{"product_id":"2940012862815","title":"Days \u0026 Nights in London","description":"CONTENTS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                                                   PAGE\u003cbr\u003e         I.  THE WORLD OF LONDON                      1\u003cbr\u003e        II.  THE AMUSEMENTS OF THE PEOPLE            24\u003cbr\u003e       III.  OUR MUSIC-HALLS                         39\u003cbr\u003e        IV.  MORE ABOUT MUSIC-HALLS                  54\u003cbr\u003e         V.  SUNDAYS WITH THE PEOPLE                 90\u003cbr\u003e        VI.  THE LOW LODGING-HOUSE                  117\u003cbr\u003e       VII.  STUDIES AT THE BAR                     155\u003cbr\u003e      VIII.  IN AN OPIUM DEN                        170\u003cbr\u003e        IX.  LONDON’S EXCURSIONISTS                 182\u003cbr\u003e         X.  ON THE RIVER STEAMERS                  196\u003cbr\u003e        XI.  STREET SALESMEN                        208\u003cbr\u003e       XII.  CITY NUISANCES                         225\u003cbr\u003e      XIII.  OUT OF GAOL                            261\u003cbr\u003e       XIV.  IN A GIPSY CAMP                        271\u003cbr\u003e        XV.  THE STREET BOYS OF LONDON              280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI.—THE WORLD OF LONDON.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon, for a “village,” as old Cobbett used to call it, is a pretty\u003cbr\u003elarge one; and, viewed from the lowest stand-point—that of the dull\u003cbr\u003egospel according to Cocker—may well be described as truly wonderful.  It\u003cbr\u003eeats a great deal of beef, and drinks a great deal of beer.  You are\u003cbr\u003estaggered as you explore its warehouses.  I stood in a granary the other\u003cbr\u003eday in which there were some eighty thousand sacks of wheat; and in the\u003cbr\u003eBank of England I held in my hand, for a minute—all too brief—a million\u003cbr\u003eof pounds.  It is difficult to realise what London is, and what it\u003cbr\u003econtains.  Figures but little assist the reader.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps you best realise what the city is as you come up the Thames as\u003cbr\u003efar as London Bridge.  Perhaps another way is to stand on that same\u003cbr\u003ebridge and watch the eager hordes that cross of a morning and return at\u003cbr\u003enight, and then, great as that number is, to multiply it a hundredfold.\u003cbr\u003eA dozen miles off gardeners tell you that there are plants that suffer\u003cbr\u003efrom London air and London fog.  Indeed it is difficult to say where\u003cbr\u003eLondon begins and where it ends.  If you go to Brighton, undoubtedly it\u003cbr\u003eis there in all its glory; when yachting far away in the western islands\u003cbr\u003eof Scotland and the Hebrides, the first signature I found in the\u003cbr\u003estrangers’ book at a favourite hotel was that of Smith, of London.  There\u003cbr\u003ehe was, as large as life, just as we see him any day in Cheapside.  One\u003cbr\u003ebitter cold winter day I revisited, not exactly my childhood’s happy\u003cbr\u003ehome, but a neighbouring sea port to which I was once much attached.\u003cbr\u003e“Oh,” said I to myself, as I rushed along in the train, “how glad people\u003cbr\u003ewill be to see me; how bright will be the eyes into which I once loved to\u003cbr\u003elook, and how warm the clasp of the hand which once thrilled through all\u003cbr\u003emy being!”  Alas! a generation had risen who knew not Joseph.  I dined\u003cbr\u003esadly and alone at the hotel, and after dinner made my way to the pier to\u003cbr\u003emingle my melancholy with that of the melancholy ocean.  The wind was\u003cbr\u003ehigh; the sand in clouds whirled madly along the deserted streets.  At\u003cbr\u003esea even nothing was to be seen; but at the far end of the pier, with his\u003cbr\u003eback turned to me, gazing over as if he wanted to make out the coast of\u003cbr\u003eHolland—some hundred and fifty miles opposite—was a short man, whom I\u003cbr\u003eknew at once from his apoplectic back—Brown, of Fleet Street—come there\u003cbr\u003eall the way from the congenial steak puddings and whisky toddy of The\u003cbr\u003eCheshire Cheese for a little fresh air!  I felt angry with Brown.  I was\u003cbr\u003eready almost to throw him over into the raging surf beneath, but I knew\u003cbr\u003ethat was vain.  There were “more to follow.”  Nowadays London and London\u003cbr\u003epeople are everywhere.  What is London?  It covers, says one, within a\u003cbr\u003efifteen-miles’ radius of Charing Cross, so many hundred square miles.  It\u003cbr\u003enumbers more than four million inhabitants.  It comprises a hundred\u003cbr\u003ethousand foreigners from every quarter of the globe.  It contains more\u003cbr\u003eRoman Catholics than there are in all Rome; more Jews than there are in\u003cbr\u003eall Palestine; and, I fear, more rogues than there are even in America.\u003cbr\u003eOn a Sunday you will hear Welsh in one church, Dutch in another, the\u003cbr\u003eancient dialect of St. Chrysostom in another; and on a Saturday you may\u003cbr\u003eplunge into low dancing-houses at the East-End which put to shame\u003cbr\u003eanything of the kind in Hamburg or Antwerp or Rotterdam.  In many of the\u003cbr\u003esmoking-rooms bordering on Mark Lane and Cheapside you hear nothing but\u003cbr\u003eGerman.  I know streets and squares inhabited by Dutch and German Jews,\u003cbr\u003eor dark-eyed Italians, or excitable Frenchmen, where\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The tongue that Shakespeare spake\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eis as little understood as Sanscrit itself.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145521905904,"sku":"2940012862815","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012862815_p0.jpg?v=1763573545","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012862815","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}