London, Middlesex


A Picture of London for 1802; being a Correct Guide to all the Curiosities, Amusements ,Exhibitions ,Public Establishments and remarkable Objects in and near London with a Collection of Appropriate Tables of the use of Strangers , Foreigners and all Persons who are not Intimately Acquainted with the British Metropolis by R Phillips.

LONDON is situated in the latitude of 51 degrees 31 minutes north; at the distance of 500 miles south-west of Copenhagen; 190 west of Amsterdam; 660 north-west of Vienna; 225 northwest of Paris; 690 north-east of Madrid; 750 north-west of Rome; and 1500 north-west of Constantinople.

It extends, from west to east, along the banks of the river Thames; at the distance of 60 miles from the sea. It consists of three principal divisions; the city of London; the city of Westminster; and the borough of Southwark, with their respective suburbs. The two former divisions are situated on the northern side of the Thames, in the county of Middlesex, great part of them lying on hills, and forming a grand and beautiful amphitheatre round the water; the latter, on the southern bank, in the county of Surry, on level ground, antiently an entire morass.

The length of London is about seven miles, exclusive of houses that on each side line the principal roads to the distance of several miles in every direction: the breadth is irregular; being, at the narrowest part, not more than two miles; and, at the broadest, almost four miles. The soil is chiefly a bed of gravel, in many places mixed with clay. The air and climate are neither so constant nor temperate as in some other parts of the world; yet London is, perhaps, the most healthy city of Europe, from a variety of circumstances we shall have occasion soon to notice. The tide in the river flows 15 miles higher than London; but the water is not salt in any part of the town, and it is naturally very sweet and pure. The river is secured in its channels by embankments, where it does not touch the foot of the hills. When it is not swelled by the tide or rains, the river is not more than a quarter of a mile broad, nor in general more than 12 feet in depth; at spring tides it rises 12, and sometimes 14 feet above this level, and its breadth is increased to something more than a quarter of a mile. The principal streets are wide and airy; and exceed every thing in Europe, for the convenience of trade, and for the accommodation of passengers of every description: they are paved in the middle, for carriages, with large stones, in a very compact manner, forming a small convexity to pass the water off by channels; and at each side is a broad level path, formed of flags, raised a little above the center, for the convenience of foot passengers. Underneath the pavement, are large vaulted channels called sewers, which communicate with each house by smaller ones, and with every street by convenient openings and gratings, to carry off all filth that can be conveyed in that manner, into the river. All mud or other rubbish that accumulates on the surface of the streets is taken away by persona employed by the public for the purpose. London does not excel in the number of buildings celebrated for grandeur or beauty; but in all the principal streets, this metropolis is distinguished by an appearance of neatness and comfort. Most of the great streets appropriated to shops for retail trade, have an unrivalled aspect of wealth and splendor. The shops themselves are handsomely fitted up, and decorated with taste ; but the manufactures with which they are stored form their chief ornament. London abounds with markets, warehouses, and shops, for all articles of necessity or pleasure ; and, perhaps, there is no town in which an inhabitant who possesses the universal medium of exchange, can be so freely supplied as here with the produce of nature or art from every quarter of the globe.

Most of the houses in London are built on a uniform plan. They consist of three or four stories above ground, with one under the level of the streets, containing the kitchens. In each story is a large room in front, and in the back is a small room, and the space occupied by the staircase. Water is conveyed, three times a week, into almost every house, by leaden pipes, and preserved in cisterns or tubs, in such quantities, that the inhabitants have a constant and even lavish supply. Nothing can be more commodious or cleanly than the interior of the houses; and this character extends generally to lodging-hotels, taverns, coffee-houses, and other like places.

London is less populous, for its extent, than many other great cities. The streets are wider, and the inhabitants of every class, below the highest rank, enjoy more room for themselves and families than is usual for the same classes in foreign countries; not only she merchant, the wealthy trader, and persons in liberal employments, occupy each an entire house, but most shopkeepers of the middling class, and some even of the lowest, have their houses to themselves; and from all these circumstances his plain, that a given number of people is spread over a larger space in London, than in most foreign cities. Every mode of calculating she inhabitants of London is uncertain, and the result varies, in different hands, from 600,000 to 1,200,000. A comparison of the various calculations, and an examination of their data, induce us to state the population at 800,000. Those who think the honour of London affected by taking the population at a lower number than the popular opinion, will recollect, that it is creditable to the manners of the country, and the equity of the laws, that the middling and lower classes in London occupy the extent of ground that is ascribed to them by our calculation

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Quotations
 Chapter 1 
I will engage to get the child to Mansfield; you shall have no trouble about it. My own trouble, you know, I never regard. I will send Nanny to London on purpose, and she may have a bed at her cousin the saddler’s, and the child be appointed to meet her there.
 Chapter 4 
The arrival, therefore, of a sister whom she had always loved, and now hoped to retain with her as long as she remained single, was highly agreeable; and her chief anxiety was lest Mansfield should not satisfy the habits of a young woman who had been mostly used to London.
 Chapter 5 
She acknowledged, however, that the Mr. Bertrams were very fine young men, that two such young men were not often seen together even in London, and that their manners, particularly those of the eldest, were very good.
 Chapter 6 
“The truth is, that our inquiries were too direct; we sent a servant, we went ourselves: this will not do seventy miles from London; but this morning we heard of it in the right way."
 Chapter 9 
A fine preacher is followed and admired; but it is not in fine preaching only that a good clergyman will be useful in his parish and his neighbourhood, where the parish and neighbourhood are of a size capable of knowing his private character, and observing his general conduct, which in London can rarely be the case.
 Chapter 15 
 Chapter 20 
"“From Bath, Norfolk, London, York, wherever I may be,” said he; “I will attend you from any place in England, at an hour’s notice.”
 Chapter 21 
I He should not have to think of her as pining in the retirement of Mansfield for him, rejecting Sotherton and London, independence and splendour, for his sake.
 Chapter 26 
But at other times doubt and alarm intermingled with his hopes; and when he thought of her acknowledged disinclination for privacy and retirement, her decided preference of a London life, what could he expect but a determined rejection

He had seen her eyes sparkle as she spoke of the dear friend’s letter, which claimed a long visit from her in London, and of the kindness of Henry, in engaging to remain where he was till January, that he might convey her thither;

 Chapter 27 
Thursday, predestined to hope and enjoyment, came; and opened with more kindness to Fanny than such self–willed, unmanageable days often volunteer, for soon after breakfast a very friendly note was brought from Mr. Crawford to William, stating that as he found himself obliged to go to London on the morrow for a few days, he could not help trying to procure a companion;
 Chapter 29 
But, at any rate, his staying away at a time when, according to all preceding plans, she was to remove to London, meant something that she could not bear.
 Chapter 30 
Miss Crawford’s uneasiness was much lightened by this conversation, and she walked home again in spirits which might have defied almost another week of the same small party in the same bad weather, had they been put to the proof; but as that very evening brought her brother down from London again in quite, or more than quite, his usual cheerfulness, she had nothing farther to try her own

“Ah, my dear Henry, and this is what took you to London! This was your business! You chose to consult the Admiral before you made up your mind.”

“You will divide your year between London and Northamptonshire?”

“That’s right; and in London, of course, a house of your own: no longer with the Admiral. "

 Chapter 31 
I will not attempt to describe; how severely mortified, how cruelly disappointed, in not having it finished while I was in London!

His last journey to London had been undertaken with no other view than that of introducing her brother in Hill Street, and prevailing on the Admiral to exert whatever interest he might have for getting him on.

 Chapter 32 
London would soon bring its cure. In London he would soon learn to wonder at his infatuation, and be thankful for the right reason in her which had saved him from its evil consequences.
 Chapter 34 
“ But then, I must have a London audience. I should indeed. I never listened to a distinguished preacher in my life without a sort of envy."
 Chapter 36 
You should come to London to know how to estimate your conquest.
 Chapter 37 
she should be able to reason herself into a properer state; she should be able to think of him as in London, and arranging everything there, without wretchedness.

He had intended, about this time, to be going to London; but he could not leave his father and mother just when everybody else of most importance to their comfort was leaving them;

 Chapter 38 
She had now seen all that were at home; there remained only two brothers between herself and Susan, one of whom was a clerk in a public office in London, and the other midshipman on board an Indiaman.
 Chapter 40 
I was in it two years ago, when it was Lady Lascelle’s, and prefer it to almost any I know in London,

In this occupation she hoped, moreover, to bury some of the recollections of Mansfield, which were too apt to seize her mind if her fingers only were busy; and, especially at this time, hoped it might be useful in diverting her thoughts from pursuing Edmund to London

 Chapter 41 
she was tolerably able to bear his eye, and hear that he had spent half an hour with his sister the evening before his leaving London; that she had sent her best and kindest love, but had had no time for writing; that he thought himself lucky in seeing Mary for even half an hour, having spent scarcely twenty–four hours in London, after his return from Norfolk, before he set off again;
 Chapter 43 
It was presumed that Mr. Crawford was travelling back, to London, on the morrow, for nothing more was seen of him at Mr. Price’s;

I am at your service and Henry’s, at an hour’s notice. I should like the scheme, and we would make a little circuit, and shew you Everingham in our way, and perhaps you would not mind passing through London, and seeing the inside of St. George’s, Hanover Square.

The idea that returned the oftenest was that Miss Crawford, after proving herself cooled and staggered by a return to London habits, would yet prove herself in the end too much attached to him to give him up

 Chapter 44 
Crawford told me that you were wishing to hear from me, but I found it impossible to write from London, and persuaded myself that you would understand my silence.

I was three weeks in London, and saw her (for London) very often.

I have sometimes thought of going to London again after Easter, and sometimes resolved on doing nothing till she returns to Mansfield.

Julia seems to enjoy London exceedingly. I had little enjoyment there, but have less here.

Tom had gone from London with a party of young men to Newmarket, where a neglected fall and a good deal of drinking had brought on a fever;

 Chapter 44 
Crawford told me that you were wishing to hear from me, but I found it impossible to write from London, and persuaded myself that you would understand my silence.

I was three weeks in London, and saw her (for London) very often.

I have sometimes thought of going to London again after Easter, and sometimes resolved on doing nothing till she returns to Mansfield.

Julia seems to enjoy London exceedingly. I had little enjoyment there, but have less here.

Tom had gone from London with a party of young men to Newmarket, where a neglected fall and a good deal of drinking had brought on a fever;

 Chapter 45 
It came, and she had yet heard nothing of her return—nothing even of the going to London, which was to precede her return.

It astonished her that Tom’s sisters could be satisfied with remaining in London at such a time, through an illness which had now, under different degrees of danger, lasted several weeks. They might return to Mansfield when they chose; travelling could be no difficulty to them, and she could not comprehend how both could still keep away. If Mrs. Rushworth could imagine any interfering obligations, Julia was certainly able to quit London whenever she chose.

Fanny was disposed to think the influence of London very much at war with all respectable attachments.

 Chapter 46 
She left London a few hours before we entered it. At any other time this would have been felt dreadfully. Now it seems nothing; yet it is an heavy aggravation.
 Chapter 47 
Sir Thomas had received a letter from an old and most particular friend in London, who hearing and witnessing a good deal to alarm him in that quarter, wrote to recommend Sir Thomas’s coming to London himself,

Sir Thomas set off, Edmund would go with him, and the others had been left in a state of wretchedness, inferior only to what followed the receipt of the next letters from London.

and Julia’s elopement, the additional blow which had met him on his arrival in London, though its force had been deadened at the moment, must, she knew, be sorely felt.

 Chapter 48 
Dr. Grant, through an interest on which he had almost ceased to form hopes, succeeded to a stall in Westminster, which, as affording an occasion for leaving Mansfield, an excuse for residence in London, and an increase of income to answer the expenses of the change, was highly acceptable to those who went and those who staid.
 
London in Detail

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