, Richmond, Epsom, Croydon, Reigate, and Erith, can be
more quickly reached by rail than the old suburban quarters were by
omnibus, the metropolis has become extended in all directions along its
railway lines, and the population of London, instead of living in the
City or its immediate vicinity, as formerly, have come to occupy a
residential area of not less than six hundred square miles!

The number of new towns which have consequently sprung into existence
near London within the last twenty years has been very great; towns
numbering from ten to twenty thousand inhabitants, which before were but
villages,--if, indeed, they existed. This has especially been the case
along the lines south of the Thames, principally in consequence of the
termini of those lines being more conveniently situated for city men of
business. Hence the rapid growth of the suburban towns up and down the
river, from Richmond and Staines on the west, to Erith and Gravesend on
the east, and the hives of population which have settled on the high
grounds south of the Thames, in the neighbourhood of Norwood and the
Crystal Palace, rapidly spreading over the Surrey Downs, from Wimbledon
to Guildford, and from Bromley to Croydon, Epsom, and Dorking. And now
that the towns on the south and south-east coast can be reached by city
men in little more time than it takes to travel to Clapham or Bayswater
by omnibus, such places have become as it were parts of the great
metropolis, and Brighton and Hastings are but the marine suburbs of
London.

The improved state of the communications of the City with the country has
had a marked effect upon its population. While the action of the
railways has been to add largely to the number of persons living in
London, it has also been accompanied by their dispersion over a much
larger area. Thus the population of the central parts of London is
constantly decreasing, whereas that of the suburban districts is as
constantly increasing. The population of the City fell off more than
10,000 between 1851 and 1861; and during the same period, that of
Holborn, the Strand, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, St. James's,
Westminster, East and West London, showed a considerable decrease. But,
as regards the whole mass of the metropolitan population, the increase
has been enormous. Thus, starting from 1801, when the population of
London was 958,863, we find it increasing in each decennial period at the
rate of between two and three hu