I. MKIICIIANT ADVENTURER. KM 



" in the fields." All the country to the west was farm 

 and pasture land ; and woodcocks and partridges flew 

 over the site of the future Regent Street, May Fair, 

 and Belgravia. 



The population of the city was about 150,000, living 

 in some 17,000 houses, 1 which were nearly all of timber, 

 \virl i picturesque gable-ends, and sign boards swinging 

 over the footways. The upper parts of the houses so 

 overhung the foundations, and the streets were so nar- 

 row, that D' Avenant said the opposite neighbours might 

 shake hands without stirring from home. The ways 

 were then quite impassable for carriages, which had not 

 yet indeed been introduced into England ; all travelling 

 being on foot or on horseback. When coaches were at 

 length introduced and became fashionable, the aris- 

 tocracy left the city, through the streets of which their 

 carriages could not pass, and migrated westward to 

 Co vent Garden and Westminster. 



Those were the days for quiet city gossip and neigh- 

 bourly chat over matters of local concern ; for London 

 had not yet grown so big or so noisy as to extinguish 

 that personal interchange of views on public affairs which 

 continues to characterize most provincial towns. Mer- 

 chants sat at their doorways in the cool of the summer 

 evenings, under the overhanging gables, and talked over 

 the affairs of trade ; whilst those courtiers who still had 

 their residences within the walls, hung about the fashion- 

 able shops to hear the city gossip and talk over the latest 

 iM-ws. My ddel ton's shop appears to have been one of 

 such fashionable places of resort, and the pleasant tra- 

 dition was long handed down in the parish of St. Matthew, 

 Friday-street, that Hugh Myddelton and Walter Raleigh 

 used to sit together at the door of the goldsmith's shop, 

 and smoke the newly introduced weed, tobacco, greatly 

 to the amazement of the passers by. 2 It is not impro- 



1 StryjK-'s Edition of Stowe's ' Sur- I 2 Malcolm's 'Manners and Customs 

 vey.' I of London,' p. 115. 



