ing things out of steamers or putting other things
into other steamers to go away to foreign countries. The river is
covered with steamers and barges and boats, just as the streets are
crowded with omnibuses and cabs and carts. Always men are working and
bringing things to the great City and sending things out. If it were not
so the City could not live at all, because the people must be fed and
clothed, and they can't make everything they want or grow what they want
to eat in London itself.

Down in this part of London there are huge docks, but I am quite sure
you do not know what docks are. They are basins of water, like immense
ponds or lakes, shut in on all sides except for one entrance from the
river, and here ships can come in and lie snugly and safely without
being pushed about by the tides, and they can be painted and mended and
made fit to go to sea again. One of these docks on a fine afternoon in
summer is a very beautiful sight; all the tall masts and funnels of the
ships are mixed up together like a forest of trees, and the blue sky
peeps through them and the blue water ripples round them. When you saw
this sight you would understand a little what a wonderful city London
is, and how she sends her ships out to all parts of the world.

One of the great sights on the river is the Tower Bridge. This is not
the newest bridge, but it was built later than most of the others. It
has two great towers rising one on each side, to the sky, and the bridge
lies across low down between these towers. But when a big ship comes and
wants to get up the river under the bridge, what is to be done? The
bridge is not high enough! Well, what does happen is this, and I hope
that every one of you will see it one day, for it is one of the grandest
things in all London: a man rings a bell, and the cabs and carriages and
carts and people who are on the bridge rush quickly across to the other
side, and when the bridge is quite empty then the man in the tower
touches some machinery, and slowly the great bridge, which is like a
road, remember, rises up into the air in two pieces, just as you might
lift your hands while the elbows rested on your knees without moving,
and the beautiful ship passes underneath, and the bridge goes back again
quite gently into its place. This bridge has been called the Gate of
London, and it is a very good name, for it looks like a giant gate over
the river. Close to it is the Tower, of which you must often have