Hill. The coachman, by a short turn, drove us, with astonishing swiftness, through a narrow opening, where the least deviation would have overturned the coach, and we were set down in a large back yard, full of coaches, horses, servants, and baggage.

No. XI.-LONDON.

The Bell Savage Inn-St. Paul's-Lodgings-Manner of liv ing-Boarding-houses almost unknown-Expense and convenience of lodgings-London intricate-Eating houses-Letters-The monument of London-Opening of the new dockCeremonies on the occasion.

May 20.-To have arrived thus happily in London, after almost two months of travelling, by sea and land, was certainly a subject of joy and gratitude. It was five o'clock P. M. when we stepped down from the coach, and took lodgings for the night at the Bell Savage. This was a public-house a century ago, and gave occasion for the wit of Addison to investigate the derivation of its name. He informs us that it alludes to a French story of a very beautiful woman found in a wilderness, whence the romance, built upon this incident, is entitled La Belle Sauvage. This was probably at first the sign of the house, but the allusion has been so long forgotten that even the orthography is changed, and we find it no longer La Belle Sauvage, but the Bell Savage.

After dinner we went into St. Paul's Church, which was within a few rods of our lodgings. It is a snblime

building, and when I looked up through its stupendous dome, I saw an exhibition of architectural grandeur, which I had never witnessed before.

I shall now, my dear brother, cease for some months to be a traveller, and shall become a settled resident in London. Of this city of cities, you will not expect me to As attempt any thing like a regular and full account. volumes would not suffice for the purpose, it would be arrogance in me to suppose that a residence of a few months can qualify me for the task, even if entirely at leisure for observation. And when the daily calls of business, with engagements of ceremony and civility, are taken into the account, it will become me still more to be modest in drawing general conclusions concerning so vast a city as London. But it may perhaps be still in my power to impart some information which will be interesting to you, since one cannot well mistake concerning facts passing daily before him, and needing only the faithful use of his senses. During my residence in London, I shall therefore endeavour to give such notices of the objects which occur in my daily walks, as shall exhibit to you the most striking outlines of the picture, although it is probable that I shall rarely be able to add all the colouring and shades necessary to fill it up completely.

May 21.-Not being engaged in commercial business, I took lodgings near Cavendish Square, in a part of Westminster, which is at once airy, clean, and quiet. The recommendation of a friend in New-York, who had resided in the same house, gave me entire confidence in the people, and a letter of introduction from him, (for he had been a great favourite there) procured me all the kindness and sedulous attention which I could have wished.

The method in which men without families usually live in London is very different from that which prevails in our great towns. Here, boarding-houses are unknown, or, if known, are hardly reputable places of residence.Single men therefore reside in lodgings, that is, they have furnished apartments in private houses, commonly a bed chamber and a parlour; sometimes they have a third room for a dressing chamber; but this is an unnecessary appendage. The apartments will cost from half a guinea to three or four guineas a week, according as they are more or less splendid, or are situated in a fashionable or obscure part of the town, and their location is a matter of no small importance to the reception of a stranger. The Londoners will not call on a man who resides in some dirty alley or dark court, for the impression is at once that he is not genteel. In general, lodgings sufficiently comfortable and respectable may be obtained from one to two guineas a week. In them it is expected that the tenant will take his breakfast and tea, which is procured for him by the servants of the house, at his own expense, over and above the rent of the rooms. The articles are purchased for him, and he pays the neat cost without any additional bill for the labour of preparing the food. He is exp. cted to dine out, either at a coffee-house, or wherever business or engagements of civility may lead him. In some houses they will prepare an occasional dinner for you, when ill health or bad weather renders it inconvenient to go abroad, but this is regarded as an extra indulgence, which you cannot claim as a right. This method of living is much more comfortable than ours, and it secures to one the command of his own time, with all the retirement of domestic life.

Mr. D- and I feeling impatient to get something like a general idea of the appearance of London, set out and walked at random. We passed street after street, and turned corner after corner, till our little knowledge of the town, (his, gained from having once before been here, for a short time, and mine from an inspection of the map,) was enhausted, and we wandered on, till our heads were completely turned, and we were lost in endless mazes of shops, houses, courts and streets. When we enquired the way to Cavendish Square, the directions were even less intelligible than the town itself; no hackney coaches were to be found, and we at last concluded that, as even London must have an end, we would persist till we should find it, and then endeavour to correct our reckoning, and start fairly for a return. We rambled on, a tedious length of way, till we found ourselves at Spa Fields, a watering place, with a chalybeate spring and tea gardens, just on the border of London. The refreshments of the place were rendered welcome by extreme fatigue, and after being, again and again, bewildered, we at length reached our lodgings, with the wholesome lesson which experience had taught us, that a stranger should not trust himself in London without a guide, or ample directions. A method which we soon found it necessary to adopt was to plan every excursion with the aid of the map, and to make out on a pocket card, in their proper succession, a list of the streets through which we wished to pass.

May 22.-The number of eating houses in London is immense. You can hardly pass through a street without finding one, and in the earliest excursion which I had occasion to make for dinner, I went into the first house of this description which I saw. I cannot say that it was

very cleanly or comfortable, and accordingly, a charge of only one shilling and sixpence was made for the dinner.On returning to my lodgings, I was beginning to boast to Mr. D how cheaply I had dined, but he soon silenced me by declaring that he had just dined for six pence. You will not suppose that I shall be solicitous to extend my experiments very far in this way, but these facts will tend to evince, how completely, in London, a man may accommodate his living to his wishes or circumstances. He may, if he pleases, dine at the London Coffeehouse for a guinea, or he may descend into a cellar and dine for three pence.

May 23. The business of delivering my letters of introduction, and of imposing upon strangers an obligation to be civil to me, was what I now found it indispensable to set seriously about. From the unpleasant nature of the duty I wished to defer it to the latest moment, and, still more, that by becoming a little acquainted with the streets, I might be enabled to take my new friends, as much as possible, by house rows; so that, in delivering letters to people scattered all over this immense town, I might not cross my track more frequently than was necessary. The ceremonies connected with introduction in England are precisely the same with ours. Most of those to whom I had letters were not at home. This circumstance with the aid of a coach enabled me to despatch the business within a moderate period; cards were left with most of the letters, and as this is the legal service which the customs of society have every where established, I have nothing more to do than to wait the result.