r wanted repair, and, as it happened, he
took it to the very same builder's yard where the dragon was, and the
dragon and the grasshopper lay side by side. Then someone remembered
that old saying, and was terrified; but there was no fighting, and the
streets of London did not run with blood, which shows that old sayings
do not always come true.

London City is now lighted by electricity, which has almost displaced
gas, but there was a time not so long ago when the only lighting of the
streets was done by candles, and every man who owned a window looking
out on to the street was forced to burn a candle there from six to ten
o'clock every night.

You can imagine that these candles did not make a very good light, and
there was plenty of opportunity for thieves and ruffians to annoy
honest men. When people went out at night they used to hire boys with
torches to run beside them. These boys were called link-boys, and they
waited in the streets to be hired, just as cabmen wait about now. The
torches they carried were flaming pieces of wood, which burned very
brightly and made many sparks and much smell, and one would have thought
they were very dangerous, as they might have set alight the ladies'
dresses, but we never hear of any such accidents having happened.

Well, this is all I am going to tell you about London at present, but it
is by no means all there is to tell; only some things are not easy for
children to understand, and others are difficult to describe in writing.
For these you must wait until you are older, and until you can go to see
them for yourselves. But if you understand ever so little from this book
what a great and wonderful town London is, you will not have wasted your
time in reading it.

THE END

PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD., LONDON AND EDINBURGH

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Children's Book of London, by
Geraldine Edith Mitton

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