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the northern part of London, joins the Paddington Canal. This Canal is the last link near London of the chain connecting that city with Liverpool. It has two tunnels; one at Maida Hill, 370 yards long; and the other under Islington, 900 yards long. The entire length is about nine miles, and it has a fall of ninety feet by twelve locks. It is now chiefly used for supplying coal to the northern districts. What is called the Pool terminates at Limehouse Reach.

THE WEST INDIA DOCKS extend along the banks of the Thames from Limehouse to Blackwall, and cover 295 acres. They were commenced in 1800, and partially opened in 1802. Warehouses of enormous extent are ranged along the four quays. There are two docks and a canal; the northern one, for unloading vessels, having accommodation for 300 West Indiamen; and the southern one, for loading outwardbound ships, receiving 200. They are now less exclusive than formerly, and ships from all parts of the world will be found together. The capital employed in construction was £1,380,000. At the highest tides the water is twenty-four feet deep, so that vessels of 1,200 tons burthen can enter. The whole space is enclosed on every side; all the buildings are fireproof, and the premises are well guarded by watchmen, so that the system of pilfering formerly carried on to a great extent in this part of the river is completely abolished. The carts or waggons which convey goods to town are loaded from the backs of the warehouses without entering the dock-gates. Some admirable contrivances recently adopted preserve the purity of the great body of water in the docks, and prevent the accumulation of mud; so that, whilst salubrity is studied and cleanliness promoted, the bed of the river is freed from obstruction, and the free transit of vessels ensured without inconvenience.

BLACKWALL, with its fine view of the reach of the river and the pleasant uplands towards Shooter's Hill, is an agreeable termination to a progress eastward. To the large taverns here, epicures flock from May till August to eat whitebait,

caught in glittering shoals about this part of the river, and turned within an hour out of the Thames into the frying-pan. With the usual accompaniments of cayenne and lemon juice, brown bread and butter, and the equally important beverage of iced punch, they make a delicious refection. A vast amount of iron ship-building is carried on in this district, being an art of not more than twenty years' growth. Here will be seen the clanking boiler works, the cyclopian foundries and engineering workshops, in which steam is the principal motive power. The Brunswick Wharf was opened July 6, 1840, and the constant arrivals and departures of the Gravesend steamboats make it a very animated promenade. This is also the terminus of the LONDON AND BLACKWALL RAILWAY, which has within the last year abandoned its old system of rope traction for the ordinary railway engines. Some idea of the immense outlay upon this line, which is only four and a half miles long, may be formed from the circumstance that the portion between the Minories and Fenchurch Street (450 yards) cost £250,000. The EAST INDIA DOCKS are situated at Blackwall, covering a space of thirty-two acres. They were opened in 1806. The dock for loading outward-bound Indiamen is 780 feet in length and 520 in width. The gates are closed at 3, P.M., in winter, and 4, P.M., in summer. is proposed to construct docks of vast extent, nearly three miles long, on the margin of the Thames, from a point a little below the Blackwall steamboat pier down to the Eastern Counties station, opposite Woolwich. The land is already in the possession of the promoters. The cost of the docks is estimated, with the projected warehouses, at £1,500,000. Those who desire a more extensive acquaintance with the scenery of the river below Blackwall, should consult "Adams's Pocket Descriptive Guide to the Environs of London," in which, within a circuit of thirty miles, everything worth seeing will be found detailed graphically and accurately.

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DISTRICT 2.

ALDGATE-HOUNSDITCH-THE MINORIES-GOODMAN'S FIELDS WHITECHAPEL-WHITECHAPEL ROAD-JEWS' BURIAL GROUNDTHE LONDON HOSPITAL-MILE END ROAD-BANCROFT'S ALMSHOUSES-BETHNAL GREEN-BONNER'S FIELDS-VICTORIA PARK -SHOREDITCH-NORTON FOLGATE BISHOPSGATE WITHOUTFINSBURY CIRCUS-LONDON INSTITUTION-ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL, MOORFIELDS.

LDGATE, to which an omnibus from any of the main thoroughfares will serve as a conveyance, may be taken as a suitable point at which to renew our pilgrimage in this direction. The place derives its name from the "old gate" that here guarded the entrance to the City, and which was taken down in 1606. The fictitious bank recognised as Aldgate Pump will be seen at the commencement of Aldgate High Street. Beneath the pavement is a curious chapel or crypt, presumed to have been a part of the Church of St. Michael, and built in 1108. The whole addition of soil since its commencement is supposed to have been twenty-six feet. The inn on the left, called the "Three Nuns," is as old as the days of De Foe, and is mentioned by him in his history of the Plague. Northward from Aldgate Church are HOUNSDITCH, BEVIS MARKS, and DUKE'S PLACE, the great quarter of the Jews, and here they have settled in large numbers ever since the days of Oliver Cromwell. The MINORIES, a communication with Tower Hill, derived its name from nuns of the order of St. Clare, or minoresses who had been invited into England by Blanche, Queen of Navarre, who here founded a convent for their reception. There are now several spacious shops; amongst which, the showy finery of Moses and Sons' establishment appears conspicuous. GOODMAN'S FIELDS, now a thickly populated region, are at the back of

the Minories. Stow, in his quaint fashion, tells us that, in his time, one Trollop, and afterwards Goodman, were the farmers there, and "that the fields were a farm belonging to the said nunnery; at which farm I myself," he says, "have fetched many a halfpenny worth of milk, and never had less than three ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor less than one ale quart for a halfpenny in the winter, always hot from the kine." The theatre in Goodman's Fields was where Garrick first appeared, October 19, 1741 ; and here he drew such audiences of gentry and nobility, that their carriages filled up the road from Temple Bar to Whitechapel. The theatre in which Garrick appeared was burned down in 1746; but, in another theatre erected on the same spot, Braham, the celebrated vocalist, made his debût as a boy in 1787. This was likewise burned down in 1802, and it was never afterwards rebuilt.

WHITECHAPEL has nothing but the butchers' shambles to boast of as a characteristic feature. The church has no features of either architectural or historical interest. In the JEWS' BURIAL GROUND in Whitechapel Road, Rothschild, the great millionaire, lies buried.

The LONDON HOSPITAL, seen on the right of the road, was instituted in 1740 for the relief of maimed and invalided persons who are, from the nature of their avocations, subject to casualties. The patients are chiefly those employed about the docks and the shipping. In Beaumont Square, Mile End Road, is the "Beaumont Literary and Philosophical Institution," founded by Barber Beaumont, who died in 1841, and endowed it with £13,500.

BANCROFT'S ALMSHOUSES are on the north side of the Mile End Road, and were erected in 1735, for twenty-four poor men of the Drapers' Company, and a school for 100 boys. Bancroft was an officer of the Lord Mayor's court, and is said to have acquired his fortune by acts of extortion. He ordered in his will his body to be embalmed, and placed "in a coffin made of oak, lined with lead; and that the top or lid thereof

be hung with hinges, neither to be nailed, screwed, locked down, or fastened in any way, but to open freely and without trouble, like the top of a trunk."

Passing up Globe Lane we can reach BETHNAL Green, a large district chiefly populated by the silk-weavers of Spitalfields. Ten churches have been erected here within the last ten years; and model lodging-houses have materially contributed to the comfort of the poorer denizens. The houses generally are miserably small, and densely inhabited. The line of the Eastern Counties Railway traverses the very heart of this squalid region. Bonner's Fields derived their name from the hall of Bishop Bonner, close by, and which was removed in 1845, to make way for the new Victoria Park. This episcopal palace of the sixteenth century had been divided into five separate dwellings, but its general character was that of a substantial old English hall. Underneath the east wing was a small cell, where it is said that certain of Bonner's guests, whose theological tenets were not in harmony with his own, were wont to experience unwelcome hospitality. More probably, however, this cell was a cellar, containing the wherewithal to cheer the spirits of those who sat at the board above stairs.

VICTORIA PARK is a most desirable and ornamental addition to this quarter, and presents a prettily-planted pleasure ground of 290 acres. It is bounded on the north by fields, on the south by the Lea Union Canal, on the west by the Regent's Canal, and on the east by Old Ford Lane, leading to Hackney Wick. A handsome Elizabethan lodge has been built at the entrance, and an iron bridge of light and elegant construction adds to the general effect. A vote of £100,000 has been granted by Parliament to defray its expenses. We can hence make a circuit round by the Hackney Road towards Shoreditch, or thread the mazy thoroughfares of Bethnal Green.

SHOREDITCH, notwithstanding its present uninviting appearance, was once a genteel district, much inhabited by the

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