714 to the resent day. 1714-1727.

Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, in the Spanish War of Succession. Capture of Gibraltar. The poets Pope, Addison, Swift, Prior, and Allan Ramsay.

HANOVERIAN DYNASTY.

George I. succeeds in right of his descent from James I. Rebellion in Setland (in favour of the Pretender) quelled. Sir Robert Walpole, prime minister. Daniel Defoe.

1727-1760.

George II. Rebellion in favour of the Young Pretender,

Charles Edward Stuart, crushed at Culloden.
taken from the French. William Pitt, Lord Chatham,
prime minister; Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne,
novelists; Thomson, Young, Gray, Collins, Gay, poets;
Hogarth, painter.

Canada

1760-1820.

George III. American War of Independence. War with France. Victories of Nelson at Aboukir and Trafalgar, and of Wellington in Spain and at Waterloo. The younger Pitt, prime minister; Shelley and Keats, poets.

1820-1830.

1830-1837.

George IV. Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill. Daniel O'Connell. The English aid the Greeks in the War of Independence. Victory of Navarino. Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey.

William IV. Abolition of slavery. Reform Bill.

The present sovereign of Great Britain is

Victoria, born 24th May, 1819; ascended the throne in 1837; married, on 10th Feb., 1840, her cousin, Prince Albert of SaxeCoburg-Gotha (d. 14th Dec., 1861).

The children of this marriage are:

(1) Victoria, born 21st Nov., 1840; married to the Crown Prince of Germany, 25th Jan., 1858.

(2) Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Heir Apparent to the throne, born 9th Nov., 1841; married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark, 10th Mar., 1863.

(3) Alice, born 25th April, 1843; married to the Grand-Duke of HessenDarmstadt, 1st July, 1862; died 14th Dec., 1878. (4) Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, born 6th Aug., 1844; married the Grand

Duchess Marie of Russia, 23rd Jan., 1874.

(5) Helena, born 25th May, 1846; married to Prince Christian of

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, 5th July, 1866.
(6) Louise, born 18th March, 1848; married to the Marquis of Lorne,
eldest son of the Duke of Argyll, 21st March, 1871.

(7) Arthur, Duke of Connaught, born 1st May, 1850; married Princess Louise Margaret, daughter of Prince Frederick Charles, nephew of the German Emperor, 13th March, 1879.

(8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, born 7th April, 1853; married Princess Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont, 27th April, 1882; died 28th March, 1884. berg, 23rd July, 1885.

(9) Beatrice, born 14th April, 1857; married Prince Henry of Batten

62

19. Historical Sketch of London.

The most populous city in the world (which London unquestionably is) cannot fail to have had an eventful history, in all that concerns race, creed, institutions, culture, and general progress. At what period the Britons, one branch of the Celtic race, settled on this spot, there is no authentic evidence to shew. The many forms which the name assumes in early records have led to much controversy; but it is clear that 'London' is derived from the Latin Londinium, the name given it in Tacitus, and that this is only an adaptation by the Romans of the ancient British name Llyn, or Lin, a pool, and din or dun, a high place of strength, a hill fort, or city. The 'pool' was a widening of the river at this part, where it makes a bend, and offered a convenient place for shipping. Whether the 'dun' or hill was the high ground reached by Ludgate Hill, and on which St. Paul's now stands, or Cornhill, near the site of the Mansion House, it is difficult to decide*. Probably both these elevations were on the 'pool'. The etymology of the first syllable of London is the same as that of 'Lin' in Lincoln, which was called by Ptolemy Lindon (Λίνδον), and by the Romans Lindum, the second syllable of the modern form of the name representing the word 'Colonia'. The present British or Welsh name of London is Llundain; but it was formerly also known to the Welsh as Caer-ludd, the City of Lud, a British king said to have ruled here just before the Roman period, and popularly supposed to be commemorated in Lud-gate, one of the gates of the old walled city, near the junction of Ludgate Hill and Farringdon Street.

London, in the days of the Britons, was probably little more than a collection of huts, on a dry spot in the midst of a marsh, or in a cleared space in the midst of a wood, and encompassed by an artificial earthwork and ditch. That there was much marsh and forest in the immediate vicinity is proved by the character of the deep soil when turned up in digging foundations, and by the small subterranean streams which still run into the Thames, as at Dowgate, formerly Dourgate ('water gate', from Celtic dwr, water), at the Fleet Ditch, at Blackfriars Bridge, etc. Such names as Fenchurch Street (see p. 107) are reminiscent of the former character of the neighbourhood.

After the settlement of the Romans in Britain, quite early in the Christian era, London rapidly grew in importance. In the time of the Emperor Nero (62 A.D.), the city had become a resort of merchants from various countries and the centre of a considerable

* The latter alternative is that of the Rev. W. J. Loftie, London's latest and probably best historian (see p. 80).

+ In his 'History' Mr. Loftie suggests that Ludgate may mean 'Fleet' or 'Flood' gate, but he now informs us that when he wrote this passage he was not aware that Ludgate is the Anglo-Saxon word for a postern, and merely indicates that this was one of the smaller gates of the city.

maritime commerce, the river Thames affording ready access for shipping. It suffered terribly during the sanguinary struggle between the Romans and the British queen Boadicea, and was in later centuries frequently attacked and plundered by piratical bands of Franks, Norsemen, Picts, Scots, Danes, and Saxons, who crossed the seas to reap a ruthless harvest from a city which doubtless possessed much commercial wealth; but it speedily recovered from the effects of these visitations. As a Roman settlement London was frequently named Augusta, but it was never raised to the dignity of being a municipium like Verulamium (p. 333) or Eboracum (York), and was not regarded as the capital of Roman Britain. It extended from the site of the present Tower of London on the E. to Ludgate on the W., and inland from the Thames as far as the marshy ground known in later times as Moorfields and Finsbury or Fensbury. Watling Street perpetuates the name of one among many roads made through London by the Romans. Relics are still found almost annually of the foundations of Roman buildings of a substantial and elegant character. Fragments of the Roman wall are also discernible. This wall was maintained in parts until modern times, but has almost entirely disappeared before the alterations and improvements which taste and the necessities of trade have introduced. The most prominent remaining piece of the Roman wall is in London Wall, between Wood Street and Aldermanbury, where an inscribed tablet calls attention to it. Another fragment may be seen in the adjacent churchyard of St. Giles, Cripplegate (see p. 96).

The gates of Roman London, whose walls are believed to have been first built on such an extended scale as to include the abovementioned limits by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, were in after times called Lud-gate, Dour-gate, Belins-gate, Postern-gate, Ald-gate, Bishops-gate, Moor-gate, Cripple-gate, Alders-gate and New-gate, all of which are still commemorated in names of streets, etc., marking the localities. Roman London from the Tower to Ludgate was about a mile in length, and from the Thames to 'London Wall' about half a mile in breadth. Its remains at Cheapside and the Mansion House are found at about 18 feet below the present surface. The Roman city as at first enclosed must, however, have been smaller, as Roman sepulchres have been found in Moorgate Street, Bishopsgate, and Smithfield, which must then have lain beyond the walled city. The Saxons, who seldom distinguished themselves as builders, contributed nothing to the fortification of London; but the Normans did much, beginning with the erection of the Tower. During the earlier ages of Saxon rule, the great works left here by the Romans villas, baths, bridges, roads, temples, statuary, - were either destroyed or allowed to fall into decay, as was the case, indeed, all over Britain.

London became the capital of one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and continued to increase in size and importance. The sites of two

Westminster

of modern London's most prominent buildings Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral - were occupied as early as the beginning of the 7th cent. by the modest originals of these two stately churches. Bede, at the beginning of the 8th cent., speaks of London as a great market frequented by foreign traders, and we find it paying one-fifth of a contribution exacted by Canute from the entire kingdom. From William the Conqueror London received a charter* in which he engaged to maintain the rights of the city, but the same monarch erected the White Tower to overawe the citizens in the event of disaffection. At this time the city probably contained 30-40,000 inhabitants. A special promise is made in Magna Charta, extorted from King John, to observe all the ancient privileges of London; and we may date the present form of its Corporation, consisting of Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Councilmen, from a somewhat earlier period +. The 13th and 14th centuries are marked in the annals of London by several lamentable fires, famines, and pestilences, in which many thousands of its inhabitants perished. The year 1380 witnessed the rebellion of Wat Tyler, who was slain by Lord Mayor Walworth at Smithfield. In this outbreak, and still more in that of Jack Cade (1450), London suffered severely, through the burning and pillaging of its houses. During the reigns of Henry VIII. (1509-1547) and his daughter Mary (1552-1558), London acquired a terrible familiarity with the fires lighted to consume unfortunate 'heretics' at the stake, while under the more beneficent reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), the capital showed its patriotic zeal by its liberal contributions of men, money, and ships, for the purpose of resisting the threatened attack of the Armada.

A map of London at this time would show the Tower standing on the verge of the City on the E., while on the W., the much smaller city of Westminster would still be a considerable distance from London. The Strand, or river-side road connecting the two cities, would appear bordered by numerous aristocratic mansions, with gardens extending into the fields or down to the river. Throughout the Norman period, and down to the times of the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses, the commonalty lived in poor and mean wooden dwellings; but there were many good houses for the merchants and manufacturers, and many important religious houses and hospitals, while the Thames was provided with numerous convenient quays and landing-stages. The streets, even as lately as the 17th cent., were narrow, dirty, full of ruts and holes, and ill-adapted for traffic. Many improvements, however, were made at the period we have now reached (the end of the 16th cent.), though these still left London very different from what we now see it.

In the Civil Wars, London, which had been most exposed to the exactions of the Star Chamber, naturally sided with the Roundheads. It witnessed Charles I. beheaded at the Palace of Whitehall in 1649, and Oliver Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector of England in 1653; and in 1660 it saw Charles II. placed on the throne by the 'Restoration'. This was a period when England, and London especially, underwent dire suffering in working out the problem of civil and religious liberty, the successful solution of which laid the basis of the empire's greatness. In 1664-1666 London was turned into a city of mourning and lamentation by the ravages of the Great Plague, by which, it is calculated, it lost the enormous number of 100,000 citizens. Closely treading on the heels of one calamity came another the Great Fire - which, in September, 1666, destroyed 13,000 houses, converting a great part of the eastern half of the city into a scene of desolation. This disaster, however, ultimately proved very beneficial to the city, for London was rebuilt in a much improved form, though not so advantageously as it would have been if Sir Christopher Wren's plans had been fully realised. Among the new edifices, the erection of which was necessitated by the fire, was the present St. Paul's Cathedral. Of important buildings existing before the fire, Westminster Abbey and Hall, the Temple Church, and the Tower are now almost the only examples.

Wren fortunately had his own way in building the fifty odd City churches, and the visitor to London should not fail to notice their great variety and the skill with which they are grouped with St. Paul's. A good panorama of the entire group is obtained from the tower of St. Saviour's, Southwark; the general effect is also visible from Blackfriars Bridge (p. 112).

It was not, however, till the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), that London began to put on anything like its present appearance. In 1703 it was visited by a fearful storm, by which houses were overthrown, the ships in the river driven on shore, churches unroofed, property to the value of at least 2,000,0001. destroyed, and the lives of several hundreds of persons sacrificed. The winter of 1739-1740 is memorable for the Great Frost, lasting from Christmas to St. Valentine's Day, during which a fair was held on the frozen bosom of the Thames. Great injuries were inflicted on the city by the Gordon No-Popery Riots of 1780. The prisons were destroyed, the prisoners released, and mansions were burned or pillaged, thirty-six conflagrations having been counted at one time in different quarters; and the rioters were not subdued till hundreds of them had paid the penalty of their misdeeds with their lives.

Many of the handsomest streets and finest buildings in London date from the latter half of last century. To this period belong the Mansion House, the Horse Guards, Somerset House, and the Bank. During the 19th cent. the march of improvement has been so rapid as to defy description. The Mint, the Custom House, Waterloo Bridge, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Post Office, the British Museum, the Athenæum Club, the York Column, the National

BAEDEKER, London. 7th Edit.

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