Lavengro Author:George Borrow Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Walk.—London's Cheape.— Street Of Thk Lombards— Strange Bridge.— Main ArciI. The Roaring Gulf.— The Boat. Cly-faktno. A Comport. — The ... more »Book.-—The Blessed Woman. NO TRAP. So I set out on my walk to see the wonders of the hig city, and, as chance would have it, I directed my course to the east. The day, as I have already said, had become very fine, so that I saw the great city to advantage, and the wonders thereof: and much I admired all I saw; and, amongst other things, the huge cathedral, standing so proudly on the most commanding ground in the big city; and I looked up to the mighty dome, surmounted by a golden cross, and I said within myself, " That dome must needs be the finest in the world;" and I gazed upon it till my eyes reeled, and my brain became dizzy, and I thought that the dome would fall and crush me; and I shrank within myself, and struck yet deeper into the heart of the big city. Ch. ill.] London's Cheape. 23 " 0 Cheapside! Cheapeide!" said I, as I advanced up that mighty thoroughfare, " truly thou art a wonderful place for hurry, noise, and riches ! Men talk of the hazaars of the East—I have never seen them—but I dare say that, compared with thee, they are poor places, silent places, abounding with empty boxes, 0 thou pride of London's east! —mighty mart of old renown!—for thou art not a place of yesterday:—long before the Roses red and white battled in fair England, thou didst exist—a place of throng and bustle—a place of gold and silver, perfumes and fine linen. Centuries ago thou couldst extort the praises even of the fiercest foes of England. Fierce bards of Wales, sworn foes of England, sang thy praises centuries ago ; and even the fiercest of them all, Red Julius himself, wild Glendower's bard, had a word of praise for Lo...« less