

Transcribed from the 1859 W. Tweedie edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org





                              HERE AND THERE
                                    IN
                                 LONDON.


                                * * * * *

                                    BY
                            J. EWING RITCHIE,
                                AUTHOR OF
          "THE NIGHT-SIDE OF LONDON," "THE LONDON PULPIT," ETC.

                                * * * * *

    "Then I saw in my dream, that, when they were got out of the
    wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of
    that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called
    Vanity Fair."

                                                                   BUNYAN.

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:
                         W. TWEEDIE, 337, STRAND.

                                * * * * *

                                  1859.

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:
            PRINTER AND GALPIN, BELLE SAUVAGE PRINTING WORKS,
                            LUDGATE HILL, E.C.

                                * * * * *

                                    TO

                      HENRY AYSCOUGH THOMPSON, ESQ.

                                THIS WORK,

                   As a trifling Testimonial of Esteem,

                              IS DEDICATED,

                              BY HIS FRIEND,

                                                               THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS.

                                                              PAGE
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FROM THE STRANGERS' GALLERY                1
A NIGHT WITH THE LORDS                                          25
THE REPORTERS' GALLERY                                          43
THE LOBBY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DURING THE SESSION            64
OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT                                        70
A SUNDAY AT THE OBELISK                                         78
EXETER HALL                                                     84
THE DERBY                                                       95
VAUXHALL GARDENS                                               104
THE PENNY GAFF                                                 111
RAG FAIR                                                       117
THE COMMERCIAL ROAD AND THE COAL-WHIPPERS                      124
THE STOCK EXCHANGE                                             135
THE LONDON HOSPITAL                                            145
PORTLAND PLACE                                                 155
MARK LANE                                                      166
PREACHING AT ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL                              175
AN OMNIBUS YARD                                                187
THE NEW CATTLE MARKET                                          200
THE GOVERNMENT OFFICE                                          207
PATERNOSTER ROW                                                218




THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FROM THE STRANGERS' GALLERY.


Not far from Westminster Abbey, as most of our readers know well, stands
the gorgeous pile which Mr. Barry has designed, and for which, in a
pecuniary sense, a patient public has been rather handsomely bled.  Few
are there who have looked at that pile from the Bridge--or from the
numerous steamers which throng the river--or loitered round it on a
summer's eve, without feeling some little reverence for the spot haunted
by noble memories and heroic shades--where to this day congregate the
talent, the wealth, the learning, the wisdom of the land.  It is true,
there are men--and that amiable cynic, Mr. Henry Drummond, is one of
them--who maintain that the House of Commons is utterly corrupt--that
there is not a man in that House but has his price; but we instinctively
feel that such a general charge is false--that no institution could exist
steeped in the demoralisation Mr. Drummond supposes--that his statement
is rather one of those ingenious paradoxes in which eccentric men
delight, than a sober exposition of the real truth.  Mr. Drummond should
know better.  A poor penny-a-liner of a bilious temperament, without a
rap in his pocket, might be excused such cynicism; but it does not become
an elderly religious gentleman, well shaven--with clean linen, and a good
estate.  The House of Commons is a mixed assembly.  It contains the fool
of quality--the Beotian squire--the needy adventurer--the unprincipled
charlatan; but these men do not rule it--do not form its opinion--do not
have much influence in it.  It is an assembly right in the main.
Practically it consists of well-endowed, well-informed business men--men
with little enthusiasm, but with plenty of common sense, and with more
than average intellect, integrity, and wealth.  Still more may be said.
All that is great in our land is there.  It boasts the brightest names in
literature, in eloquence, and in law.  Our island-mother has no more
distinguished sons than those whose names we see figuring day by day in
the division lists.  Nowhere can a man see an assembly more honourable,
more to be held in honour, for all that