THE ' GOOSE AND GRIDIRON' 37 



their artisan brethren, who did not in those times 

 aspire to one-and-twopence per hour, preferred to walk. 

 For the same reason, they were only the compara- 

 tively affluent who could aftbrd the eighteenpenny 

 fare, or the two-hours journey, to Brentford by the 

 'staoje.' 



Let us suppose ourselves to be of that fortunate 

 company, and, paying our one-and-sixpence, set out 

 from the ' Goose and Gridiron.' 



That old-fashioned hostelry, which stood modestly 

 back from the roadway on the north side of St. 

 Paul's Churchyard, was, unhappily, demolished in 

 1894, after a good deal more than two centuries' 

 record for good cheer. It was originally the ' Swan 

 and Harp,' l;)ut some irreverent wag, probably as 

 far back as the buildino- of the house in AYren's 

 time, found the other name for it, and the effigies 

 of the o'oose and the oridiron remained even to our 

 own time. 



This year of our imaginary journey affords a 

 strange contrast with the appearance the streets will 

 possess some sixty years later. Ludgate Hill, in 1837 

 an exceedingly narrow thoroughfare, paved with rough 

 granite setts, will in the last decade of the century 

 present a very different aspect. Instead of the dingy 

 brick warehouses there will be handsome premises of 

 some architectural pretensions, and the Hill will be 

 considerably widened. The setts will have dis- 

 appeared, to be replaced by wood pavement, and the 

 traffic will have increased tenfold ; until, in fact, it 

 has become a continuous stream. There will be 

 strange vehicles, too, unknown in 1837, — omnibuses. 



