1811, was as follows:--89,640 persons on foot, 769 wagons, 2,924 carts
and drays, 1,240 coaches, 485 gigs and taxed carts, and 764 horses. We
must recollect that in 1811 the bridges across the Thames were fewer.
There was then no Waterloo Bridge, no Hungerford Suspension Bridge, no
bridge at Southwark, no penny steamboats running every quarter of an hour
from Paul's Wharf to the Surrey side, and London Bridge was far more
important than now. The figures we have given also throw some light on
the manners and customs of the age. Where are the gigs now, then the
attribute of respectability? What has become of the 1,240 coaches, and
what a falling off of equestrianism--the 764 horses of 1811 have dwindled
down (in 1859) to the paltry number of 54. Are there no night
equestrians in London now. It is early morn and we stand on London
Bridge, green are the distant Surrey hills, clear the blue sky, stately
the public buildings far and near. Beneath us what fleets in a few hours
about to sail, with passengers and merchandize to almost every
continental port. Surely Wordsworth's Ode written on Westminster Bridge
is not inapplicable:--

"Earth has not anything to show more fair.
Dull would he be of sense who could pass by,
A sight so touching in its majesty;
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Shops, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air;
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, arch, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt a calm so deep,
The river glideth at his own sweet will,
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep
And all that mighty heart is lying still!"

Of the traffic by water visible from London Bridge as you look towards
Greenwich, the best idea may be gathered by a few figures. A
Parliamentary Return has been issued, showing that the amount of tonnage
cleared from the port of London was in 1750, 796,632 tons, in 1800 the
tonnage entered was 796,632; and that cleared was 729,554. In 1857 the
tonnage entered had risen to 2,834,107, and that cleared to 2,143,884.

The traffic on London Bridge may be considered as one of the sights of
London. A costermonger's cart, laden with cabbages for Camberwell,
breaks down, and there is a block extending back almost all the way to
the Mansion House. Walk back an