Rollo in London
Page 2
CHAPTER I.
CITY AND TOWN.
"Which London shall we visit first?" said Mr. George to Rollo.
"Why," rejoined Rollo, surprised, "are there two of them?"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "We may almost say there are two of them. Or, atany rate, there are two heads to the monster, though the immense massforms but one body."
While Mr. George was saying these words Rollo had been standing on thestep of the railway car and looking in at the window towards his uncleGeorge, who was inside. Just at this time, however, the conversation wasinterrupted by the sound of the bell, denoting that the train was aboutto start. So Rollo jumped down from the step and ran back to his owncar, which was a second-class car, two behind the one where Mr. Georgewas sitting. He had scarcely got to his seat before the whistle of theconductor sounded and the train began to move. As it trundled along outof the station, gradually increasing its speed as it advanced, Rollo satwondering what his uncle meant by the double-headed character which hehad assigned to the monstrous city that they were going to see.
What is commonly called London does in fact consist, as Mr. George hadsaid, of _two_ great cities, entirely diverse from each other, andcompletely distinct--each being, in its way, the richest, the grandest,and the most powerful capital in the world.
One of these twin capitals is the metropolis of commerce; the other isthat of political and military power.
The first is called the City.
The second is called the West End.
Both together--with the immense region of densely-peopled streets andsquares which connect and surround them--constitute what is generallycalled London.
The _city_ was the original London. The West End was at first calledWestminster. The relative position of these two centres may be seen bythe following map:--
The city--which was the original London--is the most ancient. It wasfounded long before the days of the Romans; so long, in fact, that itsorigin is wholly unknown. Nor is any thing known in respect to thederivation or meaning of the name. In regard to Westminster, the name isknown to come from the word _minster_, which means _cathedral_--acathedral church having been built there at a very early period, andwhich, lying west of London as it did, was called the West Minster. Thischurch passed through a great variety of mutations during the lapse ofsuccessive centuries, having grown old, and been rebuilt, and enlarged,and pulled down, and rebuilt again, and altered, times and ways withoutnumber. It is represented in the present age by the venerable monumentalpile--the burial-place of the ancient kings, and of the mostdistinguished nobles, generals, and statesmen of the Englishmonarchy--known through all the world as Westminster Abbey.
After a time, when England became at length one kingdom, the king builthis palace, and established his parliament, and opened his court inWestminster, not far from the abbey. The place, being about three milesfrom the city, was very convenient for this purpose. In process of timepublic edifices were erected, and noblemen's houses and new palaces forthe king or for other members of the royal family were built, and shopswere set up for the sale of such things as the people of the court mightwish to buy, and streets and squares were laid out; and, in fine,Westminster became gradually quite an extended and famous town. It wasstill, however, entirely distinct from London, being about three milesfrom it, farther up the river. The principal road from London toWestminster followed the margin of the water, and was called the Strand.Towards Westminster the road diverged from the river so as to leave aspace between wide enough for houses; and along this space the greatnobles from time to time built magnificent palaces around great squarecourts, where they could ride in under an archway. The fronts of thesepalaces were towards the road; and there were gardens behind them,leading down to the water. At the foot of the garden there was usually aboat house and a landing, where the people who lived in the palace ortheir friends could embark on board boats for excursions on the Thames.
In the mean time, while Westminster was thus becoming a large andimportant town, London itself, three miles farther down the river, wasalso constantly growing too, in its own way, as a town of merchants andartisans. Other villages, too, began to spring up in every directionaround these great centres; and London and Westminster, graduallyspreading, finally met each other, and then, extending on each side,gradually swallowed up these villages, until now the whole region, forfive or six miles in every direction from the original centres, formsone mighty mass of streets, squares, lanes, courts, terraces, allcrowded with edifices and thronged with population. In this mass allvisible distinction between the several villages which have beenswallowed up is entirely lost, though the two original centres remainas widely separated and as distinct as ever. The primeval London has,however, lost its exclusive right to its name, and is now simply calledthe _city_; and in the same manner Westminster is called the West End,and sometimes the _town_; while the name London is used to denote thewhole of the vast conglomeration which envelops and includes the twooriginal capitals.
The city and the West End, though thus swallowed, as it were, in thegeneral metropolis, are still entirely distinct. They are in fact, insome respects, even more widely distinct from each other now than ever.Each is, in its own way, at the head of its class of cities. The city isthe greatest and wealthiest mart of commerce in the world; while theWest End is the seat and centre of the proudest and most extendedpolitical and military power. In fact, the commercial organization whichcentres in the city, and the military one which has its head quartersaround the throne at the West End, are probably the greatest and mostpowerful organizations, each of its kind, that the world has ever known.
Mr. George explained all this to Rollo as they walked together away fromthe London Bridge station, where the train in which they came in fromthe south stopped when it reached London. But I will give a moredetailed account of their conversation in the next chapter.