se, a circuit of
London cannot be better expressed than by quoting the following passage
from an author who wrote during the early Victorian period.

"I heard him relate that he had the curiosity to measure the circuit of
London by a perambulation thereof. The account he gave was to this
effect: He set out from his house in the Strand toward Chelsea, and,
having reached the bridge beyond the water works, Battersea, he directed
his course to Marylebone, from whence, pursuing an eastern direction, he
skirted the town and crossed the Islington road at the 'Angel.' ...
passing through Hoxton he got to Shoreditch, thence to Bethnal Green, and
from thence to Stepney, where he recruited his steps with a glass of
brandy. From Stepney he passed on to Limehouse, and took into his route
the adjacent hamlet of Poplar, when he became sensible that to complete
his design he must take in Southwark. This put him to a stand, but he soon
determined on his course, for, taking a boat, he landed at the Red House
at Deptford and made his way to Saye's Court, where the wet dock is, and,
keeping the houses along Rotherhithe to the right, he got to Bermondsey,
thence by the south end of Kent Road to Newington, and over St. George's
Fields to Lambeth, and crossing over at Millbank, continued his way to
Charing Cross and along the Strand to Norfolk Street, from whence he had
set out. The whole excursion took him from nine in the morning to three in
the afternoon, and, according to his rate of walking, he computed the
circuit of London at about twenty miles."

Since this was written, even these areas have probably extended
considerably, until to-day the circuit is more nearly fifty miles than
twenty, but in assuming that such an itinerary of twenty miles covers the
ground specifically mentioned, it holds equally true to-day that this
would be a stroll which would exhibit most of the distinguishing features
and characteristics of the city.

Modes of conveyance have been improved. One finds the plebeian cab or
"growler," the more fastidious hansom, and the popular electric tram,
which is fast replacing the omnibus in the outlying portions, to say
nothing of the underground railways now being "electrified," as the
management put it.

These improvements have made not only distances seem less great, but have
done much toward the speedy getting about from one place to another.

It matters not how the visitor enters London; he is bound to be duly
im