180 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



a desire of concentrating the transactions of commerce in this quarter that 

 causes the resident population to diminish, for the City authorities, hy opening 

 wide thoroughfares through the districts inhabited by the poor, work towards the 

 same end. When Farringdon Street was extended through the old valley of the 

 Fleet, nearly 8,000 workmen's families found themselves homeless at a single 

 blow, and their humble dwellings made room for public buildings, railways, and 

 piles of offices. In the course of the last forty years at least 50,000 work- 

 men have in thia manner been driven out of the City, and compelled to herd 

 together in the adjoining districts. The number of paupers has grown small 

 in the City, but it has increased all the more rapidly in the neighbouring 

 parishes. 



The very poorest quarters of London have immediate contact with that wealthy 

 City, which not many years hence will count only employés and housekeepers 

 amongst its resident population. The labyrinth of streets around the Tower and the 

 Docks is dreaded by the stranger, and not often entered by the Londoner residing 

 in more favoured districts. The mud is carried from the streets into the passages 

 of the houses ; the walls are bespattered with filth ; tatters hang in the windows ; 

 a fetid or rancid odour fills the atmosphere ; while most of the men and women j'ou 

 meet in the streets have sunken eyes and emaciated limbs. The soiled garments 

 which they wear have originally belonged to the fine ladies and gentlemen of the 

 TVest end ; they have changed hands ten times since their original owners parted 

 with them, and finish as rags upon the bodies of the inhabitants of Shadwell and 

 Wapping. Certain narrow streets in Rotherhithe, Bermondsoy, and Lambeth, to 

 the south of the Thames, are likewise the seats of misery, and it is with a feeling 

 of relief we emerge from them, and obtain a sight of the Thames, of some wide 

 thorouHifare, or of a public park. How vast is the contrast between these wretched 

 quarters and the sumptuous suburbs ; how great the difference in the modes of life 

 of the inhabitants and the burdens they are called upon to carry ! The annual 

 death rate varies between 14 and 60 to every 1,000 persons living, according to 

 the streets, and death gathers its harvest most rapidly whore want of work, of 

 bread, and of other necessaries facilitates its task. The misery London hides is 

 indescribable. 



The districts which bound the City to the north and east, such as Spital- 

 fields, Bethnal Green, and Clerkenwell, are princip dly inhabited by artisans, and 

 separate the poorest quarters of London from those mainly occupied by the lower 

 middle classes. The houses there are for the most part of the common English 

 type. An area, 6 to 10 feet deep, and bounded by railings, separates the 

 street from the house. A flagstone or " steps," thrown across this "ditch " like a 

 drawbridge over the moat of a fortress, lead to the entrance of what has very 

 appropriately been described as the Englishman's " castle." Separate steps 

 usually lead down into the area and to the kitchen and coal collar. There are no 

 " spy- glasses," such as may frequently be seen in the Low Countries, and the sash- 

 windows towards the street remain obstinately closed. Flowers usually ornament 

 the rooms, but cannot be seen from the street, for they are there for the gratifica- 



