THE EXETER ROAD 



hansom-cabs, and motor cars, and where Ludgate 

 Hill joins Fleet Street there will be a Circns and an 

 obstructive railway-bridge. 



We proceed in leisurely fashion down Ludgate 

 Hill, and halt for passengers and parcels at the 'Bolt- 

 in-Tun,' Fleet Street, which is now a railway receiving 

 office. Thence by slow^ degrees, calling at the ' Ked 

 Lion,' ' Spotted Dog,' and the ' White Hart,' we 

 eventually reach the ' Grloucester Coffee House,' 

 Piccadilly, re-built many years ago, 

 and now the ' Berkeley Hotel.' 

 Beyond this point, progress is 

 fortunately speedier, and we reach 

 Hyde Park Corner in, compara- 

 tively speaking, the twinkling of 

 an eye. Hyde Park Corner in 

 1837, this year of the Queen's 

 accession, has begun to feel the 

 great changes that are presently to 

 alter London so marvellously. We 

 have amono- our fellow-travellers 

 by the stage an old gentleman, 

 a Cobbett-like person, who wears a 

 rustic, semi-farmer kind of appear- 

 ance, and recollects many improvements here ; who can 

 ' mind the time, look you,' when the turnpike-gate 

 {which was removed in 1825) stood at the corner; 

 when St. George's Hospital was a private mansion, 

 the residence of Lord Lanesborough ; and w^hen the road 

 leading past it to Pimlico was quite wild country, 

 as in the picture on page 43, where sportsmen shot 

 snipe in those marshes that were in future years 



• AN OLD GENTLEMAN, A 

 COBBETT-LIKE PERSON. ' 



