. The earth and its inhabitants ... jjr* roB ;^ : APPLETOH &c? 166 THE BRITISH ISLES. London has often been likened to a province covered with houses. If we butenter this hibyrinth of streets, we feel as if steam-power alone were able to extri-cate us. Even the liardiest pedestrian yields to fatigue when traversing thisinterminable city. Street follows street, and the chance of obtaining a glimpseof the horizon appears to be a remote one. Houses without end, factories, railwaystations, villas, gardens, and blind brick walls succeed each other in this huge hiveof humanity. Even in the midst of
. The earth and its inhabitants ... jjr* roB ;^ : APPLETOH &c? 166 THE BRITISH ISLES. London has often been likened to a province covered with houses. If we butenter this hibyrinth of streets, we feel as if steam-power alone were able to extri-cate us. Even the liardiest pedestrian yields to fatigue when traversing thisinterminable city. Street follows street, and the chance of obtaining a glimpseof the horizon appears to be a remote one. Houses without end, factories, railwaystations, villas, gardens, and blind brick walls succeed each other in this huge hiveof humanity. Even in the midst of the fields or in the outlying parks wefool that London still surrounds us, for on all sides the houses line the great Fig. SS.—Annual Increase of Population in Thirty-one Cities of Europe. According to highways which join the metropolis to its more remote suburbs. Startingfrom the western extremity of the metropolis, we can walk successively throughHammersmith, Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth, and Twickenham without everleaving the houses behind us. A road, parallel to the former, connects ShepherdsBush with Acton and Ealing. The northern suburbs, Hampstead, Highgate,Homsey, Tottenham, and Edmonton, advance far into the open country like thearms of a gigantic polype. Similarly, when travelling south or south-westward,we reach Dulwich after we have passed through Brixton ; then follow Sydenham,Norwood, and Croydon, and though we extend our walk for a distance of J 2 miles. LONDON. 167 as far as Epsora, one group of houses succeeds the other, and only at intervals dowe catch a glimpse of what can truly be described as country. Thousands areborn in London, live and die there, whose horizon has ever been bounded by bricksand mortar. The only forests they have seen are the plantations in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
