80 



ANNUAL REGISTER, ISU. 



ing, when almost every body was 

 disengaged, the crowds that flock- 

 ed to all places whence any view of 

 it could be obtained wereimnaense. 

 As the fire raged with great fury, 

 its brightness prodnced the most 

 strikingly picturesque and magni- 

 ficent effect. Bankside, Thames- 

 street, the Quays, and more par- 

 ticularly London and Blackfriars 

 Bridges were thronged with spec- 

 tators. The latter were rendered 

 scarcely passable. Besides theimpe- 

 diments which the multitudes pre- 

 sented, numbers of carriages were 

 stationed upon them, filled and co- 

 vered with people, eager to witness 

 this unfortunate but superb specta- 

 cle. The mass of warehouses and 

 other commercial buildings involv- 

 ed in flames, lighted up, in the 

 darkness of the night, the monu- 

 ment, the dome of St. Paul's, the 

 spires and towers of the churches 

 of the metropolis, and the bridges, 

 with an effect before which our 

 most brilliant illuminations, or the 

 most splendid scenes of the theatre, 

 are as nothing. The reflection on 

 the water was particularly fine. 

 The river was almost covered with 

 boats of all descriptions, to such a 

 degree as, in some views, almost 

 to hide even the sparklings and 

 flashes with which the splendor of 

 the light decorated the ripplings 

 and undulations of the stream. On 

 the bank opposite to the burning 

 buildings, the eft'ects of the intense 

 heat were insensibly felt. The ap- 

 pearance of London-bridge was 

 extremely peculiar. While hun- 

 dreds were looking through the 

 balustrades, numbers also seated 

 themselves on the top of them, or 

 on the entablature beneath them, 

 and all seemed to preserve a sort of 

 silent attention to the awful pro- 

 gress of the devouring flames. At 



first the fire appeared confined to 

 certain buildings; butaftera while 

 it gained a dreadful rapidity, and 

 assumed a mostthjeateningappear- 

 ance. Unfortunately, when the 

 fire was first discovered, it was 

 nearly low water, and one of the 

 floating engines, which was moored 

 below London-Bridge, could not 

 be worked up against the tide, and 

 it was near nine o'clock before it 

 could be brought into action, though 

 it was onl}' a minute and an half 

 after it came in front of the fire be- 

 fore it began to pour forth its 

 showers, at the rate of a ton per 

 minute. The extensive premises 

 of Messrs. Lingard and Jones were 

 the first which were demolished. 

 The fire, in a few minutes after it 

 got to a considerable head on these 

 warehouses, was seen to extend its 

 horrific approach both waj's, and 

 continued to spread each way with 

 equal fury till it reached the flour 

 warehouses of Messrs. Tliell and 

 Steele, which, fortunately, being 

 a new and very substantial erec- 

 tion, with a very thick party-wall, 

 prevented the flames from extend- 

 ing themselves further eastward, 

 and saved not only those ware- 

 houses, which were full of flour, 

 belonging to that company, but a 

 great many others between thera 

 and London-Bridge, which, had 

 thev caught fire, must have inevi- 

 tablj- shared the same fate. Mr. 

 Hammock's corn warehouses, in 

 which were immense quantities of 

 various kinds of grain, and a large 

 portion of fine old I earns, and those 

 of Mr, Resden, which adjoined 

 them, were all burnt to the ground. 

 Messrs. Clark and Myers's hop 

 warehouses, and those of Mr. 

 Evans (in the same line), followed 

 next. Messrs. Ball and Jones's 

 iron-foundry, Mr. Ayres's corn 



