Characteristic Sketches OF INTERESTING CITIES & TOWNS IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. TO BE CONTINUED. LONDON. LONDON!-the myriad of associations that rise at the repetition of that name!-LONDON!-the metropolis of the nations! the emporium of the universe! the world's storehouse of wealth! the centre of commerce, art, science, and philosophy! the chief city of the first people upon earth!— "The Seat, where England, from her ancient reign, Such-and how much more, that the bounds of our little work permit us not the thought of describing-is London Now. Shall we, Reader, employing our lucubrations to a dif B ferent, though perhaps not less entertaining an end,―shall we, glancing over the last two thousand one hundred years past, and resting the mind's eye, after its passage over that mighty chasm of time, upon the period at which our far-famed city had possibly witnessed the flight of half a century from its foundation, shall we, taking our stand upon one of the nearest of what are now termed the Surrey Hills, survey imperial London as it existed THEN?* We have reached our station. The chief city of the martial and maritime Belga established in South Britain, is before us. Come, gentle modern Londoner! escaped from the daily din that surrounds thy domicile, beyond the turmoil that fills thy native streets, above the dun smoke and the yellow fogs that float upon thy metropolitic air, come, take with us thy stand. Look from this eminence as upon one of those miracles of illusive art in thine own day, a panorama, and behold the capital of Belgic Britain, as it stood three hundred years before the Christian era, with the scenery adjacent. Come, we will act the cicerone at thy side, and explain the features of the antique scene. The eminence popularly called Nun-head Hill will very well suit our purpose. Observe, there are two leading objects in this view-FOREST, and WATER. Start not, nor already smile in absolute incredulity: remember, two thousand one hundred years are to elapse, ere thou wilt live in actual reality to smile from this fair spot; and believe, that changes, mightier than these, may take place in that long period. The water, forming a vast lake, ripples to the very foot of the verdant slope on which we stand; and extends thence, eastward and westward, farther than the eye can reach; while behind, and on either side, the grassy or the copse-crowned hill, the dark wood, and the brown heathy waste, enclose us, and swell onward to the boundaries of the vision's range. Yon hill,* neither to the extreme left nor directly facing us, but between both, is an islet, all clothed with forest-trees, herons their solitary occupants, and the sole owners of the soil. Yes, it is girdled with those waves, that, weltering thence around the height on which we stand, and other adjacent elevations, are sheeted too over the self-same spot, on which, some ages henceforward, shall arise a Causeway, purposed to aid the tra That of which Camberwell Grove forms one of the modern ascents. From whence, it may be, the existing appellation of Herne Hill, which forms a part of the same eminence. Brixton. |