rear wall of his garden; and, as near as I can recollect, from thirty to forty feet high. It is a genuine fragment of the old city. But the city of London, although under a distinct municipal government, having valuable immunities and certain great and independent powers of its own, is yet apparently merged and lost in the great metropolis. I have understood, and suppose it to be a fact, that the city of London has 50,000 less inhabitants now than it had 100 years ago. The reason is obvious: the increase of business has turned large districts into shops and warehouses, which were once tenanted as dwelling-houses, and driven out many rookeries and nests of the poor to find a place in other and distant parts of the metropolis of less value. Besides, it is more the fashion of late years for men of business, who can afford it, and many who cannot afford it, to live out of town, or somewhere on its borders, instead of occupying the first and second floors over their counting-rooms and shops, or living anywhere pent up in the city. Hence, as one reason, the unceasing run of omnibuses, stagecoaches, and other carriages, between the city and the skirts of the metropolis. There are 114 parishes in the city of London; and as very many of the churches are deserted by this change in the modes of life and business, it has been gravely proposed by those who better understood the value of pounds, shillings, and pence, than the insurmountable difficulty of desecrating a church, that those churches not wanted should be pulled down, and the ground appropriated to some profitable use. A formal correspondence lately passed between the municipal authorities of London and the bishop of the diocess on this subject; but the bishop, who regards those edifices as holy, and not knowing how to desecrate them, discouraged their petition.

For those who never expect to see London, let it be understood, then, that the principal parts, of which they occasionally hear, are situated relatively, as follows: Mainly the business parts are on the east, and the genteel parts on the west. Beginning on the west, Chelsea, Brompton, and Knightsbridge comprehend a large district west of Westminster and its liberties. Immediately on the north of this district is Hyde Park, having Kensington gardens and palace on the west, and the northwestern regions of the metropolis on the north—a part of which is Paddington, where so many of the business men of the city reside, having a like relation to London as Greenwich to New-York.

Westminster and its liberties embrace a large district, having Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, and Chelsea on the west; the Thames on the east and south, as far as Temple Bar, which is on the western border of the city of London; and Oxford-street, which corresponds with the north line of Hyde Park, on the north. Immediately on the northern bor

der of St. James's Park is St. James's Palace, the royal residence; at the west end of this park is the new palace, formerly Buckingham House, now called Pimlico Palace, occupied by the royal family. It is one of the extravagant projects of George the Fourth, and will have cost the nation, when finished and furnished, about one million sterling. The front entrance and enclosure alone have cost £70,000, or 336,000 dollars. The Parliament Houses are on the bank of the Thames, less than a half mile distant and southeast of Pimlico and St. James's palaces. Immediately across the street, and by the side of the Parliament Houses, stands the ancient and venerable pile of Westminster Abbey. Milbank Penitentiary is up the river from this point about half a mile, near Vauxhall Bridge. Whitehall is directly on the Thames a little below the Parliament Houses. Opposite Whitehall on the same street are the treasury buildings, and Downingstreet at right angles with Whitehall-street. Above the treasury buildings are the Horse Guards, so called from being a permanent station for that corps. At the head of Whitehall-street is the noted point of Charing Cross; and immediately above it lately opened Trafalgar Square, where is to be erected a splendid naval monument; and the new national gallery of the fine arts, now in building, is on the north side of the square, and in front of St. Martin's Church, called St. Martin's-in-the-fields, though far from being in the fields at present.

As Charing Cross is a notable place in the topography of London, and frequently seen in type, and not less often heard pronounced, it may be worthy to observe in passing→ that Charing is supposed to have been the name of a village there, where Edward I. erected a cross in memory of his queen, Eleanor. Some suppose, and not without reason, that Charing is a corruption of chere regne, or reine, as there is no record of such a village-the version of which would be-The cross of the dear queen. The stranger, however, looks in vain for the cross, and wonders how the equestrian statue of Charles I. can answer to that name. The cross was demolished as an obnoxious relic of popery; and the statué itself, which had been put in its place, was sold, after the king was no more, to one John River, a brasier in Holborn, with orders to break it up; but he, speculating in politics, chose to keep it till a change of times; and there it stands again, and to this day, the first equestrian statue that was ever erected in Great Britain.

At Charing Cross begins the Strand, one of the greatest thoroughfares leading to the city, and extending to Temple Bar under that name, whence it takes successively the names of Fleet-street, Ludgate Hill, and Cheapside, to the bank and Royal Exchange. West of Charing Cross lies Pall Mall, a spacious and fine street, leading to the Palace

of St. James, on which, besides several magnificent clubhouses and some unostentatious galleries for the exhibition of specimens of the fine arts, is the Italian Opera House, or King's Theatre.

St. James's Palace is at the foot of the street of the same name, and about midway of the northern border of St. James's Park. It is a mean building to look upon-but princely within.

"The West End" of London is an indefinite region, and, as I need not say, indicates the atmosphere of the court. It is commonly reckoned to begin at Temple Bar. Fifty years ago I suppose it did; but I think it has been gradually travelling westward. Still, however, the principal and most popular theatres, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Adelphi, are supposed to be comprehended in these limits. For the most part, at present, there is not much of the spirit of West End to be found on the east of Regent-street, except by the way of Pall Mall, Charing Cross, and Whitehall, on the route to Westminster Hall. But all who live between Regent-street and Hyde Park, and between St. James's Park on the south and Regent's Park on the north, doubtless imagine that they are breathing the purest air of nobility.

Regent's-street is a modern cut through London, from Carlton House, that was-now Duke of York's monumentto Oxford-street, on a line towards Regent's Park; and it is one of the finest streets of London, including the two circuses and the quadrant. Langham-street and Portland Place, which make the continuation of Regent's-street towards the park, exhibit their own quiet grandeur, and seem a sort of introduction to the splendid Park-crescent and Parksquare, and to the still more magnificent lines and terraces, which encircle Regent's Park nearly to its northern extremity-where are to be found, in a most enchanting retreat, the Zoological Gardens. The Colosseum is on the east line of Regent's Park-a mountain of a buildingwhere, besides many other things worth seeing, is exhibited a Panorama of London, the original sketches of which were taken minutely from the top of St. Paul's, in 1821, by Mr. Horner, while the cross was taken down and being replaced. The buildings on the borders of all the parks of London are generally in a style of great magnificence.

Regent's Park is quite on the northern border of the metropolis, and is a new creation-having been projected and built since 1814. It is the largest of the parks, having four hundred and fifty acres, which is fifty-five in excess of Hyde Park. It is in form circular, supported on the south, east, and west borders, by ranges of magnificent houses and terraces, many of which are fit for palaces, but opening on the north to a pure country scene, with a range of hills, em

bracing Hampstead, which is from four hundred to five hundred feet above the level of the Thames.

This park is encircled by one of the finest drives in the vicinity of London, and may also be penetrated to a carriage-road circus of about half a mile in circumference in the heart of it. The gardens of this park are not yet opened to the public, on account of the tenderness of the shrubbery. With all its attractions it has not withdrawn the public in any perceptible degree from Hyde Park; although it is probably destined to become a favourite resort. There is a most enchanting water scene in Regent's Park, beyond any thing that has been created about the metropolis. "The parks are the lungs of London."

Having taken a glance of the court end of London, we will proceed by way of the river to the denser smoke and greater bustle of its business and commercial parts. Beginning at Battersea Bridge and Chelsea old church, some four or five miles up the river from St. Paul's, we descend on the tide, passing under Vauxhall Bridge, a light cast-iron structure of nine arches, each 78 feet in span and 29 in the height of the arch, making a length of bridge, including the piers, of 860 feet; completed in 1816; cost £150,000 (720,000 dollars). This bridge is about three quarters of a mile above Westminster Abbey. After passing Vauxhall Bridge, immediately on the left is Milbank Penitentiary, enclosing 18 acres within its walls; cost somewhat less than £500,000; is capable of accommodating 1,000 convicts, 500 of each sex; established in 1820, and is an experiment. Before arriving at Westminster Bridge, we leave Lambeth Palace on the right, the town residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the chief hierarch of England; that is, in settling the precedency between him and the Archbishop of York, it was determined that the latter should be styled "Primate of England," and the former "Primate of all England."

Westminster Bridge is thrown across the Thames at the Parliament House and Abbey, is built of stone on 15 arches, in length 1,223 feet; was begun 1739 and completed 1750; cost £389,000 ($1,867,200). It is a grand structure.

From Westminster to Waterloo Bridge by the river is about half a mile, passing Whitehall, Hungerford market, and the Adelphi buildings on the left; and Lambeth waterworks and the shot-tower on the right. These are the most remarkable objects immediately on the banks of the river. The river also turns from a northerly course to the east in this distance. Waterloo Bridge, except the New London, I should rank as the grandest on the Thames; is built of granite; has nine arches; in length is 1,242 feet; was commenced in 1811, and opened June 18th, 1817, the anniver

sary of the battle of Waterloo, in the presence of the Prince Regent and the Duke of Wellington.

In another half mile from Waterloo to Blackfriars' Bridge, we pass the quadrangle of buildings called Somerset House, once a palace, now appropriated as public offices, connected with the government, &c. The Temple Gardens and Inns of Court also present themselves on the same bank, and are the first buildings within the city of London going down. Blackfriars' Bridge is about a quarter of a mile east of the present west boundary of the city; is stone; was built between 1760 and 1768, at an expense of £152,840, or $733,632. It is 995 feet long, and has nine arches. It is now undergoing very considerable repairs.

Southwark Bridge is a magnificent work of cast iron of three arches, built between 1814 and 1819. The middle arch is 240 feet in span, and the side arches each 210. The distance between the abutments is 708 feet. Many single castings weigh 10 tons each; and the whole weight of iron exceeds 5,308 tons. This bridge is directly opposite Guildhall, the centre of the city; cost £800,000, or 3,840,000 dollars.

The new London Bridge is the best on the Thames, and altogether the most magnificent. It was opened by the king with great pomp and ceremony in August, 1831, having been six years in building. It is composed of granite from Scotland, and rests upon five arches. The span of the centre arch is 152 feet, rise 32; span of the two arches next the centre 140 feet, rise 30; span of the extreme arches 130 feet, rise 25; length of bridge including the abutments 950 feet. This bridge stands at the foot of the London Monument, erected to commemorate the great fire of 1666, and nearly opposite the Royal Exchange, Bank of England, and Mansion House; cost £1,500,000. It is the separation between river and sea navigation, as no vessel of standing masts can go above it. Yet it is but a little below the centre of the metropolis, the lower parts of the river being left open for a harbour, which is constantly crowded with à forest of masts.

Of the six bridges we have noticed, those of Westminster, Blackfriars, and London, are not only on the lines of the greatest thoroughfares, but they are free of toll; and therefore naturally draw the greatest current of passengers, The average daily crossing of foot-passengers at Westminster and Blackfriars' Bridges was ascertained about 20 years ago to be 32,000 for the former and 48,000 for the latter, taking six weeks of summer and six of winter for the counting. In July, 1811, there passed over Blackfriars' Bridge in one day, 61,069 foot-passengers; 533 wagons; 1,502 carts and drays; 999 coaches; 500 gigs and taxed carts; and 822 horses. On the same day there crossed over London