apid creation of a new
metropolitan quarter, built solely for the aristocracy by an aristocrat.
The Belgrave district is as monotonous as Mary-le-bone; and is so
contrived as to be at the same time insipid and tawdry.

Where London becomes more interesting is Charing Cross. Looking to
Northumberland House, and turning your back upon Trafalgar Square, the
Strand is perhaps the finest street in Europe, blending the architecture
of many periods; and its river ways are a peculiar feature and rich with
associations. Fleet Street, with its Temple, is not unworthy of being
contiguous to the Strand. The fire of London has deprived us of the
delight of a real old quarter of the city; but some bits remain, and
everywhere there is a stirring multitude, and a great crush and crash of
carts and wains. The Inns of Court, and the quarters in the vicinity of
the port, Thames Street, Tower Hill, Billingsgate, Wapping, Rotherhithe,
are the best parts of London; they are full of character: the buildings
bear a nearer relation to what the people are doing than in the more
polished quarters.

The old merchants of the times of the first Georges were a fine race.
They knew their position, and built up to it. While the territorial
aristocracy, pulling down their family hotels, were raising vulgar
streets and squares upon their site, and occupying themselves one of
the new tenements, the old merchants filled the straggling lanes, which
connected the Royal Exchange with the port of London, with mansions
which, if not exactly equal to the palaces of stately Venice, might at
least vie with many of the hotels of old Paris. Some of these,
though the great majority have been broken up into chambers and
counting-houses, still remain intact.

In a long, dark, narrow, crooked street, which is still called a lane,
and which runs from the south side of the street of the Lombards towards
the river, there is one of these old houses of a century past, and
which, both in its original design and present condition, is a noble
specimen of its order. A pair of massy iron gates, of elaborate
workmanship, separate the street from its spacious and airy court-yard,
which is formed on either side by a wing of the mansion, itself a
building of deep red brick, with a pediment, and pilasters, and copings
of stone. A flight of steps leads to the lofty and central doorway; in
the middle of the court there is a garden plot, inclosing a fountain,
and a fine plane tree.