VIII 



TN the London of other days a distinct Hne of 

 cleavage existed between the West End and the 

 City, where numbers of rich merchants had their 

 permanent abode ; some of these latter indeed lived in 

 their counting-houses all their lives, and seldom left 

 the business premises in which they had been born. 

 Men of rank and fashion, though then as now by no 

 means unwilling to take unto themselves brides with 

 rich dowries derived from trade, seem rather to have 

 prided themselves upon having nothing in common 

 with the merchants and great traders of the City of 

 London, who in their own way were equally inde- 

 pendent. Nevertheless there would appear to have 

 been little antagonism between the two classes. The 

 fashionable world regarded the City as a place which 

 somehow or other produced the wealth necessary for 

 the amenities of its existence, whilst those who 

 worked and made money there were quite reconciled 

 to the existence of a caste practically living apart and 

 indulging in all the joys of leisured ease — not a few 

 of which nevertheless scandalised the more sober of 

 the " Cits." Most of the merchants, however, were 

 very conservative at heart, though for all that they 

 were in reality in a state of perpetual change. The 



200 



