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. In that street, too, I saw a
company of dragoons, beautifully mounted, and defensively armed, in brass
helmets and steel cuirasses, polished to the utmost excess of splendor.
It was a pretty sight. At one of the public edifices, on each side of
the portal, sat a mounted trooper similarly armed, and with his carbine
resting on his knee, just as motionless as a statue. This, too, as a
picturesque circumstance, was very good, and really made an impression on
me with respect to the power and stability of the government, though I
could not help smiling at myself for it.
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