SLIPPERINESS OF LUDGATE HILL. 127 



Ludgate Hill is neither very steep nor long, yet 

 we have so often heard these stereotjrped complaints 

 about it, that we have come to regard it as a verit- 

 able mountain. If this mountain refuses to advance 

 to INlahomet, and there is an urgent necessity for 

 their meeting, why should not Mahomet advance 

 towards the mountain ? Sand is, at the best, an 

 incomplete remedy, at the same time that it is a 

 costly one for the ratepayers ; and its use, instead 

 of inducing to cleanliness, does the very reverse. 

 Every time the road was swept or scraped, the sand 

 would go with the rest, and then we should be 

 ' as we were,' until more was put down. A better 

 measure would be to keep the roadway clean by the 

 use of revolving brushes worked on the end of a 

 cart, into which the dirt should be carried by the 

 brushes. Such sweeping carts were formerly to be 

 seen, but have vanished. But what really wants 

 most looking at is the revers de la medaille. On it 

 would be seen bright, smooth, iron shoes far more 

 slippery than the pavement. Unfortunately for the 

 horse, this face of the coin is downwards, and people 

 will not allow themselves to be persuaded to turn it 

 up and examine it. If they would do so, and efface 

 those slippery shoes, they would find under them a 

 material, placed there by the Almighty to prevent 

 the horse from slipping on smooth surfaces, even on 

 ice. The horses would then give over struggling on 

 the points of their toes, because they would find 

 that a large, tough surface would afford them better 

 holding and a better 'point d^appui, than would the 



