LONDON IN 1731.
CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON; BOTH IN REGARD TO
ITS EXTENT, BUILDINGS, GOVERNMENT, TRADE, ETC.
London, the capital of the kingdom of England, taken in its largest
extent, comprehends the cities of London and Westminster, with their
respective suburbs, and the borough of Southwark, with the buildings
contiguous thereto on the south side of the river, both on the east
and west sides of the bridge.
The length thereof, if we measure in a direct line from Hyde Park
gate, on the west side of Grosvenor Square, to the farthest
buildings that are contiguous in Limehouse, that is, from west to
east, is very near five miles in a direct line; but if we take in
the turnings and windings of the streets, it cannot be less than six
miles. The breadth in many places from north to south is about two
miles and a half, but in others not above a mile and a half; the
circumference of the whole being about sixteen miles.
The situation next the river is hilly, and in some places very
steep; but the streets are for the most part upon a level, and the
principal of them nowhere to be paralleled for their length,
breadth, beauty, and regularity of the buildings, any more than the
spacious and magnificent squares with which this city abounds.
As to the dimensions of the city within the walls, I find that the
late wall on the land side from the Tower in the east, to the mouth
of Fleet Ditch in the west, was two miles wanting ten poles; and the
line along the Thames, where there has been no walls for many
hundred years, if ever, contains from the Tower in the east, to the
mouth of the same ditch in the west, a mile and forty poles; which
added to the circuit of the wall, on the land side, makes in the
whole three miles thirty poles; and as it is of an irregular figure,
narrow at each end, and the broadest part not half the length of it,
the content of the ground within the walls, upon the most accurate
survey, does not contain more than three hundred and eighty acres;
which is not a third part of the contents of our extensive city of
Lisbon: but then this must be remembered, Lisbon contains a great
quantity of arable and waste ground within its walls, whereas London
is one continued pile of buildings. The city gates are at this day
eight, besides posterns, viz.: 1, Aldgate; 2, Bishopsgate; 3,
Moorgate; 4, Cripplegate; 5, Aldersgate; 6, Newgate; 7, Ludgate;
and, 8, The Bridgegate.
1. Aldgate, or Ealdgate, in the east, is of great antiquity, even
as old as the days of King Edgar, who mentions it in a charter to
the knights of Knighton-Guild. Upon the top of it, to the eastward,
is placed a golden sphere; and on the upper battlements, the figures
of two soldiers as sentinels:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 3 of 78
Words from 1150 to 1652
of 40922
