adjacent villages in Middlesex and Surrey. The River Thames, which separates these Counties, also divides the Metropolis into two irregular parts; the Cities of London and Westminster, with their widely extended Suburbs, standing on the Northern side, and the Borough of Southwark, &c., on the Southern. The communication between these respective divisions, is maintained principally by means of the three Bridges of London, Blackfriars, and Westminster; and a fourth Bridge has been recently commenced at Millbank, above Westminster, in order to facilitate an intercourse with the opposite shore at Vauxhall.* The situation of London, in respect to its position on the Globe, is in Latitude, 51 degrees, 31 minutes, North; and in Longitude, 18 degrees, 36 minutes; or 5 minutes, 37 seconds, West, from Greenwich. Its distance from the principal Cities of Europe is as follows: from Edinburgh 367 miles, South; from Dublin 338 miles South-east; from Amsterdam, 190 miles, West; from Paris, 225 miles, North North-west; from Copenhagen, 610 miles, South-west; from Vienna, 820 miles, North-west; from Madrid, 860 miles, North-east by East; from Rome, 950 miles, North North-west; from Constantinople, 1660 miles, Northwest; and from Moscow, 1660 miles, East South-east. The immediate site of London is about sixty miles from the sea, Westward, in a pleasant and spacious valley, stretching along the banks of the Thames; which river, as it flows through the town, forms a bold curve or crescent. On the Northern side, the ground rises with a quick ascent, and then more gradually, but unequally, heightens to the North-west and West, which are the most elevated parts. On the South side, the ground is nearly level, and was anciently an entire morass of several miles extent, but was reclaimed through the artificial embankment of the River.t The * Two more Bridges have also been projected, and Subscriptions are now raising for the purpose of erecting them; the one from Cuper's Bridge, on the Surrey side, to the Strand between Somerset House and the Savoy, and the other from Bankside to the avenue connecting with Queen Street. + Whether this was effected by the Britons or by the Romans, is, at this distance The present average breadth of the stream, in this part of its course, is from four to five hundred yards; its general depth, at low water, is about twelve feet, but at spring tides it rises from ten to twelve, and sometimes to fourteen, or fifteen feet above that level. The tides commonly flow to the distance of fifteen miles above London Bridge, and would probably extend yet further, but from the stoppage of the water by that ponderous fabric.t The general soil of the valley in which the Metropolis is situ ated, is gravel and clay, with loam and sand intermixed. The clay predominates in most parts of the town; and to this circumstance, combined with the facility with which the clay is converted into brick, the vast augmentation of buildings in London is partly to be attributed. From the neighbourhood of Tothill Fields, on the South, to that of the Tower on the East, the buildings, following the natural bend of the River, rise in a sort of amphitheatric form, and are defended from the bleak winds of the North, by the rising grounds about Islington and Highbury, and the hills of Highgate and Hampstead. Below the Tower, and extending to the extremity of the County along the River Lee, in the vicinity of Wapping, Limehouse, Poplar, &c., the ground is in general flat, and the houses are exposed to the chilling blasts of the East. The Western and higher parts of the Metropolis, stand pleasantly open to the genial breezes of that quarter. The Southern, or Surrey side, lies low and level, and is still marshy, particularly in the neighbourhood of Lambeth, and St. George's Fields B 2 distance of time, impossible to ascertain; yet, that the former people had formed a settlement on the Northern bank of the Thames, before the embankment was constructed on the South, may be inferred from the ancient name Llyn-Din, i. e. The town on the Lake,' from which the term London appears to have been corrupted. See preceding Volume, pages 75 to 79. * About one-twelfth part of the water, at ordinary spring tides, is com. puted to be denied a passage by the piers and sterlings of the Bridge, and through this impediment, the tide rises nineteen inches higher on the East side than on the West. Fields; of late years, however, as the population of these districts has advanced, greater attention has been given to the drainage, and the whole is now in a state of progressive improvement. The extent of London from West to East, or from Knightsbridge to Poplar, is full seven miles and a half; its breadth, from North to South, is very irregular, but may be described as varying from two to four miles. The outward line, or circumference, of the contiguous buildings, allowing for the numerons inequalities of breadth, may be computed at about twenty-five miles; and the area of the whole comprehends between eight and nine square miles. The principal mercantile Streets range from West to East, and in that direction the Metropolis is intersected by two great thoroughfares; the one, which is most adjacent to the Thames, and may be called the Southern line, commences on the Bath Road, at Hyde Park Corner, and under the successive names of Piccadilly, Hay-market, Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, St. Paul's Church-yard, Watling Street, Cannon Street, East Cheap, and Tower Street, connects with Tower Hill; and thence extends to Limehouse, about two miles further, through East Smithfield, Radcliff Highway, Upper and Lower Shadwell, &c. The Northern line begins on the Uxbridge and Oxford Road, and under the different appellations of Oxford Street, High Street, St. Giles's, Holborn, Skinner Street, Newgate Street, Cheapsi le, Cornhill, Leadenhall Street, Aldgate, and Whitechapel, leads by the Mile-End road into Essex: from this latter line, at Church-lane, Whitechapel, the new Commercial Road branches off South-eastward, and goes on to the West India Docks, a distance of about two miles. The principal thoroaghfare which crosses London from North to South, enters from the Cambridge Road at Kingsland, and continues along Shoreditch, Norton-Falgate, Bishopsgate Street, Gracechurch Street, Fish-Street Hill, London Bridge, the Borough High-Street, Blackman Street, and Newington Causeway, to the Brighton and other roads. Besides this, there are two other main avenues into Surrey and Kent, over the Bridges of Blackfriars and Westminster, by by spacious Roads, which meet at the Obelisk in St. George's Fields, and again diverge near the well known sign of the Elephant and Castle. Independent of its various local and judicial divisions, London may be considered as comprehending three great districts, viz. The West End of the Town; the City; and the East End of the Town. The West End of the Town,' which, in its general colloquial acceptation, extends from the vicinity of the Strand, to the neighourhbood of Hyde Park, Westward, and to Paddington Road North-westward, is the most modern and uniform part of the Metropolis; and the houses, generally speaking, are the largest, most respectable, and best built. Here, at Westminster, and St. James's, are the Seats of the Legislature, of Government, and of the Court; and the squares, and principal places of this district, contain the Town residences of the chief Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom. The City,' includes the division, properly so called, and some portion of its Liberties, and forms the Grand Centre of the Mercantile and Trading parts of London; with the exception, perhaps, of the Silk Manufacture, (which is mostly confined to the populous vicinity of Spitalfields), and of most of the Maritime branches; the latter are principally carried on at the East End of the Town,' and in its vastly increasing Suburbs. The inhabitants of this large District are in general connected with the Shipping Business, and consist of Merchants, Owners, and Captains of Ships, Ship and Boat Builders, persons concerned in the Docks, as Shop-keepers, Slop sellers, &c., Sailors, Watermen, and others who derive employment from maritime pursuits. The Southern banks of the Thames, from Deptford and Rotherhithe, to Lambeth and Vauxhall, are also chiefly inhabited by persons engaged in Commercial and Maritime concerns; and the immediate borders of the River are occupied by an almost continued rage of Dock-yards, Wharfs, Warehouses, Iron-founderies, Glass-houses, Timber-yards, Boat-builder's Yards, and Manufac tories of different kinds.* B 3 * See preceding Vol. pages 62, 63. London London is computed to contain about 60 Squares, and 8000 Streets, Lanes, Courts, &c.: the whole formed by upwards of 160,000 Buildings, of various descriptions, as Public Structures, Churches, Dwelling Houses, Warehouses, Shops, &c. The Churches and other principal edifices, are mostly built of stone; the Dwellings, with the exception of some of the mansions belonging to the nobility, also of stone, are almost wholly built with brick: but few wooden houses are now to be seen, and those are principally of a date anterior to the Great Fire of 1666. Many of the Squares are extremely spacious, and the central area of most of them is inclosed by an iron pallisade, and laid out in gravelled walks and shrubberies for the recreation of the inhabitants of the surrounding houses. The principal Streets are also spacious and airy; and in most of the new parts of the town, the buildings are respectable and uniform; yet the continuity of line, which results from this regularity, renders them by far less picturesque than the old houses, which were constructed with projecting porticoes, over-hanging windows, gable ends, &c. and of which some specimens may yet be found. Through the numerous improvements that have been made in the course of the last 150 years, the inhabitants of London enjoy greater conveniences and domestic comforts than those of any other city in Europe. All the Streets, excepting on the very outskirts of the town, are regularly paved, and divided into a carriage way, and a foot-path on each side. The carriage way is paved with small squarish blocks of Scotch granite, or pebbles, so disposed as to rise with a small convexity in the centre, and having a continued channel, or kennel, on each side, at a short distance from the footpavements: the latter are in general laid with large thin flags, or slabs, either of Yorkshire freestone, moorstone, or limestone; and are finished with a regular kirb, raised an inch or two above the carriage way: their breadth varies from about three to six, or eight feet, in proportion to the width of the avenue. The mud and soil which accumulates in the streets, are taken away at stated intervals by scavengers employed by the different parishes; and the waste water, &c. runs off through iron gratings, fixed in the kennels at proper intervals, into arched |