62 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



of births, deaths, and marriages in several of the largest 

 towns of Europe, from which to draw a comparison with 

 London, and to show the size of London. I will in the 

 last volume (D.V.) of these travels give how many are 

 annually born, die, &c, in London. [This promise was 

 never fulfilled.] Now I will only shortly state them con- 

 cerning the foreign places, as they stood entered in this 

 book. [Pp. 446 and 447 of T. I. contain Tables for 

 Nine towns.] 



[T. I. p. 447.J 

 Several good institutions in London. 



In several places, especially in the larger streets, 

 where the people stream backwards and forwards, there 

 sit either men or old women with shoe-brushes, blacking, 

 and such like, ready to clean shoes for anyone who may 

 require their services. Thus when [T. I. p. 448] one 

 walks in the street, and gets muddy about the shoes, he 

 turns to one of those who stand in the street, and allows 

 him to clean his shoes. It is not necessary to take off 

 one's shoes for this purpose, but one sets the feet with 

 the shoes on upon a little table, stol, which is put there 

 on purpose, when they are cleaned. A halfpenny is paid 

 for each shoe. This is a great advantage in this place, 

 where the women are so very careful about their clean 

 and white floors, besides that, one can go neat about the 

 feet. 



In many places, and almost everywhere in the large 

 streets, there stand carriages for hire, hyr-vagnar, 

 ready to carry, on payment, anyone who wishes to use 

 them. These hire-coachmen, hyr-kuskar, do not get 

 to take payment, according to their own judgment, if they 

 are employed in the town, but they have a certain Taxa, 

 how much they shall receive from the one place to 

 another, above which they cannot go without a fine, 



