Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-05-27
FLEET STREET IN LONDON.
Its Present Occspants and Suggestive
Memories.
LONDON Letter 70 Boston HeraIi.I

tIOuQOH Lollsf W Dp7sn h'tett.l
Flees street is now filed with news
paper offices. II is the newspaper centre
~ ths world. Here the London dailies,
weekltes. and monthlies are produced.
and here the London Offices Of in
Vulnerable provincial and foreign papers.
All the way from Temple Bar TO Lud-
rate Hill, Feet street is filed with journal
ism. It overfiows and runs into tho
byways, trickles into the dingy. crooked
courts and plunges down all the streets
that lead riverward. In and about Fleet
street there is frenzy OF newspaper, re-
view. and magazine-making. Every build
ing has its scribblers or its printers, News
is continually coming here from all parts
of the world, and continually going 20 all
parts OF the world over a mass OF wires.
The journalistic history OF Fleet street
alone would fill volume as large as the
unabridged dictionary.
Come, let us take a walk down Fleet
street." said Dr. johnson. Walter Thorn
bury thinks the Doctor proposed no very
easy task In Johnson's early days the
London streets bad no side-pavemonts;
their centres were roughly paved ana
scared with detestable cutters. From
these cutters the iumbling coaches scat
tered the mud upon unofending pedes-
TRANS. The Sedan chairs, too, were awk-
ward impediments. and choleric people
were disposed to fight for the wlll. DR..
Johnson's curious nervous habit OF touch;
ing every street post he passed was cured
in 1866 by the laying down Of side pave
ments." Mr.. Thornbury says there ~ an
almost unknown essay 10y DR.. Johnson con-
tanning delightful passage " that connects
him Intimately with the DeighborhOOd Of
Temple Bar The essay was written IN
1856 for the UnirerSdl Visitor and it's called
A Project for the Employment OF Au-
thors.n Mr.. Thornbury prides himself ON
the discovery of this pleasant bit OF
autobiOoraphyn at is my practice
saws Johnson, "when | ain IN want OF
amusement TO place myself for an hour at
Temple Bar, and examine, one by one. tho
look of the passengers, and have COM
monty found that between the hours 0t IL
and 4 every sixth man IS an author. Ihey
are seldom to be seen very early m the
morning or late in the evening, hat about
dinner-time thew are all IN motion, and
have one uniform eagerness III their faces,
which gives little opportunity OF discern
ing their hopes or fears, their plea
sures or their pains. But IN the after
noon, when they have all dined, or conn
posed themselves 10 pass the daN WITH
out dinner. their passions have tull play.
and can perceive one man wondering 40
the stupidity of the public, by winch his
new book has been totally neglected an
other. cursing the French, who frightcn
away literary curiosity by their threat of il
vasion another. swearing at his bookseller
who viii advance no money without copy
another, peruslng, ~ ne walks, MS pun
lisher's bill another, murmurng az an
unanswerable criticism; another, deter
mining 20 write no more 20 generation Oh
barbarans: and another, wishing 20 iFy
once again whether be cannot awaken the
drOwsy world 20 sense OF ms mell,.
This passage fits Fleet street today al
most as well it did in the last century.
But. as once wrote elsewhere, one might
90 on and on: he might traverse NJ M
down Fleet street for "a week together, and
chatter for q month concerning Its men
and places. From the Temple 10 Ludgaie
circus. with all the crooked byways IN be-
tween: from the classic shades NJ SnlFe
lane and and It's memories of the hit hat
Club. 10 departed Aleatie and ITS
thievish hauuts. which Walter Scott came
down from his highland Businesses 10 de-
scribe. an ineXhaustible fund OF history IS
to be drawn. A street with which Words
worth ard Keats and Shelley were con-
uected. for which liaZlitt wrote his mimi
table criticisms on the plays and players
of his own time and of previous times. "a
street for which Young CARLYLE wrote artl-
cles on Schiller, for which lie quincy
penned the "ConfesslOns OF an OPIUM
| Eater for which Cary translate
Dante. and Allan Cunningham sang his
northetn lyrics; a street for which Tom
Hood wrote. and Landor thought out hls
Imaginary Conversations for which
Archdeacon Hare and Barry Cornwall
drove their steadfast pens; street 10
which Charles Lamb brought out. the
" Essays of Eta. " and through which he
daily plodded 70 the South-Sea house AMI
home again; street through which Spen-
Ger often walked and Shakespeare took hls
wev To PLAYHOUSE yard-must have for us
ali. Americans or Englishmen, associations
| of the most endearng kind.