place, this gentleman estimates, that the transit of property by land-carriage, to and from London, amounts in value to the vast sum of fifty millions annually; and the number of carts, waggons, coaches, &c. employed in the conveyance of this immense aggregate has been computed at forty thousand. The Metropolis, indeed, being the grand mart for every possible variety of goods, both of elegance and use,' and the very centre of commerce, as well as the seat of a population amounting to upwards of nine hundred thousand persons, it may readily be conceived that these computations do not exceed the truth. The Manufactures, as has been stated in a general way in the preceding volume, include almost every kind of article, either of utility or consump tion, or of ingenuity, taste, science, or convenience. Those of silk, watches, cut-glass, fine jewellery, gentlemens' carriages, and their trappings, organs, piano-fortes, cabinet-work, fancy furnitúre, mathematical and optical instruments, fire-engines, &c. are almost peculiar to the Capital; at least, in all their higher branches. Sugar, soap, &c. are also manufactured here to an unparalleled extent; and the distillers and brewers furnish sources of employment for an aggregate capital of many millions.† Cutlery and fire-arms, of the most superior kinds, and even cannon, form part The total of the summary of the population of London, as ascertained from the returns made to the House of Commons, in 1801, will be found in the preceding Volume, p. 54; yet, as that number, viz. 865,628, does not include the soldiers generally stationed in the Metropolis, and whose numbers are upwards of 12,000, nor yet the seamen belonging to the navy, nor the foreigners who frequent the Port, nor yet the dealers and visitors from the country, who are constantly going to and fro, besides some other classes of persons, which might be easily enumerated; the gross amount of human beings at all times resident in the Capital and its immediate environs cannot be less than the number stated above. There can be little doubt that a line, extending from St. Paul's Cathedral, as a centre, and continued round a cir. cumference of seven miles, would include more than a million of souls! + Further particulars of the Brewing and Distilling business, as well as of various Manufactures, will be inserted in the subsequent parts of this Volume, part of the manufactures of London; and, among other branches of steel and iron work, that of polished register, and other stoves, should not be omitted; nor yet the more minute, but ingenious, art of needle-making.* The casting of printers' types, stereotype, and metal ornaments for printing, may likewise be enumerated with those almost peculiar to London or its neighbourhood, as well as numerous branches of art and science, carried on under exclusive patents, and otherwise. The vast variety of objects which thus concentrate in the trade of the Metropolis, open an immense field for retail business, and very many are the streets where the ground floors of the houses are wholly occupied as retail shops. These, in a general point of view, are the same as the two principal lines of thoroughfares already described; and various others run in a parallel direction, or else branch out in different angles from the intermediate and adjacent avenues. Many of the shops are fitted up with much taste, and those appropriated to the more costly branches of trade have an unrivalled aspect of wealth and splendour. In this respect, the silversmiths and jewellers take the lead; and the dealers in watches, in ironmongery, cutlery, and other steel-work, in Manchester goods, mercery, linen drapery, hosiery, &c. form part of the aggregate. The china and cut-glass warehouses exhibit also a most brilliant variety of elegant and valuable goods; and the upholsterers, the opticians, the book and print sellers, and the repositories of fancy-wares, of carriages, and of furniture, all furnish an interesting display of choice, ingenious, and expensive articles. On winter evenings, till eight or nine o'clock, all the principal • Among British housewives, Whitechapel Needles have long been famous. To include the Pastry-cooks in this enumeration might appear ludicrous, yet when it is known that one of that trade, a London Citizen, was, from his success, enabled to bequeath more than 100,000l. to his heirs, the seeming pettiness of the business swells into importance. The exhibition of plum cakes, &c. in the pastry-cooks' windows, on Twelfth Nights, has long been famous; and, within the last three or four years, several of their principal shops have been fancifully fitted up with painted paper, and otherwise, as the interiors of grottoes on the sea shore. principal retail streets appear as if partially illuminated; such is the brilliancy that arises from the numerous lamps, &c. with which the shops are lighted up. The accommodations for travellers and occasional residents in London have the same comparative excellence as those enjoyed by the inhabitants themselves. The hotels, inns, taverns, coffeehouses, and lodging-houses, possess both convenience and cleanliness, and, in all the principal oues, an inmate may either reside in privacy, or mingle with company, as inclination dictates. Commodious private lodgings may be found in many eligible situations throughout the whole Metropolis; and in many of the first situations at the west end of the town, are hotels, where the most elevated in rank and distinction meet with adequate and comfortable residencies and entertainment. The accommodations of the principal taverns and coffee-houses in all the other quarters of London, and more particularly in the City, are equally respectable, though, with a few exceptions, not so splendid.+ The vast intercourse maintained by the inhabitants of London with each other, and with the surrounding towns and villages, for the purposes either of business, health, or pleasure, furnishes employment to many thousand vehicles of different descriptions, as gentlemens' carriages, stage coaches, post and single-horse chaises, glass coaches, gigs, hackney coaches, sedan chairs, waggons, carts, &c. The hackney coaches amount to eleven hundred, and are licensed by the authority of Commissioners acting under different acts of Parliament: the gentlemens' carriages are yet more numerous, and the stage and glass coaches abound to a degree no where else to be paralleled. The sedan chairs, which are principally The charge for Ready-furnished Lodgings in private houses varies, according to the quality, situation, and extent of the apartments. Upon the first floor, rooms may be had from one guinca, to two, three, four, five, and upwards, per week; on the second floors, in similar situations, apartments may be hired at about two-thirds, or somewhat less, of those sums. + The London, and City of London Taverns, in Bishopsgate Street, and the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, are more especially celebrated for public dinners. pally employed in the west end of the town, amount to four huudred; the post-chaises, gigs, &c. are very numerous, and the licensed carts, waggons, drays, and other vehicles of similar character exceed the number of thirty thousand. Saddle-horses may also be hired in almost every quarter of the Metropolis for any time, from a day upwards; and at the various livery stables the horses of individuals are kept in excellent condition at a certain reasonable sum per week. Notwithstanding the sudden and strongly contrasted changes of the weather in London, compared with the state of the atmosphere in other climes, and although multitudes of its poorer classes live in squalid poverty and wretchedness, the general healthfulness of this Capital may be deemed fully equal to that of any other in the world. In this respect considerable improvements have taken place since the times of the Great Plague and Fire, and contagious disorders are now but of rare occurrence, at least to any extent. The annual mortality at the present period may be averaged at about one in thirty-one: the number of deaths is greatest in infancy, and about one-fourth of the whole are of children under two years of age. The improved habits of nursing, however, and the recent discoveries in medicine, and particularly of Vaccination, bid fair to remedy a great proportion of this evil. The temperature of the air in London and its vicinity is sensibly affected by the influence of the coal fires, which warm and dry the atmosphere; and it is a remarkable fact, that vegetation is earlier by ten days or a fortnight on the west and south-west sides of the Metropolis, than on the northern and eastern sides. This is to be attributed to the severity of the north and northeast winds being mitigated in their passage over London, by the warmth of the air arising from the fires. The more prevalent winds blow from the north-east and south-west; and these, with little variation, occupy about ten or eleven months in the year. The westerly winds are generally pregnant with rain, the greatest falls coming from a few points west of the south; the easterly winds are sharp and piercing, but almost always dry. The heat of the atmosphere is very variable, it seldom remaining equal for many days; and every year differing from the preceding one, as well in respect to heat and cold, as to moisture and rains. "Sometimes the winter is severely cold, with frosts from Novem→ ber till May, with little interruption: sometimes the water is not frozen for more than ten or twelve days. Most commonly there is a little frost in November and December; but otherwise these months [and particularly November] are very foggy [gloomy] and moist. The principal frost is generally in January February is commonly a mild, open, moist month: March is generally cold [windy] and dry. The summer months vary as much: sometimes there are three months very warm; sometimes not more than a week [in continuance]: the latter half of July [and beginning of August] is commonly the hottest. In August heavy "Winds blowing from every point of the compass between the west, north-west, and north, are so very dry as not to produce a day's rain in a year; though I have observed as an uncommon circumstance, small rain for two or three hours from the north-west. An east wind is always dry, generally with black clouds, and the same from the other points, till the wind gets about to, or near, the north-east, which, with a few points on either side of the north-east, most frequently brings the like dry black clouds, but sometimes gentle rain for a day or two. When the wind veers from the north through the west, it continues dry till it passes the south west, from which point to the south it almost certainly brings rain; but it seldom stops there a day, returning to the same point; and when it passes southward through the eastern points, all is perfectly dry till it reaches about the south-east: the atmosphere then begins to give the appearance of rain. The wind, however, seldom rests there, but veers to the south, and from that quarter and a few points more westerly, we receive the greater rains. During the spring months the wind frequently blows warm and steadily from the south-west for near a fortnight; in a few hours it changes to the opposite point, or the north-east, and blows a steady cold gale for near another fortnight: this is repeated very often in the course of the year." Middleton's Agric. of Midd. p. 7. The westerly winds mostly prevail in the months of February, September, November, and December: the easterly winds are most prevalent in January, Febru ary, and the beginning of March. |