ldings, which looked like
barns, and seemed capable of receiving great multitudes of people. His
heart misgave him that these were so many meeting-houses; but, upon
communicating his suspicions to me, I soon made him easy in that
particular. We then turned our eyes upon the river, which gave me an
occasion to inspire him with some favourable thoughts of trade and
merchandise, that had filled the Thames with such crowds of ships, and
covered the shore with such swarms of people. We descended very
leisurely, my friend being careful to count the steps, which he
registered in a blank leaf of his new almanack. Upon our coming to the
bottom, observing an English inscription upon the basis, he read it over
several times, and told me he could scarce believe his own eyes, for he
had often heard from an old attorney who lived near him in the country
that it was the Presbyterians who burnt down the City, 'whereas,' says
he, 'the pillar positively affirms, in so many words, that the burning
of this antient city was begun and carried on by the treachery and
malice of the Popish faction, in order to the carrying on their horrid
plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English liberty,
and introducing Popery and slavery.' This account, which he looked upon
to be more authentic than if it had been in print, I found, made a very
great impression upon him."

Ned Ward is very severe on the Monument. "As you say, this edifice," he
says, "as well as some others, was projected as a memorandum of the
Fire, or an ornament to the City, but gave those corrupted magistrates
that had the power in their hands the opportunity of putting two
thousand pounds into their own pockets, whilst they paid one towards the
building. I must confess, all I think can be spoke in praise of it is,
_'tis a monument to the City's shame, the orphan's grief, the
Protestant's pride, and the Papist's scandal; and only serves as a
high-crowned hat, to cover the head of the old fellow that shows it_."

Pope, as a Catholic, looked with horror on the Monument, and wrote
bitterly of it--

"Where London's Column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies,
There dwelt a citizen of sober fame,
A plain good man, and Balaam was his name."

"At the end of Littleton's Dictionary," says Southey, "is an inscription
for the Monument, wherein this very learned scholar proposes a name for
it worthy, for its length, of a Sanscrit le