shopmen, why preferred to women in england.—division of london into the east and west ends.—low state of domestic architecture.—burlington-house.
i have employed this morning in wandering about this huge metropolis with an english gentleman, well acquainted with the manners and customs of foreign countries, and therefore well qualified to point out to me what is peculiar in his own. of the imposing splendour of the shops i have already spoken; but i have not told you that the finest gentlemen to be seen in the streets of london are the men who serve at the linen-drapers’ and mercers’. early in the morning they are drest cap-a-pied, 120the hair feathered and frosted with a delicacy which no hat is to derange through the day; and as this is a leisure time with them, they are to be seen after breakfast at their respective shop-doors, paring their nails, and adjusting their cravats. that so many young men should be employed in london to recommend laces and muslins to the ladies, to assist them in the choice of a gown, to weigh out thread and to measure ribbons, excited my surprise; but my friend soon explained the reason. he told me, that in countries where women are the shopkeepers, shops are only kept for the convenience of the people, and not for their amusement. persons there go into a shop because they want the article which is sold there, and in that case a woman answers all the purposes which are required; the shops themselves are mere repositories of goods, and the time of year of little importance to the receipts. but it is otherwise in london; luxury here fills every head with caprice, 121from the servant-maid to the peeress, and shops are become exhibitions of fashion. in the spring, when all persons of distinction are in town, the usual morning employment of the ladies is to go a-shopping, as it is called; that is, to see these curious exhibitions. this they do without actually wanting to purchase any thing, and they spend their money or not, according to the temptations which are held out to gratify and amuse. now female shopkeepers, it is said, have not enough patience to indulge this idle and fastidious curiosity; whereas young men are more assiduous, more engaging, and not at all querulous about their loss of time.
it must be confessed, that these exhibitions are very entertaining, nor is there any thing wanting to set them off to the greatest advantage. many of the windows are even glazed with large panes of plate glass, at a great expense; but this, i am told, is a refinement of a very late date; indeed glass windows were seldom used in 122shops before the present reign, and they who deal in woollen cloth have not yet universally come into the fashion.
london is more remarkable for the distribution of its inhabitants than any city on the continent. it is at once the greatest port in the kingdom, or in the world, a city of merchants and tradesmen, and the seat of government, where the men of rank and fashion are to be found; and though all these are united together by continuous streets, there is an imaginary line of demarkation which divides them from each other. a nobleman would not be found by any accident to live in that part which is properly called the city, unless he should be confined for treason or sedition in newgate or the tower. this is the eastern side; and i observe, whenever a person says that he lives at the west end of the town, there is some degree of consequence connected with the situation: for instance, my tailor lives at the west end of the town, and consequently he is 123supposed to make my coat in a better style of fashion: and this opinion is carried so far among the ladies, that, if a cap was known to come from the city, it would be given to my lady’s woman, who would give it to the cook, and she perhaps would think it prudent not to enquire into its pedigree. a transit from the city to the west end of the town is the last step of the successful trader, when he throws off his exuvi? and emerges from his chrysalis state into the butterfly world of high life. here are the hesperides whither the commercial adventurers repair, not to gather but to enjoy their golden fruits.
yet this metropolis of fashion, this capital of the capital itself, has the most monotonous appearance imaginable.—the streets are perfectly parallel and uniformly extended brick walls, about forty feet high, with equally extended ranges of windows and doors, all precisely alike, and without any appearance of being distinct houses. you would rather suppose them to be hospitals, 124arsenals, or public granaries, were it not for their great extent. here is a fashion, lately introduced from better climates, of making varandas;—varandas in a country where physicians recommend double doors and double windows as precautions against the intolerable cold! i even saw several instances of green penthouses, to protect the rooms from the heat or light of the sun, fixed against houses in a northern aspect. at this i expressed some surprise to my companion: he replied, that his countrymen were the most rational people in the world when they thought proper to use their understandings, but that when they lost sight of common sense they were more absurd than any others, and less dexterous in giving plausibility to nonsense. in confirmation of this opinion, he instanced another strange fashion which happened to present itself on the opposite side of the street; a brick wall up to the first story decorated with a range of doric columns to imitate the fa?ade of the temple of 125theseus at athens, while the upper part of the house remained as naked as it could be left by the mason’s trowel.
after walking a considerable time in these streets, i enquired for the palaces of the nobility, and was told that their houses were such as i had seen, with a few exceptions, which were shut up from public view by high blank walls; but that none of them had any pretensions to architecture, except one in piccadilly, called burlington-house, which is inhabited by the duke of portland. lord burlington, who erected it, was a man whose whole desire and fortune were devoted to improve the national taste in architecture: and this building, though with many defects, is considered by good judges to be one of the best specimens of modern architecture in europe, and even deserves to be ranked with the works of palladio, whom lord burlington made the particular object of his imitation. w—— added, that this building, it is expected, will in a few 126years be taken down, to make room for streets. from the very great increase of ground-rent, it is supposed that the site of the house and garden would produce 8,000l. a-year. every thing here is reduced to calculation. this sum will soon be considered as the actual rent; and then, in the true commercial spirit of the country, it will be put to sale. this has already been done in two or three instances; and in the course of half a century, it is expected that the bank will be the only building of consequence in this emporium of trade.
the merchants of this modern tyre, are indeed princes in their wealth, and in their luxury; but it is to be wished that they had something more of the spirit of princely magnificence, and that when they build palaces they would cease to use the warehouse as their model.
