The retailer of Quack Medicines covers every pane of his shop-windows with the bills of different compounders of nostrums, and the angles between the paper and the sashes with transparent vivid colours; and the Proprietors of Newspapers seize upon every battle or capture as fair opportunities for pasting large pieces of paper together, which they inscribe "Sixth edition," &c. &c. and suspend from the top to the bottom of their casements; while their myrmidons the Newsmen reiterate the "Sixth edition" with distended lungs in the short intervals between the--I had almost said--infernal blasts of their tin trumpets. Let the purchaser, however, beware the Newsman doth not give him a paper or gazette--three weeks old--_in the hurry of the moment_! Such are the methods adopted by the London Tradesmen to attract attention, and such the appearance of the lower part of their Houses: indeed, Commodities are now generally used in place of the antient Signs. One of their _absurdities_ deserves reprehension: when a man has a front door between two windows, or a door on the right side of a window, he will have his name over the door, and his business on the friezes of the windows; for instance, Window Door Window --+---------------+-------+---------------+-- | GOLDSMITH AND | BROWN | JEWELLER, &c. | +---------------+-------+---------------+ instead of "Brown, goldsmith and jeweller." The nonsense produced in this way is sometimes incredibly ludicrous. I once observed the words "Preston, Nightman, and Rubbish carted," so placed that they conveyed an idea of a partnership "Preston and _Rubbish_." [Illustration: _View in Hyde Park_] [Illustration: _View in Park-lane_] [Illustration: _Westminster Abbey_] [Illustration: _Westminster Abbey_] [Illustration: _Part of Westminster bridge_] [Illustration: _Westminster from Milbank_] The noble fronts of the several Banking-houses and Insurance offices, many of the latter with fine emblematic statues over the doors, are great ornaments to the streets of London. The interior architecture of our dwellings is generally very convenient; but I could wish that the kitchens might henceforward be erected behind the house, that no human being should be immersed in damp, and blinded with darkness, as our servants now are, seven or eight feet below the surface of the street. It will be perceived that every thing under this article has now been noticed which is independent of the information already given in "Londinium Redivivum." I shall, therefore, conclude it with referring the reader to the annexed Prints, where he will find sketches of various parts of London which I have considered as the most picturesque, the whole contributing to illustrate the _general character_ of the Metropolis. FOOTNOTES: