London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
ANCIENT AND MODERN.
The ancient landmarks have almost disappeared. Speaking personally, I myself was under the impression that I first saw the light, or maybe the fog, in , Fulham, but a recent map of the locality which contained the house in which I was born, proves to me that there was a mistake | |
20 | in the matter. According to this chart, I must have commenced the earliest days of my career in West Kensington. What were Brompton and Hammersmith 20 or 30 years ago, are now really the south-western portion of the London postal district. But this matters little to our visitors. To them Town is always Town. Go where you will, you find the provincials all the year round, and besides them, colonists from Canada, Australia, and Southern Africa. They are mostly white, but India and the Gold Coast send us many swarthy fellow subjects. These last are to be found in large numbers at the Inns of Court. They chiefly adopt the , but some of them prefer , that forensic hostelry that has, of late years, risen by leaps and bounds into popularity. Taking the four guardians protecting the portals of the Royal Courts of Justice, is becoming one of the most numerous in students, as it has ever been the most famous in history. I speak of it absolutely without bias. My father belonged to . So do I. |
In conclusion, taking the stranger in London as we find him, and considering his position from every point of view, I think we may affirm, with a considerable amount of confidence in the reasonableness of our assumption, that given health, plenty of money, and a cheerful disposition, he has a thoroughly good time of it. | |
