The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events — John Shaqi
The Town: Its Memorable Characters and EventsHunt, Leigh
History
The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events
Hunt, Leigh
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
As a link of a very pleasing description between old times and new not
unconnected with what we have been speaking of, we shall conclude our
introduction by observing, that there is scarcely a street in the
_city_ of London, perhaps not one, nor many out of the pale of it,
from some part of which the passenger may not discern a _tree_. Most
persons to whom this has been mentioned have doubted the accuracy of
our information, nor do we profess hitherto to have ascertained it;
though since we heard the assertion, we have made a point of
endeavouring to do so whenever we could, and have not been
disappointed. The mention of the circumstance generally creates a
laughing astonishment, and a cry of "impossible!" Two persons, who
successively heard of it the other day, not only thought it incredible
as a general fact, but doubted whether half a dozen streets could be
found with a twig in them; and they triumphantly instanced
"Cheapside," as a place in which it was "out of the question." Yet in
Cheapside is an actual, visible, and even ostentatiously visible tree,
to all who have eyes to look about them. It stands at the corner of
Wood Street, and occupies the space of a house. There was a solitary
one the other day in St. Paul's Churchyard, which has now got a
multitude of young companions. A little child was shown us a few years
back, who was said never to have beheld a tree but that single one in
St. Paul's Churchyard. Whenever a tree was mentioned, she thought it
was that and no other. She had no conception even of the remote tree
in Cheapside! This appears incredible; but there would seem to be no
bounds, either to imagination or to the want of it. We were told the
other day, on good authority, of a man who had resided six-and-thirty
years in the square of St. Peter's at Rome, and then for the first
time went inside the Cathedral.
There is a little garden in _Watling Street_! It lies completely open
to the eye, being divided from the footway by a railing only.
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