The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-06-28
A Week in London.

A map of London is curiosity to
every uninterested American. There is
no city nor any portion of city in the
United States which can compare with
it for the tangled-up intricacies of its
many short, crooked, angular, circular
streets could possibly get together in an
organized city. Americans make them
selves merry over the cow paths in the
older portions of Boston and New York,
but London is an immense conglomera-
ton of COW paths, crossed and re-crossed
in every possible direction, here swelling
into streets, and there shrinking into
lanes, now tangled into knots, and now
running into curves or shooting off into
angles, without the remotest relation to
system or order, and bearing names
which express nothing, and which were
devised, apparently, to make the perplex-
ity of the stranger complete.
This is the more noteworthy because a
large portion of the city is of modern
growth and may be said to have been
built in our own times. Five hundred
years ago the population was only $4,000 (;
and seventy-tive years ago QS0D it had
increased to only S64,755. 1t is now
over four millions, and London is the
largest, the richest and the most CONNER
cial city on the globe. Its new life was
the result of commercial activity pro-
duced by quickened transportation. 1t
was first in the construction of the canal,
then of the steamboat, and then, in a
much greater degree, of the locomotive.
London may well honor the memory of
Robert Stephenson, for she owes more to
this untaught son of toll than to all her
aristocracy. When he built the Rocket
he sent thrill of activity through the
heart of the city, and put new life into
all the arteries of commerce.
In several different directions London
has more than ten miles of continuous
streets and buildings. The Thames winds
through it like great serpent, and is
crossed by dozen different bridges. 1t
is no such river as the Hudson or Della
ware, but is Of considerable commercial
importance below the first bridge, which
is London Bridge. But it is little sin.
gular that the largest and most CONNER
cial city in the world should have its
chief shipping port 200 miles away.
Tue AoWcI Oh lLouuOu StduuS CLOSE 10
the Thames, on the north side, below
London Bridge, and is one of the places
which every stranger desires to see. 1t
is vast old fortress, built of stone, and
covering some five or six acres Of ground.
Its grim and massive walls, which have
defied the tooth of time for fifteen or
twenty centuries, seem to stand as strong
as ever, and are perpetual, monument to
the barbarisms and cruelties of the Eng
lish people. Some portions Of these walls
date back to the days of the Romans, and
from that time to the present the Tower
has been an element in English history.
Its story would be the tale of advanc-
ing civilization, and the scenes enacted
within its walls would mark the progress
Of the English mind towards enlighten-
ment and liberty. Tower Hill, where
Lady Jane Gray and so many others were
behcaded, is in front and little to the
left of the Tower, on paved square,
which is made memorable by handsome
monument. The interior of the tower
has its interest increased by being made
the repository of all sorts of ancient
armor, the instruments of torture used in
former ages, and the trophies of English
victories. In one portion of the building.
called the Jewel House, are kept the
crown jewels and other gems Of historic
interest, including the jewels worn by the