All the principal ones are sufficiently broad, and there are
few houses that look antique, being, I suppose, generally modern-fronted,
when not actually of modern substance. There is little or no show or
pretension in this part of London; it has a plain, business air,--an air
of homely, actual life, as of a metropolis of tradesmen, who have been
carrying on their traffic here, in sober earnest, for hundreds of years.
You observe on the sign-boards, "Established ninety years in Threadneedle
Street," "Established in 1109,"--denoting long pedigrees of silk-mercers
and hosiers,--De Foe's contemporaries still represented by their
posterity, who handle the hereditary yardstick on the same spot.
I must not forget to say that I crossed the Thames over a bridge which, I
think, is near Charing Cross. Afterwards, I found my way to London
Bridge, where there was a delightful density of throng. The Thames is
not so wide and majestic as I had imagined,--nothing like the Mersey, for
example. As a picturesque object, however, flowing through the midst of
a city, it would lose by any increase of width.
Omnibuses are a most important aid to wanderers about London. I reached
home, well wearied, about six o'clock. In the course of the day, I had
seen one person whom I knew,--Mr. Clarke, to whom Henry B------
introduced me, when we went to see the great ship launched on the Dee.
This, I believe, was in Regent Street.
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