540 Prose by a Versifier, and Verse hy a Proser : [Nov. 



berance of the abdomen, and a lambent smile which overspreads the 

 countenace, when the name of the ward to which it last belonged is 

 uttered in its hearing. 



After all, there is no use in denying that there is something astonish- 

 ing and stupendous, in the energy and perseverance with which the " Auri 

 sacra fames," inspires these same cocknies, and the gigantic, Briareiis-like 

 spirit of exertion and industry, with which they urge their multifarious 

 pursuits. From every quarter and point of the globe, habitable and unin- 

 habitable, from every element and combination of nature, they have evoked, 

 by the talismanic touch of Avealth, whatever can gratify the craving neces- 

 sities, or soothe the still more insatiable follies of the most luxurious and 

 exti-avagant race that ever the sun shone upon. At this instant, while my 

 pen is tracing these words, the swarthy Indian is braving the ferocity of the 

 ravenous tiger, or nimble leopard, to win from its fierce possessor a dappled 

 hammer-cloth for my Lord ]\Iayor of London. The patient diver is 

 exploring the dim inconstant depths of the ocean, to wring from the 

 maw of the philosophical, and contemplative oyster, pale glistening 

 pearls, to shimmer in the light of Almack's, on the snowy bosom of Lady 

 Emily Mordaunt. The dusky Arab urges his headlong steed after the 

 affrighted ostrich, to snatch the feathers that shall wave at St. James's, 

 or the mountain-headed Papuan is tumbling the bird-of-paradise from 

 his perfumed bower, under the invisible influence of ]\Irs. Alderman 

 Fizzle ; though the scoundrel would eat her, if he could only lay hands 

 on her, with as little remorse as if she were a turtle. The wastes of 

 Siberia cannot shelter the sable — the whale cannot flounder through the 

 ice-bergs of the Arctic Ocean — there is no rest for the stately Elephant 

 in the forests of India, and the unwilling lobster must emerge from the 

 sea-caves of Norway, and all because a bulbous, broad-brimmed, zodiac- 

 w^aisted son of JMammon, who may be sitting, at this identical moment, 

 in the next box to me, for aught I know to the contrary, will not, as 

 the Scottish song says, " let them be." 



London is, as I have told you, eternal, but it is so by a species of 

 perennial growth, succeeding and replacing perennial decay ; an ever- 

 lasting principle of reproduction, like that of the vegetable world — a 

 change of seasons, — a spring, a summer, an autumn, a winter, and then 

 another spring, in which houses, as if they were trees, grow up, bloom, 

 fade, wither, and again revive. A mansion falls — the materials are 

 removed and sold — the bodies of the defunct, who have been crushed to 

 death, are put by to be buried — the carpenter and bricklayer, tectonic 

 Orestes and Pylades, appear, and, with a speed which the architects of 

 Aladdin might envy, another house arises from the dust and rubbish of 

 the last. Should a bridge shew symptoms of decay, a brother bridge 

 steps forth to take iU place, and plump down sinks the po)is emeritus to 

 the bottom of the Thames, no longer to be trampled on by the living 

 •torrent of one hundred thousand cocknies per diem.* 



London Bridge is now about to be relieved in the manner I speak of 

 after doing permanent duty for upwards of six hundred years, and 'as 

 soon as its successor is ready to assume office, will retire from the busy 

 scene where it has witnessed so many, and such strange events. Here, "at 

 the gate of the brigg of London," did the citizens naeet their ill-starred 



• It has been ascertained by actual calculation, that upwards of 100,000 persons on an 

 .average cross LontJon Bridge in the course of the day. 



