I went a little way into St. Katharine's Dock, and found it crowded with
great ships; then, returning, I strolled along the range of shops that
front towards this side of the Tower. They have all something to do with
ships, sailors, and commerce; being for the sale of ships' stores,
nautical instruments, arms, clothing, together with a tavern and
grog-shop at every other door; bookstalls, too, covered with cheap novels
and song-books; cigar-shops in great numbers; and everywhere were
sailors, and here and there a soldier, and children at the doorsteps, and
women showing themselves at the doors or windows of their domiciles.
These latter figures, however, pertain rather to the street up which I
walked, penetrating into the interior of this region, which, I think, is
Blackwall--no, I forget what its name is. At all events, it has an
ancient and most grimy and rough look, with its old gabled houses, each
of them the seat of some petty trade and business in its basement story.
Among these I saw one house with three or four peaks along its front,--a
second story projecting over the basement, and the whole clapboarded
over. . . . . There was a butcher's stall in the lower story, with a
front open to the street, in the ancient fashion, which seems to be
retained only by butchers' shops. This part of London having escaped the
Great Fire, I suppose there may be many relics of architectural antiquity
hereabouts.
At the end of an hour I went back to the Refreshment-room, within the
outer gate of the Tower, where the rest of us shortly appeared.
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