Sir Christopher Wren when he was laying the foundation of the new St. Paul's. All the excavations show that modern London is at least fifteen feet higher than the London of the Romans, which has been buried by the same inexplicable process which entombed the Roman Forum, and covered many of its temples with earth up to the capitals of the columns.

Very little is known of London in Saxon times except that St. Paul's Cathedral was founded by Ethelbert, in 610, in the time of King Sebert. Bede, who mentions this, describes London as an "emporium of many nations who arrived thither by land and sea." London was the stronghold of the Danes, but was successfully besieged by Alfred, and Athelstan had a palace here. His successor Ethelred the Unready was driven out again by the Danes under Sweyn. On the death of Sweyn, Ethelred returned, and his son Edmund Ironside was the first monarch crowned in the capital. London grew greatly in importance under Edward the Confessor, who built the Palace and Abbey of Westminster, and it made a resistance to the Conqueror which was for some time effectual, though, on the submission of the clergy, he was presented with the keys of the City and crowned at the Confessor's tomb. He immediately tried to conciliate the citizens, by granting them the charter, which, written in the Saxon language, on a strip of vellum, is still preserved amongst the City archives.

"William the King greeteth William the Bishop and Godfrey the Portreve, and all the burgesses within London, both French and English. And I declare that I grant you all to be law-worthy as ye were in King Edward's days. And I will that every child be his father's heir after his father's days. And I will not suffer that any man do you wrong. God preserve you."

The chief events in the after story of London, its insurrections, its pageants, its martyrdoms, its conspiracies, its pestilences, its Great Fire, its religious agitations, its political excitements, are all noticed in describing those parts of the town with which they are especially connected.

Fuller says that London "is the second city in Christendome for greatnesse, and the first for good government." Its chief officer under the Saxons was called the Portreeve. After the Conquest the French word Maire, from Major, was introduced. We first hear of a Mayor of London in the reign of Henry II. His necessary qualifications are, that he shall be free of one of the City Companies, have served as Sheriff, and be an Alderman at the time of his election. The name of Alderman is derived from the title of a Saxon noble, cald meaning old, ealder elder. It is applied to the chief officer of a ward or guild and each Alderman of London takes his name from a ward. The City Companies or Merchant Guilds, though branches of the Corporation, have each a distinct government and peculiar liberties and immunities granted in special charters. Each Company has a Master and other officers, and separate Halls for their business or banquets. The oldest of the Companies is the Weavers, with a charter of 1164. Then come the Parish Clerks, instituted in 1232, and the Saddlers, in 1280. The Bakers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Grocers, Carpenters, and Fishmongers, all date from the fourteenth century. There are ninety-one Companies, but of these twelve are the most important, viz.—

*The Lord Mayor is elected on Michaelmas Day, but "Lord Mayor's Day" is November 9.

In the second year of Elizabeth the pictorial map of Ralph Aggas was published, which shows how little in those days London had increased beyond its early boundaries. Outside Aldgate, Bishopsgate, and Cripplegate, all was still complete country. "The Spital Fyeld" (Spitalfields) and "Finsburie Fyeld" were archery grounds: Moorfields was a marsh. St. Giles, Cripplegate, was the church of a little hamlet beyond the walls. Farther west a few houses in "Little Britanne" and Cock Lane clustered around the open space of "Schmyt Fyeld," black with the fires of recent martyrdoms. A slender thread of humble dwellings. straggled along the road which led by Holbourne Bridge across the Fleet to St. Andrew's Church and Ely Place, but ceased altogether after "Holbourne Hill" till the road reached the desolate village and leper-hospital of St. Gilesin-the-Fields. A wide expanse of open pasture-land, only broken by Drury House and the Convent Garden of Westminster, extended southwards from St. Giles's to the Strand, where the houses of the great nobles lined the passage of the sovereign from the City to the small royal city and great palace of Westminster. From Charing Cross, St. Martin's Lane and the Haymarket were hedge-girt roads leading into a solitude, and there was scarcely any house westwards except the Hospital of St. James, recently turned into a palace.

After the time of Elizabeth, London began to grow

rapidly, though Elizabeth herself and her immediate successors, dreading the power of such multitudes in the neighbourhood of the Court, did all they could to check it. In July, 1580, all persons were prohibited from building houses within three miles of any of the City gates, and, in 1602, a proclamation was made for "restraining the increase of buildings," and the "voyding of inmates" in the cities of London and Westminster, and for three miles round. But in spite of this, in spite of the Plague which destroyed 68,596 people, and the Fire which destroyed 13,200 houses, the great city continued to grow. Latterly it has increased so rapidly westwards, that it is impossible to define the limits of the town. It has been travelling west more or less ever since the time of the Plantagenets;-from the City to the Strand, and to Canonbury and Clerkenwell; then, under the Stuart kings, to the more northern parts of the parish of St. Clement Danes and to Whitehall: then, under William III. and Anne, to Bloomsbury and Soho: under the early Georges, to the Portland and Portman estates, then to the Grosvenor estates, and lastly to South Kensington. By its later increase the town has enormously increased the wealth of nine peers, to whom the greater portion of the soil upon which it has been built belongs-i.e. the Dukes of Portland, Bedford, and Westminster; the Marquises of Exeter, Salisbury, Northampton, and the Marquis Camden; the Earl Craven and Lord Portman. No one can tell where the West End will be next year. It is always moving into the country and never arriving there. Generally Fashion "is only gentility moving away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken by it," but in this case it is also a perpetual flight before the smoke, which still always drives

westwards, so that when the atmosphere is thickest in Brompton, the sky is often blue and the air pure in Ratcliff Highway.

In all the changes of generations of men and manners in London, the truth of the proverb, "Birds of a feather flock together," has been attested by the way in which the members of the same nationalities and those who have followed the same occupations have inhabited the same district. Thus, French live in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square and Soho, Italians in Hatton Garden, and Germans in the east of London. Thus, Lawyers live in Lincoln's Inn and the Temple; Surgeons and Dentists in George Street and Burlington Street; Doctors in Harley Street; and retired Indians in Cavendish Square and Portman Square, with their adjoining streets, which have obtained the name of Little Bengal. Thus, too, you would go to look for Booksellers in Paternoster Row, Clockmakers in Clerkenwell, Butchers in Newgate and Smithfield, Furniture Dealers in Tottenham Court Road, Hatmakers in Southwark, Tanners and Leather-dressers in Bermondsey, Bird and Bird-cage sellers near the Seven Dials, Statuaries in the Euston Road, and Artists at the Boltons.

The poorest parts of London also have always been its eastern and north-eastern parishes, and the district about Soho and St. Giles-in-the-Fields. So much has been said and written of the appearance of poverty and crime which these streets present, that those who visit them will be surprised to find at least outward decency and a tolerably thriving population; though of course the words of Cowley

are true