This bridge, the second which was erected across the Thames, was built in 1739-50, from the designs of M. Labelye, a Swiss architect. It is twelve hundred and twenty-three feet in length, and forty-four feet in width; and has fourteen piers, and thirteen large and two small semicircular arches. The centre arch is seventy-six feet wide, and the rest decreasing four feet each from the other; so that the last two arches of the thirteen great ones are each fifty-two feet. The width of the two small arches at the abutments is about twenty feet. The cost of the bridge was £218,800, and that of the approaches, including Great George Street, was £170,700, making a total of £389,500. It has been much admired for its simplicity and solidity; but unfortunately from its defective foundation (it having been built on caissons), although considerable sums have been spent upon its restoration, it has recently sunk so much, that it has been determined to erect a new bridge near the present structure, which will then be removed.

The following exquisite sonnet was composed upon Westminster Bridge, September the 3rd, 1803 :

Earth has not any thing to show more fair;
Dull would he be of soul, who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples, lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air;
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still-Wordsworth

VAUXHALL BRIDGE

Unites Lambeth to Milbank, and is of great convenience to those who pass between Vauxhall and Hyde Park Corner. It was originally projected by Mr. G. Dodd; but in consequence of some misunderstanding, he was succeeded first by Mr. Rennie, and afterwards by Mr. James Walker, under whose direction the present elegant edifice was constructed. The first stone on the Surrey side, was laid on the 21st of August, 1813, by Prince Charles, the eldest son of the late Duke of Brunswick (soon after killed at Waterloo), and the bridge was completed and opened June 4th, 1816. The width of the Thames at Vauxhall, is about nine hundred feet; the depth at low-water, from eight to ten feet, and at the rise of the tide almost twelve feet. The bridge consists of nine cast-iron arches, of equal span, resting on rusticated stone piers; each arch being seventy-eight feet in width, and twenty-nine feet in height; and the total length is eight hundred and sixty feet.

This bridge contributes greatly to the beauty of the metropolis, and affords the inhabitants of Vauxhall, Lambeth, &c., an easy communication with, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Law Courts; as also with Pimlico, Chelsea, and their popolous and increasing eghbourhoods. It cost about £150,000, which is defrayed by a tof one penny on each foot-passenger, and a graduated scale for horsemen and carriages.

THE STEAM BOAT PIERS.

Near each of the bridges, and at some of the wharfs, on the city side, are spacious piers, for the accommodation of the vast traffic now carried on by the river steamers below bridge. From London Bridge to Chelsea, or any of the intervening piers, passengers are conveyed, for a fare of two-pence. There are also steamers which carry passengers from London Bridge to Westminster Bridge (Surrey side) for one penny; and from Dyer's Hall Wharf, near London Bridge, to the Adelphi Pier, Strand, for one half-penny. These are very pleasant and cheap modes of conveyance, and afford a pleasing relief from the crowd and turmoil of the thronged thoroughfares of the Strand and Cheapside.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MONUMENT AND THE PUBLIC STATUES.

The national statues of kings, and of distinguished public characters, which are open to the view of every passing traveller in London, are worthy of more notice, generally speaking, than they receive. Some possess great interest from the histories connected with the originals, others from the excellent workmanship which they exhibit, and many on both these accounts.

Fish Street Hill. This noble column, one of the most remarkable of the public buildings of London-remarkable in itself, and still more so for the melancholy event it was erected to commemorate, is of the fluted Doric order, and was erected by Sir Christopher Wren,

at a cost of £13,700, in commemoration of the great fire of 1666, which destroyed nearly the whole of the metropolis, from the Tower to the Temple Church. It was commenced in 1671, and completed in 1677, on the spot where formerly stood the parish church of St. Margaret.

On the west side of the pedestal is a bas-relief oy Cibber, emblematical of that fearful event, in which King Charles is seen surrounded by Liberty, Genius, and Science, giving directions for the restoration of the city. The north and south sides have each a Latin inscription ; one descriptive of the destruction of the city, and the other of its restoration. The four dragons at the four angles, were executed by Edward Pierce, for which he had, according to Walpole, fifty guineas a piece. The diameter at the base is fifteen feet, and the height of the shaft one hundred and twenty feet; the cone at the top, with its blazing urn of gilt brass, measures forty-two feet; and the height of the pedestal is forty feet; being a total height of two hundred and two feet; it stands at a distance of two hundred feet from the house n Pudding Lane, where the fire originated. Within the column is a spiral staircase, having three hundred and forty-five steps, of black marble, by which access can be had to the iron balcony, from which, a noble prospect of the vast metropolis and the surrounding scenery is obtained; of all the cities that have ever been formed and inhabited by the human race, the view here presented of the mighty capital of this gigantic empire, is truly pre-eminent. The ocean, as viewed from the summit of a high cliff-a boundless expanse of country, when seen from the apex of a lofty mountain, are unquestionably objects of grandeur and sublimity-how much more so then the astounding view of London, which is obtained from the balcony of this noble fire column; exhibiting, as it does, to the eye and mind of the most thoughtless observer; the dwellings of more than two millions of human beings-a countless succession of Christian churches, with their graceful spires pointing upward to the skies-seven majestic bridges, spanning the ever-flowing tide-innumerable stately halls, theatres, and other public structures; whilst the scene is still further heightened by the sinuous meanderings of the Thames, with its forests of floating masts. All these objects, and the contemplation of the varied pursuits, occupations, and powers of its ever active, ever changing inhabitants, form an ensemble worthy of the highest inspiration of the poet. The inscription on the pedestal, ascribing the conflagration to the treachery and malice of the Papal faction, and which gave rise to the famous couplet of Pope

"Where London's column, pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts his head and lies!"

Having been universally considered to be unjust, has been erased. Six persons have, at various times, thrown themselves off tke Monument: viz.-William Green, a weaver, June, 25th, 1750; Thomas Cradock, a baker, July 7th, 1788; Lyon Levi, a Jew, January 18th, 1810; a girl named Moyes, the daughter of a baker, in Heming's Row, September 11th, 1839; a boy named Hawes, October 18th, 1839; and a girl named Cooper, of the age of seventeen, August 19th,

1842. In order to prevent a recurrence of similar calamities, an iron railing has been placed round the balcony, which, while it does not in any way interfere with the view, is a preventative from any further attempts at self-destruction.

Open daily, Sundays exc epted, from eight o'clock till sunset. Admission, sixpence; explanatory description, threepence.

On approaching the Monument from King William Street, the visitor will observe with interest, the large and extensive establishment of Messrs. J. and J. Dean, furnishing ironmongers, and he cannot fail to be struck with its mercantile importance, and as an evidence of the magnitude of the more important London trading establishments; but we allude to it here more especially as those gentlemen are largely interested in the introduction of that admirable invention, Phillips' Fire Annihilator, an invention whereby a knowledge of chemistry is successfully brought to bear in the extinguishing of accidental fires; and when every house shall possess one of these excellent machines, we shall no longer hear of the destruction of houses by fire, or the devastation of entire districts, by accidental conflagration, and the Monument will then remain a standing remembrance not only of the destruction of a great city, by that fearful element, but of our own security from a like dreadful visitation, through the blessings which science has so bountifully bestowed upon us.

Experimental trials of its efficiency are occasionally made, when parties desirous of realizing its wonderful powers, may obtain admission, by tickets, which can readily be obtained on application.