ABOUT LONDON.
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BY
J. EWING RITCHIE,
Author of "Night Side of London;" "The London Pulpit;" "Here and There in London," &c.
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"The boiling town keeps secrets ill."--AURORA LEIGH.
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LONDON: WILLIAM TINSLEY, 314, STRAND. 1860.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The author of the following pages, must plead as his apology for again trespassing on the good nature of the public, the success of his other books. He is aware that, owing to unavoidable circumstances, the volume here and there bears marks of haste, but he trusts that on the whole it may be considered reliable, and not altogether unworthy of the public favour.
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FINCHLEY, _June_ 16_th_, 1860.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE. NEWSPAPER PEOPLE 1 CHAPTER II. SPIRITUALISM 12 CHAPTER III. ABOUT COAL 23 CHAPTER IV. HIGHGATE 44 CHAPTER V. TOM TIDDLER'S GROUND 60 CHAPTER VI. WESTMINSTER ABBEY 68 CHAPTER VII. LONDON CHARITIES 76 CHAPTER VIII. PEDESTRIANISM 84 CHAPTER IX. OVER LONDON BRIDGE 92 CHAPTER X. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND THE EARLY-CLOSING MOVEMENT 101 CHAPTER XI. TOWN MORALS 110 CHAPTER XI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 121 CHAPTER XII. LONDON MATRIMONIAL 131 CHAPTER XIII. BREACH OF PROMISE CASES 141 CHAPTER XIV. COMMERCIAL LONDON 149 CHAPTER XV. LONDON GENTS 158 CHAPTER XVI. THE LONDON VOLUNTEERS 165 CHAPTER XVII. CRIMINAL LONDON 174 CHAPTER XVIII. CONCERNING CABS 185 CHAPTER XIX. FREE DRINKING FOUNTAINS 193 CHAPTER XX. CONCLUSION 203
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: About London by J. Ewing Ritchie
- 2: Let us think awhile of a newspaper office
- 3: The editor writes the leaders and reviews
- 4: The parliamentary reporters are now furnishing their quota
- 5: The latter is believed in Cottonopolis guilty of a piracy
- 6: The reverend gentleman occupying the platform
- 7: Howitt is an old man and ought to know
- 8: His the religion of true harmony
- 9: Concerning intercourse with departed spirits
- 10: He breathes down that great aura upon us continually
- 11: On the top of the mail aforesaid
- 12: And on we speed till we reach Romford
- 13: I was when I lived on earth an exciseman
- 14: Led to the discontinuance of the services of viewers
- 15: When taken opposite Billingsgate
- 16: And who elect each other by ballot
- 17: The factors till then holding out for high prices
- 18: The well known colliery proprietor at Merthyr
- 19: I will frankly confess that Highgate
- 20: Towards Highgate snow lay on the ground
- 21: Mark the philosopher's connection with Highgate
- 22: Lives at the foot of Highgate Hill
- 23: More renowned characters appear on Highgate Hill
- 24: Is buried in Highgate Cemetery
- 25: The freedom of Highgate was indispensable
- 26: Nearly one in eleven dies in the workhouses
- 27: Sir Samuel Morton Peto worked for seven years as a carpenter
- 28: 676 pounds from the rest of the kingdom
- 29: And no sooner had Hume sat down than Macaulay delivered
- 30: The entrance is at the south transept
- 31: As a burial place Westminster Abbey resembles the world
- 32: 526 This includes parent societies only
- 33: 193 either six or eight ounce loaves of bread
- 34: I am a great advocate of Pedestrianism
- 35: Thus is it old physical sports and pastimes never die
- 36: Who were neither winners nor losers
- 37: Are there no night equestrians in London now
- 38: In 1800 the tonnage entered was 796
- 39: But hear that big party behind in a Hansom
- 40: At the Southwark end was the Traitor's Gate
- 41: Remercient tres humblement votre majeste
- 42: Which were the old parliamentary hours
- 43: Brotherton waged an incessant but unsuccessful war
- 44: This brougham will deposit the Jenkinses
- 45: Tidman at the Guildhall Coffee house
- 46: In the Moated Grange I'm a aweary
- 47: And thus we all become unmeaning
- 48: Fontaine tells of a motherly crab
- 49: Were thankful that they did not dress as the Bayaderes
- 50: On one side of the house Pitt is quoted
- 51: The dropping acorns disturb my sleep
- 52: But to return to Sir Cresswell Cresswell
- 53: Because she stood by her husband's side as his helpmeet
- 54: He becomes a sceptic in all virtue
- 55: And the public sympathies are decidedly with her
- 56: The jury reasons that the plaintiff
- 57: In the immediate neighbourhood of Manchester the question
- 58: Is the frequency of breach of promise prosecutions
- 59: In the Loudon Bankruptcy Court
- 60: And Colonel Waughs were men known and respected
- 61: But who ever heard of a cook dying of starvation
- 62: We presume one Sunday evening promenading Regent Street
- 63: The gent of the Regent Street style
- 64: Debarred from intellectual pursuits
- 65: All tend to make us peaceably disposed
- 66: And then directed their march to Carisbrooke Castle
- 67: The great achievements of the English bowmen
- 68: Either summarily or after trial
- 69: At our feet is the stupendous Breakwater
- 70: The allowance for breakfast is 12 oz
- 71: Letter from Portland to their relations
- 72: While the penal servitude sentences were 2474
- 73: The cabs were constantly employed daily
- 74: Put a case of smallpox into a comfortable cab for an hour
- 75: Our London cabby is often similarly employed
- 76: Hence the popularity of some pumps near churchyards
- 77: Samuel Gurney Esquire who bilt the fountaine Newgate Street
- 78: DUNN x 103 Euston Road Euston Sq
- 79: And to share the English throne
- 80: At one time the middle classes contained
- 81: When she bred up an indomitable race
- 82: The gossip of our times reveals enough alas
- 83: Ritchie has so vigourously and effectually described
- 84: And succeeds in being graphic without becoming flippant
- 85: Ritchie ought to be a popular author
- 86: With an account of the muscolo cardiac
- 87: The wimbledon shooting match and the volunteer review