LONDON. 



177 



above floor, within a narrow area. Sucli is the gigantic Midland Hotel at the 

 St. Paneras station, a huge mass of brick and iron, with towers, pavilions, and 

 triumphal gateways ; such also are the other hotels constructed for the convenience 

 of travellers contiguous to the great railway termini. These palaces tower hio-h 

 above the surrounding houses, but they are scarcely sufficiently capacious to 

 accommodate the crowds that flock to them. 



So prodigious is the extent of London that there exists no point of vantage 

 where the whole of it can be seen spread out beneath us, even though the 

 prospect be not obscured by fog or smoke. From the top of the Monument 



Fig. 93. — Railways of London. 

 Scale 1 : 350,000. 



3 Miles. 



raised in the centre of the City we merely see the roofs of numberless houses, the 

 steeples of hundreds of churches, and a crescent-shaped reach of the river, with its 

 bridges, steamers, and forests of masts, lost on the horizon. From Primrose Hill or 

 the heights of Hampstcad or Highgate, on the north of London, we look down upon 

 the parks, gardens, and villas, beyond which extends the ocean of houses 

 surmounted by the cupola of St. Paul's ; but the Thames and its port are beyond 

 the reach of vision. From Greenwich, or from the tall tower of the Crvstal 

 Palace, other portions of the metropolis can be seen or divined, but the greater part 

 of London is always excluded from the immense panorama. In order to obtain a 

 true idea of the prodigious size of the City we must necessarily explore its various 



