Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/881

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LONDON 851

which had been planned in 1812. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1813 for the purpose of carrying out Nash's design. In the winter of 1813-14 the Thames was again frozen over. The frost commenced on the evening of December 27, 1813, with a thick fog. After it had lasted for a month, a thaw of four days, from the 26th to the 29th of January, took place, but this thaw was succeeded by a renewal of the frost, so severe that the river soon became one immovable sheet of ice. There was a street of tents called the City Road, which was daily thronged with visitors. The fashionable Belgravia was built about 1825, over the squalid Five Fields, long known as a dangerous district. Belgrave Square was commenced in 1825, and Eaton Square was set out in 1827, but not wholly completed until 1853. It was about 1829, soon after Carlton House was pulled down, that the line of palatial club-houses in Pall Mall was commenced. In 1827 the Turnpike Act came into operation, and twenty-seven turnpikes were removed in one day. In 1838 the second Royal Exchange was destroyed by fire; and on October 28, 1844, the Queen opened the new Royal Exchange, which was built by Mr (afterwards Sir William) Tite. On April 27, 1840, the first stone of the new Houses of Parliament to be erected by Charles Barry was laid on the site of the old buildings which had been burnt in October 1834. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1847 for the purpose of widening and lengthening Cannon Street, and subsequently the street was extended to St Paul's Churchyard. In 1848 London was in danger from the threatened attack of the Chartists, and defensive preparations were extensively arranged. On the 10th of April, the mob having met on Kennington Common, was prevented from returning to London over the bridges, and no more was heard of any rising. The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought a larger number of visitors to London than had ever been in it before at one time. In 1852 the duke of Wellington's lying in state at Chelsea Hospital, and his public funeral at St Paul's, were two of the grandest London sights of the present century. On the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, the streets of London were illuminated as they never had been before. In 1864 Queen Victoria Street, a new thoroughfare from Blackfriars Bridge to the Mansion House, was begun, and in 1870 the northern shore of the river was embanked. The erection of the Thames Embankment, which was carried out at great expense, has shown itself to be the greatest improvement ever made in London. The river, which had been too long neglected, was again raised to its natural position as the chief ornament of London as well as the cause of its prosperity.

Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of London life in the latter half of the 19th century is the rush of Londoners which takes place each day after business hours from the centre of the town to the outskirts. This daily exodus has been chiefly caused by the facilities offered by the various railway companies. The first emigration of the London merchants westward was about the middle of last century, but only those who had already secured large fortunes and possessed the highest reputations ventured as far as Hatton Garden. At the beginning of the present century it had become common for the tradesmen of the City to live away from their businesses, but it was only about thirty years ago that it became at all usual for those in the West End to do the same.

One point worthy of special mention in connexion with the modern growth of London is the larger use of stone in building than at any previous period. The reason of this is that the increase in the value of land has made it worth the builder's while to spend more money on the building he raises. We might parody the remark on Augustus's influence in Rome and say – the 19th century found London brick and will leave it stone.


Literature. – The books written upon London are so numerous that they would form a library by themselves; it is impossible here to do more than indicate some of the most important. The earliest description of London is that written by Fitzstephen, in the reign of Henry II., but first printed with Stow's Survey in 1598. Arnold's Chronicle, or the Customs of London, was first published in 1502. The first history was A Survey of London, by John Stow, 1598, 1603. The author died in 1605, and his work was continued by Anthony Munday and others (1618, 1633), and in the next century by J. Strype (1720, 2 vols. fol.; 1754-55, 2 vols. fol.). This last edition remains the standard history, and the remarks of Strype are very often quoted as those of Stow. E. Hatton's New View of London (1708) is very useful on account of its alphabetical list of streets, &c. Maitland's History of London was first published in 1 vol. folio in 1739, and was republished in 1756, 1760, 1769, and 1775 – each edition in 2 vols. folio, the last being edited by the Rev. J. Entick. Entick had himself published previously A History and Survey of London, &c., 1766. A New and Complete History and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c., by a society of gentlemen, revised by H. Chamberlain, appeared in 1770, and again, revised by W. Thornton, &c., in 1784; A New History of London, by J. Noorthouck, in 1773; and A New and Universal History, &c., of London and Westminster, &c., in 1775, fol. The first edition of Pennant's London, the most popular book ever written upon the subject, appeared in 1790. It has been frequently reprinted, and an index to the 4th edition was compiled by T. Downes, and published in 1814. A German translation was published at Nuremberg in 1791. Antiquities of London and its Environs, by John T. Smith, appeared in 1791-1800. Smith also published Antiquities of the City of Westminster, 1807, new edition, 1837, 4to; Ancient Topography of London, 1815; Vagabondiana, 1815-17; Cries of London, 1839; and Antiquarian Rambles in the Streets of London, edited by C. Mackay, 1846. Other works are J. P. Malcolm's Londinium Redivirum, or an Ancient History and Modern Description of London, 1803-7; Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the 18th Century, 1808, 1810; and Anecdotes from the Roman Invasion to 1700, 1811; David Hughson's [E. Pugh's] London, 1806-9, and Walks through London, 1817; B. Lambert's History and Survey of London, 1806; Microcosm of London, 1808-9; H. Hunter's History of London, 1811, 4to; Beauties of England and Wales, 1814-16, vol. x., "London and Middlesex"; R. Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, 1819; Thomas Allen's History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, and Southwark, 1827-29, a most valuable work, with much information not to be found elsewhere; and E. W. Brayley's Londiniana, 1829. London (edited by Charles Knight, 1841-44; revised by E. Walford, 1875-77) contains articles of considerable interest, but these are badly arranged, and the whole work is incomplete. Leigh Hunt's The Town (1848; new ed., 1859) is an interesting work, but without original research. A Handbook for London (by Peter Cunningham, 1849; new ed., 1850) is an indispensable work of the highest value; a new edition has been promised by Mr Murray for many years. The various works on London by J. H. Jesse and John Timbs are interesting, but wanting in accuracy. The Curiosities of London by the latter is of value. Cassell's Old and New London (1873-78, in 6 vols. 8vo; vols. i.-ii. by Walter Thornbury, vols. iii.-vi. by E. Walford) is of special value on account of the illustrations, many of them copied from Mr Grace's collection. Dickens's Dictionary of London is a useful handbook for London as it is. Besides these general works there are several Chronicles of London at various periods, some of which have been published by the Camden Society. The Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society contain papers on various places in London. Newcourt's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1708-10) still contains the best history of the parishes of London. On Roman remains the chief works are An Account of some Roman Urns digged up near Bishopsgate, by J. Woodward, 1713; and Illustrations of Roman London, by C. Roach Smith, 1859.

The best books on the environs as a whole are D. Lysons's Environs of London, 1792-96; Parishes in Middlesex not included in the Environs, 1800; James Thorne's Handbook to the Environs of London, 1876; and W. Howitt's The Northern Heights of London, 1869.

The titles of the leading works on special subjects are subjoined under the several heads: – Charities. – A. Highmore, Pietas Londinensis – History of Public Charities in London, 1814; and Herbert Fry, Royal Guide to the London Charities (annual). Churches.The Churches of London, by George Godwin, assisted by J. Britton, 1839; and Guide to the Churches of London and its Suburbs, by Charles Mackeson (annual). Climate. – Luke Howard, 'The Climate of London, 1818-20; 2d ed., 1833. Companies. William Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London, 1837. Separate histories have been also written of the following companies: Artillery (Highmore, 1804; Raikes, 1878); Carpenters' (Jupp, 1848); Coopers' (Firth, 1848); Founders' (Williams, 1867); Grocers' (J. B. Heath, 1829, 1854); Ironmongers' (Nicholl, 1866); Leathersellers' (Black, 1871); Merchant Taylors' (Clode, 1875). Inns of Court. – William Herbert, Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery, 1804. Municipality. – J. F. B. Firth, Municipal London, 1876, 8vo. Parks. – Jacob Larwood, The Story of the London Parks, 1872. Police. – Patrick Colquhoun, Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, 1796; 8th ed., 1806. Poor. – H. Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 1851; Greenwood, The Wilds of London, 1874. Population. – Graunt's Observations on the Bills of Mortality, 1876. Prisons. – Hepworth Dixon, London Prisons, 1851. Theatres. – E. W. Brayley, Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Theatres of London, 1826. Water. – W. Matthews, Historical Account of the Waterworks of London, 1835; J. Prestwich, Geological Inquiry respecting the Water-bearing Strata of the Country round London, 1851.

There is no complete catalogue of books relating to London, but useful lists will be found in Anderson's Book of British Topography, 1881, and in Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, 1860. (H. B. W.)


LONDON, a city and port of entry in the Dominion of Canada, the chief town of the county of Middlesex, Ontario, and the see both of a Roman Catholic bishop and of the Anglican bishop of Huron, lies 25 miles north of Lake Erie and 32 miles south-east of Lake Huron, in the midst of a fine agricultural country in the angle made by the confluence of the two branches of the Thames. It is a station on the main line of the Great Western Railway, and the terminus of a branch of the Grand Trunk Railway from St Mary's, a line from Port Stanley on Lake Erie, and the London, Huron, and Bruce Railway. The local nomenclature of London is in great measure a reproduction of that of the great city whose name it has ambitiously borrowed: the Thames is again spanned by a Westminster and a Blackfriars Bridge, and it has a Hyde Park, a Covent Garden Market, a Crystal Palace, a Tower of London (its jail and court-house), a St Paul's Cathedral, with Pall Mall, Piccadilly, Cheapside, &c. Among the more important buildings are the city-hall, the court-houses, the city hospital, the lunatic asylum, the orphan asylum, the Roman Catholic convent. The educational institutions include the Collegiate Institute, Hellmuth Ladies College, the Academy of the Sacred Heart, and the newly-founded Western University. The chief industry is oil-refining – the crude oil being brought from Enniskillen wells, a distance of 40 miles. There are also railway-car works, boiler and stove and other iron works, and chemical works; and furniture, farming implements, carriages, and waggons are manufactured on an extensive scale. The value of the imports has increased from £176,400 in 1861 to £522,391