THE RIVER OF LONDON BY HILAIRE BELLOC _AUTHOR OF ‘THE PATH TO ROME’_ T. N. FOULIS LONDON & EDINBURGH [Illustration: ST. PAUL’S FROM BLACKFRIARS] _Published December 1912_ _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_ THE LIST OF CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION _page_ 3 II. THE APPROACH UP RIVER 17 III. LONDON, THE FIRST CROSSING OF THE THAMES 39 IV. LONDON, THE PORT OF THE THAMES 75 V. LONDON AND THE LOWER THAMES IN WARFARE 117 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _reproduced from Oil Paintings by_ JOHN MUIRHEAD, R.B.A., R.S.W. ST. PAUL’S FROM BLACKFRIARS _Frontispiece_ ERITH _page_ 24 RICHMOND BRIDGE 32 HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT FROM VAUXHALL 40 LIMEHOUSE 48 GREENWICH 56 GREENHITHE 64 STRAND ON THE GREEN 72 THE THAMES FROM GREENWICH PARK 80 GRAVESEND 88 KINGSTON BRIDGE 96 SUNBURY 104 TWICKENHAM FERRY 112 HAMPTON 120 TEDDINGTON 128 PANGBOURNE 136 INTRODUCTION Through the flats that bound the North Sea and shelve into it imperceptibly, merging at last with the shallow flood, and re-emerging in distant sandbanks and less conspicuous shoals, run facing each other two waterways far inland, which are funnels and entries, as it were, scoured by the tide. Each has at the end of the tideway a narrow, placid, inland stream, from whence the broader, noisier sea part also takes its name. Each has been and will always be famous in the arms and in the commerce of Europe. Each forms a sort of long great street of ships crowded in a traffic to and fro. For each has its great port. The one Antwerp, the other London. The Scheldt is the name of the first, which leads to Antwerp, and makes the opportunity for that great market of the world. But the second is the River of London, much older in its destinies, and probably more destined to endure in its functions of commerce.