L O N D O N
AS SEEN BY
CHARLES DANA GIBSON
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
MDCCCXCVII
Copyright, 1897, by
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Thanks are due to Life and the London Graphic for
their kind permission to reproduce some of the
drawings in this book.
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
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The Rat Man
AFTER a short journey through country divided by hedges into a green and gold checker-board; thatched roofs disappear, and chimney-pots take their place and flourish until you come to the Thames, where black barges in mid-stream wait for the muddy tide to turn, between banks of masts and smokestacks; then the Gothic buildings of Parliament, and “Big Ben,” and Charing Cross Station; and in another moment you are in London, riding through the never-ending restlessness of its streets in a cab that you can afford, with your hat-box safe by your side and your trunk up by the driver, and London with its history on all sides of you, its wooden streets and polished side-walks and bright shop windows, and at every corner small sweeps and big policemen, providing clean and safe crossing, while push-carts dodge in and out between steaming bus-horses and hansom cabs. This is always my first impression of London.