CHAPTER XII.

London improvements-The Country-Gleaning - Dairying and out-door Washing-The Gipsy.

I

N writing a book like this, it is manifestly impossible

to give an account of all the public works and

improvements all over the country-perforce, they must needs be confined to the national heart-the Metropolis. And we, who have reaped the benefit of the largehearted, and open-handed policy which was then just being inaugurated, may just as well be reminded of what our grandfathers did for us.

In January, 1811, the New Kent Road was suggested, and afterwards carried out, which was the means of purifying a not particularly savoury neighbourhood, called St. George's Fields. In the same year, was a proposition to convert certain dairy farm lands at Mary le bone, into a park for public recreation. We now reap the benefit of it in Regent's Park, or, as it was first named, Mary le bone Park. The first stone of the Strand Bridge,

"Waterloo Bridge," as it was afterwards called, was laid in this year. Perhaps the first cast-iron bridge ever built was, in this year, an aqueduct over the Ouse, at Wolverton.

In 1812 the Regent's Canal was commenced, and the first stone of Plymouth Breakwater was laid. Vauxhall Bridge was also begun. Millbank Prison was also started this year, and in 1813 Whitecross Street Prison was commenced. Both these have ended their existence. To show how far in advance of their times they were, there was a proposition in 1814 to remove Smithfield Market to Islington, which has come to pass. In 1815, when Napoleon was supposed to be chained at Elba, home affairs again attracted attention, and we find Burlington Arcade in contemplation, Bethlehem Hospital, as we now know it, opened, and the first stones of Southwark Bridge and the London Institution were laid. So, also, the Post Office in Aldersgate Street was inaugurated.

In 1816 Regent Street was being built, and "Mr. Nash's Positive Order" was duly discussed, and, I am afraid, a wee bit ridiculed.

"Nash draws designs; but, honest Master Nash,

Tho' you may draw-who answers with the cash?”

Perhaps it might have been that he was architect to the Prince of Wales, and was thought very much of by the Regent.

For debauching the taste o our Heir to the Throne,

Then cross not the Seas,

To rob the Chinese,

But learn to grow wise from Vitruvius and Soane."

We, who are accustomed to our modern London, will read, almost with astonishment, that in October, 1816, "It is said that Oxford Road is to be continued as far as Bayswater Brook, which, when completed, will make the longest street in Europe. When the New Post Office is finished, the Western Mails are to go out direct, along Holborn, instead of through the narrow streets, Charing Cross, Piccadilly, &c.; and it is said that a short cut is to be made into the other western road, angular from Shepherd's Bush to Hammersmith, which, certainly, would save a mile of ground." This "Bayswater brook" was that which now feeds the Serpentine, running from Hampstead, by Kilburn, and entering Hyde Park at its Northern part.

On the 18th of June, 1817, the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the new Bridge over the Thames, previously called the Strand Bridge, was opened as Waterloo Bridge, which name it now bears. In this year there is a little bit of gossip anent Marlborough House which may be interesting to some readers, especially as its use was foreshadowed: "The tenure of the magnificent house near St. James's Palace, which was granted to the first Duke

of Marlborough, about a hundred years ago, expired, it is said, with the death of the last Duke; and now reverts to the Crown. This was the house in which Queen Anne resided before she ascended the throne, and it has been observed, that it would scarcely be possible to find a town. mansion more suitable to the Heiress of the British Throne."

In 1818, Regent Street was still being built, and we also learn-" Dec. 7. The new street from Carlton House to the Regent's Park is making rapid strides to its completion, almost the whole of the ground on the intended line of it, being now let. The part of it which forms a square, in front of Carlton House, is called Place'; from thence to Piccadilly, it is called Waterloo Street, and, from Piccadilly, the street, which will form a grand approach to the Regent's Park, is to be called the Regent's Parade.”

Waterloo

On the 20th of March, 1819, Burlington Arcade was opened, and on the 24th of March, Southwark Bridge followed suit. On the 10th of August the first stone of Telford's bridge across the Menai Straits was laid and in November the arrangements for rebuilding Buckingham Palace were completed, Carlton House being too small for "George the Magnificent."

In the Country, things were somewhat primitive, to our thinking, see, for instance, this heavy cumbrous plough drawn by four long legged hairy-hocked horses, with