File:A wanderer in London (1906) (14764199604).jpg

Identifier: wandererinlondon00luca (find matches)
Title: A wanderer in London
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall), 1868-1938
Subjects: Art -- England London London (England) -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : The Macmillan company London, Methuen & co.

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n the wake of John Gilpin —To Tottenham and Edmonton — A Discovery and a Disillusion-ment WE are now in a part of London that really is toobusy to wander in. London neither likes you towalk faster than itself nor slower; it likes you to adopt itsown pace. In the heart of the city you cannot do this andsee anything. To study Cheapside and its narrow tribu-taries, the very narrowness of which is eloquent of the pastand at the same time so much a part of the present that itis used in a thoroughly British manner to imprison cartsand carters for five or six hours a day, you must choose aSunday; but if you can loiter in these parts on a Sundaywithout becoming so depressed as to want to scream aloud,you are made of sterner stuff than I. For my part, I wouldrather be actually bruised by the jostlings of Cheapside onMonday than have solitary elbow room there on the day ofrest, when the cheerful shops are shut and the dreary bellsring out. For the city on Sunday is to me a wilderness of 166
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1-1 < O < o H< -r. a 2 25 ^ M ;^ 3h 2 O ■-^ au H THE CITY CHURCHES 167 melancholy. Church bells are tolerable only when onehears a single peal: to hear many in rivalry is to suffer. The city churches are many and are well cared for: buttheir day is over. During the week we are too busy makingmoney, or not making it, to spare time for religion; whileon Sunday we are elsewhere. What do these churcheshere ? one asks. Other gods reign here. I do not wishto suggest that there are not city men who value the op-portunity which the open doors of the churches give themfor a little escape from Mammon during the day; but forthe most part the city church strikes one as a monumentto the obsolete. It belongs so completely to the periodwhen merchants not only made their money in the citybut lived there too; before Sydenham Hill and Brighton,Chislchurst and Weybridge, were discovered. No one livesin the city any longer, save the Lord Mayor and a fewcaretakers; and all the gentlemen who wou

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