n.

The change in our day from what it was, even in the latter days of
Dickens' life, is very marked. New bridges--at least a half-dozen--have
been built, two or three new tunnels, steam ferries,--of a sort,--and four
railway bridges; thus the aspect of the surface of the river has perforce
changed considerably, opening up new vistas and _ensembles_ formerly
unthought of.

Coming to London proper, from "Westminster" to the "Tower," there is
practically an inexhaustible store of reminiscence to be called upon, if
one would seek to enumerate or picture the sights, scenes, and localities
immortalized by even the authors contemporary with Dickens.

Not all have been fictionists,--a word which is used in its well meant
sense,--some have been chroniclers, like the late Sir Walter Besant and
Joseph Knight, whose contributions of historical resume are of the utmost
value. Others are mere "antiquarians" or, if you prefer, historians, as
the author of "London Riverside Churches." Poets there have been, too, who
have done their part in limning its charms, from Wordsworth's "Westminster
Bridge," on the west, written at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
to "A White-Bait Dinner at Greenwich," of Peacock, or "The Boy at the
Nore," of Tom Hood, on the east.

When, in the forties, the new Parliament Houses were approaching their
completed form, a new feature came into the prospect.

As did Wren, the architect of St. Paul's, so did Barry, the architect of
the Parliament Buildings, come in for many rough attacks at the hands of
statesmen or Parliamentarians, who set their sails chiefly to catch a
passing breath of popular applause, in order that they might provide for
themselves a niche or a chapter in the history of this grand building.

It was claimed that the flanking towers would mix inextricably with those
of St. Margaret's and the Abbey; that were they omitted, the structure
would be dwarfed by the aforesaid churches,--and much more of the same
sort. In its present completed form, it is a very satisfying
"Tudor-Gothic," or "Gothic-Tudor," building, admirably characteristic of
the dignity and power which should be possessed by a great national
administrative capitol.

The worst defect, if such be noticeable among its vast array of
excellencies, is the unfinished northerly, or up-river, facade.

To recall a reminiscence of Dickens' acquaintance with the locality, it
may be mentioned that in Milbank, hard by the Houses o