Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/21



T that period London had but one bridge—London Bridge, with houses built upon it. This bridge united London with Southwark, a suburb paved with flint pebbles taken from the Thames, and divided into small streets and alleys, like the city, with a great number of buildings, houses, dwellings, and wooden huts jammed together,—a pell-mell mixture of combustible matter, with which fire might work its will, as 1666 had proved.

Southwark was then pronounced Soudric, it is now pronounced Sousouorc, or near it; indeed, an excellent way of pronouncing English names is not to pronounce them. Thus, for Southampton, say, Stpntn. It was the time when "Chatham" was pronounced je t'aime. The Southwark of those days resembles the Southwark of to-day about as much as Vaugirard resembles Marseilles. It was then a village; it is now a city. Nevertheless, considerable business was carried on