gend. It is a word which
extends through seven degrees of longitude, being designed to
commemorate the names of the seven Lord Mayors of London under whose
respective mayoralties the Monument was begun, continued, and
completed:--

"'Quam non una aliqua ac simplici voce, uti istam quondam Duilianam;
Sed, ut vero eam nomine indigites, vocabulo constructiliter Heptastico,
FORDO--WATERMANNO--HANSONO--HOOKERO--VINERO--SHELDONO--DAVISIANAM
Appellare opportebit.'

"Well might Adam Littleton call this an _heptastic vocable_, rather than
a word." (Southey, "Omniana.")

Mr. John Hollingshead, an admirable modern essayist, in a chapter in
"Under Bow Bells," entitled "A Night on the Monument," has given a most
powerful sketch of night, moonlight, and daybreak from the top of the
Monument. "The puppet men," he says, "now hurry to and fro, lighting up
the puppet shops, which cast a warm, rich glow upon the pavement. A
cross of dotted lamps springs into light, the four arms of which are the
four great thoroughfares from the City. Red lines of fire come out
behind black, solid, sullen masses of building; and spires of churches
stand out in strong, dark relief at the side of busy streets. Up in the
housetops, under green-shaded lamps, you may see the puppet clerks
turning quickly over the clean, white, fluttering pages of puppet
day-books and ledgers; and from east to west you see the long, silent
river, glistening here and there with patches of reddish light, even
through the looped steeple of the Church of St. Magnus the Martyr. Then,
in a white circle of light round the City, dart out little nebulous
clusters of houses, some of them high up in the air, mingling, in
appearance, with the stars of heaven; some with one lamp, some with two
or more; some yellow, and some red; and some looking like bunches of
fiery grapes in the congress of twinkling suburbs. Then the bridges
throw up their arched lines of lamps, like the illuminated garden-walks
at Cremorne....

"The moon has now increased in power, and, acting on the mist, brings
out the surrounding churches one by one. There they stand in the soft
light, a noble army of temples thickly sprinkled amongst the
money-changers. Any taste may be suited in structural design. There are
high churches, low churches; flat churches; broad churches, narrow
churches; square, round, and pointed churches; churches with towers
like cubical slabs sunk deeply in between the roo