LONDON,

WITH BLACKFRIAR'S BRIDGE.

THIS view is intended, with the bridge which is its principal feature, to give a distinct appearance of that part of the metropolis which is called the City, and comprehends what was originally contained within those walls whereof scarce a vestige remains.

The origin of London is so involved in fable as to defy the most sagacious and toilsome enquiry to establish it. Camden supposes its name to be derived from the British words Llhwn a wood, and Dinas a town, or the town in a wood. Other fanciful derivations have been supported by ingenious antiquaries, with which we shall not trouble our readers. It was, however, at the christian era a place of considerable extent and population. In the year twenty-six, according to Tacitus, Londinum, as he calls it, was famous for its traffic; but soon after, Suetonius abandoned the city to the fury of Boadicea, because it was too large to be defended by his little army of ten thousand Romans; a sufficient proof of its being at that time a very considerable place. That princess is related to have destroyed this city, and put the inhabitants to the sword. But whatever injury it sustained, it appears soon to have recovered from it, as Herodian, in the Life of the Emperor Severus, calls it a great and wealthy city.

The time when it was surrounded by a wall is not to be ascertained by any very authentic evidence. Maitland conjectures its erection to have taken place about the year 368. It was composed alternately of layers of flat Roman brick and rag stones, and was strengthened by lofty towers.

The history of the heptarchy, when London was the capital of the kingdom of the East Saxons, is so defective that little

or no mention is made of it between the years 616 and

64. It appears, afterwards to have been reduced and plundered by the Danes. It was recovered, however, by Alfred, who repaired the wall and embellished it with additional buildings. At this time it had no bridges, and the citizens employed ferries in passing over the Thames: but between 993 and 1016 a wooden bridge was erected. This great work was performed in the reign of Ethelred.

Soon after England resigned her sceptre into the hands of Canute, when a grant was made to him of eighty-three thousand pounds, an immense sum at that time, and equal to at least nine millions of our present money, of which London raised a seventh part; a convincing proof of the opulence which then distinguished it.

We shall pass over the following reigns, and come at once to the year 1076, when William the Conqueror granted the Londoners their first charter: but afterwards, having cause, as his jealousy suggested, to suspect their fidelity, he caused the present square Tower to be erected in order to controul and keep them in awe. William, however, being better pleased with the citizens, or having some political end to answer, granted them another charter. But London afterwards obtained one of a much more comprehensive and beneficial nature from Henry the First; which granted them so many privileges, and gave such security for their ancient liberties, that the several bodies professing the arts and mystery of trade and manufacture now formed themselves into established companies; which is the origin of the livery of London. The king, however, reserved to himself the power of appointing the Portreve, or chief officer of the city.

In the year 1139, the citizens purchased of King Stephen, for an hundred marks of silver, the right of choosing their own sheriffs; and in the beginning of the next century, in 1207, the title of their chief magistrate was changed into that of Mayor: Henry Fitz-Alwyn was the first who enjoyed it. About the year 1285, in the reign of Edward the First, the city was divided into twenty-four

wards, under the government of as many aldermen; an each ward chose certain of its inhabitants to be a common council, who, with the aldermen, were to conduct the public affairs of the city. In 1327, Edward the Third granted the citizens two especial charters, not only cofirming their ancient liberties under former kings, but adding many valuable privileges. The same prince, in the year 1354, granted the city the privilege of having gold or silver maces carried before the chief magistrate; a privilege at that time peculiar to London. It is supposed at this time the title of Lord was first added to that of Mayor.

In the year 1348 the city was visited by a pestilence, which raged with such fury that the church-yards were not found sufficiently capacious to receive the dead. But great and deplorable as this calamity was, the city so far recovered its wealth and dignity, that in the year 1363, th Kings of Scotland, France, and Cyprus, who came into England on a visit to Edward the Third, were entertained in a most sumptuous manner, with his majesty, the Prince of Wales, and the principal nobility, by Henry Picard, late mayor of London.

In the fifth year of the reign of Richard the Second the city suffered much from the rebellion of Wat Tyler, which: was terminated by the spirited and loyal conduct of Sir William Walworth, the lord mayor of London, and the presence of mind displayed by the young sovereign. Some historiaus ascribe to the courageous conduct of the chic. magistrate, on this occasion, the addition of the dagger to the city arms.

In several succeeding reigns the wealth of the city was displayed in the vast sums levied by some of the sovereigns, and the magnificence with which the citizens shewed the. respect to others, in their shews, cavalcades, and pageantries.

King Edward the Fourth, in the second year of his reign, granted the citizens of London among other privileges, that the lord mayor, recorder, and aldermen past the chair, should be appointed perpetual justices of the peace in the

city, and constituted justices of oyer and terminer, for the trial of malefactors within their own jurisdiction. At this time and afterwards the city-watch consisted of men completely armed, forming a body of troops of a peculiar kind, which were raised and maintained by the city. The march of the city-watch, on certain festivals, was so magnificent, that Henry the Eighth having seen it in disguise, was so pleased with the shew, that the succeeding year he went with his queen and the principal nobility to Mercers' Hall, in Cheapside; where this royal and noble company were gratified with the sight of the procession. But the great and renewed expense of this ceremonial occasioned it soon after to be laid aside.

King Edward the Sixth, in the year 1551, granted the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all its former privileges, but granted the lord mayor, aldermen, and citizens several lands in Southwark, with the manor thereof and its appurtenances; the assize of bread, wine, beer, and ale; and the offices of coroner, escheator, and clerk of the market; which are for ever vested in the lord mayor and his successors.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the far greatest part of the metropolis was contained within its walls. The buildings of London were on the west bounded by the monastery of St. Catherine; East Smithfield was open to Tower Hill, and Rosemary Lane had not a dwelling in it. The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall cattle grazed in Goodman's Fields; and Whitechapel extended but a small distance beyond the Bars, and had no houses to the north. Spital Fields, which would now of themselves compose a very large town, were then in a state of cultivation, and were separated from each other as fields usually are, by hedges and by trees. Houndsditch consisted only of a row of houses fronting the city wall, and the little yards and gardens behind them also opened into those fields. Bishopsgate, Norton Falgate, and the street called Shoreditch, were then built as far as the church;

but there were only a few houses and gardens on each side, and no streets or lanes branching collaterally from them. Moorfields lay open to Hoxton, then a country village; and Finsbury Fields, in which were several windmills, extended to the east side of Whitecross Street. Chiswell Street was not then in existence; and St. John Street extended by the side of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem to the monastery of Clerkenwell and Cow Cross, which opened at once into the fields.

But on leaving the city walls the buildings were much less extensive; for though the village of Holbourn was now joined to London, the backs of the houses, particularly on the north side, opened into gardens and fields. In part of Gray's-Inn Lane were the only houses that extended beyond the main street. Great part of High Holbourn was without a building; and St. Giles's was a village contiguous to no part of London.

The Strand was indeed a spacious and noble street, with gardens on each side; and to the north, fields behind those gardens, excepting a few houses on the spot which is now the west end of Drury Lane. On the south side of the street the gardens generally extended to the Thames, with an intermixture of stately houses of persons of high rank and distinction. Covent Garden, so called from its belonging to a convent, extended to St. Martin's Lane; and the field behind it reached to St. Giles's. That lane had very few edifices in it beside the church: for Covent Garden wall was on one side, and a wall which inclosed the Mews on the other; and all the upper part was a lane between two hedges, which extended a little to the west of the village of St. Giles's. Hedge Lane was also, as its name denotes, a lane between two hedges: the fine broad street called the Haymarket, had an hedge on one side and a few bushes on the other. Neither Pall-mall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly, or any of the streets or fine squares in that part of the town were formed; while Westminster was a smal town on the south side of St. James's Park.