rated News, till we came to Ludgate Hill,--rather an
ascent,--which is the direct way to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's.
It stands directly in front of Ludgate Hill, and the churchyard occupies
a large space, and the streets open on each side, making a sort of
square called Paul's Churchyard, and then at the rear you go into
Cheapside. We looked with interest, I can tell you, at Bow Church, and,
as the old bells were ringing, I tried to listen if I could hear what
Whittington heard once from their tingling--"Turn again, Whittington,
lord mayor, of London." At the end of this street, on the right hand, is
the lord mayor's house, called the Mansion House, and directly in front
of the street, closing it up, and making it break off, is the Royal
Exchange; whilst at the left is the Bank of England. All these are very
noble-looking buildings, and you will hear about them from us as we
examine them in our future walks. We went to the counting-house of
Messrs. Baring & Co., the great merchants and bankers for so many
Americans, and there we found our letters and got some money. Mr.
Sturgis, one of the partners, told us to take the check to the bank, No.
68 Lombard Street, and informed us that was the very house where the
great merchant of Queen Elizabeth's time--Sir Thomas Gresham--used to
live. He built the first London Exchange, and his sign, a large
grasshopper, is still preserved at the bank. On Good Friday we had bunns
for breakfast, with a cross upon them, and they were sold through the
streets by children, crying "One a penny, two a penny, hot cross bunns."
We took a carriage and rode to Camden town to visit a friend; thence we
took the cars, to Hackney, and called on the Rev. Dr. Cox, who some
fifteen years ago made the tour of the United States, and wrote a
volume on our country. We then returned to London, and took our dinner
at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill. This has been a very
celebrated house for one hundred years, and figures largely in the books
of travellers fifty years ago. It has a high reputation still, and every
thing was excellent, and the waiting good. You cannot walk about London
without observing how few boys of our age are to be seen in the streets,
and when we asked the reason, we were told that nearly all the lads of
respectable families were sent to boarding schools, and the vacations
only occur at June and December; then the boys return home, and the city
swarms with them at all the place