Excerpt from The Thames The Thames was always the principal highway of the Londoner. Not the streets at all, but the river. The streets were market-places they con tained stalls, workshops, houses; but they were not the means of communication the river offered a far easier, quicker, and even a safer way. Did a man desire to go from the East of London - say Bishopsgate - to the west - say Ludgate Hill it was much quicker and more convenient for him to go to the Tower Stairs, and there take boat, than it was to walk through the streets. Did a man desire to transact business in one of the taverns of Southwark with a hop-grower or a farmer out of Kent, it was easier and pleasanter to cross by boat than by the bridge in fact, we must remember that London Bridge was intended for the carriage of goods or the passage of troops rather-than for the daily and habitual use of pas sengers its narrow way - only 12 feet across shows that the custom of people was, and con tinued till the removal of the houses, to cross by boat. And, of course, if a man had busi ness in Westminster, it was far quicker and easier for him to take boat than to walk or to ride. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.