that there
was introduced "an ingenious and useful invention for the good of this
great city, calculated to secure one's goods, estates, and person; to
prevent fires, robberies and housebreakings, and several accidents and
casualties by falls to which man is liable by walking in the dark" This
was a scheme for lighting the streets, by placing an oil-lamp in
front of every tenth house on each side of the way, from Michaelmas to
Lady-day, every night from six of the clock till twelve, beginning the
third night after every full moon, and ending on the sixth night after
every new moon; one hundred and twenty nights in all. The originator of
this plan was one Edward Hemming, of London, gentleman. His project was
at first ridiculed and opposed by "narrow-souled and self-interested
people," who were no doubt children of darkness and doers of evil deeds;
but was eventually hailed with delight by all honest men, one of whom,
gifted with considerable imagination, declared these poor oil-lamps
"seemed but one great solar light that turned nocturnal shades to
noonday."

In this reign the city proper was confined eastward of Temple Bar; to
the west lay the palaces of Somerset House and Whitehall, the stately
parks, and great houses of the nobility surrounded by wide gardens and
wooded grounds. Monsieur Sorbiere, who in this reign made a journey
into England, an account of which he subsequently published "to divert
a person of quality who loved him extremely," resided close by Covent
Garden during his stay. It was usual, he writes, for people in the
district to say, "I go to London," for "indeed 'tis a journey for those
who live near Westminster. 'Tis true," he adds, "they may sometimes get
thither in a quarter of an hour by water, which they cannot do in
less than two hours by land, for I am persuaded no less time will be
necessary to go from one end of its suburb to the other." For a crown
a week this ingenious and travelled gentleman had lodgings in Covent
Garden, not far removed from Salisbury House, a vicinity which he avows
was "certainly the finest place in the suburbs." Covent Garden itself
has been described by John Strype, native of the city of London, as "a
curious large and airy square enclosed by rails, between which railes
and houses runs a fair street." The square, or, as it was commonly
called, garden, was well gravelled for greater accommodation of those
who wished to take the air; and that its surface might more qu