vous of the populace of London, in the three first days of Easter and Whitsuntide weeks. Every stranger who is in the British metropolis at either of those periods, will, if the weather be fine, not miss the gratification of viewing this grand merry-making of 30 or 40,000 persons of both

sexes.

The Royal Observatory is a conspicuous and celebrated object on the top of the hill in this park. It is well furnished with astronomical apparatus, and, under Mr. Pon.', has lost none of its ancient reputation. The famous camera obscura, in one of the turrets, when in order, deserves the notice of every person who visits this park; but, to obtain a sight of it, some introduction to the Astronomer Royal is necessary.

WOOLWICH.

This place is worthy of being visited by strangers, on account of its Dock-yard, Warren, and Hulks.

The royal dock-yard consists of a narrow steep of land, by the river side, almost half a mile in length. It contains two dry docks, three mast ponds, a smith's shop, with several forges for making anchors, a mould-loft, extensive store-houses, sheds, workshops, &c. It employs upwards of 1000 persons, and first-rate men of war are frequently built in this yard, and the Nelson of 120 guns was launched here.

The rope-walk for making large cables is a quarter of a mile in length.

The Warren is the grand depôt of artillery, and for warlike apparatus and machinery belonging to the British navy and army. It covers altogether upwards of a hundred acres of ground, and contains a foundery for brass cannon, immense stores of shots, shells, mortars, and other instruments of destruction, besides a military academy, splendid barracks, &c. All the ordnance used by government are first proved in this place.

At Woolwich also is the Royal Military Academy for the Education of 128 Cadets, and also a new Military Academy 200 yards long.

The Royal Horse Barracks lately erected is one of the prodigies of our late expensive war establishments.

The hulks are floating prisons, which lie off Woolwich, and are a receptacle for some hundreds of convicted persons, who have been sentenced to perform hard labour for a certain number of years. The number of persons thus disposed of is, however, far less considerable since the establishment of the settlement in New Holland. As these hulks are passed by persons upon the water, the convicts present a most hideous and lamentable spectacle.

Strangers, who wish to view the curiosities of Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich, which are of a kind pe culiar to the British empire, may, in warm weather, and if the tide serves, very pleasantly effect their intentions, by taking a boat for the day at Billingsgate or the Tower.

At high water there sails regularly for Gravesend, a number of safe vessels from Billingsgate, and if the wind be fair and weather fine, this is a voyage as pleasant and healthful as it is cheap, the passage being but one shilling per head.

THE WEST INDIA DOCKS.

These immense works receive the whole of the ships in the West India trade: and are among the prominent curiosities of British commerce. They were undertaken according to an act of parliament passed in 1799, entitled, "The West India Dock Act." The entrances into them are at Blackwall, and Limehouse-hole; their site is wholly on the Isle of Dogs; and upon the wharfs and quays adjoining them, all West India ships unload and load their cargoes.

The northern dock for unloading inwards, is 2600 by 510 feet, and 29 deep, covering a space of 30 acres, and capable of containing from two to three hundred sail of ships. The export Dock, situated to the south of the other, covers an area of twenty-four acres, and is 2600 by 400 feet, and 29 deep. Both docks are surrounded by a series of immense warehouses.

The proprietors of this capital improvement are styled "The West-India Dock Company;" and they are re-imbursed by a tonnage of 6s. upon the burthen of every ship which enters the docks; for wharfage, landing, housing, weighing, cooperage, and warehouse room, they are en

titled to certain rates upon all goods that are discharged, such as 8d. per cwt. upon sugar; 1d. per gallon upon rum; 1s. 6d. per cwt. upon coffee; 2s. 6d. per cwt. upon cotton-wool, &c. &c.

Notwithstanding these docks have occasioned a very important trade to be moved to a considerable and even inconvenient distance from the metropolis, yet the advantages to the port of London are, upon the whole, incaiculable. The West-India trade generally arrives in fleets, and occasioned so much crowding, confusion, and damage, in the river, that these ships being disposed of in these docks, the overgrown trade of the port is now carried on with pleasure and convenience.

To enable shipping in their passage up and down the Thames, to avoid the circuitous and inconvenient course round the Isle of Dogs, a canal is cut across this peninsula, through which, upon paying certain moderate rates, all ships, vessels, and craft, are permitted to pass in their passage up and down the Thames. For three years after its completion, ships above two hundred tons pay ld. per ton: from two hundred to one hundred tons, 14d. per ton; from one hundred to fifty tons, 10s. per vessel; from fifty to twenty tons, 5s. per vessel; and for boats and craft, 1s. each.

THE EAST INDIA DOCKS.

These are situated a little beyond Blackwall, and are a noble series of works, worthy of the great Company which produced them but they excite less interest than the West India Docks, and are more difficult of access to inquisitive strangers.

The import Dock is 1410 feet long, 560 wide, and 30 deep, covering an area of 18 acres; and the export Dock is 780 feet long, 520 wide, and 30 deep, covering 9 acres. From these Docks all the goods of the Company are conveyed from the warehouses in London in covered waggons locked up so as to prevent fraud and smuggling.

The adjoining Ship Building Yard is the property of Sir Robert Wigram, and merits the notice of strangers who are unacquainted with the details of that art.

LL

THE LONDON DOCK.

This immense Dock, situated between Ratcliffe Highway and the Thames, covers 20 acres of ground, and is 1262 feet long, 699 feet wide, and 27 feet deep.

The capital of the company is 1,200,000l. The ultimate profits upon the scheme are limited to 10 per cent. which it has not yet realized.

The warehouses for the reception of tobacco are situated at the eastern extremity; they are two in number. The largest is seven hundred and sixty-two feet long, and one hundred and sixty feet wide, equally divided by a strong partition wall, with double iron doors; the smallest is two hundred and fifty feet by two hundred. Both of them consist of a ground-floor and vaults; the first is to be wholly applied to the reception of tobacco, the cellars in the smaller warehouses are appropriated to the care and housing of wines, in which are usually 5000 pipes. They are solely under the controul of the officers of the customs; the proprietors of the docks having nothing more to do with them than to receive the rent.

RIDES AND PROMENADES.

Among the fashionable drives and rides may be named Hyde Park, which is accessible at all hours, except in Hackney Coaches; the Regent's Park, which includes a double drive of four miles variety; the King's Road from Pimlico to Fulham; the Harrow Road from Paddington; and the circuit of Hampstead and Highgate.

Equestrians, and persons keeping open or close carriages, may in these places, in the spring season, between the hour of one and five, meet persons of the highest quality and fashion, and partake in this feature of metropolitan manners.

Equestrians will be highly gratified every Sunday morning from twelve to two, at Tattersall's, where there is an exhibition of fine horses for sale, and often an assemblage of gentlemen of the first rank.

Fashionable rides for strangers are to Kew, Richmond, and Hampton Court, a route which may be performed in a day or morning. Windsor may be included, but the tour will there employ two days.

Alphabetical Enumeration

OF ALL THE

TOWNS, VILLAGES, AND REMARKABLE SEATS

NEAR LONDON.

ACTON, a village in Middlesex, five miles W. from London, on the road to Uxbridge.

ADDINGTON, a small village in Surrey, having some good gentlemen's

seats.

AMWELL, a village in Herts, two miles S. S. E. from Ware, 21 miles from London. Mr. Hoole, the translator of Tasso, Mr. Walton, the angler, and William Warner, author of Albion's England, resided here.

ASHFORD, Middlesex, a pretty village, about two miles from Staines. BARKING, a market town in Essex, seven miles E. from London, on the river Roding, ruuning into the Thames. In this parish is the celeorated Fairlop Oak.

BARNES, a village in Surrey, on the Thames, six miles W. from London. BARN ELMS, so called from its majestic trees, the theme of many a pastoral poet. It consists of two houses only. The first an ancient mansion, called Queen Elizabeth's Dairy; and in this house lived and died Jacob Tonson, the bookseller. In the gallery Tonsou placed the portraits of all the members of a club, called the Kit Cat Club, which were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Sir Francis Walsingham, and the unfortunate Earl of Essex, who married his daughter (the widow of Sir Philip Sydney), resided frequently at Barn Elms.

BARNET, a market-town In Herts, eleven miles N. from London, on the top of a hill, whence it is calied High Barnet. Barnet is remarkable for the decisive battle fought between the houses of York and Lancaster, in 1471, in which the great Earl of Warwick was slain.

BATTERSEA, a village in Surrey, on the Thames, four miles S. from London, remarkable as the birth-place of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, who died here in 1751. The part left standing forms a dwelling-house for Mr. Hodgson, one of whose parlours, fronting the Thames, is lined with cedar, beautifully inlaid, and was the favourite study of Pope.

BEACONSFIELD, Bucks, six miles W. of Uxbridge, is Hall Barn, the seat of the late Edmund Waller, the poet; there is a hollow tree now standing in the park, in which he wrote many of his poems.

BECKENHAM, a village near Bromley, in Kent, nine miles and three quarters S. from London.

BELVEDERE HOUSE, the seat of Lord Eardley, is situated on the brow of a hill, near Erith, in Kent, and commands a vast extent of country beyond the Thames,

BENTLEY PRIORY, Middlesex, three miles S. E. from Watford. The magnificent seat of the Marquis oi Abercorn is situated on the summit of Stanmore Hill.

BLACKHEATH, Kent, five miles and a quarter S. E. from London, is a fine elevated heath. On this heath are the villas of Lord Lyttleton, and the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, as Ranger of Greenwich Park.