Wednesday, April 28.
My first business was to acquire some knowledge of the place whereof I am now become an inhabitant. I began to study the plan of London, though dismayed at the sight of its prodigious1 extent,—a city a league and a half from one extremity2 to the other, and about half as broad, standing3 upon level ground. It is impossible ever to become thoroughly4 acquainted with such an endless labyrinth5 of streets; and, as you may well suppose, they who 73live at one end know little or nothing of the other. The river is no assistance to a stranger in finding his way. There is no street along its banks, and no eminence6 from whence you can look around and take your bearings.
London, properly so called, makes but a small part of this immense capital, though the focus of business is there. Westminster is about the same size. To the east and the north is a great population included in neither of these cities, and probably equal to both. On the western side the royal parks have prevented the growth of houses, and form a gap between the metropolis7 and its suburb. All this is on the north side of the river. Southwark, or the Borough8, is on the other shore, and a town has grown at Lambeth by the Primate’s palace, which has now joined it. The extent of ground covered with houses on this bank is greater than the area of Madrid. The population is now ascertained9 to exceed 74nine hundred thousand persons, nearly a twelfth of the inhabitants of the whole island.
Having studied the way to the palace, I set off. The distance was considerable: the way, after getting into the main streets, tolerably straight. There were not many passers in the by-streets; but when I reached Cheapside the crowd completely astonished me. On each side of the way were two uninterrupted streams of people, one going east, the other west. At first I thought some extraordinary occasion must have collected such a concourse; but I soon perceived it was only the usual course of business. They moved on in two regular counter currents, and the rapidity with which they moved was as remarkable10 as their numbers. It was easy to perceive that the English calculate the value of time. Nobody was loitering to look at the beautiful things in the shop windows; none were stopping to converse11, every one was in haste, yet no one in a hurry; the 75quickest possible step seemed to be the natural pace. The carriages were numerous in proportion, and were driven with answerable velocity12.
If possible, I was still more astonished at the opulence13 and splendour of the shops: drapers, stationers, confectioners, pastry-cooks, seal-cutters, silver-smiths, booksellers, print-sellers, hosiers, fruiterers, china-sellers,—one close to another, without intermission, a shop to every house, street after street, and mile after mile; the articles themselves so beautiful, and so beautifully arranged, that if they who passed by me had had leisure to observe any thing, they might have known me to be a foreigner by the frequent stands which I made to admire them. Nothing which I had seen in the country had prepared me for such a display of splendour.
My way lay by St Paul’s church. The sight of this truly noble building rather provoked than pleased me. The English, after erecting14 so grand an edifice15, will not 76allow it an open space to stand in, and it is impossible to get a full view of it in any situation. The value of ground in this capital is too great to be sacrificed to beauty by a commercial nation: unless, therefore, another conflagration16 should lay London in ashes, the Londoners will never fairly see their own cathedral. The street which leads to the grand front has just a sufficient bend to destroy the effect which such a termination would have given it, and to obstruct17 the view till you come too close to see it. This is perfectly18 vexatious! Except St Peter’s, here is beyond comparison the finest temple in Christendom, and it is even more ridiculously misplaced than the bridge of Segovia appears, when the mules19 have drank up the Manzanares. The houses come so close upon one side, that carriages are not permitted to pass that way lest the foot-passengers should be endangered. The site itself is well chosen on a little rising near the river; and were it fairly opened as it ought to be, 77no city could boast so magnificent a monument of modern times.
In a direct line from hence is Temple Bar, a modern, ugly, useless gate, which divides the two cities of London and Westminster. There were iron spikes20 upon the top, on which the heads of traitors21 were formerly22 exposed: J— remembers to have seen some in his childhood. On both sides of this gate I had a paper thrust into my hand, which proved to be a quack23 doctor’s notice of some never-failing pills. Before I reached home I had a dozen of these. Tradesmen here lose no possible opportunity of forcing their notices upon the public. Wherever there was a dead wall, a vacant house, or a temporary scaffolding erected24 for repairs, the space was covered with printed bills. Two rival blacking-makers were standing in one of the streets, each carried a boot, completely varnished25 with black, hanging from a pole, and on the other arm a basket with the balls for sale. On the top of their poles 78was a sort of standard, with a printed paper explaining the virtue26 of the wares;—the one said that his blacking was the best blacking in the world; the other, that his was so good you might eat it.
The crowd in Westminster was not so great as in the busier city. From Charing27 Cross, as it is still called, though an equestrian28 statue has taken place of the cross, a great street opens toward Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament. Most of the public buildings are here: it is to be regretted that the end is not quite open to the abbey, for it would then be one of the finest streets in Europe. Leaving this for my return, I went on to the palaces of the Prince of Wales, and of the King, which stand near each other in a street called Pall29 Mall. The game from whence this name is derived30 is no longer known in England.
The Prince of Wales’s palace is no favourable31 specimen32 of English architecture. Before the house are thirty columns planted 79in a row, two and two, supporting nothing but a common entablature, which connects them. As they serve for neither ornament33 nor use, a stranger might be puzzled to know by what accident they came there; but the truth is, that these people have more money than taste, and are satisfied with any absurdity34 if it has but the merit of being new. The same architect was employed[6] to build a palace, not far distant, for the second prince of the blood, and in the front towards the street he constructed a large oven-like room completely obscuring the house to which it was to serve as an entrance-hall. These two buildings being described to the late Lord North, who was blind in the latter part of his life, he facetiously35 remarked, Then the Duke of York, it should seem, has been sent to the 80round-house, and the Prince of Wales is put into the pillory36.[7]
6. The author must have been misinformed in this particular, for the Duke of York’s house at Whitehall, now Lord Melbourne’s, was not built by his Royal Highness; but altered, with some additions, of which the room alluded37 to made a part.—Tr.
7. There is an explanation of the jest in the text which the translator has thought proper to omit, as, however necessary to foreign readers, it must needs seem impertinent to an English one.—Tr.
I had now passed the trading district, and found little to excite attention in large brick houses without uniformity, and without either beauty or magnificence. The royal palace itself is an old brick building, remarkable for nothing, except that the sovereign of Great Britain should have no better a court; but it seems that the king never resides there. A passage through the court-yard leads into St James’s Park, the Prado of London. Its trees are not so fine as might be expected in a country where water never fails, and the sun never scorches38; here is also a spacious39 piece of water; but the best ornament of the park are the two towers of Westminster Abbey. Having now reached the proposed limits of my walk, I passed 81through a public building of some magnitude and little beauty, called the Horse Guards, and again entered the public streets. Here, where the pavement was broad, and the passengers not so numerous as to form a crowd, a beggar had taken his seat, and written his petition upon the stones with chalks of various colours, the letters formed with great skill, and ornamented40 with some taste. I stopped to admire his work, and gave him a trifle as a payment for the sight, rather than as alms. Immediately opposite the Horse Guards is the Banqueting House at Whitehall; so fine a building, that if the later architects had had eyes to see, or understandings to comprehend its merit, they would never have disgraced the opposite side of the way with buildings so utterly41 devoid42 of beauty. This fragment of a great design by Inigo Jones is remarkable for many accounts; here is the window through which Charles I. came out upon the scaffold; here also, in the back court, the statue of 82James II. remains43 undisturbed, with so few excesses was that great revolution accompanied; and here is the weathercock which was set up by his command, that he might know every shifting of the wind when the invasion from Holland was expected, and the east wind was called Protestant by the people, and the west Papist.
My way home from Charing Cross was varied44, in as much as I took the other side of the street for the sake of the shop windows, and the variety was greater than I had expected. It took me through a place called Exeter Change, which is precisely45 a Bazar, a sort of street under cover, or large long room, with a row of shops on either hand, and a thoroughfare between them; the shops being furnished with such articles as might tempt46 an idler, or remind a passenger of his wants,—walking-sticks, implements47 for shaving, knives, scissars, watch-chains, purses, &c. At the further end was a man in splendid costume, who proved to belong to a menagerie 83above stairs, to which he invited me to ascend48; but I declined this for the present, being without a companion. A maccaw was swinging on a perch49 above him, and the outside of the building hung with enormous pictures of the animals which were there to be seen.
The oddest things which I saw in the whole walk were a pair of shoes in one window floating in a vessel50 of water, to show that they were water-proof; and a well-dressed leg in another, betokening51 that legs were made there to the life. One purchase I ventured to make, that of a travelling caissette; there were many at the shop-door, with the prices marked upon them, so that I did not fear imposition. These things are admirably made and exceedingly convenient. I was shown some which contained the whole apparatus52 of a man’s toilet, but this seemed an ill assortment53, as when writing you do not want the shaving materials, and when shaving as little do you want the writing desk.
84In looking over the quack’s notices after my return, I found a fine specimen of English hyperbole. The doctor says that his pills always perform, and even exceed whatever he promises, as if they were impatient of immortal54 and universal fame.
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1
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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2
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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4
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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5
labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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6
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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7
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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8
borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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9
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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11
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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12
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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13
opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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14
erecting
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| v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立 | |
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15
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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16
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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17
obstruct
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| v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物 | |
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18
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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19
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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20
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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21
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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22
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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23
quack
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| n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子 | |
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24
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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25
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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26
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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27
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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28
equestrian
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| adj.骑马的；n.马术 | |
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29
pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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30
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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31
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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32
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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33
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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34
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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35
facetiously
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| adv.爱开玩笑地；滑稽地，爱开玩笑地 | |
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36
pillory
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| n.嘲弄；v.使受公众嘲笑；将…示众 | |
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37
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
scorches
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的第三人称单数 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶 | |
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39
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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40
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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42
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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43
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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44
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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45
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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46
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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47
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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48
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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49
perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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50
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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51
betokening
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的现在分词 ) | |
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52
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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53
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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54
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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