LONDON, 
very famous inn fituated behind the ftatue, prefents a 
would-be gothic appearance, and is well known for the 
immenfe number of ftages that rdort there. Oppolite are 
two or three fire-offices hand Comely built ; and a row of 
lottery-offices, decked in all the nonfenl'e of multicolor 
letters, vaunting bills, gawdy decorations, and puffs. 
A little to the well of Charing Crofs is a large fqware, 
on one fide of which is a handfome building, ufed as ta¬ 
bles for his majefty’s llate-horfes, and known by the name 
of the King’s Mews. This word is borrowed from the di- 
verfion of hawking. When kings, in this and other 
countries, ufed to take delight in hunting the bnaller in¬ 
habitants of the air with the help of fome of the tyrants 
of that free element, places were afligned to keep the 
hawks or falcons drilled to the fight and trained to the 
came. Thefe royal houl'es were like palaces, and went un¬ 
der the names of falconry. One of this fort near Paiis is 
ftill called la Muette. The birds were placed there, and 
kept with great care, particularly when the time of moult¬ 
ing or calling feathers was approaching. The word mew 
is derived from the French muer, “ to moult; and thefe 
from the Latin mutare, to change.—This place is of great 
antiquity, having been ufed for the accommodation of 
the king’s falconers and hawks fo early as the year 1377 ; 
but, the”king’s Fables Lomefbury (now called Bloomfbury) 
being dellroyed by fire in the* year 1537, Henry VIII. 
caufed the birds to be removed, and the mews enlarged 
and fitted up for the reception of his horfes ; and the royal 
Itables have ever fince been kept in this place. Here the 
beautiful cream-coloured horfes enjoy their undifturbed 
repofe, after prancing among the huzzas of the London 
crowd; and there the redoubted Cofacs ufed to bivouac 
during their (liort relidence in this metropolis.—Thus, 
though the word mew bears no relation to horfes, and does 
not fignify any enclof'ure except to confine birds, as a hen¬ 
coop, &c. yet fo polite and royal are our nobility and 
gentry, that every fet of Itables appended to an elegant 
modern ftreet is called a Mews !—The old building being 
greatly decayed, the north fide was erected in a magnifi¬ 
cent manner by his late majefty, in the year 1732. This 
fide of the Mews is exceedingly noble, particularly the 
centre, which is enriched with columns of the Doric or¬ 
der, and a pediment. The finaller pediments, and ruftic 
arches under the cupolas or lanterns, are properly fubor- 
dinate to the principal one ; but fet fo clofe to the ba- 
luftrade, that its intention as a gallery is deftroyed. The 
edifice itfelf is greatly injured by the mean buildings that 
form the other fides of the quadrangle. If thefe were 
made to correfpond with the main building, and a fuitable 
entrance formed from Charing Crofs, the royal (tables 
would be a diftinguifhed ornament to this part of the me¬ 
tropolis ; but there is fome talk of removing them en¬ 
tirely, to make way for new improvements. 
In Caftle-ftreet, near the back of the Mews, is a free- 
fchool, with an excellent library over it, both founded 
snd endowed in the year 1685, by Dr. Thomas Tennifon, 
vicar of this parifh, and afterwards archbilhop of Canter¬ 
bury. Adjoining to this library and fchool is the work- 
houfe for the poor ; all of them erefted upon a piece of 
ground granted to the inhabitants of this parifh by king 
James I. fora burial-ground. 
Returning through the Mews, we crofs over, and foon 
come to the Spring-garden entrance into St. James’s Park, 
a place noted forexhibitions of Panoramas, Panharmonicon, 
mechanical wonders, See. See. Thefe words, Panorama, 
Panharmonicon, to which we might have added Phantafma- 
garia, and many other Greek words, call upon us to ani¬ 
madvert upon the folly of printing in gold letters on our 
walls or over our doors, inferiptions or words which can 
never enter the underftanding of thofe whofe eyes they 
happen to meet. We find in Leicefter-fquare an office, 
or lioufe of call, for fervants out of place; and the in¬ 
scription is in Greek ! Now this is truly ridiculous. 
Shall we have Sunday-fchools where our fervants may 
leam Greek, in order to underftand where they are to go 
5f>3 
when they want employment ? and will the friends to tho 
diffufion of general knowledge fend to both our univerfities 
f or young profeffors in the language of Anacreon to teach 
our nurlery-maids in St. James’s Park or the Temple Gar¬ 
dens ?—Down with Greek or any other foreign fuperferip- 
tions. Our tongue, the venerable tongue of our fore¬ 
fathers, the idiom of Milton, Addifon, Dryden,and Pope, 
wants not the flimfy aid of extraneous words ; it has itt 
own pathos and ftrength. Thefe great matters of the ver¬ 
nacular tongue never were at a lots to exprefs their ideas 
in Englifh ; why fliould a fire-grate maker, for inltance, 
call his new contrivance a metafiatic grate ? Boileau fays, 
Ce que Port confoit bien s'exprime clairement, 
Et les mots pour le dire arrivent afement. 
What we well underffand and feel, the word 
To render it comes of its own accord. 
Agreeable to this axiom, thofe Grecians do not underftand 
their own calling, fince they are obliged to have recourl'e 
to outlandi/k expreffions to make it known. We confefs 
that there are adopted words of long Handing, which it 
would be now pedantry to difeard ; but every one fhould 
oppofe as Itrenuoufly as he can the introduction of others. 
Dr. Johnfon has opened the flood-gate to thefe ufelefs in¬ 
novations. 
Having flopped in limine to enter our proteft againfl fo¬ 
reign difguifes, we enter the Park, and (hall deferibe its 
appearance in plain Englifh, and in the words of Common 
Senfe, as we find it in the Monthly Magazine for April 
1813. In parting through the narrow entrance at Spring 
Gardens, about nine in the morning, “ I found the lame 
and blind taking their periodical ffations on each fide the 
paflage. I paufed a few minutes to fee them approach one 
after another, as to a regular calling ; or like players taking 
their ftations to aft their fettled part in the drama of life. 
One fellow', who had a withered leg, approached his polt 
with cheerfulnefs; but he had no fooner feated himfelf, 
and itripped it bare, than he began fuch hideous moans as 
in.a few minutes attrafted feveral donations. Another, 
a blind woman, was brought to her port by a little boy 5 
who carelefsty leading her againft the Hep of a door, die 
gave him a fmart box on the ear, and exclaimed, D— you, 
you rafeal, can’t you mind what you’re about—and 
then, leaning her back to the wall, (lie, in the fame breath, 
began to chaunt a hymn, which foon brought donations 
from many pious paffengers. The fyftematic movements 
of thefe people led me to inquire about their conduft and 
policy from a fhopkeeper in the neighbourhood. He told 
me that about a dozen of them obtained a good living in 
that paflage ; that an attendance of about two hours per day 
lufficed to each of them; when, by an arrangement among 
thcmfelves, they regularly fucceed each other. He could 
not guefs at the amounts thus collefted ; but he faid,that 
he had once watched anoify blind fellow for half an hour, 
and in that time law thirty-four people give him at lealt 
as many halfpence; he thence, and from other obferva- 
tions, concluded, that in a couple of hours each of them col- 
lefts five or fix (hillings. We cannot wonder, then, at the 
averfion entertained by thefe objefts to the difeipline of our 
workhoufes. 
“On my entrance into the Park, I was amufed and in- 
terefted by an aflemblage of a hundred mothers, nurfes,. 
and valetudinarians, accompanied by as many children, 
who are drawn together every fine morning at this hour 
by the metropolitan luxury of warm milk from the cow. 
Seats are provided, as well as bifeuits, and other conveni¬ 
ences ; and here from fun-rife till ten o’clock continues a 
milk-fair, diftinguifhed by its peculiar mufic, the lowing 
of cows and the fqualling of children. The privilege of 
keeping thefe cows, and of felling their milk on this fpot, 
belongs to the gate-keepers of the Park; and it murt be 
allowed to be a great convenience to invalids and children, 
to whom this wholefome beverage and its attendant walk 
are often preferibed. 
“ In my way towards and along the Mall, I remarked 
that few were walking my way 5 but that all the faces and 
footftej* 
