“I wished to see a number of curiosities, but my shallow pocket forbade. One penny to see Bedlam was all I could spare. Here I met with a variety of curious anecdotes, for I stayed long, and found conversation with a multitude of characters. All the public buildings fell under my eye, which were attentively examined; nor was I wanting in my inquiries. Pass where I would I never was out of the way of entertainment. It is reasonable to suppose that everything in London was new and wonderful to a youth who is fond of inquiry, but has scarcely seen anything but rags and dung-carts. Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s, Guildhall, Westminster Hall, &c., were open to view; also both Houses (of Parliament), for they were sitting. As I had always applied deification to great men, I was surprised to see a hawker cram the twopenny pamphlets into a member’s face, who, instead of caning her, took not the slightest notice. “I joined a youth who had business in the Tower, in hopes of admission; but the warders, hearing the northern voice, came out of their cells, and seeing dust upon my shoes, reasonably concluded I had nothing to give, and, with an air of authority, ordered me back. “The Royal Exchange, the Mansion House, the Monument, the gates, the churches, many of which are beautiful; the bridges, river, vessels, &c., afforded a fund of entertainment. I attended at Leicester House, the residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales—scraped acquaintance with the sentinels, who told me, had I been half-an-hour sooner, I should have seen the prince and his family take coach for an airing. “Though I had walked 129 miles to London, I was upon my feet all the three days I was there. I spent half a day in viewing the west end of the town, the squares, the parks, the beautiful building for the fireworks, erected in the Green Park, to celebrate the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. At St. James’s I accosted the guard at the bottom of the stairs, and rather attempted to advance; but one of them put forward the butt-end of his piece that I might not step over. At St. James’s, too, I had my pocket picked of a handkerchief, which caused me to return home rather lighter. The people at St. James’s are apt to fill their pockets at the expense of others. “Observing, in one of the squares, the figure of a man on horseback, I modestly asked a bystander whom it represented? He observed, in a surly tone, ‘It’s strange you could see nobody else to ask without troubling me; its George I.’ “I could not forbear mentioning at night, to my landlord at the ‘Horns,’ the curiosities I had seen, which surprised him. He replied, ‘I like such a traveller as you. The strangers that come here cannot stir a foot without me, which plagues me to that degree I had rather be without their custom. But you, of yourself, find out more curiosities than I can show them or see myself.’