SUBURBAN LONDON. 177 



detached, paltry shops, where our guide, having given us a 

 very simple direction, took leave of us. We followed up 

 the broad street ; the shops, a large number of which were 

 ale-houses, soon were displaced in a great measure by plain, 

 small villas, of stone, or stuccoed brick, standing two or three 

 rods back from the street, with dense shrubbery, enclosed by 

 high brick walls before them. Gradually the houses ran 

 together and became blocks ; omnibuses, market-carts, heavy 

 vans, (covered luggage-wagons,) and pleasure-carriages, con 

 stantly met and passed, and when we had walked about 

 three miles, the village had become a compact, busy town 

 strangely interrupted once by a large, wild, wholly rustic 

 common. Then the town again : the side-walk encroached 

 upon by the grocers and hucksters ; monster signs of &quot; entire&quot; 

 ales and ready-made coffins, and &quot; great sacrifices&quot; of haber 

 dashery and ladies goods; the street wide and admirably 

 paved, and crossed at short but irregular intervals by other 

 narrower streets, and growing more busy every moment. 

 Still it is nothing remarkable ; a wide street, plain brick 

 houses, a smell of gas now and then, and a crowd. I would 

 hardly have known, from any thing to be seen, that I was 

 not entering some large town in our country, that I had never 

 visited before. Indeed, it s quite like coming down the 

 Bowery. 



People were looking up ; following the direction of their 

 eyes, we saw a balloon ascending. The air was calm, and it 

 rose to a great height greater, says the Times this morning, 

 than any ever reached before. 



A shrill cry in the distance, rising faintly above the rumble 

 of the wheels, and hum and patter of the side-walks, grows 

 rapidly more distinct, until we distinguish, sung in a high 

 key, &quot; Strawberrie Sixpenny-pottle. Who ll buy?&quot; The 

 first of &quot; London cries.&quot; 



PART II. 8* 



