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LONDON (HISTORICAL SKETCH). 



chord of the semicircle, penetrate southward to an 

 extent varying from one to three miles. The extent 

 of tliis vast aggregate, from east to west, i. e. from 

 Hyde Park Comer to Mile End or Poplar, may be 

 taken at seven miles and a half, and from south to 

 north, or from Newington-Butts to Islington, nearly 

 five miles. Its circumference may be estimated at 

 thirty miles; and its area, extending over 11,520 

 square acres, of which the river occupies 1 120, is 

 about twenty miles. Fashion and convenience have 

 united to furnish various modes of designating the 

 several parts of the colossal mass. Thus the ideal 

 line, which is progressively moving more and more 

 westerly, separates the world of fashion, or the West 

 End, from the world of business. The city, so called, 

 includes the most ancient and central division of the 

 metropolis. It is rapidly being depopulated ; as the 

 chief traders and merchants occupy merely counting- 

 houses and warehouses in the city, and, in propor- 

 tion as wealth accumulates, flow towards the western 

 regions of fashion. In the East end are found the 

 docks and warehouses connected with ship-building 

 and commerce, and every collateral branch of naval 

 traffic. Southwark, or the Borough, on the southern 

 bank of the Thames, the tra?is Tiberim of London, 

 abounds with huge manufactories, breweries, iron- 

 founderies, glass-houses, &c. It is the abode chiefly 

 of workmen, labourers, and the lower classes of 

 society, but interspersed with some considerable 

 buildings, hospitals, prisons, and charitable founda- 

 tions. The city of Westminster, including the houses 

 of lords and commons, the law courts, royal palaces, 

 and many government offices, may be designated as 

 the Court End of London. The remaining portion 

 can hardly be classified, or specifically denominated. 

 It is a nondescript accumulation of streets, crescents, 

 polygons, terraces and squares, occupying the northern 

 portions of the metropolis,along the line of the new road. 



Historical Sketch. Many of the important events 

 that have occurred in London belong rather to the 

 history of the country than the capital, and will ac- 

 cordingly be found narrated in the historical portions 

 of the articles England and Britain. In this place, 

 it is only necessary to take a brief view of its rise 

 and progress, and of such incidents as have more 

 particularly marked its history as a city. 



The origin of London is involved in deep obscurity ; 

 but it certainly was a strong-hold of the Britons 

 before the Roman invasion. The etymology of its 

 name is variously traced ; the most probable sup- 

 position deriving it from two British words, llyn and 

 din, signifying the town on the lake. Its Roman 

 designation, Augusta, marks it as the capital of a 

 province ; and Tacitus speaks of Londinium or 

 Colonia .Augusta, as a commercial mart of consi- 

 derable celebrity in the year 61. It was subse- 

 quently noted as a large and wealthy city, in the 

 time of the emperor Severus, and regarded as the 

 metropolis of Great Britain. A few vestiges of the 

 original walls are still discoverable in London wall, 

 in the courts between Ludgate hill and the Broad- 

 way, Blackfriars, and in Cripplegate churchyard. 

 It had four principal gates, opening to the four 

 great military roads, and others were subsequently 

 formed, but their names alone commemorate their 

 existence. After the Roman forces had been with- 

 drawn from Britain, in the fifth century, London fell 

 successively under the dominion of the Britons, 

 Saxons, and Danes. It was nominated a bishop's 

 see, on the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, 

 in 604, and a cathedral church was erected in 610, 

 where St Paul's now stands. Its importance in the 

 year 833, appears from a Wittenagemot having been 

 held here ; and under the reign of Alfred, who 

 gained possession of it in 884, its municipal govern- 



ment was planned, which has since been gradually 

 moulded into the form described in a preceding part 

 of this notice. Its wealth seems to have rapidly 

 increased during the reign of Edward the Confessor ; 

 and, on the conquest by William I., in 1066, it 

 assumed that station which it has ever since retained, 

 as the metropolis of the kingdom, having received 

 from that monarch a charter, still preserved in the 

 city archives, and beautifully written in Saxon 

 characters. The privileges of the city were further 

 extended by a charter of Henry 1. in 1100; and, 

 early in the reign of Richard I. the title of mayor 

 was substituted for that of bailiff 1 , which had previ- 

 ously designated the chief magistrate of London. In 

 the reign of Edward III. (1348), it was ravaged by 

 a pestilence, during which 50,000 bodies were in- 

 terred in the groundnow forming the precincts of the 

 Charter house. The year 1380 was marked by the 

 insurrection headed by Wat Tyler, and suppressed 

 by the courage of Sir William Walworth, mayor o 

 London. A similar, but equally unsuccessful attempt, 

 threatened the safety of the metropolis in the year 

 1450, when it was assailed by Jack Cade and a 

 powerful body of malecon tents. During the reign 

 of Edward IV. we have the earliest notice of bricks 

 being employed in the building of houses in London. 

 Cisterns and conduits for water were constructed, 

 and the city was generally lighted at night by lan- 

 terns. A dreadful visitation, called the sweating- 

 sickness, desolated the city in 1485, soon after the 

 accession of Henry VII., during whose reign the 

 river Fleet was made navigable to Holborn bridge, 

 and the splendid chapel, called after that monarch, 

 was appended to Westminster abbey. Many valua- 

 ble improvements in the municipal regulations of the 

 city, its police, streets, markets, &c., were effected 

 during the reign of his successor, Henry VIII. The 

 reign of Edward VI. witnessed the establishment of 

 Christ's hospital, Bridewell, andSt Thomas's hospital ; 

 and, under the sway of Elizabeth, the metropolis 

 increased with surprising rapidity, in commercial 

 enterprise and general prosperity. The plague 

 renewed its ravages soon after the accession of 

 James I. in 1603, when upwards of 30,000 persons 

 fell victims to it. Sir Hugh Middleton, about that 

 time also, commenced his great work of supplying 

 the inhabitants with water from the New river ; and 

 the pavements were improved for the comfort ot 

 pedestrians. The reign of Charles I. was marked 

 by a recurrence of the plague, which carried oft' 

 35,000 of the inhabitants. It returned in the year 



1665, with unparalleled fury. This awful visitation 

 swept away 100,000 of the inhabitants within thir- 

 teen months. It was shortly after followed by the 

 great fire, which broke out on the 2d September, 



1666, and raged with irresistible fury, until it con- 

 sumed eighty-nine churches, 13,200 dwelling houses, 

 and 400 streets, the city gates, Guildhall, numerous 

 public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, and 

 stately edifices, leaving a ruined space of 436 acres, 

 from the Tower to the Temple church, and from the 

 north-east gate, along the city wall, to Holborn 

 bridge, and destroying property to the estimated 

 amount of 10,000,000. Within less than five 

 years after this terrible calamity, the city was almost 

 wholly rebuilt, in a style of far greater regularity, 

 security, commodiousness, and salubrity. After the 

 revolution of 1688, the metropolis rapidly expanded, 

 and, in 1711, the population was found to have so 

 greatly increased, that an act of parliament passed 

 for the building of fifty new churches. The win- 

 ter of 1739,40 is memorable for the occurrence of 

 the most intense frost recorded in the annals of Eng - 

 land; it continued for eight weeks, and the Thames, 

 above London bridge, became a solid mass, on which 



