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circle of my acquaintance in which I moved during my residence 
in this bustling city, would ill become this book, and to make 
any mention of London itself would be both useless and super¬ 
fluous. Consequently, I shall present but a few particulars. 
Whoever is obliged to make many visits to London, or whose 
business takes him to many houses, loses an enormous quantity 
of time; to him one day is as nothing. From my hotel to Mr. 
Goeman’s,* who resides in the city, in the neighbourhood of the 
East India company’s stores, it took me three quarters of an 
hour. At first to a stranger, a walk of this kind is by no means 
tedious, on account of the great and strange bustle surrounding 
him. In the stirring part of the city there is a store in almost 
every house, and as the English are known to possess much 
taste in displaying their wares, these stores have an amusing, in¬ 
teresting, and charming appearance. In most of the streets the 
pavement had been cast aside, and the streets were Macadamised; 
an improvement which is both beneficial to those who ride, and 
to the poor-built houses, which, owing to the rolling of heavy 
carriages along the pavement, were dreadfully shaken. I had long 
been aware that several merchants and tradesmen decorated their 
signs with the names of those members of the royal family, by 
whom they were particularly patronised, viz. corset inventress 
to the Dutchess of Kent, &c.; this time I remarked in Knight’s 
bridge, on my way to Kensington, a sign bearing the inscription 
of u only purveyor of asses milk to the royal family.” Through 
the medium of Mr. Goeman, I received from the celebrated 
engineer Brunei, an admission to visit the new tunnel, under the 
Thames; it was a five miles drive from my lodgings. The en¬ 
trance is near the church of Rotherhithe. To commence the 
work they had to dig a round pit seventy-five feet deep, above 
twenty feet in diameter, and walled in with bricks. In the centre 
of this pit they have constructed a quadrangular wooden scaffold. 
On this is erected a pumping machine, by which the spring water 
that gushes out from the tunnel, is pumped off. The water collects 
itself in a basin under the scaffold. The ejection of it is accomplish¬ 
ed by means of an iron pump, which draws off the water from the 
basin, and forces it into an iron tube, which passes out from the 
pit. Another pump and tube is in reserve to be immediately used, 
in case the former should require repair. In the interior of this 
scaffold there are two buckets, to hoist the earth from out the tun¬ 
nel, one of which comes up filled while the other goes down empty. 
These buckets have four small iron wheels, and rest upon a board. 
The moment it reaches the top, it is received by a workman, who 
„ • . 1 • , .. . i ' . 
* A respectable London merchant, and native of Flanders, to whom 1 am 
much indebted for very important services. 
