by Jacob Abbott
CHAPTER II.
LONDON BRIDGE.
When the train stopped at what is called the London Bridge station, thepassengers all stepped out of their respective cars upon the platform.In the English cars the doors are at the sides, and not, as in America,at the ends; so that the passengers get out nearly all at once, and theplatform becomes immediately crowded. Beyond the platform, on the otherside, there is usually, when a train comes in, a long row of cabs andcarriages drawn up, ready to take the passengers from the several cars;so that the traveller has generally nothing to do but to step across theplatform from the car that he came in to the cab that is waiting thereto receive him. Nor is there, as is usual in America, any difficulty ordelay in regard to the baggage; for each man's trunks are placed on thecar that he rides in, directly over his head; so that, while he walksacross the platform to the cab, the railway porter takes his trunkacross and places it on the top of the cab; and thus he is off from thestation in his cab within two minutes sometimes after he arrived at itin the car.
The railway porters, who attend to the business of transferring thepassengers thus from the railway carriages to those of the street, arevery numerous all along the platform; and they are very civil andattentive to the passengers, especially to those who come in thefirst-class cars--and more especially still, according to my observationand experience, if the traveller has an agreeable looking lady under hischarge. The porters are dressed in a sort of uniform, by which they arereadily distinguished from the crowd. They are strictly forbidden toreceive any fee or gratuity from the passengers. This prohibition,however, does not prevent their taking very thankfully the shillings orsixpences[A] that are often offered them, particularly by Americans,who, being strangers in the country, and not understanding the customsvery well, think that they require a little more attention than others,and so are willing to pay a little extra fee. It is, however, contraryto the rules of the station for the porters to receive any thing; and,if they take it at all, they try to do it as secretly as possible. Ionce knew a traveller who offered a porter a shilling openly on theplatform; but the porter, observing a policeman near, turned round withhis side to the gentleman, and, holding his hand open behind him, withthe back of it against his hip and his fingers moving up and downbriskly in a beckoning manner, said,--
"We are not allowed to take it, sir--we are not allowed to take it."
[A] Whenever shillings or sixpences are mentioned in this book, Englishcoin is meant. As a general rule, each English denomination is of doublethe value of the corresponding American one. Thus the English penny is acoin as large as a silver dollar, and it is worth two of the Americanpennies. The shilling is of the value of a quarter of a dollar; and asixpence is equal to a New York shilling.
* * * * *
As Mr. George stepped out upon the platform at the London Bridge stationhis first thought was to find Rollo, who had chosen to come in asecond-class car, partly for the purpose of saving the difference in thefare, and partly, as he said, "for the fun of it." Rollo had a regularallowance from his father for his travelling expenses, sufficient to payhis way in the first-class conveyances; and the understanding was, thatwhatever he should save from this sum by travelling in the cheaper modeswas to be his own for pocket money or to add to his reserved funds.
Mr. George and Rollo soon found each other on the platform.
"Well, Rollo," said Mr. George, "and how do you like travelling cheap?"
"Pretty well," said Rollo; "only I could not see out much; but then Ihave saved six shillings in coming from Dover. That is the same astwelve New York shillings--a dollar and a half. I can buy several prettythings with that to carry home."
"That's very true," said Mr. George.
"Some time I mean to go in the fourth-class car," said Rollo. "'Tis truewe have to stand up all the time like sheep in a pen; but I shall notcare for that."
"Well, you can try it," said Mr. George; "but now for our luggage."
The English people always call the effects which a traveller takes withhim on the journey his luggage.
Very soon a porter took Mr. George's trunk from the top of the car.
"Will you have a cab, sir?" said the porter, touching his cap to Mr.George.
"I want to leave my trunk here for a short time under your charge," saidMr. George. "That is a little out of the line of your duty, I know; butI will remember that when I come for it."
"All right, sir," said the porter, promptly, touching his cap again.
He took up the trunk and threw it on his shoulder; and then, followed byMr. George and Rollo, he walked away to the luggage room. After it hadbeen properly deposited in its place, Mr. George and Rollo went out ofthe station into the street.
"Are not you going to ride?" said Rollo to Mr. George.
"No," said Mr. George; "I am going to walk."
"What's that for?" said Rollo.
"There are two reasons," said Mr. George; "one is, I want to show youLondon Bridge."
"Well," said Rollo; "and what is the other reason?"
"The other is," said Mr. George, "that I do not wish to have the troubleof the luggage while I am looking out lodgings. If I go to a hotel andleave my luggage there and take a room, and then go and look uplodgings, we have the hotel bill to pay, without getting much benefitfrom it; and, if we take the luggage on a cab, we might go to a dozendifferent places before we find a room to suit us, and so have amonstrous great cab fare to pay."
"Yes," said Rollo; "I understand. Besides, I should like to walkthrough the streets and see the city."
As our two travellers walked along towards London Bridge, Mr. Georgeexplained to Rollo what is stated in the first chapter in respect to thedouble character of London.
"What we are coming to now, first," said he, "is the _city_--thecommercial capital of the country. In fact, it may almost be said to bethe commercial capital of the world. Here are the great docks andwarehouses, where are accumulated immense stores of merchandise fromevery quarter of the globe. Here is the bank, with its enormous vaultsfull of treasures of gold and silver coin, and the immense legers inwhich are kept accounts with governments, and wealthy merchants, andgreat capitalists all over the world. Here is the post office, too, thecentre of a system of communications, by land and sea, extending toevery quarter of the globe.
"The chief magistrate of the city," continued Mr. George, "is called thelord mayor. He lives in a splendid palace called the Mansion House. Thenthere is the great Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, and a vast number ofother churches, and chapels, and hospitals, and schools, all belongingto, and supported by, the commercial and business interests whichconcentrate in the city. You will find a very different set of buildingsand institutions at the West End."
"What shall we find there?" asked Rollo.
"We shall find there," said Mr. George, "the palace of the queen; andthe houses of Parliament, where the lords and commons assemble to makelaws for the empire; and the Horse Guards, which is a great edifice thatserves as head quarters for the British army; and the Admiralty, whichis the head quarters of the navy; and the private palaces of the nobles;and the parks and pleasure grounds that connect and surround them."
About this time Mr. George and Rollo began to come in sight of LondonBridge; and very soon afterwards they found themselves entering upon it.Rollo was, for a time, quite bewildered with astonishment at theextraordinary aspect of the scene. They came out upon the bridge, fromthe midst of a very dense and compact mass of streets and houses, onwhat is called the Surrey side of the river; and they could see, dimlydefined through the murky atmosphere, the outlines of the city on theother side. There were long ranges of warehouses; and innumerablechimneys, pouring forth black smoke; and the Monument; and spires ofchurches; and, conspicuous among the rest,--though half obscured bymurky clouds of smoke and vapor,--the immense dome of St. Paul's, withthe great gilded ball and cross on the top of it.
The bridge was built of stone, on arches, and was of the most
massiveand ponderous character. There was a roadway in the centre of it, onwhich two continued streams of vehicles were passing--one on the left,going into the city; and the other on the right, coming out. On eachside were broad stone sidewalks, formed of massive blocks of granite,feeling solid and heavy under the tread as if they had been laid uponthe firm ground. These sidewalks were crowded with passengers, who weregoing, some into, and some out of, the city, so as to form on eachsidewalk two continuous streams. On each side of the bridge, towards thewater, was a solid parapet, or wall. This parapet was about as high asRollo's shoulders. Here and there, at different places along the bridge,were groups of people that had stopped to look over the parapet to theriver. Each group formed a little row, arranged along the parapet, withtheir faces towards the water.
"Let us stop and look over," said Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George, "not now; we will wait till we get to the middleof the bridge."
So they walked on. When they had proceeded a little way, they came to aplace where there was a sort of niche, or recess, in the parapet,perhaps ten or fifteen feet long, and four or five deep, from thesidewalk. There were stone seats extending all around the sides of thisrecess; and these seats were full of boys and men, some with burdens andsome without, who had stopped and sat down there to rest. Rollo wishedto propose to Mr. George that they should stop and sit down there too;not because he was tired, but only to see how it would seem to be seatedin such a place. He did not propose this plan, however, for he saw at aglance that the seats were all occupied, and that there was no room.
A little distance beyond they came to another niche, and afterwards toanother, and another.
"These niches are over the piers of the bridge," said Mr. George, "Isuppose. Let us look over and see."
So they stopped a moment and looked over the parapet. They beheld aturbid and whirling stream pouring through the bridge, under the arches,with a very rapid current, and at the instant that they looked down,they saw the bows of a small steamboat come shooting through. The deckof the steamer was crowded with people--men, women, and children. Somewere standing, and others were sitting on benches that were arrangedround the side and along the middle of the deck; all, however, in theopen air.
"I wonder where that steamer is going," said Rollo.
"Down the river somewhere," said Mr. George; "perhaps to Greenwich orWoolwich."
"_Up_ the river, you mean," said Rollo. "Don't you see she is goingagainst the current? See how swift the water runs under the arches ofthe bridge!"
"Yes," said Mr. George; "but that current is the tide, coming in fromthe sea. This way is down towards the mouth of the river. See all thisshipping here! It has come up from the sea." Here Mr. George pointedwith his hand down the river, waving it from one side to the other, soas to direct Rollo's attention to both shores, where there lay immenseforests of shipping, three or four tiers deep on each side, andextending down the river as far as the eye could penetrate into thethick and murky atmosphere. Besides the tiers of shipping which lay thusalong the shores of the river, there were two other ranges, each threeor four tiers wide, out in the stream, leaving a broad, open passagebetween them, in the middle, and two narrower passages, one on eachside, between them and the shore.
"It is a city of ships," said Rollo, "with streets of open water."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "it is indeed."
The streets, as Rollo called them, of open water, were full of boats,going and coming, and of lighters and wherries, with a steamer now andthen shooting along among them, or a large vessel slowly coming up orgoing down by means of its sails.
"This is the way _down_ the river," repeated Mr. George. "The ships havecome up as far as here; but they cannot go any farther, on account ofthe bridge. Look above the bridge, and you will see that there are noships." So Rollo and Mr. George turned round to look up the river. Theycould only catch an occasional glimpse of the river through casualopenings in the stream of carts, carriages, vans, cabs, wagons, andomnibuses that were incessantly rolling on in opposite streams along theroadway of the bridge. Although the view was thus obstructed, they couldeasily see there were no ships above the bridge that they were standingon. There were, however, several other bridges farther up, with a greatmany boats passing to and fro among them; and, here and there, thereappeared a long and sharp-built little steamer, gliding swiftly throughthe water. These steamers were painted black, and they poured forthvolumes of smoke so dark and dense from their funnels as quite to fillthe air, and make the whole prospect in that direction exceedingly murkyand obscure.
"Let us go over to the other side of the bridge," said Rollo.
"Not yet," said Mr. George; "but you see that there is no shipping abovethe bridge. Vessels _could not_ go up above the bridge, in fact. Theycould not go up, for the masts are too long to pass under the arches."
"They might have a draw in the middle of the bridge," said Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George. "A draw will not answer, except in cases wherethere is only a moderate degree of passing over a bridge, so as to allowof an interruption for a little time without any great inconvenience.But this bridge, you see, is perfectly thronged all the time withcontinued streams of foot passengers and carriages. If a draw were to beopened in this bridge for only ten minutes, to allow a vessel to gothrough, there would be such a jam on both sides that it would take allday to disentangle it."
"I don't see how the little steamers get through under the bridges,"said Rollo. "The smoke-pipes are higher than the arches."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "they are. But I will show you how they managethat by and by. There is something very curious about that. Now let uslook down the river again."
So Rollo turned round with Mr. George, and they both looked down theriver. They saw on the left hand of the river--that is, on the Londonside, the side towards which they were going--a great steamboat landing,with several steamboats lying near it.
"That is where the steamboats lie," said Mr. George, "that go down tothe mouth of the river, and across the sea to France, Holland, andGermany."
"I should like to go in one of them," said Rollo.
"Do you see that large building just below the steamboat landing,fronting the river?"
"Yes," said Rollo; "what is it?"
"It is the Custom House," said Mr. George. "Every ship that comes intothe Thames from foreign countries has to send her manifest there and paythe duties."
"What is a manifest?" said Rollo.
"It is a list, or schedule," said Mr. George, "of every thing there iscontained in the cargo. The officers of the Custom House make acalculation, by this manifest, of the amount of duties that are to bepaid to the government for the cargo, and the owners of the ship have topay it before they can land their goods."
"Can we go into the Custom House and see it?" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I am sure it must be open to the public,because all sorts of persons must have occasion to go there continually,to transact business; but I do not suppose there would be much to seeinside. There would be a great many tables and desks, and a great manyclerks and monstrous big account books, and multitudes of people comingand going continually; but that would be all."
"I should like to go and see them," said Rollo.
"Well," said Mr. George, "perhaps we will look in some time when we aregoing by on our way to the Tower or to the Tunnel. But now look downjust below the Custom House and see the Tower."
Rollo looked in the direction which Mr. George indicated; and there hesaw upon the bank of the river, a little below the Custom House, risingabove the other buildings in that quarter of the town, a large, squareedifice, with turrets at the corners. This building was surrounded withother edifices of a castellated form, which gave the whole theappearance of an extended fortress.
"That," said Mr. George, "is the famous Tower of London."
"What is it famous for?" said Rollo.
"I can't stop to tell you about it now," said Mr. George. "It was builtorigin
ally as a sort of fort to defend the city. You see, the placewhere the Tower stands was formerly the lower corner of the city; andthere was a wall, beginning at the Tower, and running back all aroundthe city, and so down to the water again at the upper end of it. Do yousee St. Paul's?" added Mr. George, turning half round and pointing.
"Yes," said Rollo; "but it is pretty smoky."
"You can see," said Mr. George, "from the position of St. Paul's, wherethe old wall went. It passed some distance back from St. Paul's, andcame down to the water some distance above it. All within this wall wasthe old city of London; and the Tower was built at the lower corner ofit to defend it.
"Do you see any reason," continued Mr. George, "why they should placethe Tower at the lower end, rather than at the upper end, of the city?"
"No," said Rollo, "I do not see any reason in particular."
"The reason was," said Mr. George, "that what they had reason to guardthe city against was the danger of an attack from enemies coming _up_the river in ships from the sea; and so they placed the Tower _below_the city, in order to intercept them. But now the city has spread andextended down the river far below the Tower, and back far beyond the oldwall; so that the Tower is, at the present time, in the midst of animmense region of streets and warehouses, and it is no longer of any useas a fortification. It is too high up."
"What do they use it for, then?" said Rollo.
"It is used by the government," said Mr. George, "as a sort of strongbox, to keep curiosities, treasures, and valuables of all sorts in, andany thing else, in fact, which they wish to have in safe and securecustody. They keep what are called state prisoners there."
"Can we go in the Tower," said Rollo, "and see all these things?"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "we can see the treasures and curiosities; but Ibelieve there are no prisoners there now."
Just then Rollo heard a rapping sound upon the stone of the sidewalknear him. He looked round to see what it was. There was a blind mancoming along. He had a stick in his hand, which seemed to be armed atthe lower end with a little ferule of iron. With this iron the blind mankept up a continual rapping on the flagstones as he slowly advanced. Theiron produced a sharp and ringing sound, which easily made itself heardabove the thundering din of the carriages and vans that were rollingincessantly over the bridge, and served as a warning to the footpassengers on the sidewalk that a blind man was coming. Every onehearing this rapping looked up to see what it meant; and, perceivingthat it was a blind man, they moved to one side and the other to makeway for him. Thus, though the sidewalk was so crowded that a person witheyes could scarcely get along, the blind man, though he moved veryslowly, had always vacant space before him, and advanced without anydifficulty or danger.[B]
[B] See frontispiece.
"Think of a blind man in such a crowd as this!" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George.
"And he gets along better than any of the rest of us," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "so it seems."
"The next time I wish to go through a crowd," said Rollo, "I mean to geta cane, and then shut my eyes and rap with it, and every body will makeroom for me."
"Look round here a minute more," said Mr. George; "there is somethingelse that I wish to explain to you. You see there are no bridges belowthis, though there are a great many above."
"Yes," said Rollo; "and how do they get across the river below here? Arethere ferry boats?"
"I think it likely there are ferry boats down below," said Mr. George."At any rate, there are plenty of small boats which any body can hire.They are rowed by men called watermen.
"'Bound 'prentice to a waterman, I learned a bit to row.'"
"What poetry is that?" said Rollo.
"It is part of some old song," said Mr. George. "Look down the river andyou can see these boats cruising about among the shipping."
"Is that the way they get across the river below here?" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "and then there is the Tunnel besides. They cango _under_ the river through the Tunnel if they please, about a mile anda half below here."
"Is that the reason why they made the Tunnel," said Rollo, "because theycould not have any bridge?"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "It would have been a great deal cheaper andbetter to have made a bridge; but a bridge would have interfered withthe shipping, and so they made a tunnel underneath."
"I never knew before," said Rollo, "why they made the Tunnel."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "that is the reason. It was a very difficult andexpensive work; but I believe it proved a failure. Very few people useit for crossing the river, though a great many go to see it. It is acurious place to see. But now let us go across the bridge and see whatis on the other side."
Mr. George and Rollo had to stand several minutes on the curbstone ofthe sidewalk before they could find openings, in the trains of vehicleswhich were moving to and fro over the bridge, wide enough to allow them,to pass through to the other side. At length, however, they succeeded ingetting across; and, after walking along on the upper side of the bridgefor some distance farther, until they had nearly reached the London endof it, they stopped and looked over the parapet down to the water.
Of course their faces were now turned _up_ the river, and the view whichpresented itself was entirely different from that which had been seenbelow. Immediately beneath where they were standing, and close in to theshore of the river, they witnessed a most extraordinary spectacle, whichwas formed by a group of small and smoky-looking steamers, that werehovering in apparent confusion about a platform landing there. The decksof the steamers were all crowded with passengers. Some of the boats werejust coming to the land, some just leaving it, and others were moored tothe platform, and streams of passengers were embarking or disembarkingfrom them. The landing consisted of a floating platform, that was builtover great flat-bottomed boats, that were moored at a little distancefrom the bank, so as to rise and fall with the tide. There was a strongrailing along the outer edge of the platform, with openings here andthere through it for passage ways to the boats. Behind, the platformswere connected with the shore by long bridges, having a little tollhouse at the outer end of each of them, with the words, "PAY HERE,"inscribed on a sign over the window. The passengers, as they came downfrom the shore, stopped at these toll houses to pay the fare for theplaces to which they wished to go. The decks of the steamers, theplatforms, and all the bridges were thronged with people, going andcoming in all directions, and crowding their way to and from the boats;and every two or three minutes a steamer, having received its load,would push off from the platform, and paddle its way swiftly up theriver among a multitude of others that were shooting swiftly along, inall directions, over the water.
The volumes of dense, black smoke which rolled up from the funnels ofthe steamers made the atmosphere very thick and murky; and the wholescene, as Mr. George and Rollo looked down upon it from the parapetabove, for a time seemed almost to bewilder them.
"Let us go down and take a sail in one of those steamers," said Mr.George.
"Where do they go to?" said Rollo.
"I don't know," said Mr. George.
"Well," said Rollo, "let us go."
So saying, Mr. George and Rollo walked on towards the end of the bridge.Here they found a broad stone staircase, which turned off from the greatthoroughfare, at a place near the corner of a large stone building. Thestaircase was very broad and massive, and was covered with people goingup and coming down.
"This must be a way down to the landing," said Mr. George.
So our two travellers began to descend; and, after turning severalsquare corners in the staircase, they came out into the street which ledalong the margin of the river, at a level of twenty or thirty feet belowthe bridge. This street passed through under one of the _dry arches_ ofthe bridge, as they are called; that is, one built on the sloping marginof the shore, where no water flows. They passed across this street, andthen entered a broad passage way which l
ed down towards the floatingplatforms. There were a great many people coming and going. They stoppedat the toll house on one of the little bridges to pay the fare.
"How much is to pay?" said Mr. George to the tollman, taking out hispurse.
"Where do you wish to go?" said the tollman.
"I don't know," said Mr. George, looking at Rollo; "about a mile or twoup the river."
"To Hungerford landing?" asked the tollman.
"Yes," said Mr. George.
"Or Westminster?" said the tollman.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "we will go to Westminster."
"Twopence each," said the tollman.
So Mr. George and Rollo each laid down two pennies on the little counterin the window sill, and the man giving them each a little paper ticket,they passed on.
"Now the question is," said Mr. George, "how to find out what boat weare to get into. Here is an orange woman on the platform; I will buy acouple of oranges of her, one for you and one for me, and then she willbe glad to tell us which is the boat."
"She will tell us without," said Rollo.
"As a matter of favor?" asked Mr. George.
"Yes," said Rollo.
"I suppose she would," said Mr. George; "but I would rather that theobligation should be the other way."
So Mr. George bought two oranges of the woman, and paid her a halfpennyover and above the price of them. She seemed very grateful for thiskindness, and took great interest in showing him which of the boats heand Rollo must take to go to Westminster.
"There's one thing that I particularly wish to go and see," said Rollo,"while we are in London."
"What is that?" asked Mr. George.
"One of the ragged schools," said Rollo.
"What are they?" asked Mr. George.
THE FIRST RAGGED SCHOOL.]
"Why, they are schools for poor boys," replied Rollo. "I believe theboys that go to the schools are pretty much all ragged. These schoolswere begun by a cobbler. I read about it in a book. The cobbler used tocall the ragged boys in that lived about his shop, and teach them.Afterwards other people established such schools; and now there are agreat many of them, and some of them are very large."
"We'll go and see some of them," said Mr. George. "I should like to goand see them very much."
So saying Mr. George led the way to the boat that the orange woman hadpointed out as the one for Westminster; and they stepped on board,together with a little crowd of other passengers who were going up theriver like themselves.