MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO Crossing at Piccadilly Circus. BY MRS. E. T. COOK WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HUGH THOMSON AND F. L. GRIGGS MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1920 COPYRIGHT. First Edition , 1902. Reprinted , 1903, 1907, 1911, 1920. CHAPTER I PAGE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 1 CHAPTER II THE RIVER 22 CHAPTER III RAMBLES

" London: that great sea whose ebb and flow At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more, Yet in its depths what treasures!"— Shelley. "Citizens of no mean city." The history of London is—as was that of Rome in ancient times—the history of the whole civilised world. For, the comparatively small area of earth on which our city is built has, for the last thousand years at least, been all-important in the story of nations. Its chronicles are already so v

"Above the river in which the miserable perish and on which the fortunate grow rich, runs the other tide whose flood leads onto fortune, whose sources are in the sea empire, and which debouches in the lands of the little island; above the river of the painters and poets, winding through the downs and meadows of the rarest of cultivated landscape out to the reaches where the melancholy sea breeds its fogs and damp east winds, is that of the merchant and politician, having its springs in the utter

"I have seen the West End, the parks, the fine squares; but I love the City far better. The City seems so much more in earnest; its business, its rush, its roar, are such serious things, sights, sounds. The City is getting its living, the West End but enjoying its pleasure. At the West End you may be amused; but in the City you are deeply excited."— C. Brontë : " Villette. " " And who cries out on crowd and mart? Who prates of stream and sea? The summer in the City's heart That is enough for me.

"A deep, low, mighty tone swung through the night. At first I knew it not; but it was uttered twelve times, and at the twelfth colossal hum and trembling knell, I said, 'I lie in the shadow of St. Paul's.' ... The next day I awoke, and saw the risen sun struggling through fog. Above my head, above the housetops, co-elevate almost with the clouds, I saw a solemn, orbed mass, dark-blue and dim—the Dome . While I looked, my inner self moved; my spirit shook its always-fettered wings half loose; I h

Prince Edward : "Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?" Buckingham : "He did, my gracious lord, begin that place; Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified...." Richard of York : "What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?... ... I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower." Gloucester : "Why, what should you fear?" Richard of York : "Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost: My grandam told me he was murder'd there." — King Richard III., Act iii, Scene 1. "Death is here associated, not, as

"The Thames marks the sharp division between what Lord Beaconsfield called 'the two nations.' On one side we have our nearest English approach to architectural magnificence; on the other there is a long perspective of squalid buildings—smoke-begrimed, half-ruinous, and yet not altogether unlovely."— Magazine of Art , January, 1884. " Befel, that in that season, on a day In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay, Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage To Canterbury with ful devout courage, At night was come

"The perplexed and troublous valley of the shadow of the law."— Dickens. "those bricky towers, The which on Thames' broad aged back doe ride, Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, There whilom wont the Templar knights to bide, Till they decayed through pride."— Spenser. Among the by-ways that open suddenly out of the highways of London, are there any more attractive than the Inns of Court? which, in an almost startling manner, bring into the whirl of Holborn, and the din of Fleet Str

"Behold how far the East is from the West!" "A forest of houses, between which ebbs and flows a stream of human faces, with all their varied passions—an awful rush of love, hunger, and hate—for such is London."— Heine. "To Newton and to Newton's Dog Diamond," says Carlyle, "what a different pair of Universes; while the painting on the optical retina of both was, most likely, the same." "A distinct Universe," adds Thackeray in the same spirit, "walks about under your Hat, and under mine." This la

"The devout King destined to God that place, both for that it was near unto the famous and wealthy City of London, and also had a pleasant situation amongst fruitful fields lying round about it, with the principal river running hard by, bringing in from all parts of the world great variety of wares and merchandise of all sorts to the city adjoining; but chiefly for the love of the Chief Apostle, whom he reverenced with a special and singular affection."— Contemporary Life of Edward the Confessor

"In old days ... the hawthorn spread across the fields and market gardens that lay between Kensington and the river. Lanes ran to Chelsea, to Fulham, to North End, where Richardson once lived and wrote in his garden-house. The mist of the great city hid the horizon and dulled the sound of the advancing multitude; but close at hand ... were country corners untouched—blossoms instead of bricks in spring-time, summer shade in summer."— Miss Thackeray, Old Kensington. "There is not a step of the way

" Some love the Chelsea river gales, And the slow barges' ruddy sails, And these I'll woo when glamour fails In Bloomsbury. " Enough for me in yonder square To see the perky sparrows pair, Or long laburnum gild the air In Bloomsbury. " Enough for me in midnight skies To see the moons of London rise, And weave their silver fantasies In Bloomsbury. " Oh, mine in snows and summer heats, These good old Tory brick-built streets! My eye is pleased with all it meets In Bloomsbury." The German Band. The

—"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players...."— Shakespeare. " O gleaming lamps of London, that gem the City's crown, What fortunes lie within you, O lights of London Town!"— G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon. As I was travelling, one day in winter, by the familiar and homely 'bus whose "hue is green and gold"; not however, the "St. John's Wood" 'bus, but that humbler and more business-like one which runs between Victoria and King's Cross, I observed, as we ascended Long A

"The busy Mart of London." " Gay shops, stately palaces, bustle and breeze, The whirring of wheels, and the murmur of trees; By night or by day, whether noisy or stilly, Whatever my mood is, I love Piccadilly."— Locker-Lampson, London Lyrics. I am confident that if a million of women of all classes could by any possibility be placed in a Palace of Truth, and interrogated straitly as to what they liked best in all London, the vast majority of them would answer, "The Shops." Indeed, you may easily

"Infinite riches in a little room." "The great city has an unbroken history of 1,000 years, and has never been sacked by an enemy."— Sir Walter Besant. "Great are your privileges. For you is collected in the public palaces of London all that human genius has ever achieved, all that power and wealth can procure. For you has been dug from the earth all that remains of mighty empires and long-vanished civilisations. The arts of Greece and Rome, and Egypt and Assyria, and the not less wonderful arts

"I have seen various places ... which have been rendered interesting by great men and their works; ... I seem to have made friends with them in their own houses; to have walked and talked, and suffered and enjoyed with them.... Even in London I find the principle hold good in me.... I once had duties to perform which kept me out late at night, and severely taxed my health and spirits. My path lay through a neighbourhood in which Dryden lived; and though nothing could be more commonplace, and I u

" It is my delight to be Both in town and in countree."— Old Couplet. " If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, Oh, give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall."— Charles Morris. Oh, London! beautiful London! who would not be with thee in May? Paris should not, surely, be recommended as the only Mecca of that lovely month. When the London street authorities, with unwonted forbearance, have for one brief moment suspended their incessant repairing of the busiest thoroughfares; when the hanging

" Laughing, weeping, hurrying ever, Hour by hour they crowd along, While below the mighty river Sings them all a mocking song."— Molloy. " An ever-muttering prisoned storm, The heart of London beating warm."— John Davidson. 'Bus Driver. What is the best way to see London? "From the top of a 'bus," Mr. Gladstone is said to have sagely remarked. And if you can study London itself from the top of a 'bus, you can also, from the interior of the same convenient, if not always savoury, vehicle, study t

" Let others chaunt a country praise, Fair river walks and meadow ways; Dearer to me my sounding days In London town: To me the tumult of the street Is no less music, than the sweet Surge of the wind among the wheat, By dale or down."— Lionel Johnson. " I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes With the memorials, and the things of fame, That do renown this city."— Shakespeare. What book has ever been written, nay, has ever attempted to be written, about the general architecture of London? The largest

Extra crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. net each. Pocket Edition. The volumes marked with an asterisk (*). Fcap. 8vo. Cloth. 6s. net. Leather, 7 s. 6 d. net each. Berkshire. By James Edmund Vincent . With Illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs . DAILY CHRONICLE. —"We consider this book one of the best in an admirable series, and one which should appeal to all who love this kind of literature." * The Border. By Andrew Lang and John Lang . With Illustrations by Hugh Thomson . STANDARD. —"The reader on his travels,

1 : Imperium et Libertas , by Bernard Holland....