.50 
LON 
met in fociety, and built places to refide in, their choice 
molt prudently led to the fidcs or banks of rivers ; and 
they therefore erefled their fimple and unadorned man- 
dons in vales, or downs. The word Lud, which fignified 
a Lord, or Prince, may have furnidled the firft fyliable; 
and, indeed, it feems that, independently of being the name 
of an ancient king of the Britons, preserved in the deno¬ 
mination of fome places (till exiding, as Ludgate, See. the 
title of the chieftain of the Franks was Lud. Clovis was 
C/odova’us 5 and it is well known that the C or K was r.ot 
pronounced in this word, fince that of Ludovicus or Lndoix 
arofe from it. The teftimony of ancient writers proves 
that London was the chief town of the Trinobantes, and 
mod likely peculiarly favoured or inhabited by the king, 
or lord, of the nation. This ingenious etymon feems to 
carry with it a great deal of probability, and may fatisfy the 
antiquarian, fince no other brings more light on the fub- 
je£l. Lud-down might have eafily been forfeited into Lon¬ 
don, “ the City of Lud ;” that is, the place moltly reforted 
to by the chief of the nation of the Trinobantes. The 
ancient Britons and Welch dill call it Lundayn ; the an¬ 
cient Saxons, Londonceajler , or Cajhum Londini. Tacitus, 
Ptolemy, and Antoninus, called it Londinium-, Ammianus, 
Lundinum ; Stephanus, Lindonion ; Bede, Lundonia ; and Ci- 
vitas Lundonia. The name of Augujla was alfo conferred 
on this city, according to Ammianus Marcellinus ; very 
probably on account of the traditional report that it was 
furrounded with walls by Conftantine the Great, wliofe 
mother was dyled Helena Augujla. The French have un¬ 
accountably added res to the firft fyllable, and pronounce 
it Londres ; the Spaniards, Londra-, the Portuguese, Londre-, 
and the Dutch Lunden. 
General View of London, and its different Ap¬ 
proaches. 
If we give credit to ancient writers, (and certainly 
many of them ought to be believed, fince their relations 
perfeflly agree with the ruins and veltiges of the places 
they deferibe,) the approach of Athens and Corinth, of 
Agrigenturn and of Rome, befides feveral others, mull 
have wrought a very lively impreflion on the mind of the 
traveller.—The didant afp.eft of the Athenian city, that 
for many centuries ranked aynong the mod important of 
the dates exilting at that tune; the proud Acropolis, 
crowned with the unparalleled Temple of Minerva, the fa¬ 
mous Parthenion, overlooking the whole of Aclinia, down 
to the celebrated ifthmus, and the neighbouring hills 
Budded with white marble edifices, riling in amphitheatres 
above facred groves of laurels and cyprefs ; the entrance 
into the Bimarem Corinthum, fituated between two gulfs, 
upon that narrow tongue of land dividing Greece from 
the Peloponnefus, with a didant view of the grey heights 
of Mount Athos, that courted and defied the wrath of 
the mighty kings of Perlia; the entrance into that won¬ 
derful city, where the immenfe number of datues in mar¬ 
ble, in done, in ivory, and in bronze, were calculated to 
favour the ltrange furmife, that, at fome didant period of 
time, all the inhabitants had been fudde'nly transformed 
into thofe works ot art;—the avenue to the Sicilian Agri- 
gentum, backed with the burning peak of Etna, and de¬ 
corated with the tombs and cenotaphs of the worthies, 
and the venerable fanes of the gods ;—the Via Appia lead- 
ins to Rome through an interrupted line of elegant villas, 
fepulchres, and funeral monuments ere fled to the me¬ 
mory of emperors, diflatcrs, vellals, confuls, and heroes 5 
and, among a crowd of columns and obelilks, the didant 
view of the domineering Capitol, frowning from the brow 
' of the Ta.rpeian rock, upon the conquered nations of 
Latium:—The remembrance of all this pajl fplendour and 
magnificence vanifnes at once before the prefent afpeft of 
the Britilh metropolis.—This affertion may feern, at fird, 
bold and hyperbolical; but yet it is grounded upon truth, 
palpable evidence, and daily conviflion; for, indeed, 
from whatever point of the compafs we reach London, 
DON. 
the eye meets with a feene equally grand, interefting, and 
magnificent. 
The entrance from the wedern counties, is-enriched 
by an innumerable quantity of gentlemen’s manfions, the 
neatnefs and elegance of which, raife a fir ft idea of the 
wealth and fplendour of the metropolis.—Sion houfe, the 
ieat of the duke of Northumberland ; the gardens and 
elylian groves of Richmond and Kew, on one fide ; the 
datelinefs of the trees in Kenfington Gardens, and the ex- 
panfe of Hyde Park, on the other ;—the view of St. James’s 
and the Green Park, from the wide opening of Piccadilly* 
embracing Buckingham-houfe and the archireclural won¬ 
der of Wedminder-abbey, by the fide of which the un¬ 
dulating fereen of the Surrey hills binds the view; pre¬ 
fent an admirable profpefl, animated by the rapid and 
flufluating ingrefs and egrefs of equipages of the moll 
fadiionable form, reforting to the rides modiy frequented 
by the nobility of the wed end of the town. 
From the north, from the heights of Idington, refound- 
ing with the lowing of cattle, the bleatings of flieep, pacing 
dowlv the doping paths towards the populous cities they 
are doomed to feed ; from thole hills where tea-gardens 
and Sadler’s Wells yield to the influence of the goddefs of 
mirth, fad by the artificial dream of a New River;—the 
united cities of London and Wellminfter, with their ex- 
tenfive appendages, difplay themfelves in adoniflting and 
awful majefty, centred by the magnificent pile of St. Paul’s, 
which, in gigantic mood, rifes above a fored of fpires, 
towers, and deeples, Handing, feemingly in a line, from 
Shooter’s Hill in Kent to Primrole Hill in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Ilampdead. 
If the bufinels of the traveller direfts him to come up 
to London by water, his arrival from the eaft will be at¬ 
tended with dill greater caufe for curiodty and adonidi- 
ment.—After he has faluted that monument of national 
gratitude towards the naval defenders of our rights on the 
leas, he will dafli through an immenfe fored of (hips of ail 
lhapes, forms, and fizes, decorated with the flying colours 
of all nations from the four quarters of the world, brought 
to the noble bofom of the Thames, by the hands of in- 
duflry and trade, and lying there fafe under the wings of 
piotcftion and confidence. He will pafs under the an¬ 
cient walls of the Tower, whofe origin is fuppofed to 
precede the Chridian era; and the contents of which, 
he has been told, are molt interefling and precious. He 
will gaze at the bufy quays, at the dream covered with 
boats, craft, collier-veflels, wherries, and barges, above 
calculation, yielding willingly and cheerfully to the im- 
pulfe of intered or pleafure, and eroding each other in all 
directions. He will reach, at lad, the venerable pile of 
London-bridge, that divides two counties, and fits 
mightily on the fuelling tide; and on the left fide of 
which the Monument raifes its lofty head to the Ikies. 
There he will forget all he has been told of the famous 
ports of the Phoenicians of old ; Tyre and Sydon mult 
dwindle in his mind into mere infignificance, whild he 
heaves a figh of generous pity for the departed glory of 
Amfterdam and Venice. 
But if the foreigner, in his perambulations, chances to 
find his way to the metropolis by the fouthern road, then 
what pleafure, what enjoyment, what adonifnmenr, will 
Iwell and delight his heart! In cqfe he fliould not obtain 
a glance of Greenwich, however, the road on both fides 
will prefent, all along, Rich an admirable feenery, gliding 
fwiftly before his fight; fuch a quantify of country boxes, 
feats, and villas, crowning the hills, difperfed in the val¬ 
leys, peeping through the willow and poplar groves; fo 
many feminaries and fchools, backed by meadows rich 
with cattle, and by gardens and nurferies exhaling the 
aromatic perfumes of the eall; that he will think of no¬ 
thing but fairy vifions and romantic enchantments.—He 
will meet, on bis left, an admirable Afylum for the Deaf 
and Dumb, that will fpeak to his heart and roufehis nicefl: 
feelings; whilll it is contralted by the loud and bufy feene 
aS 
