"To The Kitchens And
Offices, Which Have Little Paved Yards With Vaults Before Them, They
Descend By Twelve Or Fifteen
Steps, and these yards are defended by
a high palisade of iron." Altogether, we are told, Grosvenor Square
"may well
Be looked upon as the beauty of the town, and those who
have not seen it cannot have an adequate idea of the place."
But Covent Garden is named by "Don Manoel Gonzales," with St.
James's Park, as a gathering-place of the London world of fashion.
The neighbouring streets, it may be added, had many coffee-houses,
wine-cellars, fruit and jelly shops; fruit, flowers, and herbs were
sold in its central space; and one large woman thoughtfully
considering the fashion of the place, sat at her stall in a lace
dress of which the lowest estimate was that it must have cost a
hundred guineas.
H. M.
LONDON IN 1731.
CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON; BOTH IN REGARD TO
ITS EXTENT, BUILDINGS, GOVERNMENT, TRADE, ETC.
London, the capital of the kingdom of England, taken in its largest
extent, comprehends the cities of London and Westminster, with their
respective suburbs, and the borough of Southwark, with the buildings
contiguous thereto on the south side of the river, both on the east
and west sides of the bridge.
The length thereof, if we measure in a direct line from Hyde Park
gate, on the west side of Grosvenor Square, to the farthest
buildings that are contiguous in Limehouse, that is, from west to
east, is very near five miles in a direct line; but if we take in
the turnings and windings of the streets, it cannot be less than six
miles. The breadth in many places from north to south is about two
miles and a half, but in others not above a mile and a half; the
circumference of the whole being about sixteen miles.
The situation next the river is hilly, and in some places very
steep; but the streets are for the most part upon a level, and the
principal of them nowhere to be paralleled for their length,
breadth, beauty, and regularity of the buildings, any more than the
spacious and magnificent squares with which this city abounds.
As to the dimensions of the city within the walls, I find that the
late wall on the land side from the Tower in the east, to the mouth
of Fleet Ditch in the west, was two miles wanting ten poles; and the
line along the Thames, where there has been no walls for many
hundred years, if ever, contains from the Tower in the east, to the
mouth of the same ditch in the west, a mile and forty poles; which
added to the circuit of the wall, on the land side, makes in the
whole three miles thirty poles; and as it is of an irregular figure,
narrow at each end, and the broadest part not half the length of it,
the content of the ground within the walls, upon the most accurate
survey, does not contain more than three hundred and eighty acres;
which is not a third part of the contents of our extensive city of
Lisbon: but then this must be remembered, Lisbon contains a great
quantity of arable and waste ground within its walls, whereas London
is one continued pile of buildings. The city gates are at this day
eight, besides posterns, viz.: 1, Aldgate; 2, Bishopsgate; 3,
Moorgate; 4, Cripplegate; 5, Aldersgate; 6, Newgate; 7, Ludgate;
and, 8, The Bridgegate.
1. Aldgate, or Ealdgate, in the east, is of great antiquity, even
as old as the days of King Edgar, who mentions it in a charter to
the knights of Knighton-Guild. Upon the top of it, to the eastward,
is placed a golden sphere; and on the upper battlements, the figures
of two soldiers as sentinels: beneath, in a large square, King
James I. is represented standing in gilt armour, at whose feet are a
lion and unicorn, both couchant, the first the supporter of England,
and the other for Scotland. On the west side of the gate is the
figure of Fortune, finely gilded and carved, with a prosperous sail
over her head, standing on a globe, overlooking the city. Beneath
it is the King's arms, with the usual motto, Dieu et mon droit, and
under it, Vivat rex. A little lower, on one side, is the figure of
a woman, being the emblem of peace, with a dove in one hand, and a
gilded wreath or garland in the other; and on the other side is the
figure of charity, with a child at her breast, and another in her
hand; and over the arch of the gate is this inscription, viz.,
Senatus populusque Londinensis fecit, 1609, and under it, Humphrey
Weld, Mayor, in whose mayoralty it was finished.
2. Bishopsgate, which stands north-west of Aldgate, is supposed to
have been built by some bishop about the year 1200. It was
afterwards several times repaired by the merchants of the Hanse
Towns, on account of the confirmation of their privileges in this
city. The figures of the two bishops on the north side are pretty
much defaced, as are the city arms engraven on the south side of it.
3. Aldersgate, the ancient north gate of the city, stands to the
westward of Bishopsgate. On the north, or outside of it, is the
figure of King James I. on horseback, who entered the city at this
gate when he came from Scotland, on his accession to the throne of
England. Over the head of this figure are the arms of England,
Scotland, and Ireland; and on one side the image of the prophet
Jeremy, with this text engraved, "Then shall enter into the gates of
this city, kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding
on chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." And on the other side, the
figure of the prophet Samuel, with the following passage, "And
Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your
voice in all that you have said unto me, and have made a king over
you." On the south, or inside of the gate, is the effigy of King
James I. sitting on his throne in his robes.
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