Roman garrison and inhabitants were put to the sword. It subsequently, having been devastated and ruined by the Picts and Scots during the confusion which succeeded the departure of the Roman legions, became the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex; but under the Heptarchy, and until the final abandonment of Winchester by the Norman Sovereigns, seems to have been a place of minor importance; it then became, as it has remained, the capital of the kingdom. The City of London, properly so called, is of moderate extent, and is probably circumscribed by the old Roman walls; the eleven parishes, now described as "without the walls," having been added at a later period. To show how rapidly the vast agglomeration of dwellings, which now constitutes the Metropolis, has taken place, we cannot do better than recall the fact, that in the reign of Elizabeth, as shown by maps of the period, to the north and westward of the Strand, and on the south bank of the river, were fields and open country. On the Strand, at that time, were principally the dwellings of the great nobility, the localities of which are still preserved in the names of streets leading towards the river, such as Arundel and Surrey. Until old Westminster Bridge was built, commenced in 1739, London Bridge served as the only stable communication between the inhabitants of the north and south banks of the river. Modern London doubtless owes its present arrangement of streets, and the permanent character of its dwellings, to its greatest calamity, the fire of 1666, in which 13,000 houses were consumed, and of which the Monument on Fish street Hill, near London Bridge, marks the limit in one direction. The fact mentioned

serves to show of what light and combustible materials the houses, up to that time, were constructed; and to the event, which must have been followed by a long period of suspense and confusion, may be attributed, in great measure, the extension of the suburbs. Subsequent fires have much contributed to further improvements. The burning of the Royal Exchange in 1838, and of St Stephen's Chapel, the old House of Commons, in 1834, for example, have given occasion for the erection of two of the finest buildings of which the metropolis can now boast.

At the commencement of the present century, the squares of which the British Museum may be considered the nucleus were not in existence; Belgravia was undreamt of, and there are numberless persons in existence, by no means aged, who state that they can recollect snipes being shot in the marshes which are now the sites of the monotonous, densely populated districts of Pimlico. As we shall have to visit many such districts in detail, we forbear further mention of them here, and will proceed to call the attention of the stranger to what we consider the best modes of seeing London, as briefly, and at the same time, as thoroughly as possible.

CHURCHES.

The first place usually visited by the tourist is WESTMINSTER ABBEY, the shrine of the ashes of some of the most illustrious and greatest of England's dead, "in arms, in arts, in song," in rank of nobility, and in statesmanship. A church was first built here by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, or Essex, between 604 and 616, in which he and his queen were buried. This was destroyed by the Danes in the time of Alfred,