rels are swinging up and down; hops are storing in warehouses, or carting to the brewers; beer and cider are transferring either to or from the vessels at the wharfs; and goods of various kinds are carrying out and in from the wharves.

The manufacture of hats is carried on to a large extent in Southwark; and in Lambeth, which has increased very largely within the last fifteen or twenty years, there are a considerable number of establishments, in which the manufactures of machinery, earthenware, &c., are carried on. The large printing establishment of the Messrs. Clowes is in Lambeth. We might appear to degrade the production of books if we call it a manufacture; but it is really so, in all the divisions of labor and mechanical inventions which constitute a factory upon a large scale.

CHAPTER XXXV.

BRIDGES.

OLD London bridge was for six centuries the only bridge across the Thames at London. It was begun, according to Stowe, in 1176; and Westminster bridge, the next that was built, was not opened till 1748. London bridge was built of stone, but it was covered with houses, most of them of wood, which were frequently destroyed by fire. After Westminster bridge was opened, the houses of London bridge were removed, under authority of acts of parliament; and the bridge itself was greatly widened and improved. It continued a kind of convenient nuisance, perpetually requiring to be propped up and repaired, but strong in the attachment and antiquarian veneration which its old eventful associations created, till 1831 ; and now, unless we except the monument, there is scarcely a landmark left by which to indicate where it once stood.

We now count six bridges across the Thames at London-eight, if we go above Vauxhall, and include the suburban bridges of Battersea and Putney. Putney bridge, a clumsy wooden structure, was built between 1726 and 1729; its arches are the Scylla and Charybdis of amateur boatmen on the Thames, and, like the arches of Old London bridge, are not unfrequently the cause of loss of life to the careless or inexperienced.

Westminster bridge was the first bridge erected after London bridge. It is adjacent to the houses of parliament, and is also in the vicinity of Westminster hall. On the 13th of September, 1738, the preparations for the building of Westminster bridge were begun, by the driving of the first pile for its foundation, in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators: the piers were built in coffer-dams. On the 29th of January following, the first stone of one of the two central piers (that next the west side) was laid by the earl of Pembroke. The whole structure is built of stone, and principally of Portland block stones, of which few are less than a ton in weight, while many are two or three, and some even four or five tons. There are fourteen piers in all, besides the two abutments, and consequently fifteen arches; they are semicircular in form, and the span of that in the middle is seventy-six feet: the others gradually decrease in width; the sixth from the centre on each side being only fifty-two feet, and the two next the abutments only twenty-five each. The whole length of the bridge is twelve hundred and twenty-three feet; and the clear water-way under the arches is eight hundred and seventy feet. The road over it is forty-four feet in breadth, the footpaths on each side included. In the beginning of 1747, when it was nearly completed, one of the piers sunk so much as to determine the commissioners to have it pulled down and rebuilt; and this was the only circumstance by which the work was materially retarded. It was at last brought to a conclusion on the 10th of November that year-when the new bridge was formally opened by a procession passing over it. The work cost in all three hundred and eighty-nine thousand, and five hundred pounds sterling, which was granted for the purpose in successive years by parliament. Maitland states that the value of forty thousand pounds is computed to be always under water in stone and other materials; and, according

to other authorities, the whole quantity of stone used in this bridge is asserted to have been nearly double that employed in St. Paul's cathedral.

Blackfriars bridge was begun in about ten years after the opening of Westminster bridge. At the time it was built it was thought a noble specimen of bridge-building, and it was so unquestionably, until such engineers as Telford and Rennie carried forward the art. Situated not far from Fleet street and Ludgate hill, it is, like London bridge, one of the great thoroughfares of the metropolis. The declivity of the bridge, and the friable stone of which it was built, have rendered necessary very extensive alterations and repairs.

Southwark and Waterloo bridges-the first a fine structure of cast-iron, the second of granite, and one of the noblest bridges in the world-were nearly contemporane ous in their erection. Waterloo bridge was begun in 1811, and completed in 1817; Southwark bridge was begun in 1814, and opened in 1819. Vauxhall bridge, which is the farthest up the river of the strictly London bridges, was also built about the same time as the Southwark and Waterloo bridge: it was begun in 1813, and finished in 1816. It consists of nine arches of equal span, in squares of cast-iron, resting on piers of rusticated stone.

New London bridge was begun in 1824, and opened in 1831. Both it and Waterloo bridge were opened with great ceremony and pomp-Waterloo bridge on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, in 1817, by George IV., then prince regent, and the duke of Wellington; London bridge by the late king, William IV., accompanied by the present queen-dowager.

London bridge consists of five semi-elliptic arches: the least of these is larger than any other stone arch of this form ever erected; the centre arch is one hundred and fifty-two feet span, with a rise above high-water mark of twenty-nine feet six inches; the two arches next the centre are one hundred and forty feet in span; the abutments are each one hundred and thirty feet in span. The roadway is fifty-three feet wide between the parapets, the footway occupying nine feet each: the rise in the road is only one in one hundred and thirty-two. The length of the bridge, from the extremi ty of the abutments, is nine hundred and twenty-eight feet; within the abutments, seven hundred and eighty-two feet. The whole of the bridge is built of granite, and the total quantity of stone employed amounts to about one hundred and twenty thousand tons. The new bridge is, like the old one, free of toll.

Of the six bridges, three are open thoroughfares, and at three tolls are paid; and it so happens that one of each kind occurs alternately. The three open bridges are London, Blackfriars, and Westminster; and at all periods of the day they may be seen thronged by a multitude of passengers on foot, in carriages, and on horseback. At each of the other bridges there are toll-houses, with metal turnstiles attached to each. Connected with each turnstile is an index in the toll-house, by which the number of foot-passengers can be distinctly ascertained during each day. The number of passengers on foot and horseback who use these bridges, though far from being inconsiderable, is yet very small when compared with the other bridges.

Waterloo bridge affords the finest walk to be had in the heart of London. It is in the immediate neighborhood of the thronged Strand; and on either side of it, at some little distance, Westminster and Blackfriars bridges may be seen covered with an apparently never-ending crowd. But the toll (one penny for each foot-passenger) keeps Waterloo bridge free from the inconveniences of a thronged thoroughfare; and one can walk with ease and comfort along its level extent, and enjoy the fine perspective view of London which, by the sharp turn of the river, is here brought be fore the eye. The noble river front of Somerset house is close by the bridge; the dome of St. Paul's does not appear so vast as on Blackfriars bridge, but the distance, which somewhat diminishes the idea of the size, "lends enchantment to the view;" and the towers of Westminster abbey are seen rising above their surrounding objects. It is pleasant, on the close of a sultry day, to escape to Waterloo bridge from the heated pavement and brick walls of Fleet street and the Strand; and on such an evening the nervous or impatient man, panting for a breath of air, and who fancies that the very noise of the streets aggravates all his uncomfortable sensations, will doubly enjoy the breeze that ripples the surface of the river: and, in marking how the setting sun touches dome, tower, and pinnacle, with its varied hues, will even tolerate the now-softened sounds that so lately irritated his nerves.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

AMUSEMENTS. THE THEATRES AND EXHIBITIONS.

In a map prefixed to Maitland's London, representing the metropolis as it appeared "about the year 1560," there is no trace of a theatre, though we know that about twenty years afterward there were three or four. But if there be no theatre, the map is not without evidence of what were public amusements. In those days, when strolling players were content to perform in the courtyard of an inn, their spectators looking down upon them from the old wooden balconies, rougher amusements had secured for themselves permanent habitations. Among the references in the map is one to the cockpit, and conspicuous on the Surrey side of the Thames, behind the strip of houses known then as the notorious Bankside, are two round buildings, open at the top, and adorned with flags, under which are written "bull-baiting and bearbaiting."

There appears to have been a theatre in London in the year 1576: it was probably the first regular theatre of the metropolis. In that year also was the Blackfriars built, so famous for Shakspere's connexion with it; and in the year following the Curtain, in Shoreditch, in which Ben Jonson performed. These were speedily followed by others, which, as they were mostly small wooden structures, were easily thrown up, and as easily consumed by the slightest touch of fire. A view of the Globe theatre, at Bankside, is given here.

While the theatre was undergoing various mutations-now seemingly established by Shakspere and his colleagues, then driven into obscurity by the stern spirit of religious zeal; again patronised, and made a nest of profligacy, and from that time gradually but slowly elevated-the great bulk of the people remained attached to their rough and out-of-door amusements. During the last century, bear-baiting and bull-baiting continued to attract crowded audiences, and boasted of the patronage of 66 persons of quality;" the self-styled "noble art of self-defence," not with fists merely, but with sharp slashing swords, drew females to witness its brutal exhibitions; and even females publicly advertised boxing matches, with all the swagger of bullies. The people did go to the theatre; they filled the galleries, disturbed the performances, and dictated to the actors. If they chose to indulge in the horse-play of