Glimpses of three nations Author:George Warrington Steevens 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 FURTHER POINTS IN THE CROSSING OF LONDON In the centre, the real London, along Pall Mall, through Trafalgar Square, along the Strand and Fleet ... more »Street, I noticed that I noticed nothing. In the suburbs, whether poor or well-to-do, I found things worth remarking, even when I knew the districts quite well. But the heart of London gave no such suggestions : it was just there to be accepted. These streets are not especially beautiful or supremely important. They are not so elegant as Mayfair, or so imperial as Whitehall, or so rich as the City. Yet, somehow, they are the heart of London. To them and from them sets the full tide of London's blood. Clubs and theatres and newspapers are their chief features — parasitic institutions all, in their way. They are not elements of the city's life, but amenities of it : they reflect rather than constitute London. We do not live there, and most of us do not work there. Yet if you wanted to lay an ambush for a man your likeliest place would be there : youwould get him in time, between St. James's Palace and Ludgate Circus. You can hardly ever pass along this line without seeing somebody whom you know if only by his portrait. I struck up Fetter Lane — one of the inside seams of London. I had read of a proposal to improve and renovate it in 1863, but I judged it must have fallen through. If you like antiquari- anism, know that this street was named after the faytours, or loafers, that infested it in early times : there are a few left still. Across Holborn Circus, and in Charterhouse Street, you come on a second, more sombre epitome of London. Here is Smith- field, that supplies London's kitchen; St. Bartholomew's Hospital, that instructs many doctors, and tends London when it has fallen under a dray. Farringdon P.oad is the same ...« less