. London . undations. Whena churchyard was placed against the wall, as at St. Giless,Cripplegate, and at St. Alphege, London Wall, some portionswere allowed to remain. The course of the wall is perfectlywell known, and has often been mapped. It is strange, how-ever, that the Corporation should have been so careless as tomake no attempt at all to preserve some portions of thismost interesting monument. The gates still stood, and were closed at sunset, until theyear 1760. Then they were all pulled down, and the mate-rials sold. Temple Bar, which was never a City gate, properlyspeaking, remained
. London . undations. Whena churchyard was placed against the wall, as at St. Giless,Cripplegate, and at St. Alphege, London Wall, some portionswere allowed to remain. The course of the wall is perfectlywell known, and has often been mapped. It is strange, how-ever, that the Corporation should have been so careless as tomake no attempt at all to preserve some portions of thismost interesting monument. The gates still stood, and were closed at sunset, until theyear 1760. Then they were all pulled down, and the mate-rials sold. Temple Bar, which was never a City gate, properlyspeaking, remained until the other day. The gates were, Isuppose, an obstruction to traffic. Yet one regrets their disappearance. They were not old, but they had a character oftheir own, and they preserved the memory of ancient wish they could have been preserved to this day. A statueof Queen Elizabeth, which formerly stood on the west frontof Lud Gate, is, I believe, the only part of a City gate not z 2 340 /.(Ko.\. destroyed. It is now placed on the south wall of St. Dunstans,Fleet Street, where thousands pass by every day, regardless of this monument of London before the fire ! I have found, in a pamphlet written (1754) to advocate cer-tain improvements in the City, glimpses of things too petty forthe dignity of history, yet not without interest toonc who wishesto reconstruct the life of the time For instance, the streetswere not cleaned, except in certain thoroughfares ; at the backof the Royal Exchange, for instance, was a scandalous accumu-lation of filth suffered to remain, and the posterns of the Citygates were equally neglected and abused. The rubbish shot into the streets was not clearedaway ; think of the streets alldischarging the duty of the dust-bin ! Cellar doors and windowswere left open carelessly ; stonesteps projected from the housesfar across the footpath. Wherepavement had been laid down itwas suffered to become brokenand ruinous, and so left. Housesthat had fallen do
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbesantwa, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1892
