s this?--what a beautiful sun!--the porter was
right in saying that the day would clear up--I will now go to my dingy
lodging, lock up my manuscripts and then take a stroll about the big
city."

CHAPTER XXXI.

So I set out on my walk to see the wonders of the big city, and, as
chance would have it, I directed my course to the east. The day, as I
have already said, had become very fine, so that I saw the great city to
advantage, and the wonders thereof, and much I admired all I saw; and,
amongst other things, the huge cathedral, standing so proudly on the most
commanding ground in the big city; and I looked up to the mighty dome,
surmounted by a golden cross, and I said within myself: "That dome must
needs be the finest in the world"; and I gazed upon it till my eyes
reeled, and my brain became dizzy, and I thought that the dome would fall
and crush me; and I shrank within myself, and struck yet deeper into the
heart of the big city.

"O Cheapside! Cheapside!" said I, as I advanced up that mighty
thoroughfare, "truly thou art a wonderful place for hurry, noise and
riches! Men talk of the bazaars of the East--I have never seen them, but
I dare say that, compared with thee, they are poor places, silent places,
abounding with empty boxes. O thou pride of London's east!--mighty mart
of old renown!--for thou art not a place of yesterday: long before the
Roses red and white battled in fair England, thou didst exist--a place of
throng and bustle--a place of gold and silver, perfumes and fine linen.
Centuries ago thou couldst extort the praises even of the fiercest foes
of England. Fierce bards of Wales, sworn foes of England, sang thy
praises centuries ago; and even the fiercest of them all, Red Julius
himself, wild Glendower's bard, had a word of praise for London's
"Cheape," for so the bards of Wales styled thee in their flowing odes.
Then, if those who were not English, and hated England, and all connected
therewith, had yet much to say in thy praise, when thou wast far inferior
to what thou art now, why should true-born Englishmen, or those who call
themselves so, turn up their noses at thee, and scoff thee at the present
day, as I believe they do? But, let others do as they will, I, at least,
who am not only an Englishman, but an East Englishman, will not turn up
my nose at thee, but will praise and extol thee, calling thee mart of the
world--a place of wonder and astonishment!--and, were it right and
fittin