In the evening I walked forth to Charing Cross, and thence along the
Strand and Fleet Street, where I made no new discoveries, unless it were
the Mitre Tavern. I mean to go into it some day. The streets were much
thronged, and there seemed to be a good many young people,--lovers, it is
to be hoped,--who had spent the day together, and were going innocently
home. Perhaps so,--perhaps not.
September 25th.--Yesterday forenoon J----- and I walked out, with no very
definite purpose; but, seeing a narrow passageway from the Strand down to
the river, we went through it, and gained access to a steamboat, plying
thence to London Bridge. The fare was a halfpenny apiece, and the boat
almost too much crowded for standing-room. This part of the river
presents the water-side of London in a rather pleasanter aspect than
below London Bridge,--the Temple, with its garden, Somerset House,--and
generally, a less tumble-down and neglected look about the buildings;
although, after all, the metropolis does not see a very stately face in
its mirror. I saw Alsatia betwixt the Temple and Blackfriar's Bridge.
Its precincts looked very narrow, and not particularly distinguishable,
at this day, from the portions of the city on either side of it. At
London Bridge we got aboard of a Woolwich steamer, and went farther down
the river, passing the Custom-House and the Tower, the only prominent
objects rising out of the dreary range of shabbiness which stretches
along close to the water's edge.
Pages:
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346