is metropolis of ours, that it would be equally true
to state that 'London is rapidly increasing in population,' and that
'London is slowly decreasing in population.' The metropolis, as a
whole, yearly increases its numbers; but the _City_, the original
London, is less populous now than a century ago, on account of the
streets having been widened, and many small dwelling-houses removed,
to make way for large commercial establishments, the managers and
clerks of which almost all sleep out of London.

If we glance over a map of London, or, still better, take a resolute
series of omnibus-rides or foot-rambles, we shall find ourselves as
little able as before to settle the question, 'Where does London end?'
That huge mass of small streets and poor houses, comprising the
borough of the Tower Hamlets, allows us no rest till we get three
miles eastward of St Paul's. Beyond this point, there are a few
patches of Bow Common yet left; but Poplar and Blackwall, Bromley and
Bow, tell us to go yet further eastward to the river Lea; and even
West Ham and Stratford, though on the Essex side of the Lea, seem to
claim a metropolitan position. Again, passing over Victoria Park--that
pleasant oasis in a desert of houses--and bending round towards the
north, we may ask where are the fields; and may wait until 'echo
answers, Where.' Hackney and Homerton, Clapton and Dalston,
Shacklewell and Newington, not only have the houses ranged themselves
closely along the main roads to these villages, but have filled up
nearly all the vacant ground between those roads. Is Tottenham to be
included in our London; and if, not, why not? And at Highgate and
Hampstead, as the rows of houses have ascended these hills, and
climbed over the hills, why stop there? why not send London still
further out of town? Look at the new town springing up around the
Camden Station; at the Portland Town westward of Regent's Park; at the
Westbourne Town far beyond the Paddington terminus; at the new town
west of Kensington; at the vast mass of buildings between Kensington
and the Thames--all these are the mere filling up of the districts
which had before been marked out by the great roads; and the great
roads themselves are carrying out their rows of houses still further
into what we may, in courtesy, designate 'the fields.'

So it is on the south side of the river. Of the 13,000 vehicles which
cross London Bridge in twelve hours on an average summer day, an
immense number