Magnitude of London.

at this time was less than would otherwise have been the case. But who can look upon London at any time without deep and strong emotions! As a complicated human habitation— the metropolis which claims and receives the homage of the world-the emporium of a commerce extensive as all lands and seas—the centre to which gravitate interests of untold importance, this august city of the British Isles shines forth a star of matchless brilliancy.

One among the oldest cities of the world, it were impossible to name one which has passed through more vicissitudes of fortune, been the theatre of more stirring events, risen Phoenix-like from a greater number of threatening fires, until attaining a present eminence of extent, importance and fame, which contrasts with its earlier years, as a cradled infant with the power and glory of a giant manhood. The leading characteristic of London is magnitude; magnitude of space, for, with a diameter of ten miles, it spans its thirty in extreme circumference, within which are twelve thousand streets, lanes, and courts, and upwards of two hundred thousand public and private dwellings; magnitude of human life, for within its geographical boundaries three millions of mankind find their home; magnitude of wealth, for her merchants vie with Princes in the treasures they command; magnitude of power, for the united voice of her citizens is well nigh omnipotent in any great question of national or social policy; and magnitude of ability to bless or curse the world! The emotions awakened by a visit to London are amazement and general interest, rather than pleasure and admiration. The moral inspiration of St. Peter's at Rome--the lively beauties of the Tuileries at Paris-the awe-inspiring grandeur of Vesuvius and Pompeii, attach to

Emotions awakened in London.

no places in or around the British Capitol, while you are astonished at vastness, multitude and magnitude beyond any thing upon the continent. There is something oppressive in the very thought of driving half-a-score of miles through an unbroken row of dwellings erected by human hands, and devoted to purposes of abode, business, worship, and pleasure. Who laid out these thousand streets? Who built these ten thousand houses? and whence came these articles of merchandize, and who will buy them? where grows the food that sustains this mass of human and brute life? These and like questions press upon the mind when the traveler goes through this miniature world of mortals and their works. Such is

"Opulent, enlarged and still

Increasing London! Babylon of old-
Not more the glory of the earth than she,

A more accomplished world's great glory now."

CHAPTER IV.

LONDON.

History-Tower-Westminster Abbey.

"A mighty mass of brick and smoke and shipping,
Dirty and dusky but as wide as eye

Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping
In sight, then lost amidst the forestry

Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping,
On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy

A huge, dun-cupola, like a foolscap crown

On a fools head-and this is London town."

THE situation of London upon both sides of the River Thames, sixty miles east from the sea, is a fact almost too familiar to name. At what remote period of time the spot on which the city now stands was first peopled can never be known. "A few rude huts peering perchance through the forest-trees, with grassy openings that went sloping downwards to the edge of the stream, where the ancient Briton embarked in his rude coracle; a pile of rugged stones on the summit of the hill, which marked the cromlech or druidical altar, and which probably stood on the spot now. occupied by St. Paul's, and which, nearly two thousand years ago, was removed to make room for the Roman Temple dedicated to Victory, was from all we know of other British towns, the appearance of London soon after the period when the old Cymri first landed in England, and called it THE COUNTRY OF SEA-CLIFTS."

Tradition asserts that it was built a thousand years before the Christian Era, by Brutus, the grandson of Æneas, shortly after the siege of Troy. Equally veiled is the origin of

Historical events of London.

its name. One class of etymologists derive it from two British words, meaning THE CITY OF SHIPS, while others trace it to the ancient British King LUD, who called it LUDSTOWN, from whence, by an easy transition, it became LUD-TOWNLUN-TOWN-LONDON!

The leading vicissitudes of this famed metropolis are in brief terms: the erection, during the reign of Constantine, of a wall, three miles in circumference; arrival of Augustine and Mellitus, in the beginning of the seventh century, sent by Pope Gregory the First from Rome to establish Christianity; the almost entire destruction of the city by fire four times toward the end of the eighth century; foundation of the present municipal government by King Alfred in the year 844; a fearful pestilence in 961; the enthroning of William the First in 1066, who gave the city its present charter; a pestilence in 1407, which carried off thirty thousand people in seven weeks; the severity of cold in the year 1150, when the Thames was frozen over from the beginning of December to the middle of March; the citation of Wickliffe on the 15th of February, 1377, to answer for the crime of heresy; the suppression of eight Roman Catholic Nunneries and Priories by order of Henry the Eighth, during the year 1536; the plague in 1665, which raged for thirteen months, during which period one hundred thousand persons are supposed to have perished, and the fire in the following year, which lasted four days, destroying five-sixths of the whole city, and consuming property to the value of ten millions of pounds sterling. This last event has been deemed fortunate as it cleansed the city of many impurities, and led to the erection of better buildings and many salubrious parks.

Of London celebrities the palm lies between the Tower

Tower of Babylon.

and Westminster Abbey. We are told that the late Daniel Webster, upon arrival at the British Capitol, refused to take a meal till he had seen the Tower. With so eminent an example it is safe to begin with this famous structure.

Driving to the keeper's lodge, you find a Guide in gay and antique attire, who, for a trifling consideration, will act as cicerone upon the eventful occasion. Passing through heavy gateways, you are ushered into an oblong room, devoted to equestrian figures in the armory of various periods, from Edward the First (1272) to James the Second (1685.) Then follows Queen Elizabeth's Armory, so named from an effigy of the maiden Queen, which graces one end of the apartment. "This," says the Guide, "is the room where Sir Walter Raleigh was so long confined. Yonder is the reputed bed-room allotted to that great man. While here are objects of painful interest:—a thumb screw; a collar of torment taken from the Spaniards in 1588; the 'scavenger's daughter'; an engine for locking together hands, feet, and neck, and the axe with which Lady Jane Grey was beheaded, and the block upon which her fair neck was placed; as she said, 'Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.'" But we must pass on to the Beauchamp or Wakefield Tower, memorable as the room in which Anne Boleyn was incarcerated, and from thence led forth to execution, and then buried with Queens Catharine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Sir Thomas More, Cromwell, Earl of Essex, and a multitude of others, rendering this cemetery in the language of the Historian Macauley, "The saddest spot on earth," associated as it is, "with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny-with the savage triumph of implacable enemies-with the inconstancy—the