In rebuilding the city many improvements were effected. Streets were widened and houses of more substantial materials constructed, but London has never ceased to regret that the masterly designs of Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Evelyn were not carried out in their entirety. St. Paul's Cathedral and fifty-three parish churches were rebuilt by Wren in such

a way that, when viewed from such a standpoint as Waterloo Bridge, the lesser fanes, though differing from each other, all harmonize and serve to heighten the general effect of the stately Cathedral dome.

In 1716 it was ordained that every householder should hang

a light before his door from six in the evening till eleven. Gas was first used as an illuminant in 1807. In 1767 numbers began to replace the old signs as distinguishing marks for houses. The year 1780 witnessed the Gordon Riots, when Newgate and other prisons were fired and many prisoners released, stirring events that supply an effective background to Dickens' Barnaby Rudge.

Most of the city gates were removed before the end of the eighteenth century, but the most famous of them, Temple Bar, stood in its place until 1878, when, owing to the inconvenience caused to traffic, it was replaced by the present monument. The old gate now stands at the entrance to Sir Henry Meux's park, at Theobalds, about fourteen miles from London. only gate now remaining is St. John's Gate (see p. 266).

The

To the latter part of the eighteenth century belong some of the finest buildings in London, such as Somerset House, the Bank, the Mansion House and the Horse Guards. But the Metropolis, as we know it, is almost entirely a creation of the Victorian Age, most of the leading thoroughfares having been widened and improved-many of them actually constructed-and the bulk of the chief public edifices remodelled, if not built, during that period. Latterly the work of transformation has progressed wonderfully. The formation of wide arteries—such as New Oxford Street and Regent Street, in the early years of the nineteenth century; of Farringdon Street and Queen Victoria Street, later on, and of the broad avenue connecting Oxford Street with Old Street; of the Shaftesbury and Rosebery Avenues, and of Charing Cross Road, in more recent times; and within the last year or so the construction of Kingsway and the widening of the Strand and Fleet Street, have cleared away many notoriously unsavoury localities. Healthful and outlying districts are now made available by cheap trains and trams ; and the many large piles of buildings and industrial dwellings offer to the working population considerable means of living in cleanliness and decency. There is still, however, in certain localities, an urgent need for increased accommodation; and the question of overcrowding is an acute social problem.

Street improvements, together with the stringent sanitary precautions adopted by the various local authorities, have brought about the satisfactory result that London is now both one of the finest and one of the healthiest cities in the world.

H

AVING endeavoured to give a general idea of London, and to supply readers with all information needful to their stay in it, we will now conduct them through the principal thoroughfares, and do our best to " fairly streets and buildings trace, and all that gives distinction to the place."

There is so much to see in the great Whirlpool, as George Gissing aptly called London, that the visitor may as well rid his mind at once of any intention of seeing all. None the less,

by adopting some pre-arranged and methodical plan, he can greatly lighten his task and ensure that few things of real interest are overlooked. The series of routes in this and the subsequent section, devoted to the City proper, have been so mapped out that every part of Central London is covered, though we do not suppose for a moment that any large number of readers will literally follow in our footsteps. Where no lengthy stay is

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