The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-05-17
LONDON AS A LITERARY CENTRE,

Since Shakespeare came up to town.
from the quiet of a Stratford not yet
made famous by his fame, London has
been the chief literary centre of the
world. 1t attracks, as by an irresistible
gravitation, literary aspiTants from all
English speaking peoples. Edinburgh
still prides itself on being the Athens of
the North the university towns of Ok
ford and Cambridge are centres of work
ing scholarship, Dublin counts its quota
of wise and witty scholars; but even
these cannot resist fate and London, and
sooner or later they give up their men,
at least for portion of the year, to the
all-absOrbing metropolis. The faces of
American writers are familiar on its
streets. There are said to be IA 0O5 men
and women in London who earn their
living by their pens, although this esti-
mate includes newspaper writers. To
speak adequately of the literary side of
many-sided London, so rich in historic
association, so comprehensive of present
life, would be to essay a history of
English literature and general survey
OF present English letters. These papers
have a more modest aim-to tell the
stay at-home reader something of
literary life in London, and to make
known TO him in some measure the men
and women of to day who are part of
that life, whose books he has read, and
whom he has loved or honored through
their books.
The road to fame used to be Fleet
Street. This was the literary thorough
fare Of London long before DR., Johnson's
historic phrase TO Bozzy. Let us take
walk down Fleet Street; and many a
struggling author has sorrowed over the
grim jest of the streets name as he
found the stream of success by no means
fleet. Here, almost within stones throw
OF Temple Bar, the houses-or, alas!
sites-famOus in the history of letters
are most to be found; and here the pill
grim Americans, tracing the steps OF
Dickens and of others of the vast with
that mingled reverence and transatlantic
eagerness and fresh appetite for London
which SO perplex their English cousins,
lind most to stay them.
But as London itself has crept into
the green fields, and surrounded within
Its circle the commons and High Streets
of village after village, until that same
circle has centres innumerable, so the
London of letters has outgrown any
single centre. 1t is a good two miles,
dotted with publishing houses, from
Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, st.
Pauls Church yard, where booksellers
used to concongregate under the shadow
of the church, to Mr.. Murrays shop in
Albemarle Street, famous in Byron's
verse, but ten mile radius would not
compass the workshops of London
authors. Many of them, indeed, live
hereland there about the kingdom, but
are annexed to London by occasional
residence IN chambers or lodgings.
Most of the suburban villages have their
literary residents. Hampstead, with its
stretch of heath, has the home charm
for Walter Besant, TennysOn lives at
Aldworth, William Morris at Hammer
smith, Swlnburne at Fulham; even such
a Londoner as Thackeray's daughter
now finds her home at Wimbledon Park;
Mrs. Bra jdon. Maxwell lives at Rich
mond, Mr., Blackmore in a neighbOring
Thames village, Mr.. Dobson at Ealing;
and Mill Hill was for some years crown
ed with the curious little corrugated
IRON building, adapted from chapel to
be a storehouse of words, in which DIR.
Murray and his associates did their
| "Ol IA Oll tue SNtdl L lll' loSlNal iD'SeiOh-
AIRY before its removal to Oxford.
or the many thousand men and wo-
men in London who live by literary
work of one sort or another, a good
number, some hundreds, are known to
the reading public as writers Of indi
vidual name and Importance. The most
careful list of hundred would leave
out many names which would at once
spring to the thought of any general
reader Some of these have been dis.
tinguished by the government with the
hcnors of pension on the civil lust,
ranging from twenty to three hundred
pounds. 1t IS interesting to note also
that good many writers are in the
civil service devoting their pens to the
public in ane way by day, in another
way by night. To make adequate men.
ton of those really well known would
be hopeless task,-[R. r. Bowker, in
Harpers Magazine for May.