CITY OF LYONS.
Lyons is situated on a sort of peninsula, formed by the confluence of two great rivers—the Rhone and the Laone. All the bridges, with the exception of one of stone, are of wood; and although in general more useful than ornamental, they are justly admired for the boldness of their construction. They form numerous and convenient communications between the city and the faubourgs.
Lyons is walled round, and strongly fortified. In 1791 it contained 121,000 inhabitants; but, in consequence of the siege of 1793, and the cruelties practised at that memorable period of French history, the numbers were reduced to less than 80,000. In 1802, the numbers were 88,662; and in 1827, the fixed population had increased to 97,439;—but there was a floating population, estimated at 43,684, which, with the inmates of the barracks and hospitals, stated at 8,600, made the total population at that period 149,723; and by adding the population of the suburbs, reckoned at 36,000, the whole amount of the inhabitants at the period of the census, in 1827, was 185,723; at the present time it is said to be, in round numbers, 200,000.
In 1828, the number of workshops in all branches of the silk trade within the walls, amounted to 7,140; that of the silk frames or looms to 18,829; and from 10,000 to 12,000 in the communes.
W.G.C.
The ditty sung by the first grave-digger in Hamlet, beginning—
"In youth, when I did love, did love"—
was written by Lord Vaux, an ancestor of Lord Brougham. It will be found entire in Percy's Reliques.
Number 527, price Twopence,
A SUPPLEMENT,
With a STEEL-PLATE PORTRAIT of His Present
Majesty, WILLIAM IV.
AT FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE.
From a Picture by B. West, P.R.A.
Anecdotic Memoir; and Title-Page, Preface,
and Index; completing VOL. XVIII.
Footnote 1: [(return)] Quoted by Cunningham in his "Life of Wren," from a contemporary authority.
Footnote 2: [(return)] Wards of London.
Footnote 3: [(return)] We omitted to state that our interesting particulars of the Heckington Sepulchre were from Vetusta Monumenta, a splendid folio work published by the Antiquarian Society.
Footnote 4: [(return)] Sketches of New and Old Sleaford, County of Lincoln, and of several places in the Neighbourhood, p. 224. 8vo Baldwin and Co.
Footnote 5: [(return)]
"Ill-omen'd in his form, the unlucky fowl,
Abhorr'd by men, and call'd a screeching owl."—Garth's Trans.
Footnote 6: [(return)] "They fly by night, and assail infants in the nurse's absence."
Footnote 7: [(return)] "Even the ill-boding owl is declared a bird of good omen."
Footnote 8: [(return)] "The Stygian owl gives sad omens in a thousand places."
Footnote 9: [(return)] "A feather of the night owl."
Footnote 10: [(return)]
——"And, on her palace top,
The lonely owl with oft repeated scream
Complains, and spins into a dismal length
Her baleful shrieks."—Trapp's Trans.
Footnote 11: [(return)] "And sell bodies torn from their tombs."