ies, and before us, at a distance, a
large wide-spread clearance, in which spires and extensive buildings
lifted their heads.

London is a perfectly new city; it was nothing but a mere forest
settlement before 1838, and is now a very large, well laid out town.
We arrived at five p.m., and put up at a very indifferent inn, the
best however which the great fire of London had spared. The town is
laid out at right angles, each street being very wide and very sandy,
and where the fire had burnt the wooden squares of houses we saw brick
ones rising up rapidly. There is now a splendid hotel, (O'Neill's and
Hackstaff's) where you may really meet with luxury as well as comfort,
for I see, _mirabile dictu_, that fresh lobsters and oysters are
advertised for every day in the season. These come from the Atlantic
coast of the United States, some thousand miles or so; but what will
not steam and railroad do! We saw a stone church erecting; and there
is an immense barrack, containing the 81st regiment of infantry and a
mounted company, or, as it is called in military parlance, a battery
of artillery.

London was so thickly beset with disaffected Americans during the
rebellion, that it was deemed necessary to check them by stationing
this force in the heart of the district; and since then the military
expenditure and the excellent situation of the place has created a
town, and will soon create a large city.

The adjacent country is very beautiful, particularly along the
meandering banks of the Thames. I saw some excellent stores, or
general shops; and, although the houses, excepting in the main street,
are at present scattered, and there is nothing but oceans of sand in
the middle, it wants only time to become a very important place.
General Simcoe, when he first settled Upper Canada, thought of making
it the metropolis, but it is not well situated for that purpose, being
too accessible from the United States.

I staid here all night and part of next day; and here I found the
disadvantages of an education for the bar; for my bedroom was
immediately over it, and it was open the greatest part of the night.
Drinking, smoking, smoking, drinking, incessant, with concomitant
noise and bad language; which, combined with a necessity for keeping
the window open on account of the heat, rendered sleep impossible. I
have slept from sheer fatigue under a cannon, or rather very near it,
when it was firing, but Vauban himself could not have slep