Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/289

Rh variety of shipping, its swift little passenger boats plying incessantly for hire, carrying the smart world from place to place, the heavier craft removing merchandise from wharf to wharf? What of the narrow little lanes and streets leading to the great river, edged with shops and wooden booths? What of the stately red-brick houses built by Queen Anne on the fields which surrounded the Houses of Parliament? All houses at this time were difficult to find: they had no numbers, and could only be described as near the "Black Swan" or the "Red Lion," or some such sign. The paths were very narrow, divided from the road by a row of posts, and there was barely room for two persons to pass one another comfortably. Towards the City these streets were crowded with cumbersome coaches, sedan chairs, wheelbarrows, perhaps full of oysters, porters bearing huge burdens, funeral coaches, wedding processions, all jostling along. The noise and smells must have rivalled our motor-possessed London of to-day. There were the shouts of chair-menders, broom-sellers, old-clothes men, street fighters, hawkers; there was quarrelling, drinking, bell-ringing, and the creaking of many signboards on their rusty hinges as they swayed in