side by side, they would extend beyond the city of York. London has sufficient paupers to occupy every house in Brighton. The society which advocates the cessation of Sunday labour will be astonished to learn that sixty miles of shops are open every Sunday. With regard to churches and chapels, the Bishop of London, examined before a Committee of the House of Lords in the year 1840, said:"If you proceed a mile or two eastward of St. Paul's, you will find yourself in the midst of a population the most wretched and destitute of mankind, consisting of artificers, labourers, beggars and thieves, to the amount of 300,000 or 400,000 souls. Throughout this entire quarter there is not more than one church for every 10,000 inhabitants; and in two districts there is but one church for 45,000 souls." In 1839, Lord John Russell stated, in Parliament, that London, with thirty-four parishes, and a population of 1,170,000, had church accommodation for only 101,000. These and other statistics furnished led to the 66 Metropolis Churches Fund," established in 1836, which has been followed by the Bishop of London's Fund. It is still computed, however, that at least one thousand new churches and chapels are required in the metropolis.

London was inwalled in the year 306 A. D. Such is the date assigned by Stow, who says that the walls were built by Helena, mother of Constantine the Great; and it is now generally accepted that the work was accomplished in the fourth century. These walls were upwards of two miles in circumference, and were marked at the principal points by the great gates of Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and Ludgate. Fragments of the old walls are still to be seen. Modern London was built at an elevation of 15 feet higher than the London of the Romans. Within the space of thirty years no fewer than two thousand Roman coins have been recovered from the bed of the Thames. Bagford says there was a temple of Diana on the south side of St. Paul's. With regard to the gates of London, it appears that Ludgate was taken down and rebuilt by Elizabeth at a cost of 1,500l. As the other gates became dilapitated, they were pulled down and the materials sold. Thus, when Aldgate was demolished, the materials were sold for 1577. 108. ; those of Ludgate fetched 1487. ; and those of Cripplegate 917.

It is a curious fact that London does not appear in Domesday Book This record--which is so accurate with regard to other towns and cities -only mentions a vineyard in Holborn belonging to the Crown, and ten acres of land near Bishopsgate belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The account of Middlesex, however, is complete; and from this and other circumstances it has been naturally conjectured that a distinct and independent survey of London was made, which has been lost or destroyed, if it does not exist among the unexplored archives of the Crown. We get a graphic picture, nevertheless, of early London in the pages of the monk Fitz-Stephen. William Stephanides, or Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, was born in London. He lived in the reigns of King Stephen, Henry II,, and Richard I., dying in the

"Lon

year 1191. He wrote a description of his native city in Latin. don," he remarks, "like Rome, is divided into wards; it has annual sheriffs instead of consuls; it has an order of senators and inferior magistrates, and also sewers and aqueducts in its streets; each class of suits, whether of the deliberative, demonstrative, or judicial kind, has its appropriate place and proper court; on stated days it has its assemblies. I think that there is no city in which more approved customs are observed-in attending churches, honouring God's ordinances, keeping festivals, giving alms, receiving strangers, confirming espousals, contracting marriages, celebrating weddings, preparing entertainments, welcoming guests, and also in the arrangement of the funeral ceremonies and the burial of the dead. The only inconveniences of London are, the immoderate drinking of foolish persons and the frequent fires." The same chronicler, detailing the sports pursued in grounds and marshes now densely peopled with inhabitants, says:-"Cytherea leads the dances of the maidens, who merrily trip along the ground beneath the uprisen moon. Almost on every holiday in winter, before dinner, foaming boars and huge-tusked hogs, intended for bacon, fight for their lives, or fat bulls or immense boars are baited with dogs. When that great marsh which washes the walls of the city on the north side is frozen over, the young men go out in crowds to divert themselves upon the ice. Some having increased their velocity by a run, placing their feet apart, and throwing their bodies sideways, slide a great way; others make a seat of large pieces of ice like millstones, and a great number of them, running before and holding each other by the hand, draw one of their companions who is seated on the ice; if at any time they slip in moving so swiftly, they all fall down headlong together. Others are more expert in their sports upon the ice, for, fitting to and binding under their feet the shin-bones of some animal, and taking in their hands poles shod with iron, which at times they strike against the ice, they are carried along with as great rapidity as a bird flying, or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow. Sometimes two of the skaters, having placed themselves at a great distance apart by mutual agreement, come together from opposite sides; they meet, raise their poles, and strike each other; either one or both of them fall, not without some bodily hurt even after their fall they are carried along to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the motion; and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with the ice is laid bare to the very skull. Very frequently the leg or arm of the falling party, if he chance to light upon either of them, is broken. But youth is an age eager for glory and desirous of victory, and so young men engage in counterfeit battles that they may conduct themselves more valiantly in real ones. Most of the citizens amuse themselves in sporting with merlins, hawks, and other birds of a like kind, and also with dogs that hunt in the woods. The citizens have the right of hunting in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all the Chilterns, and Kent, as far as the River Cray." Such were the recreations of Londoners nearly seven centuries ago.

L. M.-I.-6.

The first circumstantial mention of the rights of the city of London is in a charter of Henry I. Some of these privileges have since been modified: as, for example, the exemption of the citizens from going to war; their freedom from all tolls, duties, and customs throughout the realm; and the privilege of hunting in Chiltre, Middlesex, and Surrey, which was compounded for by "a day's frolic at Epping." Other rights have been lost entirely, as that of summary execution against the goods of debtors without the walls. The citizens, however, continued to be exempted from having soldiers or any of the king's livery quartered upon them. Henry I. sold to the citizens of London, for an annual rent of 300%. in perpetuity, the shrievalty of Middlesex. At that time, corn sufficient for a day's consumption of one hundred persons could be purchased for one shilling, and a pint of wine was sold at the taverns for one penny, with bread for nothing! Prices have since gone up forty-fold, and the value of gold has declined; so that the 3007. of Henry's time was equal to a sum of not less than 12,000l. at the present day.

If the city has grown rapidly, the cost of civic entertainments can scarcely be said to have done so, notwithstanding that the city banquets of our own day are famous for their prodigality. All through their long and chequered history the citizens of London have never apparently lost their appetites, as the stories of their sumptuous feasts testify. Before turtle was known, lusciously dressed eels, a dish fit for an alderman, cost about 5., which was equal to 80l. of present money. In the middle of the sixteenth century the wine at the annual Spital feast cost the sheriffs 600l. In 1363, Henry Picard, ex-Lord Mayor of London, entertained splendidly, and at enormous expense, at his house in Cheapside, Edward III., King John of France, King David of Scotland, and the King of Cyprus. In 1554 the expense of feasting in the city had become so great that the Corporation passed a bye-law to restrain it. Perhaps the most costly banquet ever given in the city was that of June 18, 1814, when the Regent was entertained, together with the Emperer of Russia and the King of Prussia. The expense of the banquet was 25,000l., and the value of the plate used was 200,000l.

The chief officer of London under the Saxons was the portreeve. The Normans introduced the word maire from major, but we do not hear of a mayor until Henry II.'s time. His qualifications consist in being free of one of the city companies, in having served as sheriff, and in being an alderman at the time of his election. The word "alderman," as is generally known, is derived from the title of a Saxon nobleman. Both the country and London itself made great strides in prosperity during the fifteenth century. In 1534, Henry VIII. began the paving of London, the reasons assigned being that the streets were 66 very noyous and foul, and in many places thereof very jeopardous to all people passing and repassing, as well on horseback as on foot." Houses and streets, with theatres, gambling-rooms, beer-gardens, &c., increased rapidly. Before Elizabeth's time the houses of the country

« PreviousContinue »