the great plague of 1665, which began in the month of May, and continued on till the end of September, during which period, there had been swept off 68,596 persons.* On the second September, 1666, broke out the great fire, which consumed 4000 streets and lanes, 13,200 houses, old St. Pauls Cathedral, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, tbe Royal Exchange, Blackwell Hall, the Custom House, several hospitals, and libraries, 52 of the city companies' magnificent halls, and a vast number of other stately edifices, together with three of the city gates, four stone bridges, and four prisons. Of merchandize, and household furniture, according to the best calculation; the loss amounted to £10,735,000; but, fortunately, only six persons lost their lives. In the year 1676, there was also a very extensive fire of nearly a proportional extent, as the London fire, ten years before, in the Borough of Southwark. In the announcement of this calamity in the London Gazette, it was stated," that about 600 houses had been burnt and blown up." The town hall, which was involved in the destruction, was not built until about ten years after. When complete, it was adorned with a statue of Charles II., which remained until this building was pulled down, in 1773. This statue was then set up on the watch house, in three crowns square, on which some witty wag wrote: "Justice and Charles have left the hill,1 The city claimed their places; Justice resides at Dick West's still,2 Now keeps the tavern score; While Charley turned out altogether, In the year 1613, the new river water was brought from Ware, to London, by Sir Hugh Middleton, and let into the lower reservoir, at Islington. There was a grand masque given on this occasion. On the twenty-sixth of November, 1703, happened one of the most dreadful storms of wind, which extended over great *This dire infection had been carried down to Eyam, in Derbyshire, where it was stopped spreading by the Rev. William Mompesson, at the risk of everything dear to him; for he lost his wife, and caught it himself; see an account of this affair, in "The Desolation of Eyam," by the Howitt's. The Rev. Thomas Stanley acted also a conspicuous part. See Hone's Table Book. + St. Margaret's Hill. 2 In allusion to a figure of justice which supported the lord mayor's chair, in the town hall, and was purchased by Mr. West, of the Three Crowns, coffee-house, and placed as an ornament in his bar. The part of England, and the continent, even to Russia! damage at sea far exceeded that by land; for on that dreadful night, twelve men of war were lost, with more than 1800 men on board; besides, a prodigious loss of merchants' ships. The ancient city of London, within the walls occupied only 370 acres. The tower occupies 12 acres; the circuit of the ditch is 3156 feet. The armory inside is always filled with a supply of small arms for 150,000 men. Westminster bridge, which was the second over the Thames, in London, was not built until the reign of George I. The first custom-house was built 1385. STATISTICS OF LONDON.-As I have stated, on the accession of King James, 1603, London and Westminster did not join, nor was it much increased, before the Union with Scotland, 1707. Having given some account of it at those periods, I give the following statistics of it at the present time: most descriptions are best understood by comparisons. It now consists of the cities of London and Westminster, the districts of Finsbury, Mary-le-bone, Tower Hamlets, Borough of Southwark, and district of Lambeth, the two last are on the southside of the river Thames. It contains 300 churches and chapels of the establishment, 364 dissenters' chapels, 22 foreign chapels, 250 public schools, 1500 private schools; 150 hospitals, 156 alms houses, besides 205 institutions, 550 public offices, 14 prisons, 22 theatres, 24 markets; it consumes annually 110,000 bullocks, 776,000 sheep, 250,000 lambs, 250,000 calves, and 270,000 pigs, 11,000 tons of butter, 13,000 tons of cheese, 10 million gallons of milk, 1 million quarters of wheat, or 64 million loaves, (of 4 lbs. each,) 65,000 pipes of wine, 2 million gallons of spirits, and 2 millions barrels of porter and ale; employs 16,502 shoemakers, 14,552 tailors, 2,391 blacksmiths, 2,013 whitesmiths, 5,030 house painters, 1,076 fish dealers, 2,662 hatters and hosiers, 13,208 carpenters, 6,822 bricklayers, &c. 5,416 cabinet makers, 4,227 grocers, 1,430 milkmen, 5,655 bakers, 2,091 barbers, 1,040 brokers, 4,322 butchers, 1,586 cheesemongers, 700 pressmen, 1,393 stationers, 2,633 watch and clock makers, 1,005 wheelwrights, 2,180 sawyers, 2,807 jewellers, 1,172 old clothesmen, (chiefly Jews,) 3,628 compositors, 4,227 grocers, 1,082 chymists, 4,199 clothiers and linen drapers, 2,167 coach makers, 1,367 coal merchants, 2,133 coopers, 1,381 dyers, 2,319 plumbers, 907 pastry cooks, 869 saddlers, 1,246 tinman, 803 tobacconists, 1,470 turners, 556 undertakers. (The above are all males above twenty years of age.) 10,000 private families of fashion, &c.; about 77,000 establishments of trade and industry, 4,400 public houses, 330 hotels, 470 beer shops, 960 spirits and wine shops. The London docks cover twenty acres of ground, out of which the tobacco warehouse occupies 14, and the wine cellars 3, containing 22,000 pipes. The two West India docks, cover 51 acres, St. Catharine's dock cover 24 acres. The Surrey docks on the opposite side are very large. There are generally about 5000 vessels, and 3000 boats on the river, employing 8000 watermen, and 4000 labourers. London pays about onethird of the window tax duty in England; the number of houses assessed, being about 120,000, rated at upwards of £5,000,000. The house rentals are probably from 7 to 8 millions. It occupies a surface of 32 square miles. Knight's London. To give an idea of what the population of London now is, there was an enumeration taken of the passage over Blackfriars, and London bridges, 1st July, 1811. Over the four other bridges there was no enumeration taken. There are 1200 hackney coaches and chariots, and 200 cabriolets; and, on an average, 30,000 horses of various sorts. In 1800, the number of four wheel carriages which paid tax were 17,992, of two wheel'd, 14,771, and tax carts, 16,968. PLEASURE BOAT "At the beginning of the 18th century, these pleasure boats were used by the commonality, which passed up the river to Chelsea or Richmond, or down to Greenwich, or to the Follyhouse, Blackwall, with parties. The small boats, or wherries, on the Thames, charged from London to Westminster, above the bridge, the price for two rowers was 6d., with one rower, price 3d.; if below the bridge to the then extremity of the city, prices the same. London is distant from the sea 60 miles, from Edinburgh 395, from Dublin 338, from Paris 225, from Amsterdam 190, from Stockholm 750, from St. Petersburg 1140, Berlin 540, * Mackay's Journey to London. from Vienna 820, from Rome 950, from Madrid 860, from Lisbon 850, from Constantinople 1660. The river Thames rises two miles S. W. of Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, at Lechlade, 138 miles from London, it becomes navigable for harges of 80 or 90 tons; close to London bridge for ships of 800 tons, and for the largest ships of war below Greenwich. The tide flows eight miles in four hours as high as Richmond, ten miles above London bridge. The water is not salt higher than Gravesend, about 22 miles below the bridge, where it is a mile wide; at London, it is about a quarter of a mile wide; its whole course is about 200 miles. The port of London actually occupied by shipping (excepting the docks,) is four miles, and they range from 4 to 500 yards broad. In the year 1833, the new river water works, supplied 171,975,000 imperial barrels of water, 21,000,000 of which were raised by machinery, 60 feet above the level of the new river head, the rest flowed from the head, which is 84 feet above the Thames; this quantity supplied 70,145 dyers, brew ers, &c. In the same year, the quantity raised by the several metropolitan companies, was 357,286,807 barrels which supplied 191,066 houses, &c. average daily supply was 35,000,000 gallons, or 183 gallons per house, at the cost of three fourths of a farthing, (which is the one-fourth of a penny,) per barrell of 36 gallons. The following is the length of some of the streets, Oxfordstreet 2304 yards, upper Thames-street 1331, Tottenham courtroad 1177, High Holborn 1045, Bishopgate-street 1045, Piccadilly 1694, White-chapel 1281, and the new commercial road 5280. The weekly amount of money expended in Billingsgate market for fish, is considered to be more than for flesh in Smithfield. It is the principal fish market for all England. LONDON CITY COMPANIES. "In all companionship there is love, in proportion as there is fellowship there is friendship." ARISTOTLE. "Different fraternities, are as old as the first days of Christianity, with which they arose." TERTULLIAN. The author of "Europe during the Middle Ages," says, "The trades' companies are descended from the Saxon policy, and once were good, but now worse than useless. The present benefit societies, are the legitimate offspring of the old Guilds." Pennant says, the Guilds, are the origin of corporations, it is a Saxon word, and signifies fraternity. A guild was a public feast, to commemorate the time of the institution, and Guildhall, the place where the fraternity met. They were both for civil and religious purposes. Of the city companies, there were nearly 100. They had not liveries before the reign of Edward I.; and this gorgeous apparel was left off in the reign of James I. but they now wear gowns.* There are now forty-nine separate halls. Some of them were of foreign origin, as their names import; for instance, the milliners were from Milan; many of them are very rich, from the gifts of different wealthy members. The haberdashers, were formerly hardwaremen; "this wealthy society, in 1830, had £104,000 invested, and £3000 per year all accumulated, which they did not know what to do with; it was originally destined for the redemption of Christian slaves on the coast of Barbary."-Digby. The fishmongers are the great whig company. The merchant tailors, the tory company, of these, prominent political men become enrolled; for it is to be told, that no man can become an office holder in the corporation of London, nor have a vote at the elections, (before the late reform bill,) without being a citizen, and liveryman, nor carry on any retail trade in the city. Of this high tory society of merchant tailors, I suppose, out of the 300 members of which it now consists, there is not one an actual snip. This proud body of men, were not of the same class formerly; they were actually workers, principally engaged in manufacturing pavillions for the king, robes of states for the nobles, and tents for the soldiers, whence the arms they bear is a pavillion between two royal mantles; in their charter they are called "mercatores scissores," but no doubt they became, in due course of time, merchants of cloth, began to eat the goose, and then gradually dropped the scissors, which they had used as actual cutters up of cloth, and makers up of clothes, till the time of James I. * "Liverymen, are such men as in a company, or corporation, who are advanced to a degree above the yeomanry, and havo a right to wear a livery gown upon solemn occasions." Chaucer says: "An haberdasher and a carpenter, |