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A LONDON GUIDE-BOOK OF 1808

LONDON in 1808 was a very different city from what it is to-day, and perhaps one of the most striking changes that have occurred is the great and ever-growing number of visitors who come to the metropolis. In 1808 there was no Wembley Exhibition to draw millions of provincials to London, nor was there the annual invasion of American and other oversea visitors, who, with guidebook in hand, visit the principal objects of interest in the capital of the Empire. In spite of the small number of visitors, the Muirhead and Baedeker guide-books of to-day had a forerunner in the early part of the last century.

The Picture of London was a little book of over 460 pages, measuring about five inches by four inches, which was published annually, and in 1808 was in its ninth edition. The title-page describes it as Being a correct Guide to all the curiosities, amusements, exhibitions, public establishments and remarkable objects in and near London.' The claim is ambitious, but the faded pages within the worn red leather cover-' price five shillings '-contain a mass of miscellaneous information about the city and its life. An examination of its maps and copper-plate engravings, the descriptive guide-book matter, the street directory and the A B C time-table of the departure of the stages or coaches to neighbouring towns and villages, gives a survey of London life which would be difficult to find in any other volume, and is interesting when compared with our own times.

A large map of London was included in the guide-book, and the small area covered by houses and the fields which bordered. the city show what enormous changes have taken place in the last century. The area covered by London was then only seven miles long, with a width that varied between two and four miles. A footway led from Whitechapel to Stepney across the fields behind the London Hospital, Bethnal Green was almost surrounded by fields, and the open country stretched northwards from a point south of where Euston station now stands. The population of London had been increasing slowly in the eighteenth century compared with the enormous growth of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for in 1700 it was 674,000, and in

1802 it had grown to 800,000, an increase of only one-third in a century. In the next 120 years a rapid change occurred, and the population had reached the huge total of 7,476,000, or over eight times as large as it was in 1802! The guide-book mentions that in 1700 the metropolis contained an eighth part, and in 1802 rather less than one-tenth, of the population of England and Wales. These figures compared with those of to-day, when London's population is one-fifth of that of England and Wales, show how the proportion between the inhabitants of the metropolis and the provinces has entirely altered.

One of the greatest changes that have occurred is in the means of communication within the London area. To-day there are fourteen bridges across the Thames, apart from tunnels, between the Tower and Battersea bridges, but in 1808 Westminster, Blackfriars and London bridges were the only ones existing. London Bridge was the old one from which the houses had been removed, but it was still so unsuitable for the traffic that plans were being prepared for a new one. The bridge acted as a kind of weir, for, owing to the enormous size of the sterlings or piles surrounding the piers, there was very little waterway. The result, particularly at low tide, was a violent rush of water through the narrow openings, which made navigation dangerous, and caused the loss of many lives each year.

The river was apparently still the main highway of London, for there were 8000 watermen for 3000 passenger wherries, and only 1100 hackney coaches. Sedan chairs were still used, as the author says there were 400 of these leisurely conveyances plying for hire, a means of locomotion more suited for the easy days of the early nineteenth than the hustling, strenuous life of the twentieth century. The fare for a hackney coach or a sedan chair was one shilling for each mile, which can be compared with the shilling fare for two miles of the pre-war hansom or the shilling per mile of the taxicab. Hackney coach fares were, however, subject to an increase of 25 per cent. if the price of oats should exceed twenty-five shillings per quarter. The river was used by the Lord Mayor in his procession on November 9, for he went in his gilt coach from the Mansion House to Blackfriars Bridge, and from there completed his journey in State barges belonging to the Corporation.

Those who were travelling a distance could hire 'handsome private glass coaches, post chaises or saddle horses' at the livery stables or principal inns. The charge for a private coach or post chaise, including the horse's keep, varied from eighteen to twentyfive shillings per day. There was, however, considerable danger in travelling outside London after dark. Travellers are warned that they are subject during the last stage before entering the city

to be robbed by highwaymen or footpads, or to have their luggage cut off from behind their carriage. Even in London the visitor was not quite secure, and he is advised, if attacked or assaulted by thieves, to call Watch!' loudly three or four times, which would bring the assistance of several watchmen. The author, however, states elsewhere that 'the watchmen, our guardians of the night, are old-decrepit men, mostly without arms, who have scarcely enough strength to use the alarum, their signal of distress.' It is evident that, although he boasts of the efficiency of the police and the orderliness of the people, a wise visitor would be careful where he walked after dark.

The book includes a list of the villages and towns near London, and the places from which and the times at which the stage coaches started, and nothing gives a clearer idea of the growth of the metropolis than this list of towns and villages, which are now absorbed in London itself. Thus Dalston could be reached by stage coaches which left the 'Flower Pot' in Bishopsgate Within and 77, Newgate Street, at every hour between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Those persons who wished to go to Dulwich could only start from the Pewter Platter' in Gracechurch Street at II a.m. or 4 p.m. (Sundays 10 a.m. only), or from the Cross Keys' at 4 p.m. Highgate, Hampstead, Lewisham, Putney and Woolwich are all 'neighbouring towns or villages' with a regular service of stage coaches, and a footnote explains that the coaches usually start about a quarter of an hour after the time stated.

Considerable information is given about the hotels, coffeehouses, taverns and inns, which are carefully classified in several groups. Practically all their names have disappeared, although the sites may now be occupied by some of the modern hostelries. There is a list of seventeen hotels for the accommodation of families recently arrived in London,' followed by a long list of respectable coffee-houses' which were chiefly frequented by gentlemen of the law,' 'professional gentlemen' or merchants, brokers, etc., according to their locality and connection. The term' gentleman' is only used when those frequenting the coffeehouses belong to the professions. Eating-houses where' Dinners, Suppers, etc., are served or dressed at a short Notice, and at a moderate Expence,' were less numerous. The Cock' behind the Royal Exchange was celebrated for its gravy and other soups and the best of wines, while the barristers at Macnevin's Eating House, Clare Market, had 'excellent cookery and fine soups.' The last category was inns where mail and stage coaches put up. The Golden Cross,' Charing Cross, is still in existence, and in 1808 had a good larder, beds and excellent wines,' but the recommendation of the 'Cross Keys,' Wood Street, is even stronger, as it was 'long celebrated for the attention paid to

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families and single gentlemen, who are accommodated in a very genteel manner on moderate terms.'

The author writes in glowing terms of the cleanliness of the streets and the excellent water supply, but the results shown by the mortality tables hardly bear out his statement. The death rate averaged about thirty-four per thousand of the population per annum, while to-day it is less than thirteen per thousand. Water was conveyed by wooden mains, from which half-inch lead pipes were connected with most of the houses, sometimes as high as the second floor, on three days in each week. The sources of supply were the Hampstead ponds (for the area immediately southwards), the New River and the Thames. The author complains very strongly that on Sunday morning many hundreds of men and boys bathe in the New River near Islington and thus pollute the water. At London Bridge two large water-wheels, turned by the river, pumped the water into a large, high tank, but as all the sewers emptied into the river, and no filtering system is mentioned for any of the water, the impurities it contained must have accounted largely for the high death rate. Many houses depended solely on wells for their water, such as may now be seen in Carlyle's house in Cheyne Row, where there is a pump in the corner of the kitchen which draws water from a well beneath the house, while beneath the garden there was a cesspool. There is little cause for wonder at a high death rate when such conditions prevailed. The greatest number of deaths was caused by 'consumptions,' but an almost equal number was attributed to 'convulsions.' There were nearly 400 deaths from mortifications, chiefly due to the absence of any antiseptic treatment, and in two years the deaths from small-pox had dropped from 1500 to 600, owing to the introduction of the inoculation for cow-pox' which Jenner had discovered a few years before. Free vaccination was given to all applicants by the Royal Jennerian Society, and in one year 5000 persons had been treated at their hospital near Battlebridge.

The guide-book contains many details of the food supply of London and the quantities consumed of each kind. The author complains of the nuisance of the numerous slaughter-houses, and the brutality of the drovers to the cattle driven through the streets, and states that, owing to the large number of cattle, it is dangerous to be in the streets that lead to Smithfield when there is a beast market. Bread was very seldom adulterated, but it was the usual practice to add water to the milk, and pumps were erected in many milk-rooms, so that the adulteration might be made easily. An interesting sidelight is thrown on the habits of the people, for a list is given of the provisions supplied to the 2400 naval pensioners at Greenwich Hospital. There is a generous

allowance of bread and meat, as well as two quarts of beer daily, for each old man.

One of the strangest sights that the visitor is recommended to see is a prison, of which there were no less than thirteen in London, excluding the sponging houses. The principal prison was in Newgate Street, on the site of the present prison, and the other important ones were the Poultry and Giltspur Street 'compters,' and the Ludgate, King's Bench, Fleet, Savoy and Marshalsea prisons, and the Coldbath Fields Penitentiary.

The horrors of prison life and the corruption of the officials are described, and a comparison of the misery of the unfortunate prisoners in those days and the clean, wholesome surroundings of the prisoners of to-day shows the change of public opinion about the responsibilities of the community towards those persons whom it imprisons. Most of the prisoners were debtors, owing comparatively small sums, who could only obtain their release by paying their creditors, or compounding with them, but as most of them could earn nothing in prison, they were confined for many weary years, and often until their death. The expense of every step in the proceedings was so great that 'not one debtor in ten ever pays his debt after he enters a prison.' The work of the philanthropist and prison reformer John Howard, whose monument in St. Paul's Cathedral bears the inscription 'He trod an open but unfrequented path to immortality,' had already made some changes. The Giltspur Street Compter ' and the Coldbath Fields Penitentiary were in many ways conducted on the methods Mr. Howard had advocated. More space and air, and better conditions, distinguished these prisons from the others.

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Newgate Prison had been almost burnt down in 1780 by the Gordon rioters, and the building had been completed two years later. It consisted of two parts, separated by the master's house, for felons and for debtors. Felons of the better sort' who could afford to pay could have a single room, but the remainder and the debtors were herded together in such an abominable manner that the author is moved to pity. The rooms measured twentythree by fifteen feet, and in this small space twelve to twenty debtors were confined. 'It is difficult to conceive how the people in general exist on this side, crowded together as they almost always are in such numbers, and breathing constantly the same polluted air, for even their rooms have windows only toward the court. The debtors' allowance is ten ounces of bread, with a pound and a half of potatoes a day.' Strangers could visit the prisons by paying two or three shillings to the turnkey, and they are urged to contribute liberally to the poor's box, on which the poverty-stricken debtors relied largely for their sustenance. 'No

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